Gert Sibande District Municipality (GSDM) executive mayor, Muzi Chirwa, in his capacity the Chairperson of the District Command Council warned councillors to reject involvement in the distribution of food parcels. This comes after ANC councilors throughout the province have been warned to stay away from the distribution of food parcels, to no avail, with councillors still choosing to stick their fingers in the pie. A slew of complaints and allegations have surfaced, which involves ANC councillors looting food parcels, handing food parcels to their friends and families, and even charging residents an alleged “small fee” for the parcels to be delivered.

“No councillor in the District must be found to be in violation of the instruction that Councillors should not be involved in the distribution of food parcels. Our role as councillors should be to ensure that the needy people in the communities and the wards we are responsible for, are on the list managed by the Department of Social Department (DSD) and that we monitor that food is received by all. Stakeholders who wish to partner with us in providing food parcels, must all do so through DSD. No one must come with different lists which deviate from the DSD list. There must be coherence and integration of this significant activity,” Chirwa sternly stated. This meeting took place ahead of the lowering of the National Alert Level to Level 3. All government stakeholders presented their progress reports to the DCC during the meeting, according to the different clusters. The next virtual meeting took place on 1 June, details to the meeting was unavailable at the time of publication.