Virus lockdown worsens suffering for Johannesburg beggars
By BRAM JANSSEN

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Bakair Zaina, a blind migrant from Mozambique, sits on the floor of his room he shares with two sons in Johannesburg, South Africa on April 14, 2020. A total of 23 families of blind and disabled foreign nationals living in the dilapidated building and earning a living by street begging have been hard hit by South Africa's lockdown as they are forced to remain indoors. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen)
Charles Mogwenya, right, and his brother, Comeforth, stand inside their room in Johannesburg, South Africa on April 14, 2020. They rely on the income of their mother, Rosewite Prikisi, a blind street beggar from Zimbabwe who shares the small room with her four children. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen)
Anna Sene, a blind Zimbabwean migrant, poses for a portrait in Johannesburg, South Africa on April 13, 2020. Sene, who usually goes outside the beg for donations, has been hard hit by South Africa's lockdown as she is forced to stay indoors, making her unable to provide for her five children. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen)
Disabled Zimbabwean Triumph Gonese, right, and her caretaker. Simangele Sibanda, pose for a portrait in Johannesburg, South Africa on April 13, 2020. Triumph's mother died of cancer in 2016, so she and Simangele have to go out to the streets to beg for donations. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen)
Ali Thembo, a blind migrant from Zimbabwe, poses for a portrait in Johannesburg, South Africa on April 13, 2020. A total of 23 families of blind and disabled foreign nationals living in a dilapidated building and earning a living by street begging have been hard hit by South Africa's lockdown as they are forced to remain indoors. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen)

Fellowship Mukanhairi, the daughter of a blind Zimbabwean migrant, has her hair styled in the courtyard of their building in Johannesburg, South Africa on April 16, 2020. A total of 23 families of blind and disabled foreign nationals living in a dilapidated building and earning a living by street begging have been hard hit by South Africa's lockdown as they are forced to remain indoors. (AP Photo/Bram Janssen)

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Inock Mukanhairi shows the small amount of food that he has for himself, his wife, Angeline, and five children — barely enough to make it through another week of South Africa’s strict coronavirus lockdown.

The 58-year-old and his wife are both blind. Normally, they would be begging at traffic lights on Johannesburg’s streets, relying on handouts from motorists, pedestrians and shop owners.

But the lockdown, now in its fifth week, has changed that.

Police are preventing them from leaving their dilapidated building to beg on the empty streets and barren sidewalks.


The building houses about two dozen blind or otherwise disabled foreigners who rely on handouts to make enough for food and rent. With their children, they make up about 70 people. Many have entered South Africa illegally from Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi.

“I really understand that the coronavirus is killing a lot of people. But at the same time, I’m locked inside my room,” said Mukanhairi. “So death is death, due to corona or due to hunger.”

South Africa has the most confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Africa, with more than 4,360, including 86 deaths.

The country’s far-reaching restrictions have been in effect since March 27 and residents must stay home, except for visits to grocery stores, pharmacies and health facilities. The lockdown will be eased starting May 1, but this is unlikely to help the beggars, because people will still be required to stay home.

Families of six to eight people are crammed into small rooms where they cook, eat and sleep. Under such conditions, social distancing is not possible. The building has a few taps for water, so regular hand-washing is also difficult.

The elderly and blind often just sit on their beds as their children play in the dimly lit and narrow hallways, where loose electric cords dangle from the ceiling.

Without any donations, they say they are uncertain about where they will get their next meals.

Last week, South Africa announced an increase in social grants for the poor, elderly and disabled, but these immigrants are not eligible for that aid.

At the start of the lockdown, authorities swept the homeless from the streets and took them to a housing facility where food is provided. The beggars say they fled to their own building at the time to avoid being rounded up.

They are not alone in being uncertain about how getting adequate food. The U.N. World Food Program said this month that the number of people around the world with acute hunger could almost double this year because of the pandemic. At least 265 million people could face food insecurity by the end of this year, a jump of 130 million.

Rosewite Prikise, 41, lives with her four children in one of the small rooms, where all share a bed.

“We have one week’s worth of food left,” she said. “So we cannot survive, especially us who are blind. We cannot go outside and our situation is not right.”