Despite the recent increase in the national minimum wage South Africans will continue to struggle to feed their families according to Mervyn Abrahams, Programme Coordinator, Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice & Dignity Group (PMBEJD).
“We welcome the increase in the national minimum wage but we would have preferred a higher increase because people are still living below the poverty line,” Abrahams said.
According to calculations in the February 2023 Household Affordability Index by PMBEJD, a family of four that lives in Pietermaritzburg would not have enough money left over to buy food after taking care of other costs, including transport and electricity.
A person who gets paid the national minimum wage will have 60% of their salary used up taking care of transport and electricity costs (R2227.50/R3710.40). The balance left over to buy food is R1482.90.
After R1482.90 has been divided between four people, each person will only have R370.72 for food, which is 44% below the food poverty line of R663.
While there was only a slight increase of R10.91 (0,2%) making the average cost of a household basket R4928.34 for February, there only way to solve the problems that people are facing to put food on their tables is to increase the national minimum wage.
Abrahams said that people are still going to struggle because the national minimum wage is not enough solve debt and poverty.
Household Affordability Index
Besides the R10.91 increase between January 2023 and February 2023 there was also a year-on-year increase in the cost of a household food basket. The average cost of a food basket increased by R572.64, from R4 355.70 in February 2022 to R4928.34 in February 2023.
Out of the five cities that the index tracks, three cities – Durban, Cape Town and Pietermaritzburg – showed a drop in the cost of a food basket, while there was an increase in the cost of a food basket for Springbok and Johannesburg.
Between January 2023 and February 2023, the cost of a food basket in Springbok and Johannesburg increased by R278.48 and R50.13 respectively.
From January 2023 to February 2023, the cost of a food basket dropped by R6.39 in Durban, R99.21 in Pietermaritzburg and R6.02 in Cape Town.
Despite the less than 1% increase in the average cost of a food basket, the index showed that there a a price increase on certain food item for February 2023.
In February 2023, foods that had a 5% increase in cost included:
– maize meal (up by 6%)
– samp (5%)
– butternut (7%)
– spinach (14%)
– cabbage (15%)
– green pepper (6%)
– oranges (21%).
Foods which increased in cost in February 2023, by 2% or more, included:
– rice (2%)
– salt (2%)
– soup (2%),
– inyama yangaphakathi (4%)
– tomatoes (2%)
– bananas (4%)
– apples (3%).
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