Some of the children who were thought to have died of hunger recently in the Eastern Cape had in fact died of HIV/Aids, the provincial department of social development said on Thursday.
Department representative Gcobani Maswana said critics claimed the children died of hunger because they did not have access to the child support grant system.
However, according to Maswana, more than 32 000 children had registered in East Griqualand between January and June for the child support grant totalling R42-million.
”The fact is that most of the children who died were the beneficiaries of this kind of grant. A verified report in some of the hospitals shows that some of the children died because they were infected by HIV/Aids,” Maswana said.
The department attributed the high number of registered beneficiaries in the region to close co-operation among the three social needs cluster departments — social development, health and home affairs. These departments are faced with the responsibility of alleviating such effects, including the provision of the child support grant.
Social Services Minister Zola Skweyiya and Agriculture Minister Thoko Didiza were expected to visit affected areas on Friday. Maswana said the government was working to ensure that seven HIV/Aids nutrition projects and another nutrition programme were funded as long term and sustainable programmes to fight malnutrition.
He said the partnership between social development, home affairs and health continued to bear fruit in the Mount Frere area.
”Our intervention in the East Griqualand as the department goes beyond the child support grant because as from 2000 up until now we have ploughed more than R11-million for poverty eradication programs where more than 806 women and 317 children are benefiting,” Maswana said. – Sapa