Consumers are feeling the pinch as food prices and travel costs have skyrocketed during the lockdown.
Prices on most essential goods have substantially increased between January and June this year and consumers say they are battling to keep up with the costs during an economic downturn brought by the coronavirus pandemic.
Tiisetso Williams said the amount her family of six spend on groceries a week has doubled.
“On average I would say that it has actually doubled, especially on essential needs because for instance I would spend R500 for basic stuff — your sugar, milk, butter, bread, eggs. The meat has become very expensive — it has doubled, things are getting expensive,” Williams said.
According to the National Agricultural Marketing Council, most essential household goods have substantially increased between January and June.
In January, an average price of a 2kg bag of rice cost R27.69 but in June it had increased to R41,49, a 49% increase.
In the same period a loaf of brown bread increased from R12,42 to R13,32.
In total, a basket of essential goods including milk, fruit, eggs, potatoes, sugar and baked beans, among other items, increased by almost R100 from R875,95 in January to R964,52 in June.
Sixty-three-year-old Elsie Jali, who takes care of her 15 grandchildren, went to a Shoprite in Kagiso hoping to buy enough essentials to last the entire week but only managed to buy a few items.
“Lockdown has made food more expensive. I had R300 [and] ... I only have R69 in change and I didn't buy a lot of things, I couldn't even buy meat or vegetables and the money is already finished,” Jali said.
“The lockdown has negatively impacted a lot of things, I have not been able to go work as a helper where I wash and iron since the end of March. I manage to survive only when my children send some money, like now they sent R300 but it's already finished and I didn't buy a lot, I even had to buy a 1-ply tissue [toilet paper].”
In Jabulani, Soweto, Nonkululeko Myeni said she had also noticed a substantial increase, especially the cost of rice. She said that before lockdown she would spend R139 for a bag of 10kg rice which has now, according to her, jumped to R179.
“There's these type of foods you cannot live without, if you don't have it at home you don't have grocery and I've noticed that rice [10kg] increased from R139, it's R179 now, so that means you must budget [at least an extra] R200.”
Myeni, who lives with her daughter and a helper, said that the sharp increase had added a burden on her monthly expenditure.
“Sunlight bar was R10,99 but now it's R14,99 so there's a lot of things. A 2kg of Cremora [coffee creamer] was R28,99 but now it's R37,99, can you imagine. Since lockdown food has increased, I'm not going to lie to you and I'm not just talking about food, even things like data,” she said.
Styles Makhoba, also from Jabulani, said that his family can only afford no name brands which were also getting expensive.
“I couldn't even buy cheese for my school-going child which we need for her lunch box. It's really hard, we are thankful for those R350s [Covid-19 relief grant] that they are giving us,” he said.
“Even chicken feet are expensive and we can only eat [afford] that now. Amasi, something that used to be so cheap, has increased.”
But it's not only food prices that have increased. Taxi fares were also hiked on July 1.
“For local operations fares were increased by between R4 to R5, town to town (metropolitans) by R7 to R10, and by R10 to R50 for long-distance operations,” Gauteng SA National Taxi Council spokesperson Midday Mali said. Rea Vaya bus fares have also increased by up to R1 for trips over 15 kilometres.
Economist and CEO of Agricultural Business Chamber, John Purchase, said consumers need not worry about the increases in food prices as inflation was under control.
“There was a slight spike in food prices, especially with food products such as the white maize due to panic buying. But things returned to normal and the food inflation was sitting at 4% in May,” he said.
“Some food products have a lower demand because people have less money to spend. These are food products such as protein, healthy foods that boost one’s immune system like citrus foods and staple starch.”
Sowetan bought a food basket of essentials for almost R400 at the Shoprite store in Jabulani which contained:
2kg Tastic rice — R35,29
2l Sunfoil sunflower oil — R53,99
2.5kg Selati white sugar — R45,99
2.5kg flour — R30,99
400g Pilchards — R21,99
2.5kg Iwisa maize meal — R23,99
1kg Margarine spread — R39,99
1 litre Clover milk — R16,69
500g salt — R21,99
Brown bread — R11,99
Baked beans — R11,99
Bag of 60 tea bags — R32,99
1 Knorr soup — R4,99
64g BBQ spice — R18,99
Total: R373,36
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