Johannesburg – Government must prioritise hunger alleviation, a study recommends.

“We are proposing a national act that will put hunger at the heart of government policies,” Oxfam’s economic justice campaign manager Rashmi Mistry said.

“All government departments must come together so that it is not just one department, like agriculture, that will be responsible for food security. It also involves rural development, social development…all government departments.”

Mistry was speaking following the release of the study, titled “Hidden hunger in South Africa”, which was intended to expose what hunger meant in South Africa and the fact that not enough was being done to address the issue.

The study found that a quarter of South Africans regularly suffered from hunger.

“South Africa is supposed to be a food secure nation, producing enough food to adequately feed everyone but the reality is that one in four people currently suffers hunger on a regular basis,” Mistry said.

Risk of hunger

She said hunger stripped away people’s dignity and perpetuated people’s problems. More needed to be done for change to be effective in the country.

She called on the government to intervene and come up with legislation to help fight hunger.

According to the study, one in four people in the country suffered from hunger and an additional 28.3% were at risk of hunger.

It was undertaken in nine different municipalities in three provinces – Limpopo, Western Cape and Eastern Cape. The choice of provinces was based on the national poverty statistics from Stats SA in 2012.

SA Human Rights Commission deputy chair Pregs Govender echoed the sentiments and challenged government to take action. She said the government was aware of the statistics but had done nothing about the problem.
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Johannesburg – Three children died when their shack caught alight in Kagiso, on the West Rand on Thursday morning, Gauteng police said.

The brothers, one aged four and twins aged 1, were “burnt beyond recognition and were confirmed dead at the scene”, said police spokesperson Solomon Sibiya.

The landlord of the shack the boys lived in with their parents discovered it was in flames and alerted her neighbours.

“She screamed for help and her neighbour arrived with water and sand in an attempt to extinguish the fire,” said Sibiya.

However, the neighbours and firefighters called to the scene were unable to extinguish the fire in time to save the children.

The boys were alone in the shack at the time.

The cause of the fire was unknown and an inquest docket had been opened.

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Durban – Corruption involving more than R30.8m saw 746 KwaZulu-Natal civil servants reported to the police, KwaZulu-Natal Premier Senzo Mchunu said on Thursday.

Mchunu, speaking at a meeting of the province’s head of departments and supply chain managers in Cedara, north of Pietermaritzburg, said these figures were for the 2012/13 financial year.

During the same period, 546 civil servants were convicted and sentenced to varying terms of imprisonment.

“Fraud and corruption are a cancer which, if not arrested, has potential to irreparably harm the standing of our province and its reputation among its citizens, making our people lose faith in the future of our democratic country.”

The cases were taken to the police by the provincial treasury’s integrity unit, which was tasked with fighting corruption.

“In the first quarter of 2014 [April to June], 274 public servants were subjected to disciplinary hearings for grant-related fraud and 78 for fraud and theft. The hearings continue.”

He said that unlike the apartheid era when government’s dealings were shrouded in secrecy, the current government was prepared to lay bare the problems it faced. “Ours is a government that is declaring war openly against corruption and we invite the public to join us in the fight,” he said.

He said that during the provincial government’s previous term (2009 to 2014) cyber crime cost the government R179m.

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Pretoria – Judge Thokozile Masipa on Thursday reproached Oscar Pistorius’s lawyer Barry Roux for a sarcastic comment to prosecutor Gerry Nel.

When court resumed after lunch, she addressed both Nel and Roux.

“You made an objection against the way Mr Nel was arguing,” she said, looking at Roux.

“You had every right to do so, but it was not the correct way to do so.”

Roux, speaking softly, apologised.

Before lunch Nel was addressing acting national correctional services commissioner Zach Modise about prison conditions, during sentencing proceedings for Pistorius, when Roux got to his feet.

“I think Mr Nel must just take the oath because he’s giving evidence,” Roux snapped. He sat down just as quickly as he had leapt up, leaned back in his chair, propped one foot on his thigh and looked irritated.

There were “oooohs” and ripples of laughter from the public gallery.

Nel, who had sat down, got up again.

“My Lady I don’t find that funny. I could make the same sarcastic remark but I decided not to.”

Roux’s comment was made while Nel was re-examining Modise.

“Like in every department in the country you have people that don’t follow the rules,” Nel told Modise.

“Like in any organisation in this country you have people that don’t follow the rules,” he added.

“But you deal with that?” Nel asked.

“That is correct,” Modise replied. This prompted Roux’s sarcasm.

Closing arguments will be heard on Friday.

On September 12 Masipa found Pistorius guilty of the culpable homicide of model and law graduate Reeva Steenkamp, but not guilty of her murder. Pistorius had claimed he thought there was a burglar in his toilet when he fired four shots through the locked door in the early hours of 14 February last year, killing Steenkamp.

Masipa found Pistorius guilty of discharging a firearm in public, when he shot from his friend Darren Fresco’s Glock pistol under a table at Tasha’s restaurant in Melrose Arch, Johannesburg, in January 2013.

Pistorius was found not guilty on two firearms-related charges – illegal possession of ammunition, and shooting through the open sunroof of a car with his 9mm pistol while driving with friends in Modderfontein on 30 September 2012.

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