South Africa's food security barely above Zimbabwe's

South Africa’s food security has declined since 2012, and stunting rates are now almost on par with its significantly poorer neighbour, Zimbabwe. 

Despite South Africa’s comparative wealth, the country has a child stunting rate of 25% — which is only a marginal improvement on Zimbabwe (23.5%) — and 4.7 million people do not meet their basic caloric needs.

A quarter of the poorest households in South Africa report children going to bed hungry and the worst risks of hunger are experienced in female-headed households (16.7% in rural areas and 11.9% in urban areas), compared with male-headed households (12.5% in rural areas and 8.7% in urban areas). 

The South African Food Security Index 2024 shows that SA’s score fell to 45.3 last year, far from its best score of 64.9 achieved in 2019. Zero represents severe food insecurity. This indicates that, on average, more South Africans faced deeper levels of food insecurity in 2023 than in any other year between 2012 and 2023. 

South Africans are also consuming less — and less nutritious — food now than they did in 2020, with 11.8% of households reporting that they were consuming a smaller variety of food than usual due to economic pressures, although hunger has declined sharply thanks to the expansion of social grants in the early 2000s.

By 2007, the index shows that hunger rates had declined to 12% of households, although the global financial crisis of 2007-2008 and the 2015 drought temporarily reversed some of this progress. Since Covid, hunger levels have climbed, despite initial progress in regions that had made progress due to the roll-out of social grants. Much of this progression is now also threatened by climate change, war, unemployment, pandemics, international food supply issues and prices.

Some provinces, such as Limpopo, performed unexpectedly well in the index, while the Northern Cape saw a significant decline, dropping from the 40-50 range in 2019 to the 10-20 range by 2023. Other provinces, including the Western Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal, initially had higher levels of food security in 2019 but experienced sharp declines leading up to 2023.

Although South Africa has made progress in reducing food insecurity in the past, the index suggests that the situation could deteriorate over the next decade if swift and effective interventions are not implemented.

Prof von Fintel told a media briefing on Wednesday that economic hardship from the Covid era was still a factor in determining food security, and on the rise, but another factor was the recent inflation.

“This is a core part of our index… food inflation is far more rapid than general inflation … households have diverted their incomes to coping with other financial needs, and therefore having to sacrifice their food budgets. Even though households might have enough food, they start buying cheaper foods that might be less nutritious.”

Diets need to be nutritious, but affordable food often isn’t necessarily so. “Based on published work, we see that there are food groups that are both nutritious and affordable, and this is an aspect which we really need to consider in a country like South Africa, where food needs to meet both these requirements of affordability, accessibility and also nutritiousness.

“Foods like chicken liver, tinned fish, peanut butter, milk, maas, and dark greeny leafy vegetables such as spinach and indigenous green leaves,” Von Fintel said, adding that affordable foods need to also be nutritious to achieve better long-term health outcomes. 

One of the key steps in making food groups more affordable is linked to VAT, which is why more healthy foods should be zero-rated, he said. 

Last month, the South African Poultry Association (Sapa) and the FairPlay Movement once again called for the Treasury to exempt specific chicken products from VAT to provide relief for low-income households and boost the poultry industry. 

Sapa CEO Izaak Breitenbach said his association plans to apply for VAT exemption for some chicken products in November.

In 2018, the industry applied for VAT exemption for offal products and individually quick frozen (IQF) items, which was deemed too expensive when a panel investigation estimated it would cost the fiscus almost R6-billion.

The Competition Commission has also expressed concern about the high cost of food, taking aim at retailers, in its latest Essential Food Pricing Monitoring Report. The commission has noted that although cost pressures on food are easing, retailers don’t seem to be passing savings on to consumers quickly enough, particularly on certain types of food. DM