NEWS: Hunger on epic scale across South Africa

It’s dark and cold in the tiny, cramped house the Tshwedi siblings share with their mentally-ill uncle in Kagiso. And there is hardly ever any food to eat.

On most days, the only meal the three children consume is a donated peanut butter sandwich and a cup of milk from a feeding centre in Kagiso, where they live.

Their mother died and their uncle cannot stretch his meagre pension any further. For the children, in grades 4, 10, and 12, this single meal is saving their lives.

“They attend school every day and are doing well,” explains Phindile Hlalele, the executive director of the ACFS, a feeding scheme that nourishes 31 000 children like Tshwedi’s every day across Joburg.

But without the donation, “their efforts to uplift themselves would surely fail because malnutrition has a disastrous effect on children’s growth and learning”.

Chronic hunger was terrifyingly real in Joburg, she said.

“There are many cases like these. We’ve just dealt with two where there were very sick children in the homes. Everyone was relying on a small social grant and there was nothing, absolutely nothing, to eat.”

It was scary how hunger is a hidden problem, she said.

“Most people seem surprised there are such hungry people in a wealthy city like Joburg. Yet hunger is the most crucial challenge we are faced with.” Across SA, hunger is on an epic scale. One in four people go to bed hungry every day - that’s 14 million people. A further 15 million are on the terrifying verge of joining the ranks of the chronically hungry.

A new Oxfam report, “Hidden Hunger in SA: The Faces of Hunger and Malnutrition in a Food Secure Nation”, due to be released on Monday, set out to show the harrowing real-life examples of what hunger in South Africa “looks and feels like”.

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