The Mozambican Government today donated 42 tonnes of various food products to victims of flooding in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, as a gesture of solidarity with the people of the neighbouring country.
The director-general of Mozambique’s National Institute for Disaster Management (INGD), Luísa Meque, told public broadcaster Rádio Moçambique that the Government had donated 20 tonnes of spaghetti, 10 tonnes of rice, the same amount of maize flour and two tonnes of sugar.
"We are here to demonstrate our solidarity. It is a modest gesture to show that we did not want to remain distant," Meque said.
The gesture, she continued, is proof of the brotherhood between Mozambican and South African peoples.
South Africa’s Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, thanked Mozambique for the donation, noting that the aid reflected the historic fraternity between the two countries and their peoples.
"It is proof that you do not need to have much to help," Zuma said.
Mozambique is normally a recipient of international aid because of the devastation regularly caused by natural disasters and wars, but it symbolically donates aid to other countries, particularly in Southern Africa, when they are struck by disasters.
Flooding in KwaZulu-Natal caused deaths and destroyed public and private infrastructure.
