• News
  • Sport
  • TV
  • Radio
  • Education
  • TV Licences
  • Contact Us
No Result
View All Result
  • SOUTH AFRICA
  • POLITICS
  • BUSINESS
  • SPORT
  • AFRICA
  • WORLD
  • SCI-TECH
  • LIFESTYLE
  • FEATURES
  • OPINION
Home South Africa

Foreign nationals feel excluded by SA government from receiving social relief grant

23 April 2020, 7:06 PM  |
SABC SABC |  @SABCNews
Foreign nationals say they also cannot work during the lockdown and food parcels have not yet reached them.

Foreign nationals say they also cannot work during the lockdown and food parcels have not yet reached them.

Image: SABC News

Foreign nationals say they also cannot work during the lockdown and food parcels have not yet reached them.

Some foreign nationals in Gauteng say government has excluded them from social relief. The foreign nationals say they also cannot work during the lockdown and food parcels have not yet reached them.

Many are asylum seekers and depend on casual work to survive.

The scars of a tortured past, replete with the horrors of civil war and later land grabs and civil disquiet.

Almost two decades later, the 42-year-old Zimbabwean national, Progress Mpofu, faces a silent threat of COVID-19 pandemic on foreign soil.

“I was surviving with two piece jobs, and I was selling second hand clothes.”

But the lockdown, still in effect, continues to dry up her income.

Progress Mpofu says, “It’s very difficult. I don’t want to lie. Nowadays, I am having depression. I always sleep and then cry the whole night, not knowing what to do the following day.”

The mother of two says she can’t console her children either.

“Especially my 5-year-old girl. She’s crying most of times when the situation is like this, because she’s used to finding something. Nowadays, there’s nothing in the house.”

Mpofu is just among hundreds of foreign nationals in need of food.

Malawian national Noel Nyirenda says, “It’s tough because you wake up without eating … sometimes no electricity. Where am I going to get the money because I am doing piece jobs?”

Others feel there is a lack of communication on the ground.

Spokesperson for Friends of Migrants and Refugees in SA Gugu Ncube says, “Why are they not even concerned about us? They know that some of the refugees that ran from home, they ran away because of the current government, that’s not helping the poor.”

“I am a woman. I need sanitary towels, and how am I going to maintain that dignity? So is my dignity sacrificed at this present moment? What exactly is happening to humanity, to Ubuntu? What’s happening Africa?

Meanwhile, Social Development says food parcels distribution is not exclusive.

Acting MEC for Social Development in Gauteng Panyaza Lesufi says, “Our approach is simple, whoever is appropriately documented to be inside the country will get support, and if people are not documented to be in the country, it’s unfortunate. We will request them to deal with that aspect so that they can be in a queue. We are not discriminating.”

And in more efforts to boost food security, donors are stepping up.

Co-chair for MealSA, Yunus Suleman, says, “We have an ambitious target a million bags of 12.5kg mielie meal at R60 towards the journey and the food hampers the departments are distributing.”

While government works on these challenges for now there’s scant help for the foreign nationals who escaped one hell for another.

Until food reaches them many including children will go hungry tonight.

In the video below, President Ramaphosa talks about measures to deal with the effects of COVID-19 on the economy: 

R500 billion COVID-19 Economic Plan:

Share article
Tags: LockdownGautengJohannesburgForeign nationals
Previous Post

WHO warns that malaria deaths in Africa could double this year

Next Post

Donations at till points are only added on request of customers: Shoprite Group

Related Posts

A customer looks over a 9mm hand gun at the Guns-R-Us gun shop in Phoenix, Arizona, US.

At least 10 people killed in Bhityi area, Eastern Cape

2 February 2023, 8:26 AM
People collecting water from one of the Water tankers.

Joburg water making progress with restoration process

2 February 2023, 5:44 AM
Police tape and bullets on the ground

Manhunt for 20 suspects in KwaMashu shooting

1 February 2023, 9:08 PM
Bullet casings and broken glass

UPDATE: Four dead in KwaMashu Hostel shooting

1 February 2023, 7:21 PM
Anti child abuse sign

Communities urged to confront cycle of child abuse

1 February 2023, 5:45 PM
Water flowing out of a tap

Tshwane hopes to restore water following protest

1 February 2023, 2:32 PM
Next Post
Checkers

Donations at till points are only added on request of customers: Shoprite Group

Most Viewed

  • 24hrs
  • Week
  • Month
  • Gas leak shut, isolated in Pretoria North
  • Registration at Unisa closes on Friday, but management says no need to panic
  • King of Bacardi music ‘Vusi Ma R5’ killed in Soshanguve
  • Committee wants to halt planned demolition of North West hospital
  • Bapedi kingdom commemorates Kgosi Mampuru II, still hoping to find his remains
  • Parts of the Northern Cape to be exempted from rolling blackouts
  • VIDEO | St Benedict College’s Matric learner gets 11 distinctions
  • Limpopo matriculant from child-headed household attains diploma pass
  • Female circumcision practice thriving in Eastern Cape
  • Premier denies claims that KZN government spent millions on Mampintsha’s funeral
  • Shock over proposed SA sponsorship of Tottenham Hotspur
  • Three suspects killed, two wounded in a shooting on R21 Highway in Ekurhuleni
  • Madonsela questions relevance of appearing before Section 194 inquiry
  • Manhunt for 20 suspects in KwaMashu shooting
  • UPDATE: Four dead in KwaMashu Hostel shooting

LATEST

DA leader John Steenhuisen.
  • Politics

Zille, Steenhuisen to join DA’s Joburg caucus meeting


EFF Leader Julius malema and members of the party's leadership are pictured inside the East London Magistrate's Court on February 1, 2023.
  • Politics

Malema and bodyguard pursue recusal of magistrate in firearm trial


A customer looks over a 9mm hand gun at the Guns-R-Us gun shop in Phoenix, Arizona, US.
  • South Africa

At least 10 people killed in Bhityi area, Eastern Cape


[File Image]: Workers at the office amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in Porto, Portugal, July 20, 2021.
  • Business

28 SA companies to participate in 4 Day Week pilot project


Smoke rises from the Duvha coal-based power station owned by state power utility Eskom, in Emalahleni, in Mpumalanga province, South Africa, June 3, 2021.
  • Politics

SA energy crisis to top cabinet lekgotla agenda


People collecting water from one of the Water tankers.
  • South Africa

Joburg water making progress with restoration process


Weather

  • About the SABC
  • Contact Us
  • Jobs
  • Advertise
  • Disclaimer
  • Site Map

SABC © 2023

No Result
View All Result
  • SOUTH AFRICA
  • POLITICS
  • BUSINESS
  • SPORT
  • AFRICA
  • WORLD
  • SCI-TECH
  • LIFESTYLE
  • FEATURES
  • OPINION

© 2022

Previous WHO warns that malaria deaths in Africa could double this year
Next Checkers Donations at till points are only added on request of customers: Shoprite Group