Lillian Roberts

@brettherron Hi Brett - which period is this? I want to check b/c I'm doing research/story on food insecurity and using employment as a potential correlation with food insecurity.

This is important. The Western Cape reduced its unemployment rate but increased its food insecurity rate over the same period. We’re creating the working hungry. We need a formal food programme. Relying on charities & neighbourhood food programmes is shirking. Also doesn’t meet constitutional mandate

Things like this make me really deep statements like “black people are more susceptible to diabetes/ high bp etc.” Because are we really or do we just have poor access to good healthy food choices

Wake up, kids We got the dreamers disease. ‘Radical’ comes from a Latin word meaning "root." Because roots are the deepest part of a plant, ‘radical’ came to describe things understood as fundamental or essential. ‘Radical change’ was a change at the root of a system.

[Farmworkers]: Deadly pesticides "“We do not even get training. After the pesticide is sprayed, you must go into that vineyard,” she explained. “I’m especially referring to Dormex. It’s the most dangerous pesticide we are dealing with...” “It doesn’t matter what it does to the workers, as long as that pesticide is getting into the vineyard in time for the blooming and everything — that is their main goal and focus.” Abrahams says she first brought the pesticide issue to the bosses ages ago. She said that farmers did not listen, and if they brought it up, they were likely to be fired and labelled as a troublemaker. Abrahams said that if you were chased away from a job, people could not simply apply at another farm close by, as the farmers communicated with one another about “troublemakers”." Read more here: dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-0… Meanwhile, the Women on Farms Project continues to call on the government to ban 67 Highly Hazardous Pesticides (HHPs) already banned in Europe. You can add your name to the petition here: awethu.amandla.mobi/petitions/end-…. #TogetherForJustice ✊🏾

[Help farmers in EC get 100 signatures]: Farmers in Hopedale, Eastern Cape, are calling on the Joe Gqabi District Municipality to provide funding to help sustain their farming. They are currently finding it difficult to maintain their farming because they lack adequate resources, including sufficient water, irrigation systems, vaccines, and medicine for their livestock. They need our help in ensuring their municipality provides them with the necessary funding so they can make meat, fruits and vegetables more accessible and affordable in their community. You can show your support by signing the petition here: awethu.amandla.mobi/petitions/fund…. #TogetherForJustice ✊🏾

[Food Justice]: Maverick Citizen Food Basket Tracker "Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity’s Household Affordability Index tracks 44 basic food items. In March, the household food basket cost R5,328.53, and has decreased by R55,28 since February. The basic nutritional basket, on the other hand, amounts to R6,410.74, which is R1,082.21 more expensive than the household food basket. “It means that in March 2026, families living on low-incomes may underspend on basic nutritional food by a minimum of 17% (R1 082,21)...”" More on Maverick Citizen’s findings via @dailymaverick here: dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-0…. #TogetherForJustice ✊🏾

I had the opportunity to work with @fdlangamandla in the EC & it was amazing. See some of his work here: dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-0… and ep 1 is available wherever you get your podcasts!

Good, bad, mediocre or somewhere in between, at least I know that every piece of writing that bears my byline first came directly, entirely from me (a flawed person with idiosyncrasies and tastes based on lived experiences) and then was hopefully improved by human editors.

Before Showmax goes, do watch 'Felix by Die Koppie'. Following the journey of one of South Africa's greatest photo journalists, a storyteller @fdlangamandla

“What stocks should I buy right now” Bro you need to be planting cabbage

Last sunday: Margaret Mbhele (70) pays respects to her mom, Nora Nobhekisizwe (23) who was murdered at the Sharpeville massacre. She was just 5 when she lost her mom.

sometimes, if you are lucky, there will be a tree outside your bedroom window, it’s important that you romanticise that tree as much as possible.

This reminds me of apartheid spatial planning.

dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-0… #Sharpeville

[FOOD JUSTICE]: An assessment finds that 87% of products in retail stores would be classified as unhealthy ‘Africa is facing a runaway hunger problem, with 25% of South African households food insecure – that’s one in four,” Maverick Citizen editor Zukiswa Pikoli said at a webinar on Shopping & The Cost of Living Crisis in South Africa: The Reality of South Africa’s Retail Giants. “Things are so bad that in March this year the South African Human Rights Commission will be conducting a national investigative hearing into food systems. This is aimed at addressing systemic, structural and economic causes of hunger despite national food sufficiency.” Read more via @dailymaverick here: dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-0…. The SAHRC food inquiry will be held from Thursday, 12 March 2026, to Friday, 20 March 2026. #TogetherForJustice ✊🏾