Concerted effort needed to address poverty

IT IS heartbreaking to read that staple foods are fast disappearing from tables.

It means that many people are starving as food prices rise, making basic foods unaffordable for many families.

There are two main causes for this sad state of affairs.

Firstly the corruption of Jacob Zuma and his band of kleptomaniac cohorts when billions disappeared from the state coffers during his rule.

Money that could have been used to build homes, schools and hospitals, to provide jobs and create employment all went into the pockets of the ANC.

In nine years, not a word was said about this monumental theft leading to the impoverishment of the public in general. Secondly the problem is overpopulation.

If families produced only the children they could house, feed and educate, the problem would not exist and malnutrition would end. However, the belief that one’s children would take care of their parents in their old age is a fallacy.

Many children have died of Aids and multitudes of others do not know who their fathers are.

Men produce children out of wedlock and then disappear, leaving the women to rear the offspring on their own. Until this unsatisfactory situation ends, there is no hope of a better future for many South Africans.

No one can fix this problem without a concerted effort to change behaviour patterns.