Nearing the end of the third week of lockdown and I am thinking about the people who read this Stoep Chat, and how different their circumstances may be. You could be sitting out on the lawn, sipping a beer until your braai fire is just right for those thick steaks.
Your freezer and fridge are full. Your salary is still coming in as you sit back and relax. Or you could be sitting with your head in your hands, using precious phone data to scroll through Action Ads in the hopes of finding any kind of help. You have had no income for three weeks because your employer retrenched you – or you were self-employed and now can’t work. You spent the last of your cash on food last week and the cupboard is almost bare. The kids are hungry. What can do you do? The Covid-19 pandemic has brought many issues to the forefront globally, perhaps none more clearly than the contrast of its effect on the “haves” and the “have-nots”. This is particularly so in South Africa, the country that has the biggest gap between the rich and the poor anywhere in the world. The coronavirus has also brought out the champions, those who are helping wherever they can, be they government, NGOs or just individuals who leap in to help. Like the professional golfer from George: Knysna Spar manager Leon Terblanche told me the golfer gave R200,000 to the supermarket so that every caddy could get a food voucher for R2500. “And there was someone from Rheenendal who said there were 50 households that needed food parcels so they paid for them, we made them up and they came and collected them to hand out.” Rotary, church groups and other NGOs are also involved in food relief, and the person at the centre of the logistics of getting food to the right people in Knysna is Pam Booth, head of environmental management at Knysna Municipality. Quite a job change. “At first I loved being at home with the kids when the lockdown started, but then I felt I was twiddling my thumbs so when I put my hand up to help with food relief, I suddenly found I was head of it. And I love it. I was on the working end of it the other day when we did Ward 11, where people are really desperate, and it was really good to see people’s faces when we handed out the food parcels,” Pam said. The national Department of Social Development is managing food aid around the country, but cannot do it all, so provincial and local governments have to help make up the shortfall. And to do that they need money. Knysna’s deputy mayor Aubrey Tsengwa called on local residents and businesses to donate money to the municipality’s relief fund. “Our immediate need is to ensure that our people have access to essential food. The effects of the coronavirus have been severe, with many Knysna residents having lost their normal income,” he said. The municipality has drawn up criteria for people to be eligible to get food parcels, to ensure that the food goes to those most in need. Sadly, so far donations are trickling in very slowly. Given the municipality’s dreadful track record in recent years, it is hardly surprising that people are loath to hand over funds. While Pam says she understands that, she believes the acting municipal manager Dr Michelle Gratz, who stepped in when the municipal manager was suspended, “has got a very firm grip on finances”. But there are other options. The municipality has agreements with Pick n Pay and Spar for food relief. People can buy food vouchers at these supermarkets, which municipal staff will redeem, shop for the food from the store, parcel it and distribute it to the needy. Or, even easier, given the lockdown, you can make EFT deposits to these two supermarkets and the municipal staff will do the same: shop, parcel and distribute. You can also make an EFT deposit to Knysna Rotary, which is working with the municipality, and they will channel the funds for food relieve. Here’s a slight sidetrack: Writing this has brought back an image that will always be with me, which I share here. About 10 years ago I was writing an article about research UCT had done on food security in Cape Town, which found that a high percentage of people in the city go to bed hungry. Something like one in four. The newspaper wanted a photograph to illustrate the story, so sent some poor photographer “into the townships” to try to find and photograph someone who did not have enough to eat. I felt for him. How does one do that? To my astonishment he came back with a haunting photograph which showed just that: a thin woman, her young daughter in the background, sitting in their Khayelitsha shack with the last of their food on the table. Half a cabbage and a third of a bottle of oil. That was it. I was shocked. How did he find that woman? “I just drove to the shacks, walked down the road and asked if anyone knew anyone who did not have enough food. They pointed to that shack,” he said. It was as easy as that, because there were so many. That was of course before the coronavirus changed the world, before so many lost jobs. The full impact of the virus on the economy and society are still to come. It feels overwhelming at times, and that we can’t make a difference, but we can, by giving money to ensure that at least people can eat. Two quotes about hunger that I like: Jimmy Carter: “We know that a peaceful world cannot long exist, one-third rich and two-thirds hungry.” And from Mother Theresa: “If you cannot feed a hundred people, then feed just one.”
