Sol Plaatje must turn streetlights on for festive season
by Isak Fritz – DA Spokesperson of Social Development
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Date: 13 March 2018
Release: Immediate
The DA denounces the practices of a state-funded soup kitchen operating in Calvinia that is being used as a political draw card for the ANC.
The Hantam soup kitchen, which receives over R100 000 a year from the Northern Cape Department of Social Development, refuses to assist anyone who is not linked to the ANC. Even starving children, whose parents do not belong to the ANC, are turned away.
This is immoral.
Social relief to people in distress is not meant to be politicized. Soup kitchens are established with the intention of providing food security to the poorest of the poor, regardless of their colour, religion or political affiliation.
The DA welcomes a Hawks investigation and the subsequent arrest of one person following a raid on the soup kitchen last week. As far as the DA is aware, this relates to fraud of R80 000.
The DA previously reported its misgivings about the operations of the soup kitchen to the department, to no avail. The DA will write to MEC Gift Van Staden, requesting him to launch an investigation into the unethical practices of the Hantam Soup Kitchen. Failure on the part of the MEC to initiate such an investigation will leave us with no choice but to refer the matter to the Human Rights Commission.
Everyone in need deserves the support of the safety net created by the Department of Social Development, not just connected cadres.
Social relief assistance is often the only source of sustenance to those who have no source of income and are desperate to feed their loved ones. A DA government will not tolerate abuse of social relief programmes and we will not fail the poor.
Media Enquiries
Isak Fritz
DA Spokesperson of Social Development
083 395 2737
Shelley De Witt
Researcher
082 847 1387
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