High levels of food insecurity exist in Postmasburg.
This is according to a recent survey by Mining Dialogues 360°, a non-profit company that specialises in empirical, evidence-based research, data analytics, dialogue and community consultation work.
In a town where high levels of food insecurity predated Covid-19, fears are growing about what will happen in the short term as the pandemic worsens, and in the medium to longer term as the mines mature and move towards ultimate closure, the report states.
To obtain a snapshot of food security and related issues in the mining town of Postmasburg, Mining Dialogues 360° undertook a 120-household purposive telephonic survey during May 2020 utilising the networks and services of Project 8420, a local youth organisation.
The food security survey was designed to provide a picture of local knowledge that could be used to inform strategies for the reduction of short and long-term food insecurity in the wider Tsantsabane Local Municipality area.
The snapshot survey suggests that most households in Postmasburg have been negatively affected by the lockdown in terms of their food security.
Those families where breadwinners have been able to continue in employment are managing to make ends meet, but with increased difficulty.
Households headed by unemployed people and those who survive on grants, struggle to cope with increased food poverty.
Many are experiencing hunger and it is a struggle to survive.
Despite a coordinated response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the distribution of food aid has been clouded by uncertainty regarding qualifying criteria, allegations of impropriety and a lack of confidence about future access to food parcels.
Temporary increases in social grants may have provided a buffer against hunger, but if grants return to pre-lockdown levels due to fiscal constraints, there may be severe repercussions.
After lockdown there has been a 20% fall in formal employment levels and a 62% plunge in the number of people generating informal sector income, the research found.
Monthly household incomes have fallen by 21% since lockdown and 44% of households reported having to borrow money to buy food since lockdown.
Loan sharks and spaza shops in this area offer credit to purchase food.
The 1 000 food parcels distributed by the government were supplemented with about 2 000 more from mining companies and other institutions. However, only 27,5% of households surveyed reported receiving a food parcel, and then only two months after lockdown started.
The survey reports that an estimated 6 000 households need monthly food aid.
Altogether 76% of households said they were not confident that they would be able to access food parcels if they needed them.
Many needy people were not registered on the Department of Social Development’s system because of the social stigma associated with being seen standing in line at a soup kitchen, says the report.
Closing of schools and the suspension of the National School Nutrition Programme during lockdown have intensified pressure on household food budgets.
There is no culture of growing one’s own vegetables nor an understanding of how much home-grown food can save a household.
The report concluded even before lockdown, Postmasburg was food stressed. After lockdown, many people are experiencing hunger. A coordinated, strategic approach is needed to avoid the severe repercussions of not responding timeously and effectively to the substantial increase in food insecurity that has arisen after the onset of Covid-19 and the related lockdown.
