By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
President Cyril Ramaphosa called for greater accountability from the private sector, urging major food retailers to reconsider their profit margins and join government in reducing the cost of living.
Ramaphosa was speaking at the 7th Annual Social Justice Summit, hosted by the Stellenbosch University Centre for Social Justice at the Cape Town International Convention Centre on Friday, 17 October 2025. The event centred around the themes of food security and peace.
He was joined by the director of the Stellenbosch University Centre for Social Justice, Professor Thuli Madonsela; Western Cape Premier Alan Winde; resident coordinator of the UN in South Africa, Nelson Muffuh; and Minister of Public Service and Administration Mzamo Buthelezi, among others.
In her welcoming remarks, Madonsela, described the Summit as a moment of collective moral reckoning. She reminded the audience that hunger is not inevitable but “the result of human action and inaction.”
Madonsela announced the Centre’s intention to establish a private commission to develop a Model Law on Food Security, Nutrition and the Right to Food, rooted in the principles of General Comment 12 on the right to food of the United Nations’ Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.
“Hunger is not just a moral issue, it is a legal and sustainability issue,” she said. “We are asking President Ramaphosa to champion this cause globally through the G20, BRICS, the African Union and the United Nations. We believe South Africa can lead the way.”
Western Cape Premier Winde echoed this call for collaboration, urging a “partnership towards social justice”. Citing alarming data that 45% of South Africans do not have food security throughout the month, Winde warned that progress since the pandemic had reversed.
Delivering the keynote address, Ramaphosa commended SU and the Centre for Social Justice for their leadership in advancing equality through the Musa Plan for Social Justice, describing it as “inspiring and necessary”.
He situated the Summit’s theme within South Africa’s broader National Development Plan (NDP) and the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), noting that the countdown to 2030 “has begun in earnest.”
Statistics showed that many people continue to experience inadequate access to food in South Africa, with severe, acute malnutrition remaining a challenge, said Ramaphosa.
“It is most worrying when we continue to hear that malnutrition is increasing in a number of areas in our country, [such as the] Eastern Cape… At the same time, we’ve embarked on one of the biggest social welfare programmes on our continent, spending up to 61% of our budget… [on] social welfare for 62 million people,” he said.
He noted that despite a range of interventions implemented by various departments, particularly the departments of health and social development, cases of malnutrition in children under five had increased by about 26% over the past five years.
Ramaphosa laid out a number of interventions the state was pursuing to address problems of hunger and food insecurity in the country, including the reform of policy and legal frameworks such as the Integrated Food Security Strategy, the National Food and Nutrition Security Plan and the Nutrition Policy Implementation Plan.
The president highlighted the effectiveness of the social grant system, particularly the Social Relief of Distress grant introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic, which significantly reduced food poverty in 2021.
Despite these efforts, Ramaphosa reiterated the need for urgent course correction to meet the targets set forth in both the NDP and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). As the summit proceeded, he urged participants to explore granular details of sustainable solutions, stressing that “the realisation of the right to food is not only a measure of policy success but a test of our collective conscience.”
The president concluded his address with a call for unity, advocating that achieving social justice is not possible in the presence of hunger. “I am encouraged by the global solidarity in our efforts to ensure universal food security,” he said, referencing partnerships that echo South Africa’s foundational values of Ubuntu.