A researcher has suggested that the high rate of unemployment in the province means that most households fall way below the poverty line and that people simply do not have enough money to buy food.
Brenton Geach/Gallo Images
The shocking number of malnutrition-related child deaths in the Eastern Cape is a tragedy but it's not unusual, according to a researcher.
Senior researcher at the University of Cape Town's Children's Institute Paula Proudlock was commenting on a South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) inquiry finding that 116 children in the province died of severe acute malnutrition (SAM) between April 2021 and March 2022.
Of the 1 087 children who presented with SAM symptoms, more than 900 were admitted to hospitals and 116 died.
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