Report of the People’s Tribunal on Hunger, Food Prices and Landlessness Released
Dear members of the media,
Please find attached the report of the People’s Tribunal on Hunger, Food Prices and Landlessness, held in May 2015 and hosted by the South African Food Sovereignty Campaign (SAFSC). The SAFSC was launched in February 2015 as a network of organisations to campaign for food sovereignty in South Africa. The Assembly decided that the two issues related to food sovereignty that the SAFSC should campaign on in 2015 are food prices and landlessness. Hence the People’s Tribunal on Hunger, Food Prices and Landlessness was held as part of this process in Johannesburg from 7-9 May 2015 to surface the voices of the hungry and landless in the struggle towards food sovereignty. This report briefly summarises the proceedings and voices of the tribunal.
The report brings to light the voices of those who actually experience hunger – it explains from the point of view of the hungry what the statistic that 14 million South Africans go hungry on a daily basis actually means. The tribunal functioned as a mock court case where the testimonies of the hungry and landless, and that of ‘experts’, was given to a panel of judges and an audience in order to put corporations in the agri-food sector and the state on trial for their role in reproducing the food and hunger crisis. The tribunal highlighted how the corporate-controlled food system, as well as lack of land and agrarian reform, is undermining the constitutional right to food by denying the existence of a food sovereignty alternative, exposed the horror of the South African food system, provided evidence to confront the perpetrators, and enabled grassroots voices to speak truth to power. Furthermore, the tribunal also profiled people’s alternatives that are being constructed, alternatives that show us a different way to democratically meeting people’s right to food and building food sovereignty.
The SAFSC invites the media to read the attached report and to report on it and profile it in your various media outlets. We welcome radio stations, for example, hosting discussions on the report. The SAFSC will be happy to make representatives available to participate in any discussions or activities around the report. For further information please contact Imraahn 084 781 7122 / consumerdialogues@gmail.com, or Mandla 079 095 3493 / mandla@esset.org.za or Andrew 072 278 4315 /bennieand@gmail.com.
Download Tribunal Report
