BALFOUR – “Politicians and other shady elements, please don’t take a single food parcel from the donations, lest you be apprehended by the police and charged.”
This was the stern warning issued by the MEC for social development, Thandi Shongwe today when she received 1 000 food parcels, 3 600 face masks, a large consignment of sanitizers and protective clothing from Sibanye Still Water on behalf of the poor community of Dipaliseng Local Municipality as a relief during this Covid-19 pandemic.
The food parcels, loaded in two truck loads, were delivered at the Department of Social Development offices in Balfour.
“I want to warn you never to be tempted to taking even a single food parcel because you may land in hot water. Two people were found with only two food parcels at a police roadblock recently and they were charged for it. It’s a disgrace because they are fully employed and receiving good salaries to afford buying food for their respective families.
“With this donation, I expect staff from Social Development, led by our social workers, to hastily distribute these parcels to deserving beneficiaries first thing tomorrow morning.
“I know that the groundwork has already been done to identify the recipients by our social workers. I’ve also requested the local municipality to monitor the process, but should not interfere on who receives the food. I’ve also requested the local police to keep guard on the food tonight and be on standby to provide security when it’s distributed tomorrow.
“As the department of social development, our duty is to receive donations from donors, hand it over to our social workers who work within the communities on a daily basis and know all vulnerable families to hunger. They work with community development workers (CDWs) who are the foot soldiers in communities.
“That’s why we are always surprised when accusations are leveled at the department for having colluded with some politicians to utilize them for political gain for their respective political parties.
“We distance ourselves from any act by politicians whose houses were spotted delivering food parcels. They don’t come from us as a department. We have a provincial food bank where donors drop off donations. That food bank is administered by a non-government organization.
“Recently we received a donation from the Muslim community and each of those 2 800 food parcels, had a bar code in order that the donors can trace them to the rightful beneficiaries. I think as government we must begin to adopt that system to ease us of all these frustrations.
“It’s a simple phenomenon: each parcel must be bar coded, registered and on delivery, the beneficiaries sign for them. That’s the best solution to this biting problem. On that note, I want to thank my staff for their hard working efforts throughout,” she ended.
Sibanye Still Warner’s Mandla Msiza said: “As a company, we felt obliged to positively respond to the communities’ plight to the coronavirus pandemic. We foresaw that hunger is one of the things we should prevent, coupled with the protective equipment to help flatten the curve of the disease.”
