PIETERMARITZBURG, KwaZulu-Natal — The escalating cost of living has placed households under extreme pressure, with expenses for essential items soaring across the board. According to the Competition Commission’s latest cost of living report, consumers are facing severe budget constraints as the prices of water, petrol, transport, electricity, and healthcare continue to surge, fundamentally altering household economics.
The financial strain is particularly evident at the grocery till. Despite recent drops in the input costs for grain and oil seeds, retail price increases have been heavily noted in staple foods such as maize meal, sunflower oil, and brown bread. This discrepancy highlights a troubling “rockets and feathers” pricing trend—where retail prices rise rapidly in response to inflation but fall agonizingly slowly when raw material costs drop.
Sibusiso Mboto, advocacy coordinator at the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity Group (PMBEJD), says the findings of the Competition Commission merely validate what economic justice advocates have warned about since the beginning of the year.
“When you hear the middle-income earning group complaining about this, it is a reflection of the reality that living costs are rising,” Mboto explained. “You just have to wonder how low-income earning workers are then battling to make ends meet. This report amplifies our position, which was recently echoed by Statistics South Africa, indicating that more households are falling into poverty owing to these rising costs.”
A Crisis of Accountability and Compounding Costs
A significant blind spot in the current economic landscape, according to Mboto, is the lack of stringent oversight over market pricing. He argues that the pricing of vital commodities is largely left to a handful of major establishments without a robust monitoring mechanism to ensure corporate accountability.
This lack of oversight is deeply compounded by the inescapable costs of utilities. Preparing food requires water and electricity, both of which have seen steep tariff increases. Mboto pointed out that the new financial year for municipalities began on July 1, driving local governments to generate sustainable income. Ultimately, it is the consumers at the bottom of the economic ladder who bear the brunt of these municipal revenue targets.
While major retailers frequently justify their pricing structures by citing high logistics and transport costs—noting that fuel is a massive input cost for agricultural processing and the movement of goods—advocates remain skeptical.
“We appreciate that petrol is a major input,” Mboto noted. “However, we continue to question to what extent this equation is being made to work for everyone. Can we say with assurance that big supermarket chains are not using this state of affairs to generate as much profit as possible? Our contention is that there is a distinct level of opportunism in all of this.”
The Stark Math of Survival
The human impact of these macroeconomic trends is best illustrated by the monthly math of the working poor. Mboto highlighted a grim reality for a worker earning 6,000 rand per month. An essential food basket consisting of 44 basic items currently costs approximately 5,070 rand. Once transportation costs to and from work are factored in, the worker is left with virtually nothing to secure nutritious meals for their family.
Demanding a “Basket of Interventions”
To alleviate this extreme pressure, advocates are calling for immediate and comprehensive government intervention, warning that isolated policy tweaks are no longer sufficient.
While expanding the list of zero-rated VAT food items and adjusting the national minimum wage are frequent suggestions, Mboto stresses that the solution must be multifaceted.
“You can’t look at food prices being exempted as the only intervention. You have got to look at incomes,” Mboto urged. “In recent years, incomes are just not aligned with living costs, which is why households continue to bleed. We need a basket of interventions consisting of a number of items to ensure that everyone plays by the rules and the most vulnerable are protected.”
