Corruption, land reform failures, and sky-rocketing electricity prices are worsening South Africa’s hunger crisis, with one in five households now facing severe food insecurity.
Activists who spoke to Sunday World in reaction to this week’s release of the General Household Survey (GHS) 2019-2023 by Statistics South Africa said the report exposes a crisis rooted in systemic failures rather than just economic hardship.
Land rights activist Molatelo Mohale, from Nkunzi Development Association, said the hunger crisis cannot be separated from land dispossession.
“Looking at the stats, you can tell that there is still a huge disparity between blacks and whites when it comes to individual or family ownership of parcels of land,” he said.
Mohale argued that hunger is being driven by three major land-related challenges: the lack of redress for historical dispossession, the unaffordability of communal land and corruption within the government’s land reform programme.
“The fact that about 72% of land is still in the hands of the white minority is doing little to help the black majority. But that’s not the only concern. There is vast communal land that the unemployed and poor are unable to access,” he said.
He pointed out that communal land, controlled by traditional leaders, is priced far out of reach of most poor South Africans. “Imagine someone who relies on social grants going to the local chief to buy a stand, and they are told it’s worth R10 000. It’s worse when they want to use that land for farming. The value grows to R50 000 or more, to an unemployed person who wants to farm for a living,” he said.
“Besides the fact that farm dwellers are often refused by white farm owners the right to plant their own spinach or cabbages for self-sustenance, you have an entire government failing to allocate land.
“I recently watched a Scopa grilling in which the Limpopo agriculture department had irregularly spent R150-million. I work with small-scale farmers who need financial assistance just to make it. But corruption is dealing them a huge blow.”
Johannesburg director of environmental justice organisation EarthLife Africa, Makoma Lekalakala, said the price of electricity is a direct contributor to food insecurity.
“Due to the high rise of costs, families in South Africa are having to choose between buying food or electricity. The two are needs that cannot be ignored.”
In March 2024, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa approved a 13% tariff hike for Eskom, effective from April 2025, with additional increases of 5.4% in 2026 and 6.2% in 2027.
The GHS 2019-2023 report provides stark statistics on food insecurity, confirming a troubling trend.
“In 2019, 15.8% of households were classified as moderately to severely food insecure. This number climbed to 16.2% in 2022 before jumping to 19.7% in 2023.
“Households experiencing severe food insecurity – where members frequently go without meals – rose from 6.4% in 2019 to 8% in 2023,” states the report.
The report also highlights racial disparities.
“Black African households recorded the highest levels of food insecurity, with 21.7% facing moderate to severe hunger, followed by coloured households at 21%, while white and Indian households experienced significantly lower rates.”
Provincially, the worst-hit areas were the Northern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, and Mpumalanga, where food insecurity rates exceed 25%.
