A group of activists for food access and affordability met yesterday (Thursday 21 September 2023) to
discuss the worsening food crisis for children. Convened by the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund and the
DG Murray Trust, the meeting sought to identify urgent measures to combat rising rates of severe acute
malnutrition and child hunger.
The activist group includes representatives of COSATU, the South African Council of Churches, civil
society groups and academics. It endorsed the proposal by the DG Murray Trust and the Grow Great
Zero-Stunting Campaign for government and the food industry to contribute equally in making at least
one product label of ten highly nutritious foods far more affordable to poorer households. This proposal
requests food manufacturers and retailers to ‘ double discount’ a list of ten best buy foods, with the
amount of profit waived by industry matched by a retail subsidy by government.
“Data from the Department of Health shows that there were over 15,000 cases of severe acute
malnutrition requiring hospitalization in the 2022/3 financial year”, says Dr Linda Ncube Nkomo, CEO of
the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund. “But that is just the tip of the iceberg”, she says. “Malnutrition is
the underlying cause of about one -third of all child deaths in South Africa today, this despite Section 28
of the Constitution which guarantees the right of nutrition to every child”.
The problem of acute malnutrition worsens the chronically high levels of food insecurity in South Africa,
with over a quarter of children under five nutr itionally stunted. Poor physical growth is just one
manifestation of much deeper damage being done to the life -long wellbeing of children, not least to their
brain development”, says Dr Edzani Mphaphuli, Executive Director of the Grow Great zero -stunting
campaign. “If we don’t stop stunting now”, says Mphaphuli, we shouldn’t expect learning outcomes to
improve or our economy to grow.”
In addition to the double -discounted basket of ten best buys, the group called on the food formula
industry to stop extracting massive profits from the poorest mothers, whose own malnutrition makes
breastfeeding difficult. Given the high cost of infant formula, desperate mothers water down the milk to
make it stretch further, which means that their babies don’t get enou gh protein and vitamins. It also
called on government to ensure that every province has an effective programme in place to identify
children at high risk and to provide nutritional supplementation to children failing to thrive.
The legacy of Douglas and Eleanor Murray Invest in South Africa’s potential
The group undertook to monitor food prices actively and to challenge the food industry to make the third
of young children who live below the food poverty line their responsibility too. “We are heartened that
NEDLAC has tasked a multi-sectoral committee to review the viability of proposal to double-discount ten
best buy foods”, says Dr David Harrison, CEO of the DG Murray Trust. “No sector of society – not
government, not labour, not civil society nor industry – should be able to say that substantive proposals
to feed South Africa’s children are too difficult, without putting a better option on the table.”
