We agree, President — the cruel and genocidal Israeli regime is using food as a weapon of war against the people of Palestine.
That is abhorrent and must be condemned at all times and in all forums!
But while we speak out against these crimes abroad, we must also open our eyes to the tragedy unfolding at home:
- Roughly 60–65% of South Africans live below the upper poverty line.
- Around 15 million people suffer from food insecurity.
- Over 2 million households experience outright hunger each year.
- Malnutrition contributes directly or indirectly to thousands of child deaths annually.
- Nearly one in three children under five is stunted — their growth and future blunted by hunger.
And yet, while millions go to bed hungry, food worth billions of rand is thrown away every year so that retailers can protect obscene profit margins.
Let’s look at the facts:
Shoprite/Checkers posted R256 billion in revenue and R13.4 billion in trading profit last year. Its CEO, Pieter Engelbrecht, took home a package worth R87 million — about R1.6 million a month. That’s more than 1,000 years of a worker’s minimum wage! Meanwhile, most Shoprite employees earn barely R32 an hour, just above the national minimum of R28.79.
Boxer, the so-called “discount” retailer, made R42 billion in sales and R2.3 billion in profit last year. Even while trumpeting affordability,” its workers still earn poverty wages that cannot buy the food they sell.
This is economic violence — a system that allows billion-rand profits at the top while the majority starve at the bottom.
South Africa’s hunger crisis is not caused by scarcity, but by greed and inequality. It is a man-made disaster, driven by profit-hungry corporations and a government that refuses to act decisively.
We demand:
- A National Food Security Emergency Plan.
- Laws preventing supermarkets from dumping edible food.
- A living wage for all retail and farm workers.
- Action — not speeches — to end hunger in our lifetime!
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