JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA — Today, a broad coalition of public health advocates, civil society organisations including HEALA ( Healthy Living Alliance) launches “90 Days to Protect Our Health,” an intense public accountability campaign demanding that the Government and Department of Health (DoH)Minister of Health, immediately finalise and ratify South Africa’s stalled Front-of-Pack Warning Label (FoPWL) regulations (Regulation R3337).

The launch marks a strict 90-day countdown to 10 December 2026, the definitive deadline by which the National Department of Health must enforce these life-saving regulations. First published in April 2023, the draft regulations propose mandatory, easy-to-read front-of-pack warning triangles on ultra-processed foods high in sugar, salt, saturated fat, and artificial sweeteners, alongside tight restrictions on marketing junk food to children.

Yet, more than three years later, the regulations remain trapped in a state of perpetual draft form. Growing evidence indicates that commercial food industry lobby groups have weaponised institutional negotiation frameworks at the National Economic Development and Labour Council (Nedlac) to trap the policy in a cycle of endless delay. At the recent 31^st Annual Summit, Deputy Minister of Labour, Minister Sibiya, told government, business and labour and civil society that talk without implementation will not change lives, this sentiment is echoed by HEALA. 

“South Africans have waited long enough to know what is truly in the food they feed their families,” says HEALA CEO, Nzama Mbalati. “We cannot allow Nedlac to become a stumbling block where public health regulations go to die. Industry pressure, commercial stalling tactics, and prolonged corporate debates must not be permitted to compromise a policy designed to curb South Africa’s catastrophic epidemic of lifestyle diseases, like diabetes, which has now become the number one killer disease in South Africa, surpassing HIV and TB,  obesity, and hypertension.”

The #ApproveFOPL campaign shifts the spotlight away from technical, bureaucratic arguments and directly onto government accountability, posing one clear question: “Government and DoH, will you protect South Africans’ right to know what is in their food, or will you side with big business on 10 December?”

Currently, consumers must navigate a wall of complex, un-understandable and technical nutritional tables on the back of food packaging just to see if a product is healthy. The proposed FOPL regulation replaces this confusion with instant, black warning triangles on the front of packages.

The campaign will escalate across four distinct phases over the next 90 days, utilizing an aggressive media rollout, investigative reporting on industry interference, and grassroots mobilisations by mothers, community healthcare workers, teachers, and youth activists across the country.

The coalition urges all South Africans to join the call, visit HEALA.org and sign a petition to the Minister demanding immediate action. Public health cannot be negotiated indefinitely. The clock is ticking, Tik Tok Tik Tok 

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For media enquiries and Interviews, please contact:

Mr. Neo Merafi

Maverick Brand Communications 

neo@maverickbrand.co.za

WhatsApp: 071 359 9738

OR 

Ms. Zukiswa Zimela 

Communications Manager- HEALA 

zukiswa(@)heala.org

WhatsApp: 074 521 0652

 Campaign Hashtags:#ApproveFOPL | #PublicHealthCannotWait | #EndTheDelay