SA's hunger crisis: 'We have many solutions, but lack political will' - Mark Heywood

702's Gugs Mhlungu  spoke to Senior Researcher and Adjunct Professor at the University of Cape Town, Mark Heywood.

Listen to their conversation in the audio clip below.

According to a recent article in The Conversation, at least 15 million South Africans suffer from food insecurity, meaning they do not have enough nutritious food to lead healthy lives.

The article states that this situation is the result of multiple factors, including unemployment, poverty, inequality, and failures within the food system.

"15 million people is a spectrum that stretches from people who sometimes literally have no food on a day because they have no income, to people who may be at the end of the month when the grants have run out or low income has run out, don't have sufficient food. There's a lot of hunger in the country."

- Mark Heywood, Senior Researcher and Adjunct Professor - University of Cape Town

Heywood says the country is in a ridiculous situation where we produce more food than we need, yet many people still lack adequate nourishment.

He emphasises that children are disproportionately affected, noting that 27% of South African children are stunted by the age of five due to ongoing malnutrition and undernutrition.

"Under our Constitution, a child has a right to basic nutrition and it's a constitutional right that isn't couched in words like progressive realisation or available resources. We should be making sure that every child in this country has basic nutrition every day - what they need....we are not doing that."  

- Mark Heywood, Senior Researcher and Adjunct Professor - University of Cape Town

"Hunger weakens the immune system. It gives rise to underlying diseases and vulnerabilities, so it is effectively the cause of death of these little children. It's horrendous, it's beyond belief frankly."  

- Mark Heywood, Senior Researcher and Adjunct Professor - University of Cape Town

Heywood explains that by allowing this hunger to persist, we are condemning generations of children to further inequality.

"It is usually inequality continued on the basis of race because of the correlation between race and poverty. It is black children who are suffering from this outrage."

- Mark Heywood, Senior Researcher and Adjunct Professor - University of Cape Town

He suggests that while there are several potential solutions to the hunger crisis in the country, change is only possible with government commitment.

"There's a whole toolbox of interventions. The problem we're facing is not a shortage of solutions, it's the lack of political will and it's the fact that so many of us have just become comfortable with the notion that hunger is normal in our society and it's not normal."  

- Mark Heywood, Senior Researcher and Adjunct Professor - University of Cape Town

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