DARD parly reply reveals that a quarter of KZN’s people are starving
14 September 2020
The Democratic Alliance (DA) is extremely concerned by the revelation that almost a quarter of KwaZulu-Natal’s (KZN) people are food insecure. This while the province’s Department of Agriculture and Rural Development’s (DARD) seemingly has no idea how to deal with the crisis.
The figure forms part of a recent parliamentary reply Food Security CP by MEC, Bongiwe Sithole-Moloi, to questions posed by the DA.
Amongst the disturbing findings is the revelation that a staggering 24.5% of people in KZN are food insecure. The data is from the 2018 General Household Survey and considering the recent economic downturn and the negative effects of Coivd-19, it can be realistically assumed that this figure will have risen dramatically. Equally worrying is that DARD is unable to provide data on the number of child-headed households in KZN that are food insecure.
The same reply also reveals that DARD has never done research into the state of food security in the province and instead relies on the 2018 survey as well as the now outdated National Census (2011) data. The Department also admits that no food security strategy exists.