Dept vows to fight hunger
MORE than a quarter of the households in the Northern Cape have inadequate or severely inadequate access to food, with more than 60 000 children in the Province affected by hunger annually.
These shocking facts were revealed yesterday at the launch of two soup kitchens, in Phutanang and Roodepan, where the Head of Department (HOD) for Social Development, Elizabeth Botes, handed over R106 500 start-up capital to each soup kitchen.
The department has committed more than R11 million towards the establishment of 28 soup kitchens in its “war on poverty” during the 2013/14 financial year.
This will bring the total number of soup kitchens in the Province to 137, with more than 600 000 meals being provided to 32 000 households.
The 2012 Global Hunger Index estimated that South Africa was ranked ninth in the world for the highest hunger levels. Nationally 22 percent of children were reported to have experienced hunger during 2004 and 2005, with 19 percent of children in the Northern Cape having experienced hunger during the same period.
This translates to 64 821 children in 2004 and 62 376 in 2005.
Botes yesterday said that the number of child deaths due to malnutrition had increased from 41 deaths in 2006 to 144 deaths in 2008/9, with severe malnutrition especially high in the Sol Plaatje, Phokwane and the Ga-Segonyane municipal areas.
She added that food insecurity, meaning a lack of access to food of sufficient quality and quantity, lay at the heart of the hardship faced by thousands of people in the Province.
“Women, children and the elderly are the most severely affected. Food insecurity is indisputably a consequence of poverty and poverty is directly linked to income inequality,” Botes said.
This income inequality was clearly illustrated at the launch of the soup kitchen in Phutanang, as hundreds of impoverished residents, most of whom indicated that they only attended the event to get the supplied lunch, sat in stark contrast to dignitaries seated at a table laden with bottles of fruit juice, fancy chocolates and savoury snacks.
After waiting for more than two hours for lunch to be served, the food (consisting of meat, mashed potatoes and a bread roll) was not enough to feed all the attendees, while the handful of dignitaries feasted on a restaurant-style buffet, including mutton curry, roast chicken, savoury rice and gourmet salads catering for 30 people.
One of the attendees, Marie Matras, said while the soup kitchen would bring great relief to the hundreds of starving elderly and children in the area, seeing and smelling the bowls of food that was brought in to provide for the already “uitgevrete” (well-fed) politicians was “hurtful”.
“If they really care for the people, they should not be eating at these events – otherwise they should get what we get,” Matras added.
“They had breakfast at home. This is our only meal for the day – and even the week in some cases. Many of us did not even get food at today’s event because they ran out.”
Another group of attendees questioned why there were so many Extended Public Works Programme workers in attendance. Close to half of the group who filled the tent were sporting bright EPWP overalls.
“These workers have employment and they get salaries to buy food. Instead of working they are sitting here. They should rather be working and not taking the food out of the mouths of those who do not have anything. Either that, or give their jobs to us,” a group of men said.