Learners aged between five and 12 at highest risk of hunger – Stats SA

School-going children between the ages of 5 and 12 are at the highest risk of hunger.

This is according to the latest Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) data measuring child poverty between 2015 and 2023.

The figures show that most of the children affected by food deprivation come from families who earn a minimum wage or less, highlighting a continuous crisis amongst the country’s poorest.

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The programme coordinator at the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity Group, Mervyn Abrahams, said 30% of boy children in this age group are stunted due to a lack of nutritious food.

“One of the reasons for our poor educational outcomes is precisely because of the lack of proper access to food and, in particular, access to nutritional food, particularly in the first five years of a child's life.”

He said the consequences are often long-term, with stunted children unable to get decent jobs, perpetuating a cycle of poverty.

“And that is where we find the intergenerational poverty traps that people cannot get out of this poverty, and it becomes solidified from one generation to the next generation to the next generation.”

Abrahams said child hunger persists despite school feeding schemes and government-provided children’s grants.

He said the child grant is 41% below the national poverty line of R885 per person, leaving many families unable to meet their basic nutritional needs.