SACSIS – the South African Civil Society Information Service, wat daarop gerig is om as nie-winsgewende nuusagentskap kommentaar wat gerig is op die bevordering van sosiale geregtig heid te publiseer. Is juis ook een van die voorstanders van die verwydering van apartheid en deelnemers aan die proses van transformasie, wat nou kerm omdat slegs een uit elke vier Suid Afrikaners honger gaan slaap! Instede van sosiale geregtigheid was en is hulle deelnemers aan juis die vernietiging daarvan met die skepping van totale toekomstige hongersnood in Suid Afrika as maar een van die gevolge van hulle soort geregtigheid! Dit het tyd geword dat die Afrikanervolk ontslae raak van hierdie breinlose rugryers wat die mening toegedaan is dat alles reg gepraat kan word! Sosiale geregtigheid onder ‘n onbevoegde, Swart Kommunistiesbeheerde regime is nie haalbaar nie en is wêreldwyd oor en oor bewys met akklamasie op die afgelope 21 jaar van hulle beheer in Suid Afrika! Die skepping en/of ondersteuning van ‘n stelsel wat géén potensiaal het om geregtigheid te vestig of te bevorder nie, maar net onreg en konflik gesteun deur rassespanning, maak jou aandadig aan die ongeregtigheid van hongersnood, wetteloosheid, moord, verkragting en elke ander verwerplike praktyk wat daardeur bevorder word. SACSIS moet maar daarvan kennis neem dat géén gepraat dit sal regmaak wat hulle gehelp het om ongeregtigheid te laat seëvier nie! Onderstaande is enkele van SACSIS se standpunte:

 Urban land is of symbolic significance in South Africa because it is land that people of colour were historically denied access to. But the historically privileged still own, occupy and enjoy the best urban land.  The question is, why hasn’t our government been able to unlock well-located land in urban areas to provide housing for the people who need it most?  The historically disadvantaged continue to live on marginal land on the peripheries of South Africa’s cities and the apartheid city remains untransformed.

 Both The South African Civil Society Information Service (SACSIS) and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung South Africa Office (FES) wish to promote discussion about the transformation of the apartheid landscape in an effort to foster social cohesion in South Africa’s still largely racially and economically segregated society. The organisations co-hosted a panel discussion to interrogate the issue on 17 April 2014.

The event was opened by Renate Tenbusch, Resident Director of the FES South Africa office and the panellists who spoke at the event included, Mark Napier: Principal Researcher at the Built Environment Unit of the CSIR and co-author of the book, “Trading Places: accessing land in African cities”; Thembani Jerome Ngongoma: Member of Executive Committee of Abahlali baseMjondolo (shack dwellers’ movement); Louise Scholtz: Manager at World Wildlife Fund South Africa and leader on joint project with National Association of Social Housing Organisations; and Kate Tissington: Senior Researcher at the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa. (Beklemtoning is van die AVP.)

ONE IN FOUR SOUTH AFRICANS IS HUNGRY

A growing body of research on access to sufficient and nutritious food shows that this most basic of rights remains far from being fulfilled for millions of South Africans.

16 October 2014 11:20  the full potential of over one in four children born in South Africa today is being limited and denied by a lack of access to sufficient and nutritious food. 

TODAY, October 16 is World Food Day. As the 20th World Food Day since the establishment of democracy in South Africa, a grim shadow of hunger and malnutrition hangs over the gains of the democratic era.

A growing body of research on access to sufficient and nutritious food shows that this most basic of rights remains far from being fulfilled for millions of South Africans.

Studies in Poverty and Inequality Institute (SPII) has developed a set of indicators to monitor and track progressive realisation of the right to food since the Constitution came into force in 1996. The 22 indicators cover multiple dimensions of the right to food and draw upon a range of South African and international data sources.

The indicators provide a picture of food security in our country today, while showing how this picture has evolved (or regressed) over the past two decades.

The good news is that there are fewer food insecure households today than in 1999 or 2005. Moreover, at a national level, there is a sufficient and growing supply of food for all in South Africa. The average supply of food available for individual consumption rose by 6% to 3007 kilocalories per person per day between 1999 and 2011.

The bad news is that, despite this availability of food, over a quarter of the population still live in food insecure households, which regularly experience hunger. A further quarter of the population live in households, which are at risk of hunger. That’s over 26 million people who are either experiencing or at risk of experiencing hunger.

This awful statistic is mainly due not to a lack of food availability, but to limited economic access to food among the poor. For example, annual inflation on food and non-alcoholic beverages has been higher than CPI inflation in all but one year since 2002.

Between 2008 and 2014, the cost of a basic food basket rose from R336 to R480 per month.  Households in the bottom three income decides spend on average over a quarter of their consumption expenditure on food, making them highly vulnerable to these price hikes.

In relation to nutrition, over half of rural households and almost half of urban informal households have a poor dietary diversity score. As a result of this lack of access to nutritious food, South Africa is experiencing a double crisis of both underweight and overweight adults. In 2012, 4.2% of women and 12.8% of men were found to be underweight, while 24.8% of women and 20.1% of men were overweight. These figures have changed very little since 1998.

Some of the most alarming statistics relate to children. While more children are benefitting from school feeding and vitamin supplementation programmes than ever before, the percentage of children stunted by age 4 has increased from 21.6% in 1999 to 26.5% in 2012. The percentage of children with severe stunting by age 4 has also increased.

Stunting is caused by prolonged inadequacy of food intake, repeated episodes of infections and/or repeated episodes of acute under nutrition, and has serious impacts on both physical and cognitive health and development. In other words, the full potential of over one in four children born in South Africa today is being limited and denied by a lack of access to sufficient and nutritious food.

On this World Food Day, we urge the government to urgently reflect on its responsibility – and constitutional obligations – to the most vulnerable members of our society. Hunger and malnutrition must be consigned to the dustbin of history. The fruits of democracy must be enjoyed by all.

 * Article supplied by  SACSIS – the South African Civil Society Information Service. SACSIS is a nonprofit news agency that promotes social justice commentary.