THE DA’s case against Social Development Minister Lindiwe Zulu over restrictions on the distribution of food parcels takes place in the Western Cape High Court on Friday.
This follows her department’s alleged ‘ban’ on soup kitchens, including introducing tight regulations that hindered the distribution of food parcels by NGOs and charities during the lockdown.
DA MP James Lorimer said in a media statement on Friday that the party will argue in court that Zulu has no authority to issue such regulations and that the regulations are irrational anyway.
“We will also argue that she didn’t follow proper procedures and that the regulations contradicts the Constitutional right to food,” said Lorimer.
“What we don’t know is whether Minister Zulu really believes her department is so efficient it can feed millions or whether she is so cynical that she doesn’t care if people can starve just so long as she can control the supply of food for the purpose of getting votes.”
On Thursday, Zulu and her department denied prohibiting NGOs from distributing food.
Zulu told the Portfolio Committee on Social Development that she takes exception to allegations that her department was preventing the distribution of food.
“We cannot stop people from distributing food,” she said.
“However, our people are not guinea pigs.”
Lorimer said Zulu contradicted herself before the portfolio committee on Thursday by defending her restrictive regulations by saying they were to ‘ensure coordination” of food relief efforts.
“Anybody who believes the Department of Social Development, which cannot even properly pay SASSA grants, can in two weeks establish a countrywide network to feed millions of people is deluded,” said Lorimer.
“We know that Zulu is dissembling and floundering. What we don’t know is whether she really believes her department is so efficient it can feed millions (which has already been disproved by facts on the ground) or whether she is so cynical that she doesn’t care if people can starve just so long as she can control the supply of food for the purpose of getting votes. Clinically deluded or biblically wicked? Time will show us the answer.”
(Compiled by Inside Politics staff)
