The Bangladesh Muslim Society of South Africa has donated food packets to about 100 impoverished households in Kliptown in a bid to fight food insecurity.
The beneficiaries, who live in one of Soweto’s poorest suburbs, have been given cooking oil, maize meal, potatoes, tinned fish, rice, bread, soup, salt and other dry rations to help them fight increasing hunger during the lockdown, which has made it even more difficult for vulnerable communities to cope with the slump in economic activity.
Authorities have already surveyed the area to identify all 100 beneficiaries in need of food relief so that the packets reach targeted households.
“As the Government of Local Unity, we appreciate these efforts from the Bangladesh Muslim Society to help us fight the Covid-19 pandemic. A little goes a long way,” said the Executive Mayor, Geoff Makhubo who accepted the donation on Monday, 11 May.
Accompanied by Matshidiso Mfikoe, the City’s Chair of the Section 79 Committee for Environment Infrastructure and Services Department (EISD) and Bernice Swartz, a Member of Parliament, Makhubo said government alone can’t defeat the food insecurity laid bare by the outbreak of the Coronavirus and its aftereffects.
“We need to mobilize a totality of civil society, NGOs, faith-based organisations, political organisations, football clubs every single formation of society needs to help in the fight against the spread of the Coronavirus,” he said.
Most people in Kliptown live in relative poverty in overcrowded shacks and houses, in one of Soweto’s most disadvantaged areas and likely experience hunger and moderate food insecurity during the lockdown.
"When the Bangladesh Muslim Society volunteers to help the City fight food insecurity, it’s something we need to appreciate and applaud. Working together, we can achieve much more, it’s called social solidarity,” Makhubo said.
He added that one of the pillars of the government’s Covid-19 response in Johannesburg was social solidarity, working with civil society to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
