Keep grants in place as food crisis deepens, government urged

Struggling South African families may be forced to cut back on food consumption or turn to loan sharks because of the rising cost of basic items.

This is according to the latest household affordability index report by NGO Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity (PMBEJD).

It analysed food price data from 44 supermarkets and 30 butcheries that target the low-income market in cities and towns such as Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town, Springbok and Pietermaritzburg.

“The deepening food crisis in SA, exacerbated by Covid-19, compelled us to expand the scope of the household affordability index beyond Pietermaritzburg,” said PMBEJD’s Mervyn Abrahams.

“We have designed a new household food basket which women living on low incomes tell us constitutes a good proxy for the typical core foods and volumes of these foods in the trolleys of low-income households, given affordability constraints.”

The basic basket comprises about 43 items for a family of seven.

“This expanded data provides a better lens into the national picture of household affordability and food prices in the homes of families living on low wages and low social grants, and with workers who are unemployed.

People are struggling. We have lost our jobs, got pay cuts, have to work fewer hours, at the same time food is up ...

—  Survey participant

“It is able to track how families living on low incomes are responding to a deepening financial and economic crisis, given rising expenditure costs, job losses, stagnant employment, rising household debt, a deepening food crisis, deepening poverty and entrenched inequality,” Abrahams said.

In September, the average cost of a food basket was R3,783.

According to the report, “this is well beyond the affordability thresholds of families living on low incomes”.

“The national minimum wage for this same period was R3,487.  

“Now that we have far more comprehensive empirical evidence of the food-affordability crisis beyond Pietermaritzburg (data that reinforces several years of investigations), in the big metropolitan areas of Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town, it is critical that we act,” said Abrahams.

He believes top-ups on social grants should be made permanent.

“It would be unwise to remove the top-ups to the social grants and the R350 special Covid-19 grant while the costs of goods and services remain as high as they are, and where income levels have not recovered, and while jobs remain elusive. 

“Removing the top-ups now will see families worse off than they were before March 2020. 

“Because most families were not able to absorb the shock that came with Covid-19, removing the grant too soon could act to thrust already very vulnerable households into a situation whereby they may not be able to recover,” he said.

A woman from Tembisa on the East Rand, who was a survey participant, said: “People are struggling. We have lost our jobs, got pay cuts, have to work fewer hours. At the same time food is up, taxi fares are up, electricity is up.”

Another woman from KwaMashu, near Durban, told researchers she was frustrated and exhausted.

“There is no payday and you have to put food on the table. You have to keep the lights on. You have to pay for transport. How are we supposed to do that?”

Another woman spoke about queues outside loan-shark operations.

It would be unwise to remove top-ups to social grants ... while the costs of good and services remain as high as they are.

—  Mervyn Abrahams, Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity

“The queues you see outside the loan sharks are just crazy long. People get their wages or grants, go and pay them off and beg for another loan.”

The report stated that the “deficit on our plates has major and far-reaching consequences, but it also serves as an indicator of the emergency we are in”.

It warned that families will have to make up for income shortfalls by cutting back on their food consumption or finding additional income or credit.

“Even if they are able to do this, underspending on food will still occur and health, wellbeing, nutrition and productivity will be negatively affected,” the report said.

Abrahams believes government not dealing with the crisis could be “extremely costly in the long-term, for our bodies, our health and wellbeing ...

“We cannot have any type of positive future or hopeful economic outlook if we don’t address the household affordability crisis.”