Government must take steps to end hunger in SA

Last month we commemorated 25 years of the SA constitution –a document that was supposed to usher in a generation of South Africans living in dignity, equality and freedom.

However, we see a dangerous dualism in SA: while eight-million children go hungry every day and a quarter of all children are stunted, we also see that one in eight children is overweight.

According to statistics, these children will grow into a cohort of adults where every second person is obese. Being overweight or obese is a well-known driver of diseases like cancer, heart disease, diabetes and high blood pressure. More than half of South Africans are dying of these diseases each year, which Stats SA has termed a “looming health crisis”.

At first glance, the idea of a society where half of the population is overweight, while severe hunger persists, seems dystopian, akin to the Hunger Games, where the rich gorge themselves and the poor fight to survive.

But the reality is that in individual households, both coexist. Low income households are more likely to purchase energydense, nutritionally poor food, which contributes to weight gain.

Human rights are the idea that human beings are entitled to certain protections. After World War II, the first modern international instrument setting out these rights was created – the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In the declaration, another core right was entrenched: that everyone has the right to food.

This has two meanings: there should be enough food (or calories) so that people are not hungry and the food should be nutritious so that people can be healthy.

In 1996, our new constitution brought this protection home by enshrining the right to food.

But we cannot eat our constitution, nor can we simply go to the closest government building and ask for a meal. These socioeconomic rights to food, healthcare and water is the responsibility of the government of SA, which should, within available resources, create laws and policies which give access to these rights.

It is within this context that the government must provide school meals, social grants and food parcels in emergencies and regulate how to guarantee that the food we eat is safe.

So, what is missing?

We need two streams of government action to stop SA from suffocating under the double burden of malnutrition. First, we need to end food poverty.

An immediate step is to extend social relief of distress grant as a permanent social safety mechanism and raise it to at least R624.

Second, we need policies to help South Africans eat less unhealthy food. Government must take steps to end hunger and poor nutrition.