In the wake of an ailing economy reeling from the long-term impacts of poor governance, corruption, inequality, mass unemployment and the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and resulting lockdowns, the recent spike in food and fuel prices occasioned by the Russian war on Ukraine is deepening a silent humanitarian crisis in SA.
Malnutrition and hunger are steadily rising. SA is a country where, according to the University of Johannesburg’s Centre for Social Development in Africa, 46% of children and adults in their homes go to bed hungry because they do not have money for food.
This means almost half of South Africans are experiencing hunger. For them, political battles and governance failures are not simply a matter for polite or even robust discourse –it is literally a matter of life or death.
The child malnutrition problem is not new in SA. Earlier this year, the department of health confirmed that in the past three years, 2,818 children had died of malnutrition while hospitalised. The child support grant (CSG) instituted in 1998 was an intervention meant to directly tackle child malnutrition. Although social assistance grants like the CSG have kept many South Africans technically above the poverty line, it has not done enough to alleviate hunger.
Early indications are that, post Covid-19 and eventually post-war, SA will be facing growing adult hunger as well. Parents bringing their ailing children to clinics and hospitals are often found to be suffering the same fate as their malnourished offspring.
If poverty is intergenerational, hunger is becoming a consequence in the most immediate and concerning ways. The social protections SA provides are woefully inadequate in staving off hunger. The R400 CSG and now the R350 social relief grant for working-age adults during Covid-19 may at a stretch ensure that people do not starve but are not enough to avert malnutrition.
Not in an economy where a few litres of oil costs over R200 and basics like wheat, milk and vegetables are becoming ever more expensive. Ironically, SA’s ridiculously high levels of inequality also means that R400 is the same amount some casually spend on a meal for two with one swipe of a card, or the cost of one catered meal at a gala event or countryside wedding.
We must revaluate our priorities as a society when we quibble over expanding social protection to a majority of people who need it to survive, while celebrating lavish consumption to satisfy the tastes and preferences of people for whom hunger is a distant thought. As long as we are a country that can choose to import food which matches the lifestyles of people with means, we must continue for food security and provisions for the majority of people for whom it is a matter of survival.
This does not mean that we should only focus on much-needed basic income grants and other social protections at the expense of creating more inclusive economies and sustainable livelihoods. It simply means we cannot afford to choose one intervention over the other while people literally starve to death.
Poverty is not a state of mind; it has real consequences for people’s health, wellbeing, dignity and economic prospects. Popular liberal rhetoric says that people need to work to eat but it is truer that people need to eat to work. It is commonly accepted that children are better able to learn when they are well nourished. Surely, the same logic applies to adults seeking to be economically productive and active members of society.
It stands to reason that in a society where people can barely feed themselves and their families, they would struggle to find the resources to proactively seek employment and the will to be creative and productive as entrepreneurs.
Healthy economies need healthy people. If we care about the social and economic future of SA, increasing localised food security and reducing the cost of living must be higher on our list of priorities. It cannot continue to be the case that provinces like KwaZulu-Natal, Eastern Cape and North West, with great agricultural potential, are reported to have the highest levels of hunger.
We can no longer be a country known for assembling luxury international cars while we struggle to grow enough wheat and poultry locally. Beyond fixing SA’s current failures to deliver on even the meagre commitment of R350 at a time of crisis, we need a social protection plan that ensures that no-one dies of hunger.
SA urgently needs an economic plan that makes our most pressing challenges like food security into opportunities for expanding economic participation and strengthening local economies.
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