As United Nations and world attention is focused on the looming famine in South Africa’s neighbouring states, a similar tragedy within the country’s borders is already in the making.
Saliem Fakir, South African programme coordinator for the IUCN-World Conservation Union, says NGOs estimate that about 22-million people in South Africa live in abject poverty. And most go to bed hungry every night.
The prices the poorest of the poor must pay for staple foods have increased dramatically over the past year — the cost of maize and other cereals has doubled. So millions who struggled to feed themselves in the past are facing even more dire circumstances today.
”On average poor households survive on R144 per month. The earnings of the poorest of the poor internationally averages about R200 a month,” says Fakir.
About 16% of South Africans are so poor that they have to scrounge for most of their food. The programme on land and agrarian studies at the University of the Western Cape reports that natural resources contribute significantly to the household security of the poorest South Africans. The researchers estimate that resources gleaned from the wild contribute up to R5000 a year in value to these households’ income. Many of these households have no or little formal income.
The rapid devaluation of South Africa’s currency over the past year has battered the efforts of NGOs that distribute food in the region because most cereals are priced in dollars. Rocketing prices for staples such as maize have forced the groups to cut back aid for needy communities, says Lisa Jehosefat, the founder of Feed South African, an NGO that deals with malnutrition in South Africa.
Rural communities in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape are the worst hit, but hunger also stalks urban areas. Feeding centres in Alexandra and Soweto, two of the biggest townships in Johannesburg, regularly encounter severe cases of malnutrition.
Jehosefat says her organisation deals with many people who eat only one meal a week.
Rejoice Nkutha runs a programme in Gauteng called the African Children Feeding Scheme, which feeds 11000 children a day. She says rising food prices have devastated the feeding scheme and her team can no longer afford to give the children food parcels. ”They only receive peanut butter sandwiches.”
But hunger is an even bigger threat across South Africa’s borders. UN agencies and other NGOs are preparing a massive operation to avert the effects of the famine looming in Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. And much of the emergency food aid will be imported from South Africa.
South Africa plans to help its struggling neighbours, says Nana Zenani of the Ministry of Agriculture and Land Affairs. ”There is a 3,3-million ton maize shortage in the Southern African Development Community. South Africa will assist as a member of the SADC in distributing maize.”
Jerry Tube, chief economist at the Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs, says the aid is already flowing: ”A surplus of two million tons has already been supplied to the six affected countries, [but] 1,4-million tons can only be supplied [from] outside the region by countries like the United States, Argentina and China.”
The World Food Programme (WFP), a UN agency, predicts that 12,6-million people in Southern Africa will be affected by the food crisis. Brenda Barton, regional information officer of the WFP for the region, says that without international aid the crisis will become a full-blown famine later this year.
James Morris, executive director of the WFP, says the agencies will need to raise more than $507-million to feed the hungry masses in Southern Africa.
Lesotho and Malawi have already declared a state of famine. The WFP reports that Zimbabwe will require 705 000 tons of food aid. The country accounts for 48% of the people who will need food aid in Southern Africa and the WFP and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation expect that 6,1-million Zimbabweans will need emergency aid by December.
The food crisis is aggravated by high levels of chronic malnutrition and the HIV/Aids pandemic in the region, the WFP reports. Rising levels of poverty and a succession of poor harvests have contributed to the problem, as has the political instability in Zimbabwe and Malawi.
This year’s harvest in most of the countries bordering South Africa has been dismal. The WFP says Zimbabwe, for instance, needs another 1,5-million tons of cereals. Enough food is available to feed Zimbabwe, but millions cannot afford the prices. And this stock of food will soon disappear.
The next nine months will be crucial in helping avert famine in the region. Most communities in Southern Africa will only be able to plant in October and the first harvests will be available in March next year. Until then communities will have to be helped to survive the severe food shortages.
World Vision is one of the NGOs helping the WFP distribute food in the Southern African region. World Vision plans to provide food before the next harvest to more than 1,9-million people in the region.
Southern Africa suffered a similar food crisis nearly a decade ago. But Roopkumar Paul, World Vision Southern Africa’s relief coordinator, says this year’s crisis is more complex because of the HIV pandemic. ”People living with HIV need special nutrition. With the food shortages they are not getting the necessary nutrients to prolong their lives. Thus they are the first victims of the food crisis.”