One in four South Africans don’t have enough food. Activists call for action

The Union Against Hunger met on Wednesday to discuss how to respond to hunger in the country. Photo: Liezl Human

“There is nothing for the children to eat when they come home from school,” said Marisa Dirks, a seasonal farm worker from Worcester.

She was one of several farm workers from the Women on Farms Project speaking at an event of the Union Against Hunger (UAH) on Wednesday. They shared their experiences of going hungry during the off-season months when there is no work. In these months, all they can afford is pap.

Wednesday’s event by the UAH comes on the back of StatsSA’s release of the 2024 General Household Survey on 27 May, which shows that food security, although slightly better than in 2010, has gotten worse since 2019. In 2024, about 15% of people in South Africa experienced hunger and 25% had limited access to food.

The UAH wants the government to introduce wealth taxes to pay for hunger programmes, establish a governmental body to deal with hunger, to halve childhood stunting by 2030, to increase the Child Support Grant to the food poverty line, and to reduce food waste.

The organisation also started a petition calling on the government and big businesses like Shoprite to bring down food prices.

Speaking at the event, Professor Stephen Devereux of the Centre of Excellence in Food Security (CoE-FS) at the University of the Western Cape said the right to food is not being addressed by the government.

“Inequality in this country is the highest in the world,” he said.

He noted the importance of childhood nutrition in order to prevent stunting. Currently, about 29% of children are stunted and stunting levels have increased over the past few years.

Devereux further noted that an estimated 10-million tonnes of food go to waste each year. Most of this waste happens during the agricultural stage. He commended organisations like SA Harvest & FoodForward SA that work to save food before it is thrown out and redistribute it.

The UAH is also hoping to engage the government on the National Food and Nutrition Security Plan (NFNSP), which is currently being revised.

Busiso Moyo, postdoctoral researcher at the CoE-FS and member of the UAH, said that a movement against hunger “is long overdue”. He said that the review of the NFNSP will give the UAH a “window of opportunity” to engage with the government on the needs of communities.

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