Soundbite by Bridget Masango MP.
- Since May, another 45 children have died from malnutrition in the Eastern Cape, with 766 deaths nationwide in 2024 alone.
- Government has admitted it is failing to act, while a deputy minister even denied that hunger exists.
- The DA will conduct oversight visits to clinics and nutrition centres and present findings to Parliament.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) is raising the alarm on South Africa’s child hunger crisis following shocking revelations at the South African Human Rights Commission hearings.
Since the DA first exposed horrifying malnutrition statistics in May, another 45 children in the Eastern Cape have died. In total, 70 children under the age of 5 have lost their lives in that province in just seven months. Each of these deaths represents a young life cut short, a grieving family, and a future stolen.
The crisis stretches far beyond the Eastern Cape. KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, Gauteng, and North West have all recorded staggering numbers of malnutrition deaths. In 2024 alone, 766 children under 5 died from malnutrition related causes in public hospitals across South Africa. Deaths linked to moderate acute malnutrition were not even included in the figures presented at the SAHRC, meaning the true scale of this disaster is even greater.
At the SAHRC hearings, senior officials admitted what the DA has long warned: government may have policies on paper, but it is failing to implement them. Even worse, Social Development Deputy Minister Ganief Hendricks flatly denied that hunger exists in South Africa. This denial is a cruel insult to the poorest mothers who are forced to bury their children because there is simply no food to eat.
The DA will not allow this national tragedy to be swept aside. We have demanded urgent accountability from both the Departments of Health and Social Development, and submitted questions on the failure of the Food and Nutrition Security Council to make progress since 2018, whether food value chains are being properly established and monitored, and the extent of partnerships that could help tackle malnutrition.
To bring the truth to light, the DA Spokesperson on Health, Michele Clarke, and I will embark on a series of oversight visits to clinics, community nutrition and development centres across the country. We will place our findings before the relevant committees in Parliament.
As Commissioner Philile Ntuli rightly said, malnutrition is not a natural disaster. It is a failure of government. The DA will fight relentlessly until no child in South Africa goes to bed hungry or dies from starvation.