“Violent protests and looting are a major threat to food security,” – Mpho Mhlongo, Company Secretary Intern and Researcher from the Studies in Poverty and Inequality Institute.
South Africa has experienced a food insecurity problem for the longest time, more and more people have been suffering without so much as a basic income grant. People are suffering to obtain basic needs such as bread.
The increase in hunger does not stem from the unrest, poverty has been ongoing in our nation for the longest time. If we consider the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic had on the economy, the job-loss and the poverty that our citizens were already facing.
“Some farmers incurred a loss of 3 million in perishable goods.” – Mpho adds
Industries are struggling to deliver their products due to the unrest and closing of essential roads that are needed to deliver gluten to the bakeries, etc.
People have less access to basic goods after the unrest, and his will impact the economic infrastructure much more.
“Poverty has a lot to do with some of the looting,” Mpho outlines, in another interview the Studies in Poverty and Inequality Institute Director, Isobel Frye, mentions that people are looting because they are hungry, which means that they have had their livelihood taken from them and that they are in need of help from the government.
Last year, people were struggling to get food due to the Covid-19 pandemic, with the increase in unemployment, and now the looting, our people have no more choices left.
Poverty has been a problem for many years, Mpho reiterates, until we see some policy changing and obtain political stability, nothing will change
This is not the start of Poverty.
Source: SABCnews
