Johannesburg - For many of the nation’s poor, Christmas will just be another day in the fight against starvation in a year of high food inflation. “Before people used to have a semblance of a Christmas meal, not any more,” says Mervyn Abrahams, programme coordinator of the director of Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity (PEJD).
Food inflation has meant that many are having to survive on less and less.
“We started picking up that women were eating less now it has spread to the rest of the family. Many have told me that they can’t remember when they had three meals a day. For many the only strategy is to eat less,” says Abrahams.
PEJD tracks the prices of food across several towns and cities and compiles what it will cost to buy a basic monthly food basket.
Their food basket for November revealed that month on month the price of food had risen by one percent. However, when compared year on year, the rise in price was nationally at 13.2%, or from R4 272.44 in November 2021 to R4 835.96 in November 2022.
“Some of these prices are really massive. When we look at the price of maize meal, it went up 22% over the year, brown bread 20%, it is just unbelievable.”
The release of the November food basket comes as South Africans were greeted to unexpected good news about the economy.
Statistics SA revealed early in December that GDP grew 1.6% quarter on quarter, allowing the country to escape a technical recession.
This week further data from Stats SA showed that inflation had slowed month on month. Headline consumer price inflation (CPI) dipped slightly to 7.4% in November from 7.6% in October.
Stats SA chief director for price statistics, Patrick Kelly, said in a statement: “Food and Non-Alcoholic Beverages inflation climbed to 12.5% in November from 12.0% in October, representing the seventh consecutive month of accelerating price inflation. This rising trend is mainly driven by inflation in bread and cereals, which reached an annual rate of 19.9% in November, up from 19.5% in October. This is notably higher than the modest 2.3% recorded in November 2021.”
South Africa is following the global trend, Nedbank economist Johannes Khosa told Independent Media. Global food inflation had eased significantly over the last couple of months.
The problem however, says Abrahams, is that food prices often rise rapidly in South Africa but take a long time to fall.
“We are not expecting prices to come down significantly,” he says.
To get by often people have to borrow money from informal money lenders at high interest rates.
“For many the only option is to take out debt or starve to death.”
The basket the foods, which increased in price in November by more than 4%, includes maize meal, cake flour, samp, onions, chicken feet, beef liver, wors, fish, carrots, apples, oranges, and apricot jam.
“Last year was sad, but this year’s Christmas will be sadder,” says Abrahams.