Although South African fruits have received high praise from an American traveler, the discussion about seedless fruits goes beyond mere taste preference. The core of the debate is whether food retains the property that allows communities to reproduce it independently.
The people of South Africa are exposed to a dangerous illusion that seedless fruits are merely a matter of convenience: easier to consume, package, and sell. However, in a country where millions struggle for sustenance, a more serious question must be asked: who benefits when ordinary people lose the ability to produce what they eat themselves?
For poor communities, seed was never a problem; it has always been a valuable asset. In rural villages, settlements, and informal housing areas, families traditionally used food more rationally than just one meal. For example, pumpkin was used not only as dinner, but its seeds could be planted, tomatoes could be regrown, and maize grains could become next season's harvest.
The ability to save and replant food was one of the few forms of economic power available to people with limited financial means. Therefore, the growing corporate control over seeds raises serious concern. A small number of transnational agribusinesses now dominate significant parts of the global commercial seed market. Through patents, licensing agreements, and patented genetics, they increasingly dictate what can be planted and how farmers obtain seeds.
When farmers are forced to buy new seeds every season instead of saving old ones, it leads to an unchecked dependence on corporations. This process is not a conspiracy theory, but a documented shift in global agriculture that profoundly affects modern society.
The case of Mexico, the homeland of corn, is cited, where indigenous communities have fought for years to protect traditional corn varieties from genetic contamination by commercial GMO crops. They understand that weakening local seed systems leads to the loss not only of biodiversity but also of control over food security. Africa faces similar problems. Across the continent, farmers have relied for generations on informal seed exchange networks that support local, climate-adapted varieties. These seeds are often more resilient to local conditions than imported commercial varieties.
Nevertheless, these systems face increasing pressure from commercial seed markets, which favor corporate ownership over community control. It is important to note that not all seedless fruits are genetically modified; many varieties result from traditional breeding and can be propagated through cuttings or grafting, and farmers have successfully grown some of these crops for decades. However, this does not mean the overall trend is harmless.
As consumers become accustomed to products that cannot simply be replanted from what was purchased, the culture of seed saving begins to disappear. Once communities lose the habit of saving, sharing, and preserving seeds, they become more dependent on commercial suppliers. In a wealthy country, this might cause inconvenience, but in South Africa, it could turn into a crisis. The country already faces high unemployment, rising food prices, and deep rural poverty. The last thing that should happen is a transition to a food system where the poorest households have fewer opportunities for self-production of food.
Food sovereignty is of immense importance. Communities must have the right to save, exchange, and plant seeds without being permanently tied to large corporations. This requires protecting local seed varieties, supporting smallholder farmers, and strengthening local seed banks before they vanish.
South Africa needs agricultural innovation, as climate change and drought demand better farming technologies. However, innovation must not become a path to increased corporate dominance over the food system. History has shown that dependency is rarely accidental. Colonialism did not begin with a question of what Africans wanted to eat; it dismantled local farming systems, replaced diverse local crops with export agriculture, and convinced generations of the superiority of imported methods. Today, although the methods have changed, the consequences are strikingly familiar: local knowledge disappears while commercial agriculture becomes increasingly dominant.
The discussion about seedless fruits ultimately boils down not to whether people like seedless grapes, but whether food remains something communities can reproduce themselves, or if it turns into something that must constantly be bought from companies that increasingly control the genetics of what we grow. We cannot continue to measure food security by the quantity of goods on supermarket shelves—that is a dangerous mistake. The supermarket is not food sovereignty; it is a supply chain, and supply chains fail.
The government must treat seed sovereignty with the same seriousness as energy security. Investment is needed in local seed banks, support for smallholder farmers, protection of heritage varieties, and expansion of school gardens to preserve the agricultural knowledge that has sustained African communities for centuries. These are not nostalgic ideas, but an economic necessity in a country battling hunger, unemployment, and climate uncertainty. The biggest threat to South Africa is not simply that people are hungry today, but that we are gradually losing the ability to guarantee that we will not be hungry tomorrow. In a country where poverty is already stripping millions of people of economic power, allowing corporations to gain even greater control over the means of food production should worry every resident of South Africa, because once people lose control over the seed, they ultimately lose control over the harvest.
During the pursuit of democracy, millions of people have faced a new nightmare consisting of hunger, despair, and unemployment. This paradox, as Zwelinisima Vavi notes, requires close attention.
Workers warned about the risks associated with neoliberalism, the GEAR program, privatization, employment agencies, premature trade liberalization, austerity policies, and the commodification of public goods. They insisted that a democracy that does not change the material conditions of the majority will eventually face a crisis of legitimacy. These warnings, initially ignored as slogans, have now been confirmed by mass unemployment, hunger, and despair.
