A week ago, Statistics SA released the inflation-adjusted national poverty lines (NPLs) report for 2021. The NPLs are constructed using the cost-of-basic needs approach, linking welfare to the consumption of goods and services.
The Food Poverty Line (FPL), which was adjusted to R624 per person per month, refers to the amount that individuals need to afford the minimum required daily energy intake. The Lower-bound Poverty Line (LBPL), adjusted to R890 per person per month, is the food poverty line plus the average amount derived from non-food items of households whose total expenditure is equal to the food poverty line. The Upper-bound Poverty Line (UBPL) was adjusted to R1,335 per person per month. Adjustments to the poverty line were made due to the increasing high cost of living in the country.
According to the report, more than 13-million South Africans are living below the FPL. This means that they are unable to afford the minimum required food intake. Millions of South Africa’s population lives below the three NPLs – meaning that more than half the people in our country are considered either poor or extremely poor.
A significant number of these form part of the nearly 19-million beneficiaries of social grants, most of whom are children. Important to note is that the Child Support Grant (CSG), at R460 per month, falls below the country’s poverty line.
The levels of poverty in SA have increased significantly during the Covid-19 pandemic. In my recently submitted Masters dissertation titled “The Impact of Covid-19 on Urban Food Security in South Africa: An Analysis of the City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality”, I demonstrate through the use of official statistics and extensive research from National Income Dynamics Survey reports that at the height of the pandemic, 47% of households in SA did not have enough money for food. Importantly, urban food insecurity is on the increase across all major cities in the country, worsened by rising levels of unemployment and increasing costs of basic necessities.
Evidence demonstrates that while interventions such as CSGs and Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grants that are being given to unemployed South Africans to navigate the pandemic are important, on their own, they will never eradicate poverty in our country.
Not only are they both below the poverty line, but they often have to accommodate large households. In reality, a R460 grant intended for a single child or a R350 distress grant intended for one unemployed person are utilised by entire households for whom these are the sole means of income.
Ironically, in SA where poverty is largely generational, children who are born into poor households are likely to live below the poverty line until they reach pension age, at which time they will, for the first time, have income above the poverty line, currently at R1,890. But this too will likely need to accommodate more than the beneficiary, meaning that even when one does eventually earn above NPLs, they will still remain poor.
There is no one solution to resolving this crisis. A number of interventions need to happen simultaneously. Two of the most critical to me are the resolution of the land question, because availability of land will lessen the burden of food insecurity as demonstrated in areas like Munsieville and Bekkersdal where urban food gardens have alleviated hunger for the most indigent households.
The second intervention is undoubtedly job creation. Government needs to invest in infrastructure development to attract investment, while the private sector needs to be at the forefront of providing jobs. This will need a government with political will. The jury is still out on whether the ANC is such a government.
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