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Mail & Guardian

Hunger

latest news & developments
Non-starter: The Greater Lanseria Master Plan in 2020 outlined a city that intended to house between 350 000 and 500 000 people. Yet there is not much to show other than large areas of open land and growing informal settlements. Photo: Delwyn Verasamy
SONA2026

Taking stock of Ramaphosa’s promises

The Lanseria smart city remains a dream and hunger, unemployment and crime continue to be high but there has been progress in Eskom’s turnaround

  • Eyaaz Matwadia
7 min read
Despite producing enough food, South Africa is experiencing a deepening hunger crisis. (Madelene Cronje)
CHILD HUNGER

Editorial: Hunger in the land of plenty

Despite producing enough food, South Africa is experiencing a deepening hunger crisis. New research shows that even households receiving food aid are skipping meals — and…

  • Editorial
2 min read
Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by the war in the DRC. Photo: WFP/Michael Castofas
BUKAVU

Displaced again: People flee fear, hunger as violence grips eastern DRC

Urgent diplomatic interventions are needed as the second largest city in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo falls to M23

  • World Food Programme staff
4 min read
President Cyril Ramaphosa
AND ADVOCATING FOR THE STRATEGIC USE OF CRITICAL MINERALS

South Africa’s G20 presidency will focus on climate change and Africa’s development problems

The focus would also be on Africa’s high debt levels, financing the just energy transition and the strategic use of critical minerals

  • Anathi Madubela
3 min read
What is the government doing in terms of hunger relief and food waste? The short answer is nowhere near enough. (Photo by Dino Lloyd/Gallo Images via Getty Images)
ARTICLE

Twenty million South Africans face hunger every day

Yet the amount of food that goes into landfills is enough to end hunger in the country

  • Alan Browde
4 min read
Despite producing enough food, South Africa is experiencing a deepening hunger crisis. (Madelene Cronje)
CONSTITUTION

Confront injustice by fighting against hunger in South Africa

Despite constitutional promises, millions continue to suffer from hunger and malnutrition, perpetuating cycles of poverty and inequality

  • Alan Browde
3 min read
Every year, more than 10 million tonnes of food is lost or wasted in South Africa before it reaches the plates of consumers. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)
ANDY DU PLESSIS

Food ‘waste’ should be repurposed for the poor

An NPO is working with government departments and Nedlac to change South Africa’s food donations policy

  • Sheree Bega
5 min read
The pace of an increase in South Africa’s consumer food prices continues to slow. (Waldo Swiegers/Getty Images)
FOOD

People are starving in South Africa, the land of plenty

South Africa is food secure but people cannot afford nutritious food – or even food every day

  • Ozayr Patel
4 min read
Photo: Dwayne Senior/Bloomberg via Getty Images
ANDY DU PLESSIS

Harness ‘waste’ food for SA’s hungry, says nonprofit FoodForward SA

Food considered ‘waste’ after reaching its ‘best before’ date can help stem hunger and malnutrition

  • Eunice Masson
5 min read
Informal traders, such as hawkers, street vendors and spaza shops are an important link in the chain that connects food producers to consumers. Photo: Supplied (Oupa Nkosi/M&G)
CAPE TOWN

City planners, street vendors and spaza shops could help keep South Africans fed. Here’s how

Local governments back many projects where people can grow vegetables in urban areas, but researchers say that it’s not enough to curb hunger

  • Nicole Ludolph
8 min read
Beneficiary organisations collect a monthly supply of fresh produce and non-perishable food from a FoodForward SA Northern Cape warehouse. Photo: FFSA
FOOD INSECURITY

Ten million tonnes of food wasted a year, but millions in SA go hungry

The country needs a food donation policy so that more people can be fed, says redistribution nonprofit FoodForward SA

  • Heather Dugmore
5 min read
A child displaced by drought holds her nose as she walks past the rotting carcasses of goats that died from hunger and thirst on the outskirts of Dollow, Somalia. People from across Gedo in Somalia have been displaced due to drought conditions and forced to come to Dollow, in the southwest, to search for aid. Somalia has suffered three failed rainy seasons in a row, making this the worst drought in decades, and 6 million people are in crisis levels of food insecurity. The problems are being compounded by the rising costs of food prices because of the Ukraine war. Hence, hundreds of thousands of livestock have died from hunger and thirst. (Sally Hayden/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
AFGHANISTAN

Hungry for action campaign: Time for a food and finance revolution

The world must act now because the food system is broken and families from Mozambique to Ireland don’t know where their next meal will come from

  • Mary Robinson
  • Graça Machel
5 min read
FOSSIL FUELS

Why a just energy transition requires seismic surveying

Careful balancing of the pros and cons of seismic surveys show the harm is not worth the lost income that could alleviate hunger and poverty

  • Peter Courtney
11 min read
Underfed: About 6.5-million people living in South Africa go hungry, meaning households cannot afford to buy food or to make their own. In Gauteng, the economic hub of the country, about 35% of the population is severely food insecure. (David Harrison)
FOOD INSECURITY

What’s driving hunger in Gauteng, South Africa’s economic power house

Vulnerable families depend on the delivery of essential services and safety nets to survive

  • Adrino Mazenda & Saul Ngarava
4 min read
An eight-month-old child receives high nutrition foods at Tawkal 2 Dinsoor camp for internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Baidoa, Somalia, on February 14, 2022. Insufficient rainfall since late 2020 has come as a fatal blow to populations already suffering from a locust invasion between 2019 and 2021, the Covid-19 pandemic. For several weeks, humanitarian organizations have multiplied alerts on the situation in the Horn of Africa, which raises fears of a tragedy similar to that of 2011, the last famine that killed 260,000 people in Somalia. – Desperate, hungry and thirsty, more and more people are flocking to Baidoa from rural areas of southern Somalia, one of the regions hardest hit by the drought that is engulfing the Horn of Africa. (YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP via Getty Images)
CHILD SUPPORT GRANT

Investing in nutrition is a crucial step in improving children’s rights

Extending the child support grant into pregnancy will play a vital role in combating stunting and improving the prospects of children in South Africa

  • Ofentse Mboweni
3 min read