TCOE - Trust for Community Outreach and Education

24/02/2026

Dear comrades,

The Just Transition in the Food System group has drafted a submission for the SA Human Rights Commission Inquiry on Food Systems. The submission includes inputs from many different members of our group, and some additional inputs from our networks, on how to address the food crisis and realise the right to food.

Sign-ons are due by Thursday 26 February so that we can submit to the SAHRC the next day.

If you'd like to support the submission, please use this form (URL: https://forms.gle/BSJfRxPWtYKDMxWG9) or email your support to [email protected].

Please share this with your broader networks, so we can get as many sign-ons as possible. Thanks for your support for a just transition in the South African food system.

Note: for a full copy of the submission, or to send in your endorsement without using this form, email [email protected]. 1. Overview of the Just Transition in the Food System group The Just Transition in the Food System group is a loose network of organisations that came together in 2023 around th...

02/02/2026

Invitation to contribute to joint submission to the SA Human Rights Commission: Inquiry into South African food systems.

Dear partners,

The Just Transition in the Food System group are compiling a joint submission to the SA Human Rights Commission’s Inquiry into the South African food system and violations of the right to food.

We have different people and organisations collecting submissions on each theme, so if you are keen to make a submission, please send it to the relevant contact (below). In addition to the 7 themes identified by the SAHRC, we have added a few others that we feel are important but were missing.

The deadline to participate in THIS joint submission is 13 February, because we need time to compile them into one group submission, send it out to partners for signatures/endorsements from other organisations, and submit to the SAHRC by their deadline of 27 February.

Please try to keep your submission focused and brief, based on your organisation’s unique expertise and experiences, including the challenges or barriers that prevent people from enjoying their right to food, as well as recommendations for government intervention, which the SAHRC can then put into their report and into their recommendations to government.

Themes and contacts:

1. Economic and structural issues that perpetuate hunger (historic and present) as well as social policy: email [email protected]
2. The concentration of power in the food value chain and its impact on access, affordability, and nutritional quality: Email: [email protected]
3. The link between land access, tenure security, and food insecurity: email [email protected] or [email protected]
4. The intersection between the right to food and related constitutional rights, i.e: dignity, health, water, and environment: email [email protected]
5. The role of indigenous knowledge systems, traditional seed practices, and agroecology in achieving food security and resilience: email [email protected] or [email protected]
6. Institutional coordination, policy coherence, and legislative adequacy: email [email protected]
7. The role of civic participation, public accountability, and social movements in advancing the right to food: email [email protected]
8. Climate change and food systems: email [email protected]
9. Gender and food systems: email [email protected]
10. Child hunger and malnutrition: email [email protected]

See details and download the concept note for the group submission here: https://tcoe.org.za/invitation-to-contribute-to-joint-submission-to-the-sa-human-rights-commission-inquiry-into-south-african-food-systems/

28/01/2026

The Suurbrak Agroecology Hub is a one‑hectare site run by four women, and an example of food sovereignty in action. With an onsite aquaponics centre, the hub grows seasonal vegetables including cabbage, sweet potatoes, broccoli, lettuce, spinach, beetroot, butternut, green beans, and cauliflower.

Seedlings from the hub are shared with nearby home gardens, distributed at Mawubuye Land Rights Forum meetings, and occasionally supplied to surrounding hubs such as Genadendal, strengthening networks of care and continuity. The site also hosts a worm farm, producing organic fertiliser that enriches soils and sustains healthy harvests.

Currently, the team are harvesting sunflowers, pumpkins, and butternuts, while multiplying sunflower seeds for future planting. The harvest will be taken to market, ensuring that agroecology is not only about dignity and repair, and economic sustainability. Mary Marthinus, who stands with a full harvest of pumpkins, has been with the hib since it opened.

The Suurbrak hub is part of TCOE’s wider Agroecology Hubs programme within the Food Sovereignty Stream, which supports communities to grow food, share knowledge, and build resilient local food systems. Learn more at https://tcoe.org.za/agroecology-hubs/

27/01/2026

TCOE’s Food Sovereignty Stream addresses food insecurity in South Africa through practical and systemic interventions - from supporting agroecology hubs and community food gardens, to amplifying rural voices in national debates on land, water, and food systems. Our work makes visible the everyday struggles and victories of communities who are building dignified, sustainable alternatives to hunger and dependency. Learn more here: https://tcoe.org.za/food-sovereignty/

Right now, the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) is calling for public comments on food insecurity, hunger, and poverty as part of its national investigative hearing into the food systems of South Africa. This is a critical moment to ensure that community experiences and demands shape the national conversation. The deadline for submissions has been extended to 27 February 2026. You can find the details and download the concept note here: https://www.sahrc.org.za/index.php/sahrc-media/news-2/item/4419-media-advisory-sahrc-extends-deadline-for-submissions-for-the-national-investigative-hearing-into-the-food-systems-of-south-africa

As co‑organisers in the struggle for food sovereignty, we encourage communities, partners, and allies to make their voices heard. Together, we can make the lived realities of hunger and poverty visible and place food sovereignty at the centre of policy and justice.

