Author: Rod Amner

By TOLERATE CHILOANE  Di-anne Oosthuizen started the 16 Currie Street community kitchen in April 2020, just after Covid hit. “I saw there was a great need when Covid hit, as a lot of people lost jobs and had no other means of income,” she says. The kitchen caters to children, the elderly and anyone without food. People come from far and wide: Vergenoeg, Xolani, Currie Street, Middle Terrace, Albany Road, and Scott’s Farm. Di-anne says it’s essential to have community kitchens in different places as they cater to many people. “People won’t have to walk far for a plate of…

By ISIPHO NGUTYANA The kitchen: Masibambane Community Kitchen The chef: Lulama Maseti “I always wanted to start a soup kitchen, but I am unemployed,” says Lulama Maseti, 34. “When the lockdown started, I saw breadwinners in my community lose their jobs, and I thought that starting this would help a lot of people”. Maseti, who was born and bred in Makhanda, is a mother to two children. She lives with her mother in Extension 8. On a typical day during the hard lockdown, Maseti would cook on her three-plate gas stove and feed over 300 people in a day. “The…

By JOSIE MAKKINK The kitchen: eThembeni Community Kitchen The chef: Limise Gagayi “It was a surprise, even for us, to see that we can do things. What we are doing is actually working. It is actually changing lives.” These are the words of Limise Gagayi, who, with the help of her husband, is making a difference within the eThembeni community. Gagayi, originally from Gqeberha, responded to the need she saw in Makhanda with action. She says, “We cannot just fold arms and wait for someone, or for government, to give it to us. We have just got to stand up…

By MOGAU MATLOGA The kitchen: TheMzukisi May Community Kitchen, Extension 6; secondary location in the eNkanini informal settlement. The chefs: Linda and Mzukisi May The Mzukisi May Community Kitchen started when the founders noticed more people coming to them asking for help. The Mays started the kitchen using their pensions, which burnt a hole in their pockets. But, donations have been a great help. They need more recurring and stable donations due to the large numbers of people they support. “Here it was 140 children, 105 adults,” Linda says, looking through their records of the people they have served. They have…

By TRISTAN COOKE On the mantlepiece above the TV sits a soccer trophy; it has found the highest point in Ndombozuko Faxa’s living room. In the kitchen sit two men, their impatience seems to have stemmed from interrupted screen time. Ndombozuko, who established a soup kitchen two years ago, assertively quells a murmuring house and continues her train of thought: “If the children are not eating well, they may (use) drugs or do some theft so that they can buy and sell food.” “I have a soccer team (13-16 years old), some of the young ones (children) go to the…

By NAMUKUTA SONIA CHARITY SAJJABI Coronavirus. Food shortages. Community kitchens. Nomonde Waka-Caliber read the signs. She, along with other volunteers, was more than willing to step in. “Some people were losing jobs, some were getting less money for salaries, some didn’t have food to put on the table; so we decided there was a need to volunteer ourselves,” she says. Waka-Caliber has volunteered before – she worked at Masifunde Education and Development Trust until its closure. She now operates a community kitchen in Extension 9. She is proud of the Covid-19 awareness campaigns run from the kitchen and the preventative…

By NONJABULO NTULI The kitchen: The Joza Street Community Kitchen The chef: Noluthando Zake Noluthando Zake, born and bred in Makhanda, and her kitchen epitomises ubuntu. She has been running it for two and a half years. In the early days, she used her own money for ingredients. But, after the word got around, she started getting occasional donations. The kitchen operates on Wednesdays and Fridays, starting at 2.30 pm when the school day ends. “When I started at 1 pm, I realised that children would come after I’d finished serving and there’d be no more food.” It is hard not…

By MZWANDILE MAMAILA  Phumla Mngcongo exemplifies Makhanda’s sense of humanity. She is the founder of a kitchen, but has a lot more planned for her community. Mngcongo has been unemployed for the past four years, yet she still manages to keep her children, her relatives, and the community of Makhanda fed. With the financial assistance from two ‘good samaritans’, Mngcongo ran the kitchen for a year. After stepping down from 20 years working at a Rhodes University cafeteria, Mngcongo felt the need to tackle the needs of her community. With the experience of working with thousands of students and assisting…

By LOYISO DYONGMAN The Democratic Alliance’s (DA) Shadow MEC for Health and Environmental Affairs Jane Cowley has described Makana’s raw sewage and illegal dumping problems as a “health and environmental disaster, which was making people ill”. She spoke to an enthusiastic group of residents near Mary Waters High School in Ward 3 after an oversight visit by DA leaders to Makana on Thursday, 14 October. Ward 3 encompasses Vergenoeg, Xolani location, Ghost Town and Sun City. DA Shadow MEC for COGTA Vicky Knoetze MPL reported that just across from where the community was meeting, in Zolani, she had observed raw…

By MAKWENA MANAKA and ROD AMNER At least 24 community kitchens popped up around Makhanda in the wake of the Covid-19 lockdown in March 2020 as jobs were shed and access to food deteriorated. Most of these kitchens were started by concerned citizens on a wing and a prayer, using their resources and, later, donations from a range of committed civil society organisations. Around 18-20 are still running, but donations have been harder to come by in 2021. You can read about how the local #foodheroes have selflessly contributed to food security in our city on pages 3-6 of this…