People in SA eating sand to survive

NO SOUTH African with a heart could have sat down to dinner with a clear conscience last Sunday after reading about starving adults and children – some eating sand to survive – in some parts of KwaZulu-Natal as reported in the media.

No, this was not about Ukraine or Yemen, but about what is happening on our doorstep, in a country where the well-heeled drive Ferraris and Beemers. It is scandalous that people have to starve in a country with its much-vaunted notion of ubuntu.

I grew up in the district of Springtown in Durban in the 1950s in a very low-income community. There were local support structures which ensured that a family facing starvation would have a loaf of bread at least once a week. I recall my elder brother being part of a volunteer organisation, the Durban Indian Child Welfare Society, and once a month he and fellow members would go door-to-door soliciting modest cash donations from households that could afford it.

Don’t we have such support structures across KZN and Eastern Cape any more? What has happened to our social workers? Don’t we have village elders, tribal chiefs and kings to keep an eye on things? I may be mistaken but I think traditional leaders are on the government’s payroll.

Finally, we must hold the relevant ministry in government responsible for allowing children to eat sand to survive.

HARRY SEWLALL | Sandton