Cops stop family taking food to child and granny

An elderly woman and her grandchild have been left without food  after police allegedly stopped a relative taking groceries to them as he did not have the necessary permit.

A Mdantsane family is desperate because they cannot get food to the vulnerable pair after their relative was turned away by police  manning a roadblock on the Mdantsane access road on Monday morning.

Lennox Bloro, from Mdantsane's NU6, said he had already bought the groceries — with perishables like meat, bread and milk — when he received a call that his relative, who was coming to fetch them, had been turned away.

“That is a family vehicle and we were to use it to transport the food to the village near Needs Camp. I had to phone the officers at that roadblock to tell them that this is food for my mother-in-law, who is not working and who stays in the village. She is over 60 years old and staying with  a grandchild who is at school,” he said.

“They refused to listen to me.”

Bloro said he was told that a permit was needed for them to transport the groceries.

“I could not understand that, why would I need a permit to take groceries to my family?”

He said the officers at the roadblock told him there were people who lied,  saying they were transporting food when they were actually doing something else.

“But they could have come with the driver to my house and they would have seen these groceries. Now we have this food and meat that need to be kept in a refrigerator, but what do we do with it?”

During the lockdown, people are allowed to buy and transport groceries and visit pharmacies.

Under lockdown regulations, no visiting is allowed by family, but old-age homes will get the food and support they need, along with children’s homes and youth homes.

Social workers are listed under essential services, as are others working in social services.

Since the start of the lockdown, scores of people in East London and Mdantsane were seen carrying their groceries from shops to their homes.

DispatchLIVE visited Bloro's home, where the groceries were still in his lounge.

“My mother-in-law is hungry there, she is in need of the food and she can't even go to her neighbours to borrow food on credit because of this lockdown. Must she starve to death because she's poor and has no connection? The government should allow people to travel with their groceries. Many people have no money to buy in bulk.”

Provincial police spokesperson Col Sibongile Soci said DispatchLIVE's inquiry would be forwarded to the SAPS head office as all Covid-19-related media inquiries were dealt with there.

No further response had been received by print deadline on Monday.

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