“The time for being polite is over”: Confronting hunger and food system injustice in South Africa

On World Hunger Day 2026, the DSTI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Food Security (CoE-FS), the Union Against Hunger (UAH) and the Women on Farms Project (WFP) convened a discussion on hunger, food justice and the constitutional right to food in South Africa.

The discussion reflected on submissions made to the South African Human Rights Commission’s “National Inquiry into the Food Systems of South Africa”, and examined why hunger and malnutrition persist despite South Africa’s extensive policy framework, sophisticated food system and constitutional protections.

Speakers explored key issues, including:

• The right to food and state accountability
• Food system inequality and food justice
• Children’s right to basic nutrition
• Food affordability and poverty
• Corporate power and ultra-processed foods
• Gender, land and food insecurity
• Governance failures and policy implementation
• The role of social movements, civil society and research in advancing food system transformation

Featured speakers include:

• Dr Florian Kroll (CoE-FS)
• Dr Tamryn Frank (University of the Western Cape)
• Carmen Louw (WFP)
• Paula Knipe (Animal Law Reform South Africa)
• Jordan Volmink (Masifundise Development Trust)

The discussion asks a fundamental question: if South Africa has the knowledge, evidence and resources to address hunger, what is preventing meaningful change?

Learn more about the DSTI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Food Security: https://foodsecurity.ac.za

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