01 Nov Treasury is pushing SA’s poorest and youngest over the edge in a cruel trade-off
Treasury has made a policy decision that pushes the poorest and the youngest, who are already teetering on the brink, over the edge....
04 Oct In-depth: What’s behind the increase in malnutrition deaths among Free State infants?
On the day Luleka Gqumeta’s baby died, she says she was in the streets begging for food for her and her children. It was October 2020, amid COVID-19-related social restrictions and Gqumeta – unemployed with three other school-going children – was struggling to feed her...
02 Jun South Africa’s hunger problem is turning into a major health crisis
In South Africa just over a quarter of the population are still food insecure despite sufficient food being produced at national level, according to the South African National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey....
16 May Making real change means lifting up leadership from the ground up
It has been particularly depressing in the past weeks to read about the implications of the Ukraine war on malnutrition (among other things). It raises the question: why have we not learned from past experience to create greater nutrition resilience? A naïve question of course,...
16 May Thirty farmers in Inchanga aim to supply vegetables locally
The average household food basket in South Africa increases by R354.22 or 8.9% (February 2022 statistic) and food prices continue to rise. The food poverty line is now R624.00 per month and the child support grant is R460.00 per month. Every year the poverty indices...
22 Apr Some of what we eat is slowly poisoning us
Food justice is a term that encompasses many areas — food security, food systems, food sovereignty, food literacy. But it also describes a movement and commitment towards securing everyone’s right to safe, healthy, nutritious and culturally appropriate food....
07 Apr A look at how these 30 farmers are trying to feed their communities
The Woza Nami (‘come with me’) project focuses on strengthening healthy food production and nutrition awareness through the scaling of vegetable farming in informal settlements based on agroecological practice....
22 Sep A broken system: The hunger crisis plaguing South Africa
In a Jacana ‘Don’t Shut Up’ conversation with Maverick Citizen editor Mark Heywood, author Tracy Ledger explains the direct link between malnutrition and a propensity for violence. From abused farmworkers to a lack of coordination at all levels of government, the food system not only...
10 Sep The effect of Covid-19 on the food system: ‘The cost of feeding a child increased by 5%’
In South Africa, more than nine million children live in food-insecure households, and according to findings of a local survey, South Africans count the fear of food shortages and loss of income a close second to the fear of contracting the coronavirus. "The novel coronavirus...
10 Sep Reports from the coalface: Informal traders share their lockdown stories of survival and making do
By Lelona Mxesibe - 27 August 2020 The Covid-19 pandemic has thrown the spotlight on the importance of the informal economy as a means of survival for South Africa’s 2.9 million citizens without access to formal employment – as well as their resulting vulnerability. This is another...