South Africa’s food system has undergone seismic change. What we eat, how food is produced, and who controls it have all shifted dramatically in recent decades. Ultra-processed, high-energy, nutrient-poor products are replacing traditional diets, and food deserts expand while healthy options become unaffordable and inaccessible.
The consequences are visible everywhere — from starvation and stunting to the alarming rise of obesity and non-communicable diseases (NCDs) linked to poor diets.
Although the country produces enough food to feed its entire population, millions go hungry every day. A 2023 study by the University of Witwatersrand found that, one in five households begs for food in the country, while Stats SA (2025) reports that 27% of households experience food insecurity. In a land of plenty, hunger is not just a crisis, it is a moral and political injustice.
The role of advocacy and people power
South Africa’s fight against hunger is not just a technical challenge — it is profoundly political. It demands both inside track policy advocacy and outside track mass mobilisation. History teaches us that social movements, not policy memos, transform nations.
Civil society and activist scholars must therefore name hunger for what it is: a failure of state and corporate accountability, not an individual misfortune. Hunger in an upper-middle-income democracy is not inevitable — it is a choice. The South African Human Rights Commission’s 2023 report on Child Malnutrition and the Right to Food in the Eastern Cape exposes this avoidable tragedy, where malnutrition remains among the leading causes of death in the country. Meanwhile, an estimated 10 million tonnes of food goes to waste annually. Each tonne of food wasted is not only a moral failure, but a constitutional violation and a crime against the hungry!
Reclaiming the right to food
Advocacy and activism for the right to food and nutrition, enshrined in Sections 27 and 28 of the South African Constitution, is no longer the work of a few campaigners — it is a national imperative. Yet civil society continues to face an uphill battle against corporate actors who wield vast financial and political influence.
Still, we are far from powerless. Our greatest strengths — truth, integrity, community resilience and moral clarity — are transformative tools. As political scientist John Kingdon reminds us, change occurs when “problems, policies and politics align to open a window of opportunity” (Kingdon, 2002). That window is now wide open.
Rare opportunity
The government’s review of the National Policy on Food and Nutrition Security presents a rare opportunity to reimagine the rules of our food system. Civil society coalitions, such as the Civil Society Convening on a Just Transition and the Food Justice Coalition (which both include the Healthy Living Alliance (Heala) and the Union Against Hunger) are working together to bring lived realities and evidence into spaces long dominated by corporate lobbyists.
But the challenges go beyond policy. As long as corporate power drives the food economy, meaningful transformation will remain elusive. The Consumer Goods Council of South Africa and large food retailers continue to influence and shape national nutrition standards and market structures, while food banking networks, despite their humanitarian veneer, risk deepening inequality, dependency on “do gooding” and corporate capture of the food system.
For too long, debates about food security have been confined to policy papers, agricultural productivity, nutritional guidelines and donor-funded projects. These are necessary, but they fail to confront the structural injustice of our food economy: monopolised supply chains, speculative pricing and profit-driven lobbying that undermines public interest.
The “Big Four” food retailers — Shiprite, Pick n Pay, Spar and Woolworths — control over 70% of South Africa’s grocery market. They set prices, squeeze small-scale farmers and exploit low-income consumers. Government oversight remains weak, and public outrage muted.
Charity cannot replace justice. The right to food cannot be fulfilled through handouts. It demands structural transformation, including living wages, fair food prices, an end to food waste and strong support for local farmers, caregivers and women — especially those who are pregnant or breastfeeding.
The Union Against Hunger: a new social movement
Amid this crisis, the Union Against Hunger has emerged as a broad-based social movement inspired by South Africa’s 2025 G20 presidency theme of global solidarity and food security. The union unites civic networks, academic partners and grassroots organisations to demand an end to hunger and malnutrition, and to be militant in the call for systemic food justice.
Through hunger hearings, community assemblies, and symbolic vigils — such as the one planned at the Cape Town International Convention Centre on World Food Day, 17 October 2025 — the Union Against Hunger amplifies the voices of those at the frontline of hunger. Our call is simple: “Nothing about us hungry people, without us.”
Three fronts of the struggle for food justice
Today, three major streams of activism are shaping South Africa’s food and nutrition landscape:
- The Food Justice Coalition, convened by Heala, leads public health advocacy — confronting the harms of ultra-processed food products high in sugar, salt and fat, campaigning for regulatory change to protect consumers. Its efforts have yielded major policy wins such as the Health Promotion Levy on sugar-sweetened beverages and progress on front-of-pack labelling.
- The Civil Society Convening on a Just Transition has been working on an inside track, engaging directly with the government in the policy review process, and ensuring that civil society experiences and perspectives are heard in formal decision-making spaces.
- The Union Against Hunger represents the outside track — a radical, people-powered movement politicising hunger and shifting the struggle for food justice from boardrooms and conferences to the communities that are the most affected. We aim to mobilise the hungry themselves, not as passive beneficiaries, but as active agents demanding justice, equity and accountability.
Why a radical outside track is needed
Policy reform and public health advocacy are essential, but both operate within a system that privileges profit over people. The Union Against Hunger asserts that hunger must be recognised as a political crisis, one that tests the moral core of our democracy.
South Africa’s 2025 G20 presidency, and the recent adoption of the food declaration under the theme of “Ubuntu”, provide a timely platform for action. This reminds us that our humanity is bound together, and that collective responsibility is essential for justice.
The Overton Window (a range of subjects and arguments politically acceptable to the mainstream population at a given time) must now expand beyond charity and technocratic reform. The Union Against Hunger exists to make visible what polite politics has long suppressed:
- Hunger in a wealthy country is a crime, not a misfortune.
- Corporations profiting from poverty must be named and held accountable.
- Food is not a commodity — it is a human right.
- Hunger will not end without redistributing resources, power and wealth.
A movement whose time has come
The Union Against Hunger stands in solidarity with the Food Justice Coalition and the Civil Society Convening on a Just Transition, but we occupy a different front — one that is unapologetically political, people-led and transformative.
Our aim is not to duplicate, but to ignite, to transform outrage into organised power. We remind South Africa’s leaders and corporations that hunger in a land of plenty is constitutional betrayal.
The state must move from rhetoric to action:
- Regulate basic food prices and enforce corporate accountability in line with the Constitution’s social obligations.
- Strengthen infant and child nutrition through caregiver and maternal support.
- We are calling for legal action against the state to implement stronger policies to reduce food waste.
- Increase social grants or introduce universal basic income.
The right to food is non-negotiable. It is the measure of our democracy. It is time to move from charity to justice, from policy to practice, and from rhetoric to rights. Hunger is not inevitable — it is political. And it can be ended.
We invite all who believe in justice, dignity and the right to food to join us. Until every person eats with freedom and dignity, none of us are free. DM