Hard times and the rising cost of food forced pensioner Angelina Phafane to stop buying bread for her three grandchildren daily as a way of tightening the household budget.
Phafane, 62, of Mlamlankunzi, Soweto, decided that the children, aged three, five and eight will have to survive on groceries that has shrunk over the past five months as food prices skyrocket.
She would spend about R20 a day on a loaf of bread.
Phafane lives with the grandchildren and four adults, who include her son and her sisters’ sons.
All the men are unemployed.
The family of eight depends on R3,150 in social grants – her pension and child grants for the grandchildren.
In addition, Phafane gets R1,000 from two shacks she rents out.
There are seven other shacks in the yard, where her son and nephews live.
Phafane says she uses a big pot to cook for everyone and ensures that there is some food that is left for the next day.
The school-going children eat porridge in the morning and have their lunch at school, thanks to the feeding scheme.
When they return home from school, they eat the food that was left from last night's supper.
“My grandchildren understood me and agreed a few months ago that we should not buy bread. We eat bread in this house only on the day we get our grants.
“Beyond that, we cannot afford it at all. Bread has to be bought every day and I do not have that kind of money now.
“Cooking oil has also become a problem. I used to spend about R80 on it. Now it is over R100. Even mealie meal and washing power have gone up.
“It is tough. Actually, life has never been this tough, even during the times of apartheid; it was never like this,” she said.
Phafane says she has lost “a few hundreds” she used to get from doing laundry for her neighbours due to her knee that is painful.
The Phefane family is one of many households across the country that are increasingly finding it hard to survive due to high levels of inflation.
On Wednesday, Statistics SA announced that the annual consumer inflation spiked to 7.4% in June, from 6.5% in May, the highest in 13 years.
Inflation has been driven by fuel hikes that have pushed food and transport costs to record highs.
On Thursday, consumers suffered yet another blow as the SA Reserve Bank increased the repo rate by 75 basis points from 4.75% to 5.50%.
This pushes the lending rate from 8.25% to 9%.
The repo rate is the rate at which the Reserve Bank lends to banks and the lending rate is the one used by banks when they lend to their customers.
Small businesses have also not been spared the high price in inflation.
Tlelaka Mamonyane, 42, who ran a business selling kotas in Mlamlankunzi, has been forced to downscale his offerings to just fat cakes.
His costs surged exponentially with 25 litres of cooking oil rising from R400 to R800, a stock that lasted him a week.
Flour increased from R115 to R197 per 12.5kg, which lasted just one day.
“Then there was load-shedding for which I had to spend an additional R560 on gas. With everything happening, it was clear that I was not making any profit and had to stop,” Mamonyane said.
He stopped producing kotas and chips in April.
Mamonyane used to make about R2,000 a day from selling kotas, chips and fat cakes.
Now, he only makes R500 a day from just fat cakes.
The drop in income has had a devastating effect on his family.
“Open my fridge if you want to see how bad things are,” Mamonyane said.
There were only two tomatoes and an onion in the fridge.
Mamonyane has to take care of his mother, wife and two children aged 16 and seven.
dlaminip@sowetan.co.za
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