South Africa was heading for township food disaster
We welcome the Minister of COGTA’s amendment of the lockdown regulations to permit informal trading of food supplies.
This amendment recognises that adequate access to food, in poor communities, is not through supermarkets alone and that day-to-day fresh produce is frequently purchased from informal vendors.
Yesterday I spent the day in Khayelitsha and I witnessed endless queues snaking around the streets on the outside of every supermarket. I was told that some people had been queuing from 3am.
The queuing undermines the purpose of the lockdown – to limit spread of the virus through contact with other people.
Regulations that force township residents to purchase fresh produce only from supermarkets fail to take into account the significant role that informal markets play in food supply for low-income families.