On Thursday 23rd April 2020 we collected food prices in Pietermaritzburg supermarkets which target the low-income market. We present these price increases from before the lockdown to this date (2 March 2020 to 23 April 2020) and also look at the Child Support Grant top-up.
An average increase of 7% on the Household Food Index from March 2019 up to the end of March 2020 is significant. It is unclear at this stage whether this will come down in the coming weeks.
Co-authored by Open Secrets and Shadow World Investigations, The Enablers investigative report explores the largely overlooked yet extensive evidence of the role of the private sector “enablers” in state capture.
That ‘’Janu-worry’’ has entered the national lexicon is an indication that the household affordability crisis is no longer solely a working-class issue. More households are struggling to make ends meet and this struggle is getting harder.
The January 2020 Household Affordability Index shows dramatic spikes in food prices.
December has seen dramatic spikes in food prices with prices increasing for most of the meats and vegetables in the household food basket.
It is expected that prices rise annually in December. These increases however are harder to absorb during this time because of the shorter working days and hours in this period. Workers have less money in their pockets whilst simultaneously having to pay higher prices for goods.
Food prices continue to rise. The trajectory is an upward trend. October 2019 sees a third consecutive month of increases in the cost of the household food basket which may continue to rise into the new year.
This policy brief focuses on the realities of the provision of free basic services to residents in insecure and informal environments, and draws on examples from three municipalities where the ABS project was implemented in South Africa.
