28 Apr 2020

Southern District Council is experiencing delays in acquiring groceries for distribution under the COVID-19 food relief basket initiative.

Council’s chief community development officer, Ms Kehumile Mabote said they were behind schedule due to challenges in acquiring food from wholesalers and supermarkets.

“Distribution of the food baskets is running smoothly in all our sub-districts, but we are worried about shortage of groceries in shops,” she said.

She cited the high demand for food by the public as a contributory factor.

Ms Mabote said they had so far assisted 10 358 households out of the 17 976 recommended for assistance. She added that 20 043 households were assessed.

Ms Mabote said the aim was to assist all recommended households before the end of the 28 days of extreme social distancing.

She said to speed up the process they had engaged more officers to assist in the distribution of food parcels.

“In Moshupa, we are experiencing delays in assessment and food distribution due to shortage of staff, as the same officers who perform assessments are the ones who also distribute food parcels unlike in other sub-districts where other employees were engaged to assist,” she said.  ENDS