Building on the original SAHRC food systems submission
This supplementary submission by the Just Transition in the Food System Group responds to further questions arising from the South African Human Rights Commission’s National Inquiry into the Food Systems of South Africa.
It builds on the group’s original submission, which argued that South Africa’s food system must be transformed to become environmentally sustainable and climate-resilient, create decent work and improved livelihoods, and fulfil the constitutional right to sufficient food.
Deepening the case for a rights-based food system
The supplementary submission expands on several issues raised in the original submission, including hunger and food insecurity, food affordability, agroecology, land access, gender inequality, social protection, and public accountability. It responds directly to questions from the SAHRC on how the state should act to realise the right to food.
The submission argues that rising food insecurity is rooted in structural conditions, including precarious work, unemployment, inadequate wages, climate vulnerability, weak labour law enforcement, and insufficient social protection. It highlights how these dynamics affect Coloured households in agricultural regions, where casualised farm work, labour broking, and gendered income insecurity deepen vulnerability.
UBIG, affordability, and agroecology
The submission reaffirms the role of a Universal Basic Income Grant in strengthening food security and argues that it can be funded through progressive, non-regressive measures. It also calls for stronger government action on food affordability through income support, price-related interventions, public food infrastructure, local markets, and support for informal traders.
On agroecology, the submission argues that South Africa should expand agroecological production as part of a just food systems transition. It highlights evidence that agroecology can support food availability, farmer livelihoods, biodiversity, climate resilience, and more localised food systems.
Land, gender, and accountability
The submission further addresses land redistribution, women’s access to land, and the predominance of women in informal food trade. It shows that barriers to women’s land access arise from both law and practice, including insecure tenure, patriarchal norms, weak administration, and insufficient recognition of women’s independent land rights.
The appendix provides a case study of Hillview Farm, a Proactive Land Acquisition Strategy farm, to illustrate the practical challenges faced by small-scale farmers in land reform and producer support. It highlights delays, poor infrastructure, inadequate departmental support, and the consequences of weak administration for productive land use and food security.
Finally, the submission argues that hunger in South Africa is both a policy failure and a market failure. It calls for Treasury, Cabinet, and the broader state to align budgeting, planning, and policy with constitutional obligations to realise the right to food.