Sand has become a meal replacement for some of KZN’s starving children

In poverty-stricken Matikwe, north of Durban, hungry, desperate children are eating sand to keep their bellies full.

Here, single mothers, solely reliant on child support grants, have to send their children hungry to bed because they have little or nothing to feed them.

Boiled rice or maize meal serves as their staple diet; nutritious food is unaffordable.

Partially blind Florence Maphalala, 74, who set up a makeshift crèche in the area, relies on food aid from donors to help a growing number of struggling women feed their little ones.

The dank little room, often crammed with children and the elderly, has become a beacon of hope because donations of food and clothes sometimes arrive.

“When our children are hungry they eat sand. It breaks my heart. I am battling to help whoever I can. If we don’t get help they will die. I don’t even know what to say any more,” said Mapalala.

Clint McLean, who runs aid organisation Ubuntu Army, is a regular visitor to Matikwe, where he provides food aid.

“Food insecurity in this area is at an all-time high. It has been this way since before Covid-19, the looting and the floods. I think the latest disaster just exacerbated the situation.

“The community usually gets hot meals about twice a week from donors. It’s more than likely it’s their only hot meal for the week.

“I’ve seen with own eyes children eating sand. The aid we provide keeps the wolf from the door, but not for long.”

Unemployed Snenhlanhla Mthembu, has to feed nine family members, including her two children, with just over R900 from the child support grant she receives.

I’ve seen with own eyes children eating sand. The aid we provide keeps the wolf from the door, but not for long

—  Clint McLean, Ubuntu Army

“What breaks my heart is when my children say to me: ‘Mommy, I’m hungry.’

“Sometimes they go to bed with little or no food for two or three days in the week. We rely on their school to give them something to eat because it has a feeding scheme.

“They eat plain maize meal or rice and have to be happy that they had something to fill their stomachs. I don’t have money to buy them anything that is healthy. We just survive with what we have.”

Mvelo Mzimela, 16, could pass for a 10-year-old because of his minute size. His main reason for going to school is that he is fed there.

“It hurts a lot when we don’t have anything to eat. I take medication every day and I need proper food, which we don’t have,” he said.

Mervyn Abrahams, programme co-ordinator at the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice & Dignity Group, which compiles the monthly household affordability index report, said that as of April the average cost to feed a child a basic nutritious diet was R800.35. 

“Year on year, the cost to feed a child a basic nutritious diet has increased by R48.58, or 6.5%.

“The child support grant of R480 is 23% below the food poverty line of R624 and 40% below the average cost to feed a child a basic nutritious diet. 

“Annual increments do not close the gap between the actual cost of feeding a child a basic nutritious diet a month, nor do the increments keep up with the actual inflationary increase on food.

“Households are moving from affordable food to cheap food, which is often less nutritious.

It’s not just that children are getting stunted, some children are dying because of hunger in a country that is food secure at a country level

—  Mervyn Abrahams 

“When you look at core foods, it’s all starch, maize meal, rice, flour and potatoes. All of this is driving malnutrition and stunting. Our stunting figures, according to Stats SA, is 30% for boys under five and 25% for girls under five — already high by global standards.

“We are expecting this to increase. It’s not just that children are getting stunted. Some children are dying because of hunger in a country that is food secure at a country level.

“It’s a major indictment on our social and economic system that children are either stunted or dying,” said Abrahams.