This brief summarizes what metros have reported for the delivery of basic services – water, sanitation, refuse collection and soap or sanitiser – in informal settlements, as well as what they reported in terms of food parcels or other forms of nutritional support for households.

This brief presents information collected during May 2020 about the food security initiatives and plans of government and the Solidarity Fund, particularly with regard to the provision of food parcels and food vouchers.

Over recent weeks, the Western Cape has emerged as the epicentre of the COVID-19 virus. On 26 May, the province accounted for 65.2% of South Africa’s 24,264 confirmed COVID-19 cases. Many of these residents rely on shared water and sanitation facilities or have limited access to water and sanitation, making them particularly vulnerable to COVID-19. Sub-districts such as Tygerberg, Khayelitsha, and Southern – home to many informal settlements – have emerged as COVID-19 hotspots.

Over half a million of Johannesburg’s 5.8 million people live in 181 informal settlements. The number of COVID-19 cases in the city increased rapidly from 971 on 6 May to 1,153 on 15 May, a jump of 20 per cent in less than 2 weeks. Shared water and toilet facilities make Johannesburg’s informal settlement residents extremely vulnerable to infection. Residents participating in the Asivikelane initiative have reported dire water and sanitation problems over the last 6 weeks. Their efforts to engage with the city have met with a slow response.

Six hundred thousand informal settlement residents will receive better quality sanitation services as a result of community-led monitoring and engagement in Ekurhuleni. In 2018, the International Budget Partnership South Africa (IBPSouth Africa) and the Social Audit Network (SAN), started partnering with Planact and 13 informal settlement communities in Ekurhuleni to conduct a social audit on the provision and maintenance of portable toilets. A social audit is a community-led process of engaging government about poor services by monitoring service delivery on the basis of government commitments contained in budgets and other official documents.