26/01/2026

At TCOE, we believe that food insecurity cannot exist without the ability of people to control how their food is grown, distributed and accessed. Over the past decade, the TCOE has established 15 Agroecology Hubs and 2 Nodes across the Eastern Cape, Free State, Limpopo, and Western Cape as a practical response to food insecurity and to build resilience against climate change.

Key functions include:

• Agroecological training and peer‑to‑peer learning
• Seed rehabilitation, saving, and sharing
• Compost and bio‑fertiliser production
• Infrastructure provision (nurseries, JoJo tanks, storage, processing machinery)

By strengthening local food systems and rural economies, these hubs demonstrate how community‑driven agroecology can reduce dependence on industrial farming models while advancing climate justice and food sovereignty. Learn more about our Agroecology hubs here: https://tcoe.org.za/agroecology-hubs/

26/01/2026

In September 2025, the Commercial, Stevedoring, Agricultural and Allied Workers Union (CSAAWU) and the Trust for Community Outreach and Education (TCOE) launched a joint water testing campaign in response to escalating reports from educators and community members about the poor quality of water in farm schools across the Langeberg area.

The results revealed that only eight out of 18 schools tested had safe water, with the remaining schools showing microbial contamination and unsafe drinking conditions.

Read the article here:

A new study into pesticide exposure at rural schools has revealed alarming environmental health risks facing children in farm schools, highlighting systemic neglect in South Africa’s agricultural regions. In September 2025, the Commercial, Stevedoring, Agricultural and Allied Workers Union (CSAAWU...

23/01/2026

PRESS STATEMENT: TCOE, RWA, and the Inyanda National Land Movement Demand Climate-Resilient Response to Limpopo and Mpumalanga Floods

'Extensive flooding in Limpopo and Mpumalanga over the past two weeks has claimed 38 lives, including children as young as two. The South African Weather Service has escalated its warning to Level 10, the highest alert for extreme flood risk, and the disaster has been officially declared a national emergency. Climate change is intensifying rainfall in South Africa, making floods more frequent and destructive. A 2025 study by Wits University found that the Durban floods of 2022 were more than 100% heavier due to climate change – evidence that that extreme weather is no longer exceptional, but part of a worsening pattern. These floods have laid bare the government’s failure to develop comprehensive and effective disaster management strategies at a national level.

Beyond the tragic loss of life, farmers have reported soil and crops washed away, leaving families food insecure and threatening livelihoods across the provinces. Norah Mlondobozi, farmer and coordinator of the Rural Women's Assembly- South Africaly, explains that the Mopani District in Limpopo has been experiencing heavy rains since mid‑December 2025.

'By the beginning of January 2026, the soil was already saturated and riverbanks full of water. The past two weeks have worsened an already bad situation. The livelihoods of families, especially women and children, have been affected. Women small‑scale farmers have lost their crops and topsoil, pump machines have been washed away, and electric motors used to pump water from boreholes were immersed in water. We are not sure if they will be functional after this.'

The Trust for Community Outreach and Education (TCOE), the Rural Women's Assembly- South Africa (RWA), and the Inyanda National Land Movement express solidarity with small‑scale farmers, informal traders, and rural households who are affected by these devastating floods."

Read the full statement here:

Extensive flooding in Limpopo and Mpumalanga over the past two weeks has claimed 38 lives, including children as young as two. The South African Weather Service has escalated its warning to Level 10, the highest alert for extreme flood risk, and the disaster has been officially declared a national e...

22/01/2026

TCOE believes that the struggles for land and water, food and marine resources are inseparable from the struggle to rebuild leadership and imagine new paths for development.

Our Movement Building stream works alongside landless people, small-scale farmers, producers, farmworkers, small scale fishers, and forest dwellers to help them organise, connect and build solidarity around shared visions for an alternative future.

Read more about Movement Building activities and affiliates here:

TCOE believes that the struggles for land and water, food and marine resources are inseparable from the struggle to rebuild leadership and imagine new paths for development. Our Movement Building stream works alongside landless people, small- scale farmers, producers, farmworkers, small scale fisher...

21/01/2026

We're hosting our first for 2026 on Saturday, 07 February. Join us for some fresh, wholesome produce and support smallholder farmers.

Where: 9 Hill Park Lane, Mowbray - outside Gordon's Gym.
When: Saturday, 07 February 2026
Time: 10am - 2pm

Produce on sale will feature fresh veggies and seedlings from Suurbrak, fresh fish from Buffeljagsbaai and endemic plants from Genadendal. Produce and plants are grown free from synthetic and toxic agricultural chemicals.

20/01/2026

What's the difference between Food Security and Food Sovereignty? Read more about it at this FAQ on the TCOE website.

'In 2001 the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) defined food security as “a situation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life”. However, this did not take into consideration who should be producing food nor what and how food should be produced.'

In 2001 the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) defined food security as “a situation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for...