1. All evictions must be stopped with immediate effect.
2. All disconnections from self-organised access to water, electricity and sanitation must be stopped with immediate effect.
3. All shack settlements must be included in municipal refuse removal programmes with immediate effect.
4. All workers, including domestic workers, who are not required to be on the frontlines of working against the pandemic must be given paid leave until the crisis has passed. Workers who are on the frontline of working against the pandemic must be given all possible forms of protection and care.
5. A guaranteed income must be made available to all people who are not able to earn an income during this period of crisis.
6. Steps must be taken to ensure that everyone has access to sufficient healthy food including the provision of free food parcels. Subsidies and price caps must be put in place on all basic food items. The measures that have been put in place against hoarding and profiteering must be strictly enforced.
7. Water and sanitation must be provided to all shack settlements as an urgent priority.
8. Sanitiser and all other medically required equipment must be made available to all at no cost.
9. All residents of shack settlements who test positive for the virus must be given safe and dignified accommodation in which they can self-isolate. Where necessary appropriate buildings can be requisitioned for this purpose.
10. Scientifically based information about the virus, and how to protect people from it, must be shared in all languages, in a way that is accessible and understandable to all, and is based on the understanding that millions of people live in shacks, that others are detained in prisons and migrant detention centres, and that millions of people will starve if they cannot continue to earn an income.
11. Payment must be suspended on all loans.
12. Free data must be made available to all by the cell phone companies so that people can stay in touch with family, friends, neighbours, hospitals and comrades.
13. All people detained by the state for non-criminal acts, such as being undocumented, occupying land, participating in arranging self-organised connections to water, electricity and sanitation, and so on, must be released with immediate effect.
14. All hospitals and all other health facilities must be available to all people living in South Africa, including undocumented migrants, with immediate effect.
15. There must be free testing and treatment for all.

We have declared a red alert in all land occupations and settlements affiliated to the movement.

Our members have stressed that many people do not have regular or easy access to water and proper sanitation and are still using bushes to relieve themselves. Municipalities across the country do not collect refuse from shack settlements. In Mbizana communities share water with cattle which results in many diseases.

Our members have also expressed concern that the high employment rate and the extreme poverty in shack settlements makes it difficult for us to stay in our homes. If we do stay at home we may die as a result of starvation before the virus gets us.

Our members have also noted that it is also difficult to isolate ourselves from each other as we live under extremely congested conditions.

Another concern that has been expressed is that we continue to have our shacks (illegally and violently) demolished by the state during this time of crisis. Today in Ekuphumeleleni one of our members has been hospitalised due to state violence during an eviction. People are being left homeless and their belongings burnt to ashes at the hand of arrogant councillors like S’busiso Kwela of Ward 17 whose taxi business benefits from tenders from the eThekweni Municipality.

It is unknown how many people have been affected during this time.

http://www.hlrn.org/news.php?title=South-Africa:-Call-for-Solidarity-amid-Crisis&id=p3Bqaw==#.X3ZryFl7nOQ

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