By Lee-Yandra Paulsen

South Africa is experiencing a cost-of-living crisis, with skyrocketing food and fuel prices, as well as severe rate hikes, forcing households to make tough decisions.

Programme Coordinator at the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice & Dignity Group, Mervyn Abrahams spoke to VOC Breakfast on Friday about the Household Affordability Index in terms of the food basket for May.

“The food basket for the working class now stands at R5,071. This is an increase of about R461 over the last year,” said Abrahams. The cost of the food basket has been increasing every month for the last year excluding October when the food basket had a slight decrease in price. Abrahams said that looking at the cost of the food basket which costs over R5000 and the National Minimum wage in South Africa, which is about R4500, most citizens cannot afford the entire food basket. This is because 60% of workers in South Africa earn minimum wage.

Although the inflation rate has dropped from 7.1% to 6.8% the food prices have not decreased. According to Abrahams, this is due to rate hikes, as farmers with debt must now increase their product price to pay loans, therefore everything gets more and more expensive.

“We have been calling on the government to sit down with the food industry and begin to explore what it is that is keeping food prices so high. They should also think of interventions that would be useful to bring prices down,” commented Abrahams.

Abrahams predicts that the cost of the food basket for the next month might increase again as it has been for the last year.

VOC News

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