People with HIV go hungry as Gauteng government cuts funds

Hundreds of people protested last week about Gauteng government funding cuts. Photo: Kimberly Mutandiro

• The Gauteng Department of Social Development, through its HIV programme, used to pay for food for tens of thousands of households.
• This year, the department has cut food funding for that programme. Beneficiaries must now get food from centralised food banks.
• But HIV organisations say they have not been told how to link their beneficiaries to the food banks.

Non-profit organisations who used to provide food to tens of thousands of HIV-positive people and their families in Gauteng say their beneficiaries are going hungry after their funding was cut by the provincial Department of Social Development.

Last year, the department funded hundreds of Home and Community Based Care (HCBC) organisations to provide a range of services, including skills training and psychosocial support services for people with HIV.

Organisations were also given R370 per beneficiary to buy food. In 2023/24, HCBCs delivered more than 155,000 parcels to about 38,000 households – exceeding the target by 5,800 people. And by the third quarter of 2024/25, the department was on track to reach its target (the latest performance data is not yet available).

But this financial year, which started on 1 April, the department decided to cut the HCBC food budget. Beneficiaries must now get their food from centralised food banks. These food banks have faced several challenges in recent years, including regular stockouts due to problems with the department’s supply chain, and non-payment by the department.

Many food banks were closed for most of last year and underperformed as a result, only reaching about 48,000 households against a target of 75,000 by the third quarter of 2024/25.

The department said the decision to cut HCBC food funding is because its budget for funding non-profit organisations was cut from R2.1-billion to R1.9-billion this year.

But HCBC organisations told GroundUp that no plan for this transition has been communicated to them or their beneficiaries and that hundreds of beneficiaries are now going hungry.

Last Thursday, more than 200 people, under the banner of the Ekurhuleni Children’s Sector, protested against the cuts to the HCBC food programme. They said that they were not consulted about the transition to a central distribution system.

Sithembiso Mtshali from Mduduzi Memorial Hospice and Skills Development Centre in Vosloorus said in the past, attempts to run a centralised food bank system did not work.

“Our organisation has 800 beneficiaries of food parcels who are now stranded. Expecting our people to survive solely on the R350 grant condemns them to poverty,” he said.

Phumzile Sithole, who is on chronic medication, said her family has relied on receiving food parcels from an HCBC organisation for the past three years. She said that the food supply became inconsistent last year and since March this year she has not received any food.

Sibongile Tshabalala said her children no longer have food to eat and often go to school on an empty stomach.

“The food parcels were all we had. I have two children and one grandchild … and they complain of suffering from headaches at school because of hunger,” said Tshabalala.

Sibongile Nkosi, director of Vhathu Vhothe Abuse Centre in Pretoria, told GroundUp her beneficiaries have not been receiving new food parcels through the centralised system. The organisation used to deliver food parcels to beneficiaries in Nellmapius, an informal settlement outside Pretoria, but because of the funding cuts has not been able to do so since the end of March.

Nkosi said she gets many queries from people wanting to be added as beneficiaries to her food programme. Many of them have been referred by nearby clinics and are on antiretroviral (ARV) treatment. Nkosi says she tries to make soup for them when she can.

Department spokesperson Motsamai Mothaolwa says organisations were informed ahead of time by the department about the looming cuts and maintained beneficiaries are able to get food from the food banks.

He claimed that HCBC organisations are wilfully withholding the names of their beneficiaries from the department so as to force the department to reinstate their budgets. “This is wrong, abusive and unacceptable behaviour. Clearly the motive is something, and care of beneficiaries takes a backseat,” he said.

But Moses Mahlangu, director of HCBC organisation North Gauteng Mental Health Society, says this claim does not make sense. The department already has all the information of beneficiaries serviced by the organisations, as they are verified by the department. Beneficiary details were reported on a monthly basis, says Mahlangu.

Mahlangu, who used to provide food to 200 people, says he only learned that his food budget would be cut in May this year, one month into the new financial year. He says the department has still not communicated with him how he must refer his beneficiaries to the food banks.

Food parcels Mahlangu provided used to include maize meal, sugar, oil, tea bags, pilchards, baked beans and washing powder. He also ran a garden to supplement the parcel with fresh vegetables.

“We have beneficiaries who come to our offices on a daily basis asking us questions. We can’t give them answers.”

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