“We’ll fight this little struggle” : alleviating hunger in South Africa

• Author: Bright Kojo Nkrumah
• DOI: 10.17159/2225-7160/2020/v53a14
• Published date: 01 June 2020
• Date: 01 June 2020
• Pages: 194-211

194 2020 De Jure Law Journal

“We’ll fight this little struggle”: alleviating

hunger in South Africa

Bright Nkrumah

Mphil, Dphil

Postdoctoral Research Fellow, University of KwaZulu Natal

SUMMARY

In post-apartheid South Africa, citizens have on several instances resorted

to the use of social protest or public dissent as a means of improving their

access to essential socioeconomic amenities. The protection of citizens

from chronic hunger has been a dominant theme among policy actors in

South Africa, most of whom have expansive mandates to ensure citizens

have adequate access to food. However, the number of people facing

hunger remains high, giving rise to questions about the best approach to

address chronic hunger, specifically, through social protest. Social protest,

as used here, consists of struggles or resistance against government

actions or inactions. Ironically, whiles social protest has been used on

different fronts (housing, health, education and wrongful eviction), chronic

hunger or lack of people’s access to adequate food hardly becomes a pivot

around which protesters seek to bring about reform. Based on examples

from selected countries, the discussion notes that protest is an effective

tool for protecting citizens from food poverty. However, before protest

could influence food policy, there is the need for mobilisation of all

relevant actors to challenge existing (inadequate) food policies. The paper

identified various factors that have contributed to and acted as a hindrance

against food protest in various jurisdictions and examined how these

factors have prevented widespread food protest in South Africa.

“Every man gotta right to decide his own destiny

And in this judgment there is no partiality

So arm in arms, with arms

We'll fight this little struggle

'Cause that's the only way

We can overcome our little trouble.”1

1Introduction

In terms of food sovereignty, South Africa is food-secured, with adequate

calories to sufficiently feed its citizens. However, the painful truth is that

in reality, it is estimated that 6.8 million South Africans face chronic

hunger and malnutrition.2 This paradox brings to bear two important

1 Marley, Zimbabwe (1979).

2 StatsSA “The extent of food security in South Africa” 2020 http://

www.statssa.gov.za/?p=12135 (last accessed 2020-04-20).

How to cite: Nkrumah ‘“We’ll fight this little struggle”: alleviating hunger in South Africa’

2020 De Jure Law Journal 194-211

http://dx.doi.org/10.17159/2225-7160/2020/v53a14

“We’ll fight this little struggle”: alleviating hunger in South Africa 195

issues worth examining: are the steps (policies) taken by the state

(in)adequate, or are these steps poorly implemented?

Ironically, South Africa which has been dubbed as the “protest capital

of the world” rarely use protest to promote one essential human need –

access to adequate food. To this end, the paper seeks to provide insight

on a more radical, robust approach – social protest – and how it can be

used to improve human needs. The discussion also offers an analysis of

why food protest is rare and offers recommendations on how it could be

triggered in South Africa.

2 From discontent to protest

Citizens, when confronted with unjust decisions or laws, or seek to

satisfy their needs, often engage in a more traditional form of political

activities – including attending political meetings, persuading friends,

discussing politics with acquaintances to vote in particular ways,

contacting public officials, following politics in the newspapers, and

working for political parties and their candidates – to the unconventional

and new forms, such as blocking traffic, withholding taxes or rent,

wildcat strikes, sit-ins, occupations, boycotts, demonstrations and

signing petitions.

In South Africa, the country has been rocked by an increasing number

of popular protests. By the end of 2019, this number has escalated to

15 957 incidents of which 11 431 were peaceful, and 3 526 turned

violent.3 Besides workers and students who often participate in these

marches, members of political parties, civil society organisations (CSOs),

residents of informal shack settlements and townships also engage in

protest actions.

Overall, social protest has played an enormous role in enhancing the

participation of poor people in decision-making. Although some of the

numerous service delivery protests have not been very successful in

compelling the government to change policy, it somewhat made an

impact in the #FeesMustFall protest.4 Besides the success of the student

protest leading to policy change, there are three cases where social

protest has been instrumental in bringing about policy change. First,

following a wave of strikes by farmworkers in the Western Cape from

August 2012 to January 2013, due to low worker pay of R69, the official

3 South African Police Service “Annual Report 2018/2019” (2019) http://pmg-

assets.s3-website-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/SAPS_Annual_Report_20182

019.pdf (last accessed 2020-04-20) 151.

4 Laccino “South Africa: Jacob Zuma announces 0% university fee increase

following fees must fall protest” http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/south-africa-

jacob-zuma-announces-0-university-fee-increase-following-fees-must-fall-

protest-1525398 (last accessed 2020-04-20).