Thousands of people from poverty-stricken families in five wards in Nelson Mandela Bay will receive much needed nutritious food from Monday, 8 August 2011, onwards, thanks to the municipality’s bold intervention (Editors Notes: Let us not forget that BOLD steps are easy to take when using ratepayers money and tolerance).
Following months of preparation and the recent signing of a facilitation agreement between the municipality and the Eastern Cape Development Corporation, the relief effort will finally take-off next week.
Dubbed the War-on-hunger campaign, the initiative will benefit struggling children in child-headed homes, unemployed pregnant women, home-based patients in chronic TB HIV/AIDS medication and other beneficiaries verified by the Department of Social Development.
The initiative is implemented through cooperatives formed by people (mostly women) who were running soup kitchens in the wards. They were individuals and groups that were willing to come together and register as Cooperatives (as opposed to NGO’s) to ensure the initiative becomes self sustainable.
The War on Hunger Campaign is a bold municipal initiative to address high poverty rates in the Bay. “This is a short term measure that will ensure hungry people can have their fill and be assisted to get out of poverty while the longer term economic development initiatives are gaining momentum,” said Executive Mayor, Cllr. Zanoxolo Wayile.
“We needed to take bold steps as the municipality to lead residents and businesses in the city to care for people in their communities. People do not have time to wait for long-term strategies and projects to bear fruit. Their stomachs are hurting now, not in the future,” said Mayor Wayile.
The initiative involves the Departments of Social Development, Trade and Industry, Economic Development and Environmental Affairs, Agriculture, and Labour as well as the South Africa. Social Security Agency who will together provide a package that is designed to see beneficiaries escape poverty and lead thriving lives.
Mayor Wayile said, this approach to poverty alleviation is being tested but there is no way that the municipality or government can do it alone, “all social partners need to come on board”.
The meals will be served once a day at Daku, George Botha, Kuyga, Booysens Park and NU29 Community halls in KwaZakhele, KwaNoxolo, Kuyga, Chatty 3 4, and NU29 respectively.
The five sites have been already inspected and fumigated by health inspectors. Eleven wards have been identified for the pilot phase but five wards will start on Monday. The date for the other wards will be conveyed closer to the time.
To ensure compliance to food safety standards, an operational manual to guide the volunteers who will be preparing and serving the food has been drafted and translated into Xhosa and Afrikaans and regular inspections by health inspectors will be conducted.
Editors Notes: Noble as this venture is I need to apply a cynic’s view and ask the question; “Will the people instrumental in providing the funds to enable initiatives like this, the ratepayers, be recognised as the ultimate enablers and NOT the share cropping municipal officials and Standard House?” One gets the sense that the municipal officials priority concern is to ‘hijack’ initiatives such as these in order to score points for service delivery and their own political parties. In this way they only succeed in creating further division.
To my mind this type of initiative is one that could result in much needed CITY BUILDING as a vital step on the Nation Building road and could well be the catalyst to a meeting of minds between citizens that will lead to making our city stronger and more united.
