Just days before Parliament reconvened to confront the country’s worsening child malnutrition crisis, the DG Murray Trust (DGMT) tabled a set of urgent proposals aimed at helping South Africa reverse the trend of stunting and severe acute malnutrition.

DGMT is calling for the appointment of a national “nutrition czar”, a champion empowered to drive a unified, cross-departmental strategy anchored on three pillars: making protein-rich staple foods more affordable, reducing low birth weight deliveries, and supporting households and smallholder farmers to grow more fresh food.

According to DGMT, a quarter of South Africa’s children are held back before they even begin life’s race, constrained by chronic malnutrition. “Every year, between 15 000 and 20 000 children experience episodes of severe acute malnutrition (SAM) so dangerous that they lead to repeated illness, hospitalisation and, for more than a thousand children annually, death,” DGMT said in the statement.

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On Friday, 28 November, MPs were once again challenged to confront this national failure as Parliament reviewed how effectively South Africa is protecting children from hunger and malnutrition. Lawmakers were expected to interrogate not only longstanding gaps in coordination and implementation but also the current failures that keep families trapped in food insecurity and young children at risk of SAM.

Stunting Affects More Than One in Four Children Under Five

DGMT said stunting is a result of chronic malnutrition that leaves children too short for their age and affects more than one in four children under five. “It is widely regarded as a country’s most reliable indicator of long-term developmental prospects. For South Africa, it represents not just a human tragedy but an economic burden running into billions. Despite this, the country has no explicit national target for eliminating stunting, nor a road map to guide action.”

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“Stunting is the result of cumulative setbacks from conception through the first years of life,” explained Dr David Harrison, CEO of DGMT. “When babies are born too small and young children lack the protein and micronutrients needed for their brains and bodies to grow, the damage can be permanent.” Stunting is closely linked to poor cognitive development, weak school performance and reduced economic participation later in life.

Harrison said Parliament must confront a difficult truth: South Africa lacks a shared national ambition, leadership structure and implementation model to tackle stunting effectively. The National Food and Nutrition Security Council, created to coordinate this work, has yet to fulfil its intended mandate, and even if fully functional, it does not have the capacity to drive a focused, 10-year strategy.

“What we need is a ‘nutrition czar’, someone with the authority to champion a national programme across departments,” argued Harrison.

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He outlined three priority pillars for such a strategy:

1. Make protein-rich staple foods more affordable

President Cyril Ramaphosa recently acknowledged that government cannot address food affordability without meaningful collaboration from the private sector. In response, DGMT and Grow Great have proposed a temporary “double-discounting” model for a basket of nutrient-dense, protein-rich staples.

Under this proposal, food manufacturers and retailers would forego profits on selected items, while government matches that discount. Together, this could reduce retail prices by 20% to 25% at a cost of R4 billion to R5 billion a year.

“These foods offer the most nutrition for the least money and have a long shelf life – crucial for families living in food poverty,” said Dr Edzani Mphaphuli, executive director of Grow Great. “This isn’t a full solution, [as] children still need fruit and vegetables, but it gives parents more purchasing power and makes it easier to buy nutrient-rich foods like eggs and tinned fish.”

2. Introduce a Maternal Support Grant to reduce low birth weight

Low birth weight – infants born under 2.5 kg – is one of the strongest predictors of stunting. Babies born too small are three times more likely to become stunted. Food insecurity during pregnancy is a major driver, yet research shows that income support to pregnant women can dramatically lower these risks.

DGMT proposed a nine-month Maternal Support Grant costing approximately R2 billion per year. The long-term benefits far outweigh the investment: preventing low birth weight and related complications could save the state an estimated R13.8 billion annually in healthcare costs.

3. Support households and smallholder farmers to grow more food

Across the country, NGOs are helping communities establish home gardens and smallholder plots. However, the current cooperation with Environmental Extension Services (EES) is patchy and inconsistent.

DGMT argued for a stronger, more structured partnership: EES should supply inputs like seedlings, fencing and water tanks, while NGOs deliver training and hands-on support. At roughly R5 million per agrihub, such a model could support about 200 smallholder farmers or household gardens at a time.

Urgent short-term interventions also needed

Long-term strategies must be paired with immediate actions to protect children already at risk of acute malnutrition. This includes restoring the National Therapeutic Programme for under-twos who are failing to thrive – a programme that has collapsed or underperformed in several provinces.

“With the right plans, leadership and implementation,” said Mphaphuli, “there would be no need for parliamentary debates about past failures. Stunting is preventable, and no child in South Africa should go hungry or die from malnutrition.”

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