Overview
- South Africa formally adopted a medium-term plan targeting a reduction in the share of people below the food poverty line from 30.9% (2022) to 25% by 2029 and cutting those vulnerable to hunger from 5.4 million to below 2.9 million.
- President Cyril Ramaphosa declared access to food a fundamental human right and called on supermarket chains to lower high margins he says are driving prices.
- He cited worsening indicators, including StatsSA data showing food insecurity rose from 15.8% in 2019 to 19.7% in 2023 and a roughly 26% increase in child malnutrition over five years.
- Planned interventions include reforming the Integrated Food Security Strategy, the National Food and Nutrition Security Plan and the Nutrition Policy Implementation Plan, alongside an expanded school nutrition programme reaching 9.7 million children with two meals daily.
- Ramaphosa urged regular reviews of the national minimum wage and social grants to keep pace with inflation and flagged fiscal and market measures to improve affordability, with South Africa set to advance a G20 declaration affirming the right to food.