Fight over NGO’s sandwiches smacks of govt bullying

It is distressing that a Krugersdorp NGO is being forced to daily turn away hungry people, after being ordered to stop handing out peanut-butter sandwiches and fruit because it contravenes the lockdown regulations.

The absurdly nit-picking and non-humane restrictions on simple human charity have nothing, though, on the attitudes of government mandarins.

The spokesperson for the department of social development, Thabiso Hlongwane, said thousands of NGOs have had to adhere to the same regulations, which prevent the handing out of “prepared” meals.

He dismissed threatened legal action by the Cradle of Hope by saying: “No one can win a court case against regulations.”

Apart from the fact that it is not his job to pre-empt any court decision, nor to pontificate on what might or might not be unconstitutional, his comments smack of the arrogance of ministers and civil servants who seem drunk with power on the realisation that they can now legally bully ordinary citizens.

We certainly hope the case goes to court because it will be a key litmus test of whether the government has the power to trample on the rights of the most vulnerable in society in the name of slowing down the spread of the coronavirus.

It seems farcical that an organisation like Cradle of Hope is not allowed to prepare sandwiches for poverty-stricken and hungry people, many of whom get their only daily meal there – yet it would be allowed to dole out bread and peanut butter to the hungry so they could make their own. The organisation could also hand out food parcels.

It does not seem logical that people preparing food, who are practising proper hygiene and social distancing, can pose more of a health threat than those handing out parcels. Meanwhile, lockdown regulations are defied wholesale all across the country.

This madness has to end.

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