CAPE TOWN, July 15 (Xinhua) -- Almost half of South African households do not have enough money to buy food due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a survey released on Wednesday.
The National Income Dynamics Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey found that about 47 percent of South African households ran out of money to buy food in April 2020 during the COVID-19 lockdown, compared to 21 percent prior to the lockdown.
The survey, the largest of its kind in the country and the most methodologically sound population analysis of the impact of the COVID-19 lockdown and health emergency to date, recorded the massive impact of COVID-19 which has caused serious issues of food poverty for South African households.
The survey convened a national consortium of 30 social science researchers from five South African universities.
Responding to questions about whether anyone in his or her household has gone hungry in the last seven days, one in five of the 7,000 respondents reported that someone in their household went hungry, and one in seven reported that a child had gone hungry.
One in eight respondents reported frequent hunger (more than three days in the last seven days) in their household, and one in four reported perpetual hunger (almost every day or every day).
In households with children, one in 13 respondents reported frequent child hunger in their household, and one in 25 reported perpetual hunger.
Adult hunger in households surveyed is much higher than child hunger - 22 percent against 15 percent.
In households that experienced hunger in the last seven days, 42 percent managed to "shield" children from that hunger, according to the survey.
That is, even though adults are reporting hunger, children are reported not to have gone hungry in the last seven days, said the survey.
However, where the adults have gone hungry almost every day or every day, their ability to shield children declined.
"It would seem that in times of acute crisis like the COVID-19 pandemic, many households have managed to protect or 'shield' the children in the household from that hunger," the survey said.
The survey concluded that "far too many people, and far too many children, are going hungry" in South Africa, especially during the lockdown.
The findings "are extremely distressing" and require urgent debate at every level of government, business and civil society, the survey said. Enditem
