SA MALNUTRITION CRISIS HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT

Image Source: SABC News

Tue 20 January 2026:

Despite South Africa being the continent’s most developed economy with surplus agricultural production and an advanced food distribution system, nearly 1,000 children under the age of five died from severe acute malnutrition in public hospitals in 2025 alone.

Activist Mark Heywood revealed that the actual death toll could be ten times higher once deaths outside the hospital system are counted.

Heywood, who has been tracking child hunger and malnutrition, describes the situation as a crisis of neglect and negligence rather than scarcity.

The tragedy unfolds in a country where many children die within sight of shops stocked with the food they need to survive.

Heywood said the hospital deaths represent a fraction of the tragedy. The figures are not estimates but documented facts about child mortality linked to inadequate nutrition.

“In fact, it’s not just speculation. It is the fact that up to 11,000 children die every year, either directly or indirectly related to malnutrition or severe acute malnutrition,” he said.

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Permanent Damage to Survivors

Beyond mortality, the crisis has devastating long-term effects on surviving children. By age five, nearly 29% of South African children suffer from stunting – physical underdevelopment caused by inadequate nutrition that permanently affects intellectual and physical development.

Heywood warned that the damage extends far beyond childhood. Stunting creates irreversible consequences that will impact the nation’s future, leaving affected children with lifelong cognitive and physical limitations.

“Stunting is a medical term which refers to physical underdevelopment of the child due to not getting enough food, not getting enough nutrition, and stunting has permanent effects. It has permanent effects on the intellectual development of the child, permanent effects on the physical development of the child,” he said.

Root Causes: Pricing and Poverty

Heywood identified multiple interconnected factors driving the crisis, with food pricing emerging as a critical issue. Through his organisation, the Union Against Hunger, he is challenging major retailers’ pricing strategies.

Major retailers continue to post substantial earnings while essential food items remain unaffordable for South Africa’s poorest families. Heywood pointed to the ethical problem of profiting from necessities rather than luxury goods.

“The big retail supermarkets, your Checkers and your Boxers and your Pick n Pays and Shoprites, are very, very profitable. In fact, they make collectively combined profits of about 20 billion rand a year, and they’re profiting from essential foodstuffs by excessive pricing,” he said.

Social grants have failed to keep pace with inflation. The Social Relief of Distress grant provides only R370 monthly, well below the R600 food poverty line. Heywood describes this as “a perfect storm that epitomises the inequality crisis.”

Government Inaction and Civil Society Response

Government officials don’t dispute the figures, but Heywood said there’s been no urgent response. He outlined what decisive leadership would look like in confronting this preventable tragedy.

Heywood criticised the lack of coordinated government action despite official acknowledgement of the problem. He called for immediate intervention at the highest levels to prevent further child deaths.

“Nobody is disputing these figures. Nobody’s said that it’s not true that there are 11,000 kids dying every year, 1,000 directly due to severe acute malnutrition. So nobody’s denying the problem, but there’s no urgency to deal with the problem,” he said.

Without government action, civil society organisations and community kitchens have filled critical gaps.

Heywood acknowledged these grassroots efforts but said they cannot solve the crisis alone without substantial government support and scaled interventions.