A lower grocery bill doesn't automatically equal an affordable life.
Recent data from the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity Group (PMBEJD) reveals a harsh structural reality for South African workers: essential utility and transport costs are rising far faster than wages, systematically cannibalising the household food budget.
As structural hikes squeeze incomes from every direction, families are being forced into impossible choices long before they reach the check-out line.
In August, the average household food basket cost R5,479.80, according to PMBEJD.
The basket was 0.9% cheaper than in July but remained 1.8% more expensive than a year earlier. Of the 44 foods tracked by the group, 19 increased in price while 25 declined.
For many households, however, lower prices on some groceries do not necessarily mean greater affordability.
Essentials compete for the same income
PMBEJD director Mervyn Abrahams said households do not divide their income into fixed amounts for food, electricity and transport.
“Households don’t receive income and earmark fixed pots for food. They first pay for absolute essentials: rent or bond, electricity, transport,” he said.
Food is often bought with whatever remains after these expenses have been covered.
“Food is normally bought after these other expenses are paid and then it’s bought with whatever money is left over. And more often than not, it means less food and less nutritious food,” Abrahams said.
The group's calculations show the scale of the pressure. In August, electricity and transport accounted for R3,183.45, or 65.8% of a worker’s wage, leaving R1,653.35 for food and other expenses.
“So it’s not just about the food prices alone. It is about how this competition for money works