Sunday, September 13, 2026

South Africa's hunger problem

 


WE DON'T HAVE A SHORTAGE OF HEADLINES ABOUT HUNGER.

What we need is action.

South Africa's hunger crisis continues to affect millions of people.

And just this week, calls have been renewed for an emergency food plan as the evidence of hunger continues to grow.

But think about what "food insecurity" actually means.

It can mean opening the cupboard and finding almost nothing.

It can mean a parent eating less so their children can eat.

It can mean choosing between electricity and groceries.

It can mean a child going to school hungry.

It can mean an elderly person deciding which essential expense they can afford this month.

These aren't abstract problems.

This is someone's life.

We cannot allow hunger to become just another statistic that appears in a report and disappears from our minds.

#SouthAfrica #Hunger #FoodSecurity #Poverty

 

You can watch the video on RUMBLE - here is the link - https://rumble.com/v7fhfnm-south-africas-hunger-problem.html 

The designer from Hazyview, Mpumalanga

 


Introduction

Most people who now own a Rich Mnisi piece — a sculpted dress, a signature bag, a bold print rooted in Tsonga design — have no idea the label started with a young designer from Hazyview, a small town in Mpumalanga better known internationally as a gateway to the Kruger National Park than as a fashion capital

That’s exactly the point. Rich Mnisi didn’t build a global label by moving away from where he came from and leaving it behind in the branding. He built it by putting his heritage at the centre of the work, and letting the rest of the world catch up to it.

Who Is Rich Mnisi?

Rich Mnisi grew up steeped in Tsonga culture, and has spoken publicly about how that upbringing — its patterns, its symbolism, its sense of pride — shaped the visual language his label is now known for  He launched his eponymous label in the mid-2010s, starting small in the same way most serious South African fashion houses do: with a limited collection, a clear point of view, and no shortcuts on quality

What set the brand apart early on wasn’t just the clothing — it was the confidence to build a South African luxury label without softening it for an international audience. The silhouettes are sculptural and often dramatic. The prints and motifs draw directly on Tsonga heritage rather than a generic “African print” aesthetic. The brand doesn’t ask to be compared to European fashion houses — it asks to be understood on its own terms.

From Local Runways to Global Recognition

Building a fashion house from inside South Africa, rather than relocating to Paris, Milan, or New York, is a genuinely difficult path. Local manufacturing, access to international buyers, and the cost of showing on global fashion calendars all work against designers who choose to stay rooted at home.

Rich Mnisi did it anyway, and the label’s growth has tracked a pattern worth naming:

             Building a strong domestic following and retail presence in South Africa before pushing internationally

             Being worn and championed by high-profile local and international figures, which brought the label attention beyond South Africa’s borders

             Expanding into accessories and homeware alongside ready-to-wear, including signature bag designs that became recognisable in their own right

             Gaining recognition from major international fashion institutions and prizes, put the label on shortlists alongside far larger, better-resourced houses

Why This Story Matters Beyond the Clothes

It’s easy to file this under “South African success story” and move on to the next name. The more useful read is what the label represents for anyone trying to build something ambitious from outside the traditional centres of an industry.

Fashion, like most global creative industries, has historically decided which cities and cultures get to set trends and which ones just supply raw materials or “inspiration.” A designer from Hazyview building a label that dresses people on international stages, on his own cultural terms, is a direct challenge to that hierarchy — not by rejecting it loudly, but by simply doing the work well enough that it can’t be ignored.

What It Opens Up for Others

A label like this doesn’t succeed in isolation. Its growth creates room for:

             Local pattern-makers, seamstresses, and manufacturers who get consistent, high-quality work

             Other young South African designers who now have a working example of building a global brand without leaving home

             A shift in how “African fashion” gets marketed internationally — as design excellence first, not a cultural novelty

             Retail and stockist relationships that make space for more homegrown labels to follow

None of that erases how hard the industry still is to break into. Funding, manufacturing capacity, and access to international buyers remain real barriers for South African designers who don’t have Rich Mnisi’s decade of groundwork behind them. But the barriers being real doesn’t mean they’re permanent.

What Other Creatives Can Take From This

             Build the point of view before you build the brand. The heritage-driven design language came first; the global recognition followed it, not the other way round.

             Start local, stay rooted, then scale out. A strong domestic base gave the label something to grow from rather than something to escape.

             Let specificity do the work. Tsonga-rooted design didn’t need to be diluted into something more “universal” to travel internationally — if anything, the specificity is the appeal.

             Expect the industry’s gatekeeping to be real, and build anyway. Recognition from major fashion institutions came after years of consistent output, not instead of the hard years.

Fast Facts Box: Rich Mnisi

             Designer: Rich Mnisi

             Roots: Hazyview, Mpumalanga, South Africa

             Cultural influence: Tsonga heritage, reflected directly in prints, motifs, and silhouettes

             What the label is known for: Sculptural, size-inclusive ready-to-wear, signature accessories, and homeware, built as a South African luxury label from the outset

             Why it matters: A globally recognised fashion house built without relocating away from its cultural or geographic roots

Closing Thought

Rich Mnisi is a reminder that South African design doesn’t need to be translated, softened, or relocated to be taken seriously on a world stage. Sometimes the most powerful move is simply building from exactly where you are, in the language you already know, and trusting that the work will travel on its own terms.

Call to Action

Do you own a Rich Mnisi piece, or another homegrown South African fashion label you’re proud to support? Tell us in the comments, and share this with someone who still thinks “world-class” and “Made in Mzansi” can’t be the same sentence.

Tuesday, September 8, 2026

The story behind the hunger

 


The story behind the hunger

37.8 MILLION PEOPLE.

That's the number of people across the Greater Horn of Africa who are experiencing or projected to experience acute food insecurity.

More than 4.9 million children are projected to suffer acute malnutrition.

These aren't simply numbers.

They are children going to sleep hungry.

Parents wondering where tomorrow's meal will come from.

Families leaving their homes in search of food and water.

And people forced to choose between food and healthcare.

The crisis is being driven by conflict, displacement, climate shocks, disease and economic instability.

It is a reminder that hunger rarely has just one cause.

And when several crises collide, ordinary families pay the price.

Behind every statistic is a human being.

Don't let the numbers make us forget that.

#Hunger #Africa #FoodInsecurity #Humanity

You can watch the video on RUMBLE - here is the link - https://rumble.com/v7f9tie-the-story-behind-the-hunger.html 

 Link for donation  -    https://www.clrfoundation.com/donate-1

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