COVID-19 Pandemic and Food Security in South Africa: The Government's Response.

The outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has posed many challenges to people's livelihood worldwide. This includes a negative impact on the food system and economic aspect of almost all countries. The spread of the COVID-19 pandemic came when food security is recognised as a complex problem, since it stands among numerous social problems that need to be addressed globally. The South African government has established the National Policy for Food and Nutrition Security to deal with food insecurity. The significance of this paper is to research the extent to which the governments have been responding to the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic in South African. This study is qualitative and the case study research design was used to collect secondary data while textual analysis was used for data analysis. It is acknowledged that there is instability in the food supply as the poor people were forced to purchase expensive food from the supermarkets due to the closure of local flea markets and street vendors. As the lockdown regulations were lifted in South Africa, the key aspects of the findings reveal that the selling of unsafe food from the informal sector, which mostly supplies the poorest of the poor has threatened food security. The South African government must strengthen the policy framework that monitors the operation of the informal business to avoid the selling of unsafe food to poor people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]