Minister of Social Development Lindiwe Zulu says no South African must be left hungry during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Zulu held a briefing on the department’s COVID-19 programmes.
In the video below, Minister Lindiwe Zulu briefs the media on COVID-19 socio-economic relief interventions and Level 4 lockdown regulations:
Following complaints that food parcels don’t reach some communities, the minister appealed for a stronger effort to cater to the poor.
The system must be about reaching the 20% of Gauteng residents who are food insecure. There should be no patronage networks and no political interference in all processes. #COVID19SA pic.twitter.com/teNTRsmNkA
— David Makhura (@David_Makhura) April 14, 2020
More than R43 million from both the department and the Solidarity Fund have been made available for food relief.
Zulu says, “In total, over 58 000 households and close to 250 000 people have already started receiving these good parcels through our community nutrition centres. I want to make a plea that these food parcels must not only go to areas that are easily accessible. The problem is that there are far-flung places that are not to receiving these food parcels.”
The country has more than 163 shelters for the homeless. Over 14 000 homeless people are accommodated nationally.
“We had a debate on who must take responsibility for the homeless and we agreed that it’s the Local Government structures that need to support the shelters by making sure that the homeless remain in these shelters.”
