Concern over food scarcity is growing following a serious disruption in retail supply chains due to the taxi strike, which has seen delivery trucks burned, stoned and looted, along with shopping centres.
Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has announced that safety escort services would also be extended to food delivery trucks in communities in line with available resources.
Khayelitsha Development Forum (KDF) chairperson Ndithini Tyhido said there was a bread scarcity and other food items, with the additional fear that petrol would also soon run out in the area.
“The strike has immensely impacted our communities and we fear if it’s prolonged it can even lead to riots and further looting because of poverty. Shopping centres are closed and shops that are still in operation there is no bread and shelves are going empty.
Children who depend on the school nutrition are now at home and vendors are impacted so it is the most vulnerable who are impacted.
The City’s attitude is not to helping the situation we face. We have now seen the City, in fact JP Smith for who he is,” said Tyhido.
Humanitarian organisation Gift of the Givers project manager Ali Sablay said the organisation was intervening to alleviate hunger during the taxi strike through soup kitchens.
“Gift of the Givers have hundreds of soup kitchens operating in the Western Cape. These are supported on an ongoing basis. The taxi unrest in the Western Cape exacerbates an already challenging situation in terms of hunger, loss of income, unemployment, criminal activity and fear. Rational solution is in the best interests of local communities,” said Sablay.
SPAR Group’s divisional marketing director in the province, Sean Komlosy, said the unavailability of transport, threats to security and incidents on some of the roads in the city has meant limited staff on site at their distribution centre to receive deliveries, pick up orders and dispatch stock to stores.
“A few SPAR stores also had to close their doors for periods each day to ensure the safety of staff and customers - which meant lost trading hours for our retailers. In some instances, stores were unable to trade either completely or partially based on the inability of staff to get to their places of employment. But this is starting to improve, as more staff return to work.”
Woolworths said it took the decision on August 7 to close operations in its supply chain due to safety concerns for employees, suppliers and service providers.
“Woolworths resumed supply on Wednesday and began to deliver to stores in the Western Cape and Eastern Cape on the same day. Due to the impact on product availability in stores, Woolworths also suspended online and Dash deliveries. The home delivery service is back up and running as of (yesterday).
Many Woolworths stores are not operating at full capacity because of reduced staff, product and service availability. The company hopes to have everything back in stock soon, and are doing everything possible to minimise the impact on its customers,” Woolworths said.
The Shoprite Group said selected supermarkets were temporarily in short supply of products delivered directly to stores by suppliers, including fresh bread, dairy and eggs.
“Contingency plans are in place to keep stores open and trading as normally as possible. All operational and the retail group is working around the clock to ensure uninterrupted deliveries to its supermarkets. Supply lines to the majority of stores are currently running smoothly, with the exception of a few high-risk areas.”
To assist Gift of the Givers’ efforts send contributions to: Standard Bank, Pietermaritzburg, Account number 052137228, Branch Code 057525, reference “Hunger”.
Cape Times