NGOs and NPOs, including Muslims for Humanity and the Natal Memon Jamaat Foundation (NMJ), have joined hands to assist people who have been affected by damaged infrastructure and looted shops in the greater Durban area.
The organisations distributed 40 000 loaves of bread and 40 000 litres of milk.
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According to Mohamed Riaz Fakie, marketing coordinator for SANZAP, who was manning one of the distribution points on Thursday morning, various organisations had been inundated with calls offering help from Gauteng and a last minute decision had been taken to work together to load the much needed food items on trucks headed for Durban.
“Various businesses and community organisations in Gauteng had funded both the food and the private security contingent that had been needed to get the milk and bread to Durban from Gauteng safely,” he said.
Chairman of NMJ, Mohamed Gany, said that plans to bring much-needed food items to Durban from Gauteng began on Tuesday night.
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“To avoid crowded distribution points, various community organisations and individual businesses in Durban had pooled resources to take the bread and milk into different communities from a central point in the city on Thursday.”
Fakie added that it was hoped that the dire food shortages, that were gripping the city in the wake of the destruction of retail outlets, factories and warehouses, could be resolved as soon as supply chains could be restored.
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