Millions of the inhabitants of our motherland do not consume required or sufficient energy/calories a day to sustain their livelihood and basic health care. Such people whose daily income is less than $1.9 are referred to as living below the poverty line in terms of the World Bank (2015) and their standard of living is low. Majority of whom are black, female, aged, handicapped, young and children and so on. Millions are exposed to hunger and starvation culminating into malnutrition and with dire implications of deteriorating health of the greater chunk of the population since the aforementioned sections constitute the majority. The ever diverging inequality in South Africa is persistent, when measured by Gini-coefficient is at 0,64, reflecting a situation of minority claiming a lion’s share of the country’s economic resources. Over a third (if discouraged worker seekers are added) of the South African working-age population is unemployed and possibly unemployable due to skills mismatches or lack thereof.
This is, of course, the legacy bequeathed by the apartheid capitalism and colonialism, further postulated by Karl Marx on the 18th Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte that;
“Men make their own history, but they do not make it as they please, they do not make it under self-selected circumstances but under circumstances existing already, given and transmitted from the past.”
The novel coronavirus(COVID-19) pandemic imposed nationwide lockdown exacerbates the triple challenges of the South African society and the economy as diagnosed by the national planning commission of abject poverty, mass unemployment and underemployment as well as the ever-diverging inequality.
People cannot fend for themselves, as a result, millions are in the verge of falling back to below the poverty line and starve to death, but in essence, does not suggest things were better before the pandemic. One of the main unintended side effects of prolonged lockdown is worsening hunger. Granted, there has been a significant contribution by the public sector in this regard by adopting a YCLSA proposition of the Basic Income Grant though for six months, augmentation to grants of other beneficiaries like the aged and the children etc. The private sector has had its contribution in a variety of ways while whether or not its share is a “fair share” or not remains an issue for debate.
The food packages and vouchers donated by both the private and public sectors go a long way. To our disappointment, some in our ranks and in higher echelons of the youth movement use them for petty squabbles and cheap political point-scoring. More disgusting when their sheer opportunism and factionalism is exposed by their inconsistency when they defend one Executive Mayor and attack another over a similar issue of business people who donated packages that were deemed less dignified. We must not be deterred by populist demagogue masquerading as youth leaders who will stop at nothing to vilify our leaders for opportunist ends. We must instead remain steadfast and resolute in our programme of poverty alleviation, appreciate, augment and corroborate all efforts aimed at combating hunger and starvation. This is one area that the ANC headed alliance in government must focus on, and have committed cadres that understand organisational mandate in advancing interests of the poor and serving selflessly.
While this is the case, the food parcels programme has also been exposed to and is vulnerable to a variety of challenges and risks ranging from duplication- where you find one family benefiting twice though from different donors, lack of coordination, inefficient functionaries, ineffective systems and absence of political will from some councillors or ward committees, entitlement- where families or community members feel that they are bound to receive the parcels/package even when they do not meet the requirements set out in the criteria like living below the poverty line and not receiving any income grant and so on. This must be anchored in a discussion of proper Food Bank and security creation, where one department, like DSD through SASSA, should be at the centre of all food distribution to society.
While we process this and other challenges brought about by this period of lockdown where public and private intervention in the interest of saving lives and food security, we ought to also ponder on some plausible models for community-based feeding initiatives. One such modality is the soup kitchen programme. The YCLSA had its inaugural soup kitchen in Dr Maile Clinic in Kgotsong-Bothaville within the demarcation of Tisha Vanga district in the year 2016. Culminating from the lockdown, the youth activists in this area resuscitated the kitchen. The soup kitchen is ongoing in Nyakallong-Allanridge, Kutloanong-Odendaal, Thabong and other areas in the province at least.
While it may appear ceremonial or sentimental, it makes a meaningful contribution to the lives of many who go to bed without having had a meal for this or that reason. It adds value to those who would ordinarily consume medication without a meal or even be discouraged to take medication. It is obviously not immune to a variety of challenges like perpetual succession and lack thereof, sustainability, stability, funding, corruption etc., however, checks and balances are ought to be put in place for operations, governance and finances.
A quick benchmark on the above-cited areas where the soup kitchen takes place shows that they take place under the auspices of the community-based organizations(CBOs), Non-Governmental Organization, Non-Profit-Organizations(NPOs) etc. There is an urgent need for our people to be at the forefront of the war against poverty and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Let’s sleeve up and rigorously engage in community-based vegetable gardens in our clinics, schools, old age and orphanage centres etc. for perpetual supplies of vegetables to sustain the soup kitchens in our communities over and above offering to the impoverished households.
Let’s glove up and vigorously engage in advocacy for community-based food banks to supply our kitchens and for offering at households underprivileged. We encourage the public and private sector to continue supporting these initiatives for their sustainability. There is a need to formulate a social compact of stakeholders like government, business and CBOs in this regard.
There is well-recorded precedence of public, private partnerships and cooperation’s, inter-departmental and governmental relations and collaborations. The government should consider erecting, constructing and allocating facilities for community-based kitchen space for soup kitchens at each and every clinic and hospital. This will be to ensure that no patient takes medication without having had a meal. The community members will be at liberty to go to the clinic for brunch and late lunch. A meal ticket system may be adopted to manage identification and duplication among other issues.
A national schools’ nutrition programme model where services of an entity are it private, NPO, cooperatives etc. may be procured quarterly or yearly to feed the pupils on a rotational basis, may be explored. The insourcing model could be even economical, in that the DOH will employ the clinic kitchen personnel as part of the auxiliary staff compliment and the DSD will provide groceries from their normal food parcels distribution supplies, the business will be encouraged to donate to clinic kitchens, community food banks and vegetable gardens for the sustainability of our fight against hunger and starvation.
We call upon the community in general and the youth in particular to initiate, support and maintain these initiatives inspired by Che Ernesto Guevara when he addressed the second anniversary of the unification of the revolutionary youth organizations, Havana, 20 October 1962 when he advanced;
“The youth must be ready to make sacrifices demanded by the revolution, whatever the nature of those sacrifices maybe…. the first in the study, the first in work and the first in defence of the country”
We have studied both the pandemic and the poverty issue. We ought to engage in work in defence of our nation and country. Lastly, on the same input, Che cautioned that “without an organization, ideas after some initial momentum start losing their effect. They become routine, degenerate into conformity and simply end up a memory.”
Will this catalyst intervention be one such an idea to end up simply a memory? Let’s engage!
Xolani Tseletsele is the incumbent Free State Deputy Provincial Secretary of the Young Communist League of SA(YCLSA) and Mzwandile Thakhudi is a serving National Committee Member of YCLSA: Head of Secretariat and Political Education. They write in their personal capacities.