Line between hunger and anger growing thinner

A local advocacy group has called on central government to re-look at the current welfare system, saying there need to be a better mechanism to cushion poor households against rising food prices, Public Eye reports.

The Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity Group warned South Africa had reached a point of no return when in ensuring that poor households have access to nutritious food.

As South Africa joined the rest of the world in observing World Food Day on October 16, the advocacy group said the time had come for government to avert a crisis.

“If we are ever going to be bold and politically courageous, the time is now. The socio-economic crisis in which people live is becoming worse every day. Millions of South African families are struggling to put food on the table. The line between hunger and anger is a thin one,” said Mervyn Abrahams.

He added that re-thinking the welfare system as an economic stimulus could be a politically courageous act to stimulate a consumer driven economic recovery; whilst allowing families to eat properly and begin to deal with the household affordability crisis.

He pointed out that most people buy food in the supermarket and in a cash-based economy access to food requires money.

“The core pathway to get money – via a job – has become increasingly obstructed.

Around 9,6 million South Africans are currently unemployed, of which 8,6 million black South Africans are currently unemployed,” Abrahams continued.

He warned that millions of South Africans were struggling to put food on the table and the consequences of such low levels of nutrition threaten to undermine the country’s developmental outcomes.

“Poverty levels are now accelerating. Inequality is deepening. Millions of people will continue to struggle to put food on the table,” he stressed.

According to the advocacy group, food is the core of the country’s developmental outcomes whether social, health, education and economic.

“We need an intervention and we need it quickly if we are to avoid the dire consequences that such low levels of nutrition will bring by undermining everything we as a country wish to achieve,” concluded Abrahams.