5 ELDERLY WOMEN DIE OF HUNGER

NSALITJE – Nothing better illustrates the grim reality faced by the people of Nsalitje, which is regularly ravaged by drought, than the five deaths which are allegedly attributed to starvation.

People from the area are quietly being killed by hunger, and the continued restriction on mealie meal imports is making the situation even worse, according to residents. “We are dying silently here while the government is only concerned with protecting local produce, but not the lives of people who can’t afford local prices of mealie meal. People are dying and others are flocking the local clinics with ailments associated with hunger,” lamented a resident. Local Headman Sipho Matse explained that it has always been a saddening ordeal for them to witness vulnerable residents, especially the elderly die of hunger, simply because they couldn’t import enough mealie meal from the neighbouring South African town of Pongola. That is where most residents living closer to the southern borderline source mealie meal. About five elderly women from the area are believed to have died of hunger.

Food

The five elderly women, according to the headman, spent their last days trying to get food from the neighbouring country, but would end up with nothing to eat after their mealie meal was seized by border officials. This was allegedly after neighbours they usually sent to purchase their share of mealie meal were not allowed to cross into the country with the food simply because the weight they carried exceeded that which had been prescribed by the country’s government. A nutritionist has described starvation as a severe deficiency in caloric energy intake, that falls short of the required amount to maintain a living organism’s life; the most extreme form of malnutrition. The nutritionist explained that victims may die from as little as three weeks or as long as two months of starvation, depending on circumstances.

“I have investigated the cases of the five elderly women, and the indication is that they died of starvation. I discovered that these women stayed alone and only relied on neighbours to get them bags of mealie meal whenever the residents set out to South Africa to make purchases.

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