1 in 5 households face hunger as South Africa wastes a third of its food
The country faces a growing hunger and malnutrition crisis due to affordability and access barriers, particularly for working-class and poor households, says researcher Yvonne Erasmus.
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702's Gugs Mhlungu spoke to Yvonne Erasmus, Senior Researcher at the Socio-Economic Rights Institute.
Listen to their conversation in the audio clip below.
Out of South Africa's 63 million population, around 14 million experienced hunger.
That's the findings of the recently released General Household Survey (GHS) 2024 by Stats SA.
The report showed that 22.2% of households struggled with inadequate or severely inadequate access to food, with the Northern Cape facing the worst challenges (34.3%), followed by the Eastern Cape (31.3%), Mpumalanga (30.4%), and KwaZulu-Natal (23.9%).
Erasmus says the country faces a growing hunger and malnutrition crisis due to affordability and access barriers, particularly for working-class and poor households.
"I find it mind-blowing that one in five households is food insecure, but we waste at a national level a third of the food we produce."
- Yvonne Erasmus, Senior Researcher at the Socio-Economic Rights Institute
"That's really the problem in South Africa...people are not able to access the food that is available."
- Yvonne Erasmus, Senior Researcher at the Socio-Economic Rights Institute
The issue isn’t food supply, she adds, but income, rising food prices, and lack of nutritious, affordable options.
Erasmus explains that many low-income earners, even those earning minimum wage, cannot afford a healthy diet, and often prioritise other essentials like transport or electricity.
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She stresses the need for stricter minimum wage enforcement, expanded social support, and a subsidised nutritious food basket.
"...a food basket that is in fact nutritious...that doesn't just include a lot of starchy food, but food that is protein-rich, but also fruit and vegetables...if a food basket could just be subsidised, both by retailers and by government, to be more readily accessible to the working poor, then I think that will go a long way."
- Yvonne Erasmus, Senior Researcher at the Socio-Economic Rights Institute
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