Eastern Cape premier Oscar Mabuyane. (Photo: Gallo Images / The Times / Masi Losi) 
Devastating statistics provided by Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane on Friday, 12 September 2025, showed that 41% of residents in the Eastern Cape are living under the poverty line.
This comes as the province faces a new economic setback as the manufacturing industry, especially the automotive industry, is buckling under the impact of high export tariffs imposed by the United States.
In 2023, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) found that there was systemic hunger in Eastern Cape and raised concerns about a lack of interdepartmental coordination, early childhood nutritional programmes and failing food security initiatives.
The SAHRC subpoenaed Mabuyane to explain what the Eastern Cape government had done since then.
“Despite very clear recommendations, the implementation has been slow and fragmented and inadequate. In some instances, there has either been no response, or submitted responses were clearly not sufficient,” SAHRC Commissioner Philile Ntuli said on the general response to the report.
The hearing was also attended by the chairperson of the SAHRC, Chris Nissen, who said that they felt that it was important to engage on how the report could be taken further.
“You will recall that not so long ago, a woman killed her children because of poverty,” Nissen said to Mabuyane. “We have this hearing now to see how we can take the 2023 report forward and implement it.”
Read more: Uncertainty and fear haunt automotive industry in wake of tariff increases
Devastating statistics
On Thursday, the national Department of Health provided devastating statistics revealing that 973 children had died from severe acute malnutrition in facilities around the country in the past 18 months.
Of these, 177 were in the Eastern Cape. This is the province with the third-highest mortality numbers for severe acute malnutrition, after KwaZulu-Natal and Limpopo.
Read more: Urgent call for accountability as nearly 1,000 children die from severe malnutrition in SA
Mabuyane said the province was still struggling with the after-effects of the apartheid system, and that as a “labour-sending” province, family structures were fractured, illiteracy remained rife, more than a third of the province’s residents depended on social grants and 9.1% reported during a survey by Stats SA that they did not have enough food.
However, he also pointed out that there had been a long-standing dispute with National Treasury on how the provincial equitable share was calculated, as the formula used the census conducted when many of the Eastern Cape’s residents were working in other provinces.
When people got sick or lost their jobs, they returned home to the Eastern Cape, where provision had not been made for them to use public services.
“I have often said they must come in December and over Christmas to count,” Mabuyane said.
He has long argued that the national government must provide developmental funds to lift the province out of systemic poverty. He said the SAHRC must also call Cabinet ministers to explain food insecurity in the country, not only the directors-general and the premier.
Ntuli said there would, later in the year, be a national hearing on the right to food.
Food gardens and working groups
Unemployment in the province remains stubbornly high. It was at 47.7% in 2021, but has come down to 39.5%. Youth unemployment is now at 49.9%.
Mabuyane said that while 69% of all grant beneficiaries in the province were children, the growing cost of living and sluggish economic growth negated the gains from the grants.
He said his office had established a working group for food security, land reform and agriculture, and another for anti-poverty and sustainable livelihoods. Heads of department were appointed to lead these groups to improve accountability and effectiveness.
He said food gardens at no-fee schools were being revived and also linked to grant recipients so they could generate an income.
“It is early to assess the impact, but I believe it will make a difference. It is already evident,” he said.
Mabuyane said his office was monitoring the implementation of the strategy. He said the Food and Nutrition Security Plan for the province had been developed and approved, and the government was looking for partners for implementation.
“It will be launched before the end of the financial year,” he said.
Read more: ‘We need help’ — Department of Social Development admits to acute Eastern Cape hunger crisis
Mabuyane mentioned further examples of the Eastern Cape government’s efforts to fight poverty, including 27 events where mobile government services, like home affairs and primary healthcare, were taken to communities, helping 5,438 people.
He said 100 state-owned farms had been recommissioned for food production, and that food production packs would be distributed to 100,000 households over five years.
He added that the province had also signed an agreement with the United Nations to reinstate irrigation schemes for food production. Yet, Mabuyane admitted severe acute malnutrition remained a challenge in the province.
“The rates are high. Stunting in the province is at 33%, 5% higher than the national average.”
He said they would scale support for household gardens and subsistence farmers and enhance initiatives to prevent malnutrition.
“There is a commitment,” he said.
He added they would explore opportunities for research and data collection to gather more insight into the problem, and that the Eastern Cape Socio-Economic Council had been briefed to develop an evaluation study.
“We deem it in a very serious light. We have a commitment to adopt a command centre approach,” he said. “It is our resolve and our commitment to make a change.”
‘A societal problem’
Ntuli said the commission acknowledged that work had been done, but she pointed out that the province’s dismal road infrastructure system was holding back development. Mabuyane said he agreed and saw it in China too.
“They told me that if you want to get rich you must build roads,” he said. “I am internalising that.”
He said he also renewed the province’s commitment to the establishment of community gardens.
“I told [the Department of] Agriculture, where there are community gardens, we must go all out. People take their grants and run to town instead. Also, people don’t have cattle to plough the land any more, so we are trying to figure out how to help people to plow their gardens.”
One of the major risk factors for a child to develop severe acute malnutrition is having a mother who is a child or a teenager.
“Children giving birth is a real nightmare for us,” Mabuyane said. Since April, there have been 117 cases of children between the ages of 10 and 14 giving birth.
“It is a societal problem,” Mabuyane said. “Those children are staying with their parents. The government can’t do everything. Parents must be parents. Times have changed. We are facing a crisis.”
The SAHRC hearing continued on Friday, with officials from Home Affairs and the Treasury expected to testify. DM