An Overview of the Constitutional Right to Food under the South African Constitution

Abstract

This article focuses on the right of everyone, including children and detained persons to have access to food. The State is obliged in terms of the Constitution to take reasonable legislative steps and other measures, within its available resources to achieve the progressive realization of each of these rights in terms of section 27 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa of 1996. The discussion will be historical in approach, commencing with the legacy of apartheid on the right to food. It will also examine the country’s obligations under international law. Lastly, the right to food as entrenched in the South African Constitution and the different ways in which it has been, and can in future be given concrete expression in South African law, through legislation and judicial decisions, will be elucidated. In the process, this article will briefly consider the extent to which the South African government’s existing responses to the country’s food security problems meet its constitutional duties in the light of current status of national food security.

DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n1p761