We live in a country where human rights and humanitarian values are protected by our constitution. The constitution further guarantees fundamental rights such as access to housing, healthcare, food, water, social security and education, which means the state is obliged to respect, promote and fulfil these rights.
Yet as we reported in this publication on Monday, starvation has claimed at least 38 children’s lives since the beginning of this year. This grim picture of the devastating effects of hunger was recorded in Gauteng, the country’s economic hub and home to Africa’s richest square mile – Sandton.
More appallingly, at least 200 cases of children battling malnutrition were reported at one clinic in Olievenhoutbosch near Centurion in Tshwane. Across the province, the figures totalled 5,673.
These underscore the shameful levels of inequality in a country steeped in increasing levels of poverty and unemployment.
According to the Gauteng department of health, more than 160 children under the age of five have died of malnutrition since 2024. These statistics are alarming for our country despite attempts by some to downplay these shocking figures as reflecting mostly undocumented migrant children. It is an undeniable fact that a significant proportion of South Africans go to bed on an empty stomach on many days of the year.
Food security is a real crisis in this country affecting more families, and this is evidenced by the high number of malnourished children presenting at health facilities across the country. In a country where there is so much affluence, wealth and food wastage, it is morally imperative that we do whatever we can to eliminate hunger in our midst.
The dangers of hunger are not just limited to the individuals affected; they can extend to national security, as hunger can also breed unrest.
During the Covid-19 pandemic we had the political will, urgency and support from various sectors of society to fight it, and we fought together. We need to see the same vigour, energy and resolve to come together to fight this pandemic of hunger in SA that is leading to kids with severe acute malnutrition dying before our eyes.
The places where these children are dying in their numbers are known to the authorities, so why they haven’t acted to end this is hard to understand. We can no longer afford to sit by and watch as more children slip into malnutrition and die. This crisis requires a firm stance, and remaining silent in the face of this shame is complicit.
Sowetan
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