Episode 5 : #CancelRent (Please!)

IN CASE OF EMERGENCIES

In the words of the good people at Rent Strike South Africa:

The rent strike is an evolving conversation about how regular people can keep themselves safe, sheltered, and fed through the coming months.

The basic premise of the strike is simple: If we can’t work, we can’t pay rent. Instead of being isolated and on your own in worrying about how to pay rent and to feed yourself, regular people can collectively support each other, and can take their lives into their own hands by keeping their rent. Because even as lockdown is lifted bit by bit over coming months, we will still have significant restrictions on movement. Life is not going back to normal any time soon, and the most vulnerable people in our most unequal country will be hit the hardest. Not that normal was good for so many of us. If you keep your rent today, you might be able to buy groceries tomorrow where you wouldn’t have. And that is one of the biggest things you can do to ensure that you will have some money for food going forward, if you had any money at all in the first place. Government is giving some money to people, but it is insufficient, unreliable, and maladministered, so we ask ourselves: What are some real practical ways that we can ensure that we are collectively safe together?