Families struggle to survive as food costs outpace minimum wage

FAMILIES are forced to “eat what they can afford” as minimum wage workers struggle to survive on R4 836 per month.

- YOSHINI PERUMAL

MIKE Mtshali, garden team leader at the ABH. | Supplied

(Supplied)

New research shows 59% of wages are consumed by electricity and transport alone, leaving children particularly vulnerable to malnutrition.

The Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity (PMBEJD) group warns that this crisis threatens the nation's future economic prospects.

They have called for an increase in the minimum wage as recent statistics show that minimum to average earning workers were “living below the poverty line”.

With a monthly increase to food basket, the rising cost of electricity and transport, families are forced to eat what they can afford while children who depend on support grants are “suffering the most”.

This is according to statistics from the (PMBEJD) September 2025 Household Affordability Index (HAI), which tracked prices of basic foods each month in Durban, Johannesburg and Pietermaritzburg.

In September, of the 44 foods tracked in the food basket, 21 foods increased in price.

Foods which increased in price by 5% or more included chicken gizzards (5%), beef liver (7%), butternut (13%), green pepper (9%) and bananas (8%).

Foods which increased by 2% or more were sugar beans (4%), salt (2%), curry powder (2%), chicken livers (2%), wors (4%), canned beans (4%), peanut butter (2%), white bread (2%) and brown bread (2%).

Foods in the basket which decreased in price by 5% or more included potatoes (-15%), onions (-7%), fish (-6%), tomatoes (-11%), carrots (-9%), spinach (-9%), cabbage (-5%), and oranges (-5%). Foods which decreased, by 2% or more, include soup (-2%), tea (-2%), and beef (-2%).

Mervyn Abrahams, spokesperson for PMBEJD, called on the government to look at increasing the minimum wage.