RSG Interview: Can a maternal grant stop stunting?
South Africa wants to put an end to child stunting and malnutrition, but experts say the fight has to start before a baby is born. Yet pregnant women living in poverty can only access a child grant once their baby has been born and registered. A coalition of organisations and researchers is now calling on […]
Moneyweb Interview: SA must not miss an opportunity to fund the Maternal Support Grant
South Africa has promised to end child stunting, but a pregnant woman living in poverty still gets no targeted support from the state until her baby is born. DGMT communications director Rahima Essop spoke to Moneyweb about the proposed Maternal Support Grant, which would cost about R2 billion a year and pay R560 a month […]
MEDIA STATEMENT: South Africa must not miss an opportunity to fund the Maternal Support Grant in the mission to end stunting
The upcoming Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) should allocate much-needed funds to pregnant women and their newborns as part of South Africa’s mission to end stunting. This ties directly to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s February State of the Nation Address commitment to end child stunting and malnutrition by prioritising nutrition in the first 1 000 days of […]
Global Health Now Article: Nutrition Granted – Fighting Low Birth Weight in South Africa
A half dozen pregnant women sit around a table, singing lullabies to the water bottles they are cradling to their chests as if breastfeeding. The women, members of a pregnancy support group at a clinic in Johannesburg’s Soweto section, erupt into laughter at the exercise. “The Flourish [group] has been eye-opening, in a good way […]
Western Cape stunting-prevention pilot reaches over two thousand women, with more to come before end of 2026
A pilot programme tackling stunting in parts of the Western Cape has enrolled over 2 200 women since it began in August 2025. Khulisa Care — “to grow” in isiXhosa — gives underweight and at-risk pregnant women, and mothers of low-birth-weight babies, monthly nutrition support from Shoprite, alongside targeted primary healthcare from trained community health […]
Metro Lives: What can municipalities do for children?
Children don’t vote — but local government decisions shape their lives every day. Whether a child has a safe place to play, a park worth walking through, clean water, a registered early learning programme nearby, or a neighbourhood with more libraries than liquor outlets: these are municipal choices. Metro Lives is a series of public […]
News24 Article: ‘I don’t trust any of you’. Joburg’s youth aren’t buying the politics
A hush fell over the conference centre as a teenager rebuked a panel of politicians and civil society leaders who had gathered to debate how to put young people at the centre of urban renewal in Johannesburg. Hope Ramalobela, 18, a student leader from Kensington Secondary School in Johannesburg East, stood up on Monday night […]
Daily Maverick Article: Metro Lives panel explores why Johannesburg’s renewal will fail without its young people
If Johannesburg is to rebuild itself, its young people cannot remain on the sidelines. The city’s renewal depends on treating them not as beneficiaries, but as co-authors of its future, said Matshidiso Lencoasa, a budget analyst at SECTION27. “Johannesburg has these problems, but we also have ideas, we also have solutions. We just need to […]
Daily Maverick Article: Presidency fast-tracks strategy to end child stunting by 2030
In a race against the clock to eradicate childhood stunting by 2030, the Presidency has kick-started an interdepartmental task team that anti-hunger advocates hope will break down silos of fragmented operations in the government. South Africa has one of the highest stunting rates in the world, which the task team puts at 28.8% for children […]
MEDIA STATEMENT: #WasteNot competition sheds light on the link between environmental health and child health
A new national competition is drawing much-needed public awareness to how the environments children grow up in shape their health and development. #WasteNot encourages the public to get creative about reducing, reusing and recycling. It’s a collaboration between Create Change — an initiative of the DG Murray Trust (DGMT) and Hold My Hand — a […]