We all have the right to affordable and nutritious food. HEALA campaigns to ensure that all South Africans have access to healthy food.
Campaigns
Learn about our work on the health promotion levy and front of package warning labels for food.
Get Involved
You can help! Find out how to get involved in our digital and community campaigns.
Campaigns
Learn about our work on the health promotion levy and front of package warning labels for food.
Get Involved
You can help! Find out how to get involved in our digital and community campaigns.
HEALA’s mission is to create a platform for communities to organise and mobilise around policy and the realisation of the right to affordable, nutritious food.
HEALA is a coalition of civil society organisations that advocates for equitable access to affordable and nutritious food for all in South Africa.
Section 27(1)(b) of the South African Constitution guarantees all the right to sufficient food and commits the state to the progressive realisation of this right. Additionally, Section 28(1)(c) states that every child has the right to basic nutrition, shelter, basic health care services and social services.
Yet, today South Africa’s poor communities bear the brunt of the country’s unequal food system. Affordable, nutritious food is hard to come by. As a result, poor communities experience high levels of hunger as well as high levels of obesity, diabetes and heart disease, some of the country’s leading causes of death.
Because government policy forms a crucial part of South Africa’s food system, HEALA believes that hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition are policy choices.
That’s why we work with a range of civil society organisations to advocate for government to ensure the food system is better regulated and that policies meant to curb hunger are working for the communities that need them.
Our Campaigns
HEALA advances the right to food by advocating for more just food systems in South Africa through policy changes. HEALA’s campaigns focus on improving food regulation, hunger alleviation measures and industry accountability.
Our two main campaigns focus on pushing for the increase of the health promotion levy (“sugar tax”) to 20% to align with World Health Organisation guidelines and the introduction of front-of-package warning labels to help South Africans make more informed nutrition decisions.
We also campaign to hold big food producers accountable to the law, promote transparency and we want to create greater public awareness of the importance of nutrition in health. Finally, to address hunger we advocate for an increase of the Child Support Grant and the introduction of a Basic Income Grant.
News
PMBEJD survey finds over 11% increase food costs compared to 2021
In the May Household Affordability Index, the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice & Dignity Group reported the average cost of the Household Food Basket at R4,609.89 – an increase …
Treasury announces a postponement to the HPL increase
o4 April 2022 To: Hon. E Godongwana Minister of Finance Per email: Cathy.Shilubana@treasury.gov.za; Mary.Marumo@treasury.gov.za cc: Hon. J Maswanganyi MP, Chairperson Standing Committee on Finance …
Key data from the February 2022 Household Affordability Index
The February 2022 Household Affordability Index, which tracks food price data from 44 supermarkets and 30 butcheries, in Johannesburg (Soweto, Alexandra, Tembisa and Hillbrow), Durban …
Vacancy: Communications manager
Are you an exceptional communicator with at least five years’ experience in journalism or communications? Are you committed to social justice and health equality? We …
WHO report unmasks the deceitful marketing of the $55 billion formula milk industry
On Wednesday 23rd February 2022, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) and partners launched a new report, ‘How the marketing …
Who is HEALA?
HEALA is a coalition of civil society organisations that advocate for equitable access to affordable, nutritious food in South Africa by building a more just food system.
Learn from ordinary South Africans how you can lead a healthier lifestyle
HEALA
We are guided by our mission to improve the health of an increasingly obese South Africa through our campaigns. Empowering people to make healthy food and lifestyle choices is our priority.
Lobby group wants government to double South Africa’s sugar tax
businesstech.co.za
A group of economic, medical and public health scholars have published an open letter to the National Treasury and South African Revenue Service (SARS), calling on the groups to double South Africa’...
WESTERN CAPE: Almost half of pregnant women and 1 in 5 children went to bed hungry in lockdown
www.dailymaverick.co.za
In a recent study of almost 2,500 women from the Western Cape, as many as 40% of the respondents reported going to bed hungry at least once a week, while 22% reported that their children went to bed h...
www.dailymaverick.co.za
In his State of the Nation Address in February 2022, President Ramaphosa promised that in 100 working days, government, business, labour and civil society would develop a social compact to ‘grow our...
LIFE ON THE EDGE: Eastern Cape faces of hunger — one family’s struggle to survive
www.dailymaverick.co.za
While hungry children in the Eastern Cape get sick, miss school and live in appalling conditions, thousands of families have missed out on emergency food parcels after a contract was awarded to a busi...
The #sugartax has proven to be successful, however, it could be even more useful.
HEALA’s Lawrence Mbalati says if the tax was doubled, it could net R2 billion, helping to pay nurses, doctors and health care workers to deliver better care.
https://businesstech.co.za/news/finance/517020/lobby-group-wants-government-to-double-south-africas-sugar-tax/
The child support grant doesn’t extend to mothers during #pregnancy, the most vital period of a child's life, when a baby is fully dependent on the mother for nutrients.
HEALA supports @growgreatza in advocating for the grant to be extended to pregnancy.
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-05-31-study-highlights-need-for-indigent-pregnant-women-to-be-given-food-support-during-pregnancy/
As unemployment in South Africa increases, more people are going #hungry.
Govt needs to address this by improving cash transfers to those most in need, subsidising nutritious food products & increasing #taxes on foods that harm our people and planet.
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-06-19-ensuring-access-to-nutritious-food-should-be-at-the-heart-of-ramaphosas-social-compact/