It’s time to ‘abnormalise’ hunger in South Africa

The 16th of October 2024 is the 45th World Food Day, and the 30th since South Africa’s transition to democracy in 1994. What progress has been made on the constitutional right of everyone to “access to sufficient food”, and the constitutional right of every child to “basic nutrition”?

Not enough. In the 1990s, one in four children in South Africa had stunted growth, an indicator of chronic hunger. In the 2020s, one in four children are still stunted. So this fundamental indicator of child wellbeing and human development has not shifted at all, in 30 years.

This shocking statistic is despite South Africa:

1. Being an upper-middle-income country: upper-middle-income countries have more than halved their child stunting rates since 2000 – so lack of money is not the problem;


2. Being self-sufficient in staple food (maize) production: total food supplies in South Africa exceed needs every year – so lack of food is not the problem;


3. Having a constitutional right to food since 1996: children’s right to basic nutrition should have been delivered with immediate effect – so lack of political rights is not the problem;


4. having the most comprehensive social protection system in Africa: two in three children (13 million) receive the Child Support Grant (CSG) every month – so lack of income support from the government is not the problem.

An ongoing research study suggests that one possible explanation for this failure might be “normalisation” – a social process by which things that in other contexts would be considered abnormal and unacceptable become accepted and tolerated as normal.

In South Africa, malnutrition is closely correlated with poverty, and poverty is closely correlated with race. This is due to our history of colonialism, slavery and apartheid, which left a 300-year legacy of racialised inequalities that 30 years of democracy have not yet resolved. This unique history has resulted in hunger – specifically among black South Africans – being considered as “normal” by all sectors of South African society.

Evidence comes from (not yet published) research findings. One black respondent said: “We as black people were born in hunger, and we will live with it until we die.” Another stated: “Not everyone has a right to food. Food is a privilege for us.”

Conversely, a white woman said: “Hunger is unusual in my community.” Another asked the interviewer: “Where I live, people are begging on the streets. Are they part of my community?”

This “internalisation” by black South Africans, and “othering” by whites, explains why there appears to be a tolerance by citizens of (black) hunger and a lack of urgency by the government around its eradication.

Hunger persists despite the fact that millions of South Africans, mostly black, receive monthly social grants from Sassa. “We do receive social grants, but they are not enough, because food is expensive.”

The Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice & Dignity Group estimates that the value of the CSG falls 33% short of the Food Poverty Line, and 44% below the cost of a basic nutritious diet – assuming all this money is spent entirely on food for the beneficiary child. In reality, the CSG is spent on both food and non-food needs, and is diluted among all household members, not just the child.

Eradicating hunger in South Africa requires substantially raising social grant payments, but also much more. A shift in mindset is urgently needed, similar to the “Zero Hunger” campaign in Brazil during President Lula’s first term. The government of Brazil declared hunger to be socially unacceptable, and it implemented a coordinated suite of interventions focused on the objective of eradicating hunger.

The result? Child stunting in Brazil, already on a downward trend before Lula, fell from 20% in 1989 to just 7% in 2019, while it flatlined at around 25% in South Africa over this 30-year period.

What will it take for hunger in (black) South Africa to be “abnormalised”?

The first thing, we believe, is the development of political will at the highest level of government to regard hunger as unconstitutional, unjust, unacceptable and hugely costly socially, politically and economically.

Read more: Do the maths, stupid — cost of hunger is far greater than the cost of solving it

Once again, hunger is an issue on which civil society is setting an example, pioneering ideas and programmes about how to address this crisis. Last week the Healthy Living Alliance (Heala) successfully convened partners from civil society, academia and several government departments, to organise the first Schools Food Environment Assembly.

This week the Centre for Social Justice at the University of Stellenbosch, led by Prof Thuli Madonsela, is focusing its 5th International Social Justice Conference and Summit on Social Justice and Zero Hunger on the issue of food insecurity and poverty. At the same time, the SA Food Sovereignty Campaign will hold a march to Parliament and activities in other parts of the country “in solidarity for the right to food sovereignty, protection of our land, biodiversity and water commons, and for climate justice”.

Efforts are also under way to convene a national Union Against Hunger, a broad coalition that can unite society behind a plan of action, developed to tackle the hunger crisis with the urgency and action it requires.

But civil society activism and leadership are not enough. It needs to be reinforced by political will from the Government of National Unity and the private business sector. Under the Constitution, the duty to ensure that everyone has sufficient food and water falls squarely upon the government. And it’s here that we look most desperately for leadership.

The government has a great opportunity to take the lead on tackling hunger, not just locally but on the world stage. Next month sees the launch of the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty, an initiative of Brazil’s presidency of the G20, led by President Lula. The following month, on 1 December, the G20 presidency revolves to South Africa. We must seize this opportunity and run with it.

This should not be a matter of dispute. President Ramaphosa will remember how, after a long time and life-wasting conflict over HIV/Aids policy, when the government finally developed the political will to address the Aids crisis, South Africa was able to go from pariah to poster child in a matter of years. More importantly, the lives of five million people living with HIV were saved, and millions of new infections prevented. Hope was restored.

The same will needs to be found again to address hunger. DM

Stephen Devereux is a development economist working on food security, famine and social protection. He is a professor at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK, where he is co-director of the Centre for Social Protection and a founding member of the Food Equity Centre. He holds the NRF South African Research Chair in Social Protection for Food Security, affiliated to the DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Food Security and the Institute for Social Development at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa.

Mark Heywood is a human rights activist, writer and adjunct professor at the Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance at the University of Cape Town.