South Africa: On the Brink of Hunger - 'I Sell Sex and Chicken Feet to Feed My Children'

What the report says

AllAfrica republished a Health-e News report by Lerato Kodisang on 28 July 2026 as the first installment of its “Hungry For Change” series, focusing on a 32-year-old Johannesburg mother identified by the pseudonym Zinzi. The report says she lives in Lenasia South with three children — two boys aged four and three, and a daughter under two — and survives by selling chicken feet on the street and, at times, sex to men so her children can eat.

According to Health-e, Zinzi came from Mozambique to South Africa with her husband in 2014 and separated from him in 2019. She told the outlet she has no schooling, cannot read or write, is unemployed, and has not received financial support from her former partner for the children. She said the children do not get social grants. Her chicken-feet business reportedly brings in R150 to R300 a day, but she must regularly spend much of that on new stock, leaving little for groceries beyond small quantities of staples such as mealie meal, vegetables or bread.

Health-e reported that Zinzi began sex work after the separation and said clients pay between R100 and R300, with monthly earnings from sex work of about R500, or sometimes food instead of cash. The story links the family’s food insecurity to health risks: Zinzi said her youngest child was admitted to Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in March after diarrhoea, vomiting and weakness, and that doctors told her the child was malnourished.

The account highlights how hunger, insecure work, migration status and lack of family support can intersect for poor households. Health-e also reported Zinzi’s fear of social services, distress about her situation, and a past suicide attempt, underscoring the mental-health burden associated with extreme food insecurity.