Writing about hunger is soul-destroying, heartbreaking work. Anger levels soar and I am often struck by a feeling of utter hopelessness as stories of people’s desperate search for food fill notebooks and recorders.
One thing that particularly struck me though was the use of the word “deserving” by the Eastern Cape department of social development in their social media posts. Yes, them. The department who failed to appoint a service provider to deliver life-saving food to thousands of people. They are the ones who call the beneficiaries of their food parcels “deserving”.One assumes that it is clumsy English and what is meant is that one has to qualify for a food parcel – as for a grant.
The Eastern Cape department of social development does not seem to have a handle on the hunger situation in the province. Perhaps it is too scary for the carefully couched, politically correct way they talk about those who are hungry and starving… those who “deserve” a food parcel. According to Stats SA, the Eastern Cape had the lowest proportion of households with an employed household member . Almost half of female-headed households did not have an employed person living in the household in 2020 and, since the lockdown, income from salaries had declined.
In Butterworth, another seven children died between January and February 2022. An additional 188 children received inpatient treatment at Nelson Mandela Bay metro hospitals for severe acute malnutrition and, in February, 11 children were admitted to hospital with severe acute malnutrition. Who will pull the many cords of an impactful fight against malnutrition together? We all wish it was Dr Imtiaz Sooliman from Gift of the Givers. The politicians won’t do it because they seem to believe that giving food to “deserving” people is enough.The Eastern Cape, and probably other provinces, is faced with the dire, deadly consequences of systemic collapse.
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