Africa-Press – South-Africa. DURBAN – KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) will continue to suffer the after-effects of the recent unrest that struck the province and Gauteng in the past month, according to the foodbank SA Harvest.
Last month, the government declared a provincial state of disaster in KZN due to the magnitude of the damage caused by the recent civil unrest.
SA Harvest chief executive and founder Alan Browde said this meant that the region would continue to need food relief for a long time.
“The fact is that in South Africa, 20 million people go to bed hungry every night, and 3 million of these people are in KZN.”
Browde said, the response from the corporate and private sector to the SA Harvest relief programme had been phenomenal. This included a large cohort of collaborators, donors, producers, manufacturers and logistics companies.
Last year, the province contracted by 6.9 percent, with the construction sector being hit the hardest and shrinking by 18 percent. One of the province’s most important sectors in terms of job creation and contribution to gross domestic product was the manufacturing sector which also contracted by 11.9 percent.
SA Harvest’s response to the rioting and looting began immediately as the severity of the damage and the ensuing shortages became evident. Browde said their branch in Durban and the area where their warehouse was located were directly affected by the unrest, hence they were intensely aware of the unfolding crisis.
A 1 000 square metre marquee was erected on sports grounds in the city centre within one day and is now serving as a temporary warehouse for the massive volumes of food and essentials being transported to the city from SA Harvest’s branches in Johannesburg and Cape Town. This location has become SA Harvest’s base for distributing relief food and emergency products to vetted beneficiary organisations in the most severely affected parts of KZN.
He said, since SA Harvest launched in September 2019, the organisation had built up a strong infrastructure, logistical and technology capabilities, and was able to respond immediately and efficiently.
Since its inception in October 2019, this national food rescue organisation had delivered the equivalent of 7.2 million meals to food vulnerable communities.
“Our existing food donors have responded with enormous generosity, and we have received financial donations from concerned organisations, expats and individuals that have enabled us to secure produce, dry groceries, and sundry health and hygiene products such as nappies and sanitary pads, from a wide network of donors and suppliers in Cape Town and Johannesburg. To date, we have been able to send five fully-laden 30-tonne interlink trucks to Durban from Joburg and Cape Town,” said Browde.
Sorting and distribution of the relief stock was being undertaken from the SA Harvest temporary warehouse and delivered to more than 100 vetted beneficiaries that were all registered non-profit organisations.
More importantly, added Browde, their data collection systems had been bolstered to ensure, inter alia, accurate reporting to donors and efficient and equitable distribution of produce to the fast-growing number of beneficiaries in a substantially increased geographical area.
“Transparency is fundamental to our operation, and we are being especially vigilant in a situation where the rapid extension of our services to the more rural and largely neglected areas of KZN that have been severely affected by the unrest.”
Overcoming challenges has been part of the continuing relief effort. To date the organisation’s challenges have included setting up and maintaining temporary infrastructure in Durban, establishing partnerships with logistics companies to facilitate the transport of food and essentials to Durban, and ensuring security en route, as well as at the Durban locations.
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