The National Democratic Revolution should never have been reduced merely to changing faces in the Union building. Workers fought not just for a change in the color of the rulers, but for a transformation of the conditions in which they live. The Freedom Charter represented a contract with the oppressed, promising popular sovereignty, people's participation in the country's wealth, land distribution among workers, guaranteed work and security, and equality before the law.
The ANC's strategy and tactics adopted in Morogoro developed this idea, warning that liberation would be meaningless if the wealth of the land did not return to the entire people, and that preserving the power of existing economic interests would not even be a shadow of liberation. The liberation movement understood that political power without economic transformation would betray the true meaning of freedom.
The RDP program became a bridge between dream and government, embodying the Freedom Charter in programs for housing development, water supply, electricity, jobs, land, industrial development, education, healthcare, and public transport. However, the tragedy is that the RDP has disappeared from the political lexicon. Instead of reconstruction, there is talk of fiscal consolidation; instead of redistribution, there is talk of investor confidence; instead of public goods, there is talk of cost recovery. This ideological shift is at the heart of the current crisis.
It must be acknowledged that democracy has indeed changed South Africa: the apartheid system was defeated, universal suffrage was won, a progressive Constitution was adopted, and workers' rights are enshrined in law. Millions gained access to housing, electricity, water, and social grants. These achievements are real and were won through struggle, not gifted.
Nevertheless, the truth cannot be hidden: access to water and electricity without the ability to pay does not mean the end of liberation. A constitution that guarantees rights but cannot feed a hungry child does not free that child.
More than thirteen million South Africans are unemployed by an expanded definition, which is a national catastrophe. This is a situation where youth do not know where to go in the morning, parents cannot feed their children, pensioners support entire families, and workers accept any wage because unemployment has become a tool of pressure.
The greatest betrayal of democratic South Africa has been the normalization of mass unemployment. It is spoken of as if it were a weather phenomenon that simply happened. In reality, it is the result of a conscious choice: the rejection of a decisive industrial strategy, premature liberalization, allowing deindustrialization, tolerance of mediation in labor relations and temporary employment, and disciplining public spending instead of mobilizing the state to create jobs.
Perhaps nothing exposes failure more painfully than hunger. South Africa is capable of feeding its population, yet millions suffer from food shortages, children experience malnutrition and stunted growth, and workers, even those who have jobs, increasingly cannot afford nutritious food. Workers fought for political freedom not to stand in queues for food parcels. Hunger is not charity; it is political economy related to wages, work, land, food prices, transport costs, concentration of corporations in the food system, and the inability of the democratic state to act decisively so that no child goes to bed hungry.
The land question remains open, but it cannot be reduced solely to commercial agriculture. Land is also an urban issue. Millions of people migrated from former Bantustans and apartheid reserves to cities created to exclude them. They settle in slums because land and housing are either inaccessible or too expensive, living far from jobs and spending hours and a significant portion of their income on transport. When the Freedom Charter states that land should be distributed among those who work it, this requirement is both rural and urban. It is not just about farms, but about housing, transport, and the ability of workers to live near opportunities. This is why the trade union movement has always insisted that public transport is a class issue.
The collapse of suburban rail transport has been one of the most serious attacks on the standard of living of workers in the democratic era, forcing millions to spend more on transport. Every extra rand spent on travel is a rand taken away from food, and every extra hour commuting is an hour stolen from family life. The restoration of the railway system is welcomed, but public transport must not be subject to the logic of profit.
The working class also interacts with the state through the police, courts, Department of Interior, municipalities, clinics, and schools, and a weak state primarily harms the poor. The rich can afford private security, private healthcare, private education, and senior advisors; the poor cannot. And when detection, investigation, and prosecution fail, it is the poor who suffer.
Justice is becoming increasingly stratified by class. The Freedom Charter promised equal justice, and equal justice requires more than beautiful constitutional formulations. It requires a functioning criminal justice system that protects women, children, and workers in townships and informal settlements. Crime is not just a security issue; it is a class issue.
It is historically honest to look at the situation: by 1994, the Soviet bloc had collapsed, capital had become mobile, trade unions were weakening worldwide, and privatization, deregulation, and austerity had become the language of the era. South Africa entered democracy at the peak of neoliberalism. This is an objective fact.
However, objective conditions do not negate political choice, and liberation movements are judged by the choices they make within these constraints. The GEAR program marked a decisive break from the RDP, shifting the focus from reconstruction and redistribution to fiscal discipline and market confidence. The trade union movement warned that this would not deliver the promised jobs, would weaken industrialization, and deepen inequality.
