HUNGRY CITZENS

In 2020, about one in two South Africans were living in households with a per capita monthly disposable income below Statistics South Africa’s upper-bound poverty line of R1 300 a month, according to a report by the Department of Social Development’s expert panel on basic income support.

About one in five South Africans had inadequate access to food, says a Statistics South Africa report. In 2021, the National Income Dynamics Study Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey found that about 1.8 million people and

400 000 children lived in households affected by perpetual hunger, which is defined as hunger every day or almost every day. Women were more likely to shield their children from hunger than men.