Yusuf Nabee, chief operating officer of humanitarian organisation Ashraful Aid, says four drop-off points have been made available for those who wish to assist with relief efforts for KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.
After a week of destructive looting, access to daily essentials have become impossible for some.
Nabee indicated that the drop-off points are in Marlboro, Lenasia, Azaadville and Benoni.
Items in need include groceries, sanitary pads, nappies, baby formula and pet food.
With the support of CemAir and additional partners, KZN received goods on Friday. According to CemAir chief executive Miles van der Molen, about 12 tons of food, medicinal and baby supplies were airfreighted from OR Tambo International Airport to the province.
Nabee said the organisation started with the distribution of bread on Wednesday and Thursday.
“For tomorrow, we’re sending more baby formula on a plane and we’re looking to send more bread. At this stage, we’re hoping to send another truckload of groceries.
“The bread distribution was to offer immediate relief to people, but our main focus is to target with grocery hampers those who are a little bit more vulnerable, such as the elderly who can’t get to shops. Baby formula also has to be co-ordinated and this is going out to multiple communities. We’ll continue to send goods over the next couple of days as long as we have the transport to get there,” he said.
According to Nabee, the outlying areas of Durban are not necessarily being reached.
“We’re going to look at how we can reach those communities. It’s a bit difficult because there’s a massive shortage in Durban. Today we couldn’t access the bread so we had to resort to sending goods from Johannesburg.”
The drop off-points include 14 Zinnia Drive in Marlboro Gardens; 21 Turtle Dove Avenue, Extension 1 in Lenasia; 4 Taj Mahal Street in Azaadville and Shoe Empire, 34 North Rand Road, in Boksburg.
Political Bureau