Basic income grant a timely intervention for SA, researcher says
As countries and citizens across world navigate through the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic – including its impacts on livelihoods, food security, poverty and unemployment – plans to introduce a Basic Income Grant (BIG) for South Africa’s unemployed could not have come at a better time.
Evidence from around the world suggests that social grants can contribute to increased economic activities and labour market participation
The announcement by Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu, government’s plan to introduce a Basic Income Grant, targeted specifically at unemployed non-grant recipients between the ages of 18 and 59, “is important because this has always been a major gap in SA’s otherwise comprehensive social protection system.” So says Professor Stephen Devereux, who holds the SA/UK Bilateral Research Chair in Social Protection for Food Security and is affiliated to the Centre of Excellence in Food Security at the University of the Western Cape.
Despite SA’s comprehensive social grant system, one in four children in South Africa remain stunted, Devereux says. We have high rates of child malnutrition in SA, partly because the CSG – which reaches 12 million children – is being diluted among other family members, including unemployed parents/care givers. “If we can provide assistance to unemployed parents/care givers through the proposed basic income grant, this could help improve the nutritional status of children”, says Devereux. “It is an investment in the future.”
Civil Society’s rapid response averts covid-19 hunger catastrophe
The massive mobilisation of civil society organisations across the Western Cape in the first six weeks of the COVID-19 lockdown, while the government scrambled to put in place financial alternatives for food relief, averted a hunger crisis of catastrophic proportions.
Bottom-up approach to food relief, if properly instituted in a dignified, collaborative manner, is the way to go with grassroots food distribution
The statistics tell the story; in that first month and a half, the South African Social Security Agency reported, the number of people no longer getting paid anything at all spiralled from 5.2% to 15.4% – and worse was expected to come.
In the Western Cape, civil society was on the move and, in the 74 days from 25 March, they fed more than 41 000 hungry people every day, prepared more than 3 million meals, distributed nearly 80 000 food parcels, and assisted households and community kitchens with digital shopping vouchers to the value of R854 700.
There are now calls for the government to give them a place at the proverbial table, so those relationships can be harnessed beyond the crisis, and their valuable input can drive food policy to ultimately frame long-term solutions.
‘A food safety crisis now would bring SA’s medical sector to its knees’
In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, as the authorities grapple with how to assure safe food production and delivery from an industry battered by lockdown regulations, one of South Africa’s top food safety experts has warned that the country cannot afford another food-borne outbreak like the listeriosis one of 2017.
Korsten was a panellist at the virtual World Accreditation Day Dialogue on 9 June 2020, sponsored by the South African National Accreditation System (SANAS) and Business Day. Its aim was to raise awareness of the critical role that food safety has to play in the maintenance of a healthy population – especially in countries like South Africa where diseases such as HIV have left millions of people immunocompromised, and now further complicated by COVID-19.
Prof Korsten leads the food safety research programme within the DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Food Security.
ANNOUNCEMENT: NRF Postgraduate Scholarships Call For 2021 Extended
The DSI and NRF are pleased to announce a call of new applications for NRF Postgraduate Student Funding for the 2021 Academic year. Continuing students who are eligible for a second or third year of funding must submit a Progress Report and not a new application.
People are hungry: Remove bureaucratic red tape limiting access to food
People are hungry, it’s time for the South African government to remove the bureaucratic red tape limiting access to food. The Southern Africa Food Lab notes with concern indications in the media and from first hand reports, that government is acting to limit civil society initiatives for food security and food relief.
It’s time to remove all red tape in order to feed the hungry
Local government should provide greater access to the right to food
Food insecurity is a pressing need in South Africa and should be addressed by all levels of government, particularly local government, says PhD graduate.
Dr Shehaam Johnstone was among the UWC students who graduated during a virtual ceremony held on 31 March 2020.
No need to sacrifice taste for less fat in mayonnaise – Phd study
You don’t have to sacrifice taste for less fat in your favourite mayonnaise, and Dr Joyce Agyei-Amponsah has proven it scientifically, earning a PhD in Food Science from the University of Pretoria (UP) in the process.
The findings will contribute to research about producing reduced-fat foods to address the global challenge of obesity
Local government best placed to tackle food insecurity, especially in times of crises
If food insecurity is also about access and utilisation, local government is as much a part of the solution as national and provincial government. It’s an understatement to say that the coronavirus has caught governments of all sizes, and at all levels, off guard. While it’s no apocalypse just yet, COVID-19 and governments’ responses have nonetheless cast a harsh spotlight on the depth of food insecurity in the country, and our capacity to mitigate it in times of crisis
There is a strong sense that local government has by and large taken a hands-off approach to food insecurity
Lockdown: Fields are full, but plates are empty
As the lockdowns continue, the situation is threatening to evolve from a public health emergency into a full-blown humanitarian crisis. Disruptions to the increasingly global food value chain have exacerbated legacy problems with food security.
Disruptions to the increasingly global food value chain have exacerbated legacy problems with food security.
Some communities appear to be approaching boiling point, with reports emerging of social unrest including widespread looting. Image by JMPD
Appeal for emergency relief for ‘hand-to-mouth’ R360bn informal food sector
University of Pretoria (UP) academic, Dr Marc Wegerif, is calling on the government to provide emergency relief for informal food traders and the establishment of a “social safety net” to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 lockdown.
Informal food sector involves “spaza shops, bakkie traders, street traders and hawkers, and is an industry that is worth about R360 billion a year. Image credit: UP website