Covid-19 is making it harder for South Africans to put food on the table.
Food price data over the past three months shows that South Africans are struggling to survive as food prices soar as the average cost of the household food basket increased by R85,70 (2.2%).
The food basket project by the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity (PMBEJD) group, which tracks purchases in Soweto and Alexandra in Gauteng, Khayelitsha and Gugulethu in the Western Cape and KwaMashu and Umlazi in KwaZulu-Natal, shows that hunger, debt, unemployment, violence, poverty and inequality have escalated since the Covid-19 pandemic began.
The data collated from 44 supermarkets and 30 butcheries indicate that the average cost of a food basket for December was R4,002.42 — yet the national minimum wage for general workers is R3,487.68.
KwaMashu resident Elizabeth Mokoena said she was struggling to cope on the two child grants she was receiving.
“I’m not working. I have 10 mouths at home I have to feed. The price for shopping is so high and no-one at home is working.”
Sitting outside a Boxer Store with a trolley filled with potatoes, onions, maize meal, rice and oil, Mokoena said she had spent R1,300 on items that would last less than two weeks.
“I get R800 from my grants. I have to borrow and loan money so we can survive. Covid has made it worse. No-one is working because they have to stay at home.”
Things are equally bleak for Zama Mshozi, 54, who has 12 mouths to feed and no income.
She says the government vouchers they use for groceries aren’t enough.
“The children are on holiday now and are eating a lot. I’m not sure when we will get another voucher but things are getting tough. No-one is working at home,” she said.
PMBEDJ researcher Julie Smith said the extra R350 social grant money that was provided during the first wave was removed, yet government knew a second wave would come.
“All the support people had has been removed and the situation on the ground hasn’t changed. It’s now starting to get worse because food prices haven’t come down. The grant has been extended to January, but what then?”
After growing demand for the grant to be extended, President Cyril Ramaphosa, during his tabling of the economic recovery plan, announced the grant would be extended until January.
Smith said given the 30% unemployment rate in SA, there was not much hope for those living below the poverty line.
“Jobs aren’t going to come, if we’re being honest — the economy is frail — there are no jobs. We need to try to provide families with opportunities to generate their own income and government has been slow to act in this regard.”
She said the high levels of poverty in SA were directly proportional to the increasing levels of stunting among the country’s children.
Smith added the best intervention that government could undertake is looking at increasing the value of the child support grant.
“Covid has actually shone a light on the high levels of inequality, unemployment and poverty — it’s shone a light but what has government actually done?”
She said the national minimum wage is set below the poverty line and the country’s most vulnerable workers don’t have any savings.
“The national minimum wage set at such a low level does not allow workers and their families the possibility to secure even their most basic expenses. Instead it appears from our data that the national minimum wage has worked to lock workers and their families into even deeper levels of poverty. Workers will have to cut back further on food and go into deeper levels of debt to cover wage shortfalls.”
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