ALL good South Africans with a modicum of decency should share the horror of lobby groups like the Black Sash who find the latest findings of the Stats SA 2009 General Household Survey a depressing read.

Released on May 6, the poll records that "20 percent of households have inadequate, or severely inadequate, access to food".

All those imbued with a nagging conscience should rightfully be appalled: We are talking here about 21st Century South Africa, the land of plenty; not Ethiopia in the 1980s where kwashiorkor was an element of the national identity.

This is the 2010 Fifa World Cup hosts the damning Stats SA report is referring to, a country that has just shed billions of rands on stadiums and accompanying infrastructure. This is the home of the golden handshake, the ill-gained tender windfall, where youth leaders wear watches worth a cool R250000.

Not a fraction of its society should be allowed to go to bed with an empty stomach.