Exposé reveals 14 children under 5 starved to death in Nelson Mandela Bay

A shocking exposé has revealed that fourteen babies and toddlers under the age of 5 years old starved to death in Nelson Mandela Bay in the Eastern Cape in the past fifteen months.

According to the Daily Maverick, another 216 new cases of severe acute malnutrition were confirmed in the Eastern Cape’s biggest metro, where more than 16 000 families were left without aid because of a bureaucratic bungle by the provincial Department of Social Development.

In the article, the Daily Maverick warns that the impact of dire food shortages including a shortage of nutritious food in communities is, however, much larger.

In a Food and Nutrition Security report, the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Child Institute estimates that a staggering 48% of child hospital deaths here in South Africa are associated with moderate to severe acute malnutrition while 47% of households ran out of money to buy food during hard lockdown.

“Child hunger has remained unacceptably high with 1-in-7 households reporting a child went hungry in April 2021,” the report revealed .

The Daily Maverick article also reveals that in Nelson Mandela Bay, one child died of complications from an E. coli infection and more than 30 fell ill after the municipal water was confirmed to be contaminated – but metro officials said it was more a case of the children not being able to access potable water, as the water supply was disconnected at the time that they fell ill. 

Edmund van Vuuren, the Democratic Alliance’s (DA) spokesperson on social development told The Citizen the Social Development Department are not caring enough and looking after children and the vulnerable, putting the blame squarely on MEC Siphokazi Mani-Lusithi.

“This department always makes excuses. Their service providers are not delivering that they were supposed to do. But it is the responsibility of the department to see that they appoint the correct service providers to look after our people.”

“We have a lot of vulnerable people, a lot of children die and its unacceptable that social development, that id supposed to look after our children are not doing that. MEC Siphokazi Mani-Lusithi must look and do her job that she is being paid for,” said van Vuuren.

The UCT’s Child Institute in the report indicates that child hunger is expected to intensify in the coming months due to a decrease in the real value of the Child Support Grant (valued at R460 a month, or R15 a day) which has failed to keep pace with food price inflation – and continues to fall way below the food poverty line.