The 2008 crisis offered a choice. The US rejected the dogma of the free market to save its system with state power, while South Africa pursued austerity, and raising VAT to 15% became a symbol of the burden placed on workers and the poor. Proponents advocated for state-led development, industrial policy, infrastructure and job creation, but they were not heard. The proof of this is now written in the lives of workers.
The contemporary working class differs from that which overthrew apartheid. Factories have closed, permanent employment has shrunk, and mediation in labor relations, outsourcing, temporary employment, and platform work have grown. This class now includes workers in precarious conditions, informal workers, domestic workers, farmers, public health workers, unemployed graduates, and pensioners supporting households. If trade unions only organize those with permanent jobs, they will represent a shrinking minority. The future of the trade union movement depends on organizing the entire working class.
The material crisis generates political consequences. When people lose hope and progressive organizations weaken, reactionaries offer answers, leading to xenophobia, Afrophobia, ethnic chauvinism, and cult of personality. The liberation movement once united people regardless of ethnicity, language, and race; workers came to factories as Zulu, Xhosa, Sotho, Venda, Coloured, Indian, and white workers, and became comrades. This unity did not arise spontaneously; it was built through organization and political education, and as these institutions weakened, old archaic identities returned. We see migrants blamed for unemployment they did not create. Our fallen heroes should turn in their graves. They did not die so that the poor attack the poor while capital remains untouchable. Fanon and Biko are indispensable here. Colonialism occupies not only land; it occupies the mind, and when Africans fight other Africans, the revolution remains incomplete.
The movement that once celebrated sacrifice, modesty, and service now too often displays crude materialism and abuse of power. Many leaders no longer live where the workers live, and social status shapes consciousness. Leadership living far from the workers can begin to speak of left-wing values while living right.
The National Democratic Revolution must be renewed, otherwise it will become a historical slogan. Renewal does not mean nostalgia. It means returning to the core oath of liberation. The renewed NDR must restore a developmental state, abandon austerity, conduct re-industrialization, tax wealth, stop illicit financial flows, curb capital, and treat water, electricity, healthcare, education, and transport as public goods. It must treat hunger as a national emergency, organize the unemployed and precarious workers, protect migrants by demanding legal and humane migration management, and achieve regional integration, as no wall can defeat poverty.
The Freedom Charter was our dream during the apartheid nightmare. During the dream of democracy, millions experienced a new nightmare of unemployment, hunger, and despair. This contradiction is what we must confront. The generation that defeated apartheid fulfilled its mission. Our task is to complete the unfinished tasks of liberation: to rebuild, organize, educate, unite, and fight until the promise of the Freedom Charter becomes not a memory of a dream, but the real life of everyone who calls South Africa home.
Scientists, including Dr. Lehlogonolo Mathelele and Sitembiso Fakude from the Department of Agriculture, argue that seed sovereignty should not be limited by international treaties. They explain in detail how household seed storage, community networks, and active field cultivation form an unbreakable chain for ensuring food security.
In rural areas of South Africa, from the vast plains of Free State to the fertile valleys of Mpumalanga, a quiet transformation is taking place, starting with a single seed. For generations, farmers have acted as custodians of agricultural biodiversity, carefully selecting, conserving, and exchanging seeds that sustained their families and supported communities.
However, in recent decades, this ancient practice has weakened due to the rise of commercial seed systems, climate pressure, and changes in agricultural policy. The central question of this transformation is who controls the seeds, and consequently, the future of food.
The concept of farmers' rights, recognized under the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), grants farmers the right to save, use, exchange, and sell seeds collected on their farms, as well as to participate in decision-making and benefit sharing.
Nevertheless, for many smallholder farmers in provinces such as Free State, Northern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, and Mpumalanga, these rights often remain more theoretical than real. It is here that on-farm conservation of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, alongside community seed banks and household seed storage, becomes a powerful, interconnected system of resilience, knowledge, and empowerment.
These complementary approaches allow farmers to regain control over their seeds, revive local crops, strengthen their ability to adapt to climate change, and ultimately put Farmers' Rights into practice locally. Farmers' Rights are not just a legal concept; they are linked to dignity, autonomy, and survival.
Farmers' rights are not abstract legal ideas but a reality shaped by access, knowledge, and control. Practically, these rights include the ability to save and reuse seeds, freedom to exchange planting material, recognition of traditional knowledge systems, participation in policy-making processes, and fair access to benefits derived from the use of genetic resources.
In provinces such as Free State, North West, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, and Mpumalanga, where small and emerging farmers play a crucial role in food production, the realization of these rights heavily depends on localized, farmer-managed systems.
On-farm conservation means continuing to grow and manage traditional and locally adapted crops directly on farmers' fields. Unlike gene banks, which store seeds under controlled conditions, on-farm conservation allows crops to evolve in response to local conditions. This dynamic process brings several advantages: climate change adaptation, as farmers continuously select seeds that perform well under drought, pests, and changing weather; diversity preservation, by maintaining a wide range of local varieties, which reduces dependence on uniform crops; and knowledge continuity, by passing down traditional farming methods and cultural values from generation to generation.
By keeping seeds in farmers' hands, on-farm conservation strengthens their right to manage and improve their own genetic resources. In Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, and the Northern provinces, farmers are increasingly returning to sorghum, beans, and traditional maize varieties, while in Mpumalanga and Limpopo, attention is focused on crops such as Bambara, peanuts, palm millet, and squash.
Beyond individual participation, collective efforts amplify the impact. Community seed banks are locally managed systems where farmers jointly store, manage, propagate, and share seeds. These banks serve as living repositories of biodiversity and knowledge, providing farmers with access to diverse locally adapted seeds and strengthening the right to exchange. They also create a platform for involving women and youth in leadership roles, promoting social equity.
At the most basic level, household seed banks play a critical role, often managed by women. These are simple, low-cost systems where seeds are stored, selected, and improved year after year. This practice is fundamental to family food security, as families become less dependent on external seed sources, and it is vital for preserving cultural heritage.
When on-farm conservation, community seed banks, and household seed banks work together, they form a robust, interconnected system that reinforces Farmers' Rights. South Africa has made progress in recognizing the importance of plant genetic resource conservation, but gaps remain in the full realization of Farmers' Rights. Supporting these grassroots systems allows South Africa to align conservation goals with social justice and rural development.
Implementing Farmers' Rights requires not only policy declarations but also practical support for the systems that farmers already use and trust. This includes recognizing and protecting farmers' seed conservation practices, investing in various types of seed banks, and creating enabling policies that support seed exchange. Ultimately, the future of agriculture in South Africa depends not only on innovation but on inclusion, ensuring that farmers remain at the center of the seed system.
The Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) released a new projection indicating that between 1.5 and 1.99 million individuals will require food assistance during the analyzed period. This need stems from below-average food stocks, resulting from a poor agricultural harvest in 2026, and livelihood disruptions caused by insurgency in certain provinces of Cabo Delgado and Nampula.
The international early warning network, funded by the United States Government and responsible for monitoring food insecurity, points to the north and south of Mozambique as regions under the highest risk. Despite the current harvest season, areas affected by armed insurgency in Cabo Delgado and northern Nampula are expected to remain in 'Crisis' (IPC Phase 3) until January 2027. This is due to the persistence of armed group activity, population displacement, and restrictions on access to arable land, markets, and income sources.
FEWS NET recalled that between April and June, armed groups intensified attacks in the districts of Nangade and Macomia, subsequently expanding their actions to Chiúre, Ancuabe, and Montepuez, all located in Cabo Delgado. According to data provided by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), more than 23,000 people were forced to displace by mid-June in these specific districts.
In the center and south of the country, the organization forecasts a temporary improvement in food security starting in July. This change may move some areas from 'Crisis' to food 'Stressed' (IPC Phase 2), benefiting from the second agricultural season's harvests, post-flood aid, and seasonal gains. However, there is a warning that some of these districts may return to a crisis situation between October and January, when produced food runs out and market dependence increases.
Floods recorded in January affected over 700,000 people and caused damage to approximately 440,000 hectares of agricultural land in the provinces of Maputo, Gaza, and Sofala. Subsequently, between February and March, long periods of drought followed by new heavy rainfall events worsened losses to both crops and national livestock. The report also highlights that agricultural recovery remains slow due to soil degradation, prolonged flooding, and limited access to seeds, factors that delayed the second season's planting and harvesting by more than a month.
Additionally, FEWS NET signals that the El Niño phenomenon is already underway and is expected to last until January 2027. This predicts a late and below-average start to the next rainy season in southern and central Mozambique, along with high temperatures—conditions that can reduce agricultural production and seasonal employment opportunities for the most vulnerable families, a scenario aggravated by rising food costs.
According to the organization, maize prices in the south of the country showed increases of 25% to 60% in May compared to the average of the last five years, while rice prices were between 20% and 40% above this average. Annual inflation accelerated to 7.2% in May, the highest level since May 2023, driven mainly by the rising cost of fuel and transport. In May, about 180,000 people received humanitarian food assistance, concentrated in Cabo Delgado and Gaza. Flood response operations had assisted approximately 300,000 people in the provinces of Maputo, Gaza, and Sofala by mid-June.
