22 Nov 2020

Government has spent over P430million on food relief programme in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Eric Molale told Parliament on November 20 that the programme, which provided food and hygiene items to vulnerable households across the country, was augmented by donations from private sector, diplomatic missions, development partners and individuals.

Mr Molale said to support farmers, who realised good harvest during the lockdown period, government spent an amount of over P32million on procurement of agricultural produce or legwetla countywide.

He said the remaining food items comprising maize meal, bread flour, sorghum meal and samp worth over P9 million were kept in warehouses across the country at the end of the programme.

Minister Molale said COVID-19 relief food leftovers were distributed to vulnerable groups, schools and non-governmental organisations and were distributed in good quality except in Francistown where some donated items had expired.

He said the ministry was aware of reports alleging food shortages and hunger.

He said lesson drawn from the initiative was that a response to any form of disaster was not for government alone but support from the private sector and development partners needed.

He said they identified lack of a proper database for supplies and their capacity to supply required food items timeously and also lack of proper management information system that could assist in monitoring the initiative and identifying persons and households most likely to be affected.

Minister Molale said they learnt district profiling to guide future interventions in terms of where and what resources could be mobilised within a short time in various localities.

He said the biggest challenge was those who received food rations but not deserving while those who deserved were left out. 

He decried overpricing of commodities comprising food baskets especially the agricultural produce where middlemen got commodities at pittance prices and sold to government at exorbitant prices.

He was responding to a question from Sefhare-Ramokgonami, Dr Kesitegile Gobotswang, who asked the minister how much was used by government to purchase food commodities and how much was used to purchase legwetla from subsistence farmers. 

He asked the minister the quantity and quality of foodstuffs that were kept at warehouses across the country at the end of the programme and what the ministry did with the COVID-19 relief food leftovers if there were any.

Dr Gobotswang also asked the minister why there were leftovers when there was widespread outcry over food shortages and hunger and what lessons were learnt from the initiative. ends