By Daniel Itai.
Nsalitje, Eswatini. (News of The South) – – Yesterday five elderly women lost their lives after their designated mealie-meal was seized by South African border officials simply because the weight of the mealie-meal exceeded the level which was prescribed by the country’s government.
The women who resided in Nsalitje died of hunger. People from the area are dying of hunger, and the continued restriction on mealie-meal imports is making the situation even worse.
People are flocking into the local clinics with ailments associated with hunger. Local Headman Sipho Matse said the elderly women spent their last days trying to get food from South Africa.
“It’s a saddening ordeal 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,” said the Headman.
Matse said most people in the area relied on subsistence farming but crops had failed in the drought.
More than 200 000 people which is one in five of the rural population are experiencing severe food shortages and require urgent humanitarian assistance.
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