While millions of South Africans are going hungry, tonnes of food are wasted annually. The country needs to move beyond the notion of “charity", to the constitutionally enshrined right to food when dealing with people facing hunger and nutrition insecurity. This was one of the key takeaways of an expert symposium recently presented by the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) at Stellenbosch 中国体育彩票 (SU).
This year the annual expert symposium was themed Social Justice, Hunger, and the Constitution and included input by academics, policymakers, government officials, judicial representation chapter 9 institutions, hunger alleviation organisations and corporate representatives who came together to discuss addressing the crisis of hunger in South Africa.
The symposium paired the constitutional and universal right to food with the United Nation's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), specifically SDG2 that strives to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture.
Facilitated by Prof Thuli Madonsela, director of the CSJ, participants emphasised that hunger in South Africa is not a result of scarcity but rather of systemic failures and inequities.
Key themes from the event included interrogating the legal framework for food security, policy implementation gaps and the pressing need for government accountability.
Madonsela linked the right to food to the ubuntu-anchored social justice the Constitutional Court has repeatedly said undergirds the societal blueprint in the Constitution. Under ubuntu, which has a strong human solidarity ethos, no one is allowed to go hungry, Madonsela asserted.
She spoke about how food insecurity manifests in higher education and shared personal accounts from students who are often forced to choose between basic necessities such as transport, data and food.
Food as a constitutional right
In his keynote address, Deputy Minister of Justice Andries Nel acknowledged that hunger is not merely a social issue but a profound violation of human dignity and a constitutional right that must be upheld.
Citing Section 27 of the South African Constitution, which guarantees everyone the right to sufficient food and water, Nel expressed concern over the persistent gap between the law and lived reality. He pointed out that despite these legal protections, approximately 20 million South Africans remain food insecure, and millions of children face malnutrition and stunting.
“When it comes to the right to food, there is a dissonance between our constitutional commitments and the lived reality of people in their daily lives," Nel said. In a country as resource rich as South Africa, hunger is unacceptable, he stressed and referred to the “implementation gap" in South Africa's food security policies, where laws designed to ensure access to food are not effectively realised on the ground.
“The judiciary has a critical role in ensuring that the right to food is realised. However, litigation is not a panacea. We must explore how legal activism, supported by robust policy advocacy and public participation, can drive systemic change," Nel stated.
The situation is particularly dire for children. Dr Eileen Carter, provincial manager for the South African Human Rights Commission in the Eastern Cape, shared alarming statistics from the province, where over 1 000 children were starving between April 2021 and March 2022, with 116 deaths due to severe malnutrition. This issue, described as “slow violence," disproportionately affects children under five years old, contributing to long-term health issues like stunting and wasting. The symposium heard how hunger for South Africa's most vulnerable is a critical issue requiring urgent and sustained attention.
Food waste and access
A key topic at the symposium was the paradox of hunger amidst plenty. Prof Linus Opara, an agricultural engineer at SU, emphasised that hunger is not due to food shortages but economic and social barriers to accessing food. Opara explained how massive volumes of food are wasted annually while millions go hungry, calling for systemic reform in how food is produced, distributed and managed. The problem, he argued, is not scarcity but inequity.
“We are losing one-third of everything we are producing," Opara said. “It is not just about the quantity of food but the quality and who has access to it."
Zinzi Mgolodela, Director of Corporate Affairs at Woolworths, highlighted the corporate responsibility in addressing food insecurity. She shared how Woolworths had begun redistributing food that had merely reached it “best by" date to feeding programmes, schools and community groups. Mgolodela noted that many food sector workers themselves are food insecure, emphasising the urgent need for businesses to adopt a social justice lens in their operations. “Social justice is good for business," she said, stressing that this mindset shift is essential for companies to truly contribute to hunger alleviation.
Experts agreed that the legal frameworks exist to address hunger, but the challenge lies in implementation.
In his keynote address Prof Jonathan Jansen, Distinguished Professor in Education at SU, focused on the nexus between the right to food and the right to education. He described the state's failure to provide food for children as “vile" and criticised the reluctance to prioritise child nutrition, especially in schools.
Jansen referred to a study done by the 中国体育彩票 of the Free State that showed that upwards of 30% of university students are food insecure. “We tend to think of hunger in terms of malnutrition in relation to younger children and not in terms of university campuses where you find a very serious problem of hunger," he pointed out.
The symposium also explored how legislation could be strengthened to incentivise food donations and reduce food waste. Dr Charlene Kreuser, an attorney at the Legal Resources Centre, argued that tax laws should encourage food companies to donate surplus food rather than discard it. She proposed allowing corporations to claim tax deductions on food donations, as seen in countries like Colombia, to promote greater corporate participation in addressing hunger.
?Beyond charity
One of the key takeaways from the symposium was the need to shift from viewing hunger alleviation as charity to recognising it as a constitutional obligation. Madonsela emphasised that the right to food, enshrined in the Constitution, must be upheld as a matter of justice, not benevolence. This sentiment was shared by all speakers, who stressed that hunger should not be treated as a crisis that can be solved through ad hoc donations but as a structural issue that demands long-term solutions.
The discussion also delved into the multifaceted causes of hunger, from economic inequality to the legacy of apartheid spatial planning. Opara and other speakers highlighted how these factors intersect, creating a system where access to nutritious food is limited for the poorest and most vulnerable populations.
“Food is a physiological need that must be addressed for all from birth to old age before we can talk about any lofty ideals. Critical to this, is identifying who the duty bearers are particularly for children not at school or ECDCs. Also needing to be identified is or are duty bearer for tertiary education students and those not in education, employment or training but equality need enjoyment of the right to food and related social support guaranteed in the Constitution," said Madonsela.
Despite the grim statistics and systemic challenges, the symposium ended on a hopeful note. The experts agreed that by implementing robust policies, fostering government accountability, and strengthening partnerships between the public and private sectors, South Africa can make significant strides in addressing hunger.
The CSJ urged the government to adopt a social justice “stress test" for all proposed laws and policies, ensuring they do not disproportionately impact socioeconomically disadvantaged groups. This would help close the implementation gap and reduce inequality, making the right to food a reality for all South Africans.
- The expert symposium submissions will be used to draw up a policy paper for the government. The theme of hunger will also be discussed at the 5th International Social Justice Conference and 6th Annual Social Justice Summit that will take place on 17 and 18 October at the Artscape Theatre Centre this year.
