WORLD FOOD DAY: Hundreds of protesters take on Parliament: ‘Wake up, the climate emergency is here!’

On Friday, 16 October 2026, hundreds of protesters marched to Parliament, calling for climate action and food sovereignty.

The march took place in Cape Town on World Food Day and was organised by civil society organisations, such as the Climate Justice Charter Movement (CJCM) and South African Food Sovereignty Campaign (SAFSC). However, the organisers were joined by multiple other civil society organisations, such as the Women on Farms Project, EcoMaties, the Cooperative and Policy Alternative Centre and Sovereign Agroecology and Food Empowerment.

Protesters marched from Hanover Street in District Six to Parliament, where speeches were delivered by various civil society representatives. A memorandum was handed to parliamentary representatives, mainly calling on the government to place the country on a climate emergency footing, immediately ban harmful pesticides and adopt activists’ proposed legislation and policy documents on food sovereignty, according to SAFSC national coordinator Qhawekazi Mahlalela.

“Today we bring our voices here to Parliament with a call for a fundamental transformation of our food system. We call on the government to put people before corporate profits, to support agroecology and to transition away from industrial agriculture and to recognise the role of communities in building those food systems that sustain life,” Mahlalela said during her speech outside Parliament. 

Food sovereignty and systems

According to Mahlalela, the proposed food sovereignty legislation and policy are “twin documents” developed from 2015–2024 by SAFSC and CJCM activists in collaboration with allied civil society organisations and activists.

These documents are intended to be guides for community organisers on the ground to solve food system and climate justice challenges, Mahlalela said. They equip organisers with knowledge of their rights but are also being used as a training tool for activists. 

Mahlalela added that the documents address multiple food-justice elements, such as growers’ rights regarding water, seeds, markets and finance. They imagine community-centred food systems, and food policy from a food-sovereignty perspective, she said. 

However, the government had failed to engage the CJCM and SAFSC when they brought the documents before Parliament in 2018 and again in 2024. This was one of the CJCM and SAFSC’s main grievances that led them to protest, Mahlalela said. 

Protesters’ grievances on World Food Day

During her speech, CJCM co-chair Jessica Ngwenya highlighted the CJCM and SAFSC’s grievances about the government’s failure to engage with the activists on the proposed legislation and policy documents.

The government had also failed to adopt the Climate Justice Charter, which the CJCM handed to Parliament in 2020 with the support of nearly 300 organisations, she said. According to Mahalela, the charter was developed in conjunction with communities and maps out food sovereignty, eco-mobility and rights of nature, as well as how these alternatives should help SA exit and survive the climate crisis.

Ngwenya added that the government had failed to convene an emergency parliamentary sitting in 2018 to debate the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Global Warming of 1.5°C report, missing an opportunity to prepare the country for worsening climate extremes and save lives. 

“We must ask ourselves: ‘What does it mean to mark this day in a country where so many people are going hungry? What does it mean to mark this day in a country where our food prices are constantly rising, but our salaries, our employment rates are not rising?’.

“Hunger is not an inevitable crisis in this country. It is a result of a food system that puts profit before people and treats food as a commodity rather than a basic human right,” Mahalela said. 

She added that SA’s land, resources and power are concentrated in the hands of a few, while SA’s people should have the power to control their own food in a food-sovereignty system.

In this system land, water, oceans, biodiversity and indigenous knowledge must be protected, she said. Small-scale farmers, farmworkers, fishers and community producers must be empowered and food production must be rooted in agroecology and dignity for all, she said. 

“It is high time. For too long our poor, small-scale farmers and impoverished communities have been entrapped in poverty. And we say enough is enough,” said Wendy Roebeck, a member of the CJCM. 

Seasonal farmworker Engela van Schalkwyk shared her experiences with the crowd. She detailed how her minimum wage pay is insufficient to support her until the end of the month. 

“Our people do the work on the farms, but the owners get big shares in the money from the grapes they export. They get the big pay, because of our people,” she said. 

According to Van Schalkwyk, the government should support farmworkers to build their own farms, noting that the workers have the skill, but not the resources. 

CJCM co-chair Vishwas Satgar told the crowd that the country is facing a catastrophe, claiming that it is not prepared for the 1.5°C global warming overshoot nor the fact that the country is heating at twice the global average. 

“El Niño is coming. The last El Niño collapsed our food system; food prices went up. We are hungry. We are here to tell the government today, ‘Prepare the country for El Niño’,” he said. 

According to Satgar, the country’s lack of preparation for El Niño is a failure of leadership. 

“Wake up! The climate emergency is here!” Satgar chanted along with the crowd.

Climate action and accelerating a just transition

Near the end of the protest, Ngwenya read an open letter to the government. The organisations invited the government to place South Africa on a climate emergency footing and accelerate a just transition from below by supporting existing community activities, Ngwenya said.

The CJCM and SAFSC had two broad demands; the first was for the government to end hunger by adopting food sovereignty.

The second was for the government to place the country on a climate emergency footing immediately. According to Ngwenya, these calls were endorsed by 220 other organisations. 

Government representatives respond

The memorandum was handed to the procedural adviser at Parliament, Perran Hahndiek. Addressing the crowd, Hahndiek said the memorandum would be lodged with National Assembly Speaker Thoko Didiza. 

Also present during the reading of the memorandum was the chief of staff in the Ministry of Finance, Mfuneko Toyana. Toyana said the SAFSC and CJCM’s message would be passed to the Minister of Finance and the National Treasury.

Toyana added that the National Treasury has made funds available to address the effects of El Niño and that these developments would be announced on Wednesday, 21 October 2026, during the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement. 

Western Cape Department of Water and Sanitation head Ntombizanele Bila-Mupariwa said she would deliver the protest’s message to the MEC and added that the MEC had already submitted a proposal with interventions to address the challenges of El Niño. 

Dissatisfied with the representatives’ responses, Satgar incited a chant once the final representative had finished speaking.

“It’s not enough! It’s not enough! It’s not enough!” Satgar and the crowd chanted. DM