Sandile Motha
Political analysts have warned that the COVID-19 pandemic could help rogue elements gain votes, elevated or retained as councillors in next year’s scheduled municipal elections.
This is due to a new wave of ‘poverty politics’ which has dominated the political space through the distribution of food parcels as a campaigning strategy to garner votes ahead of the much-anticipated local government elections.
The Studies in Poverty and Equality, a non profit research and think tank has already warned that should the government fail to mitigate the social impact of the Corona virus it would lead to mass starvation and food security.
The institute also predicts that many people will become destitute and homeless due to wide scale retrenchments as companies lay off workers because of bleak economic outlook.
Xolani Dube, KwaZulu-Natal based political analyst and senior researcher at Xubera Research Institute said food parcels were a new gold for
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