The Democratic Alliance (DA) says South Africa’s child-hunger crisis is deepening, with 45 more children dying from malnutrition in the Eastern Cape since May, bringing that province’s toll to 70 under-fives in seven months. Nationally, public hospitals recorded 766 malnutrition deaths among children in 2024, a rate the party calculates at roughly one death every two days.

Testifying at a South African Human Rights Commission hearing, senior officials conceded government nutrition programmes are failing, while Social Development Deputy Minister Ganief Hendricks reportedly denied hunger exists. Bridget Masango, the DA’s deputy spokesperson on social development, called the denial "a cruel insult" to grieving families and vowed to press Health and Social Development ministers on stalled Food and Nutrition Security Council plans.

Masango and DA Health Spokesperson Michele Clarke will launch oversight visits to clinics and community nutrition centres across five provinces and present their findings to Parliament. "Malnutrition is not a natural disaster. It is a failure of government," Masango said, pledging sustained pressure until no child "goes to bed hungry or dies from starvation."