Here’s the painful paradox of South Africa today: our nation produces enough food to feed itself and export to others, yet millions of our people go to bed hungry. The problem isn’t a lack of food in the country; it’s a devastating lack of money in people’s pockets to buy that food.
Despite the government spending billions on social grants and feeding schemes, the number of hungry South Africans continues to climb. Why? Because we are fighting the symptoms of the diseasehungerwithout treating the cause, which is mass unemployment and a stagnant economy.
The Flawed Strategy: Treating Symptoms, Not the Cause
Recently, President Cyril Ramaphosa highlighted that 15 to 16 million South Africans face inadequate access to food. He then pointed to the massive social wageaccounting for about 60% of government spendingas a sign of commitment.
But this is not a badge of honor; it is proof of a system in failure. We are trapped in a cycle where an ever-growing population of unemployed people relies on an ever-strained government treasury. These handouts, while desperately needed, are a life raft, not a ladder out of poverty.
The only sustainable solution to poverty and hunger is economic growth that creates jobs. Yet, for years, our GDP growth has languished below 1%, completely outstripped by population growth. We are trying to fill a leaking bucket faster, instead of patching the holes.
The Two-Pronged Solution: Jobs and an Efficient Food Chain
To truly address this crisis, the government’s entire focus must shift to a two-part strategy.
1. Relentless Focus on Economic Growth and Job Creation
Every single government department, minister, and policy must be judged by one simple metric: does this help create jobs? The goal must be to achieve consistent growth of 4-5% per year. This requires:
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Policies that encourage investment, both local and foreign.
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Removing barriers that make it difficult for small businesses to hire people.
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Empowering entrepreneurs to start and scale businesses, which are the true engines of job creation.
2. Fixing the Broken Food Production Chain
Making food affordable isn’t just the job of the Agriculture Department. It’s a national logistics mission. For years, experts have warned that failures in our infrastructure directly inflate food prices. This involves:
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Transport: Fixing our roads and rail systems to get farm inputs in and produce out efficiently.
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Water: Ensuring reliable water delivery to farms, as municipalities falter.
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Energy: Providing a stable electricity grid so that farmers and producers don’t have to spend millions on generators and solar panelscosts that are inevitably passed on to the consumer.
When a major poultry producer like Astral has to spend R100 million to build its own water pipeline, it’s a clear sign of systemic failure that makes feeding the nation harder and more expensive.
A Quick Win: Making Staples More Affordable
While working on these long-term fixes, there are immediate actions that can provide relief. One of the most powerful would be to remove Value Added Tax (VAT) from the specific chicken portions most consumed by low-income households.
Chicken makes up 66% of all meat eaten in South Africa; it is the protein backbone for millions of families. Making it VAT-free would instantly lower its price by 15%, putting a nutritious meal within reach for those who need it most and directly combating child malnutrition.
The path forward is clear. We must stop merely managing poverty and start aggressively creating prosperity. The future of a food-secure South Africa lies not in the endless expansion of the social grant system, but in a thriving private sector, supported by smart government policy, that can create jobs and ensure affordable food for all.
{Source: IOL}
