Following all the recommended sanitising practices, social distancing and self-isolation are impossible in informal settlements.” />Following all the recommended sanitising practices, social distancing and self-isolation are impossible in informal settlements.
Image: Annie Cebulski via GroundUp
How do you heed President Cyril Ramaphosa’s plea to wash your hands often when you live in a community without running water? The short answer is that you don’t.

“We share toilets and communal taps here and people aren’t educated about this virus,” said Samuel Makhubela, a community leader at Kya Sands informal settlement near Randburg.

He said he tries to inform people about what they should do to stop the spread of the virus, but it is not easy.About 5km away, Msawawa informal settlement resident Sugar Baloyi, 47, said government should have provided sanitisers, gloves and masks.

“We try to wash hands and encourage our children to wash their hands, but we can only be hopeful that the virus doesn’t spread to our area. Do you think we can avoid it here?” the unemployed father of three asked.

Baloyi said self-isolating would be very difficult.

“I live with my children and wife. How will I self-isolate in this place?”

Justice Baloyi, 32, said he was scared: “If coronavirus gets here, we are all going to die. The