South Africa
250,000 South Africans to receive govt food aid

afrol News, 7 March - Also South Africa is heavily affected by the drought and food crisis in Southern Africa. Here, the government however has the resources to handle the crisis, and government programmes to distribute food parcels are now being launched all over the country.

South Africa's Minister of Social Development, Dr Zola Skweyiya, today launched a massive programme to distribute food parcels worth over rand 230 million over the next three months to poor families including child-headed households as part of the Integrated Food Security and Nutrition Programme.

According to a press release by the Ministry, the launch took place today in Phokwane, in the Limpopo province. The province is at the nucleus of South Africa's food crisis.

Limpopo is South Africa's northernmost province, bordering with Zimbabwe. The province is indeed located in the middle of the area most heavily affected by drought in Southern Africa. Physically, the lack of rain has created a drought equally harsh as on the Zimbabwean side of the border. In practical terms, however, societies in Limpopo are in a better social condition to tackle the drought.

This was underlined by Minister Skweyiya's launch of the emergency food programme in Phokwane. According to government plans, 50,890 households in that province will receive food aid, totally worth rand 46 million. This need for food aid is relatively modest, considering the province's nearly 5 million inhabitants.

Food aid programmes are also to be launched in the Free State (30,000 households) and in Mpumalanga (12,000 households) provinces on Monday. The largest programmes are to be launched in the North West Province (at the Batswana border; 72,000 households) on Thursday, 13 March. Smaller programmes are foreseen for Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, Northern Cape and Western Cape.

According to the Ministry of Social Development, the rand 230 million to be used for the distribution of food parcels is part of the rand 400 million allocated by government last year to assist poor families to cope with spiralling food prices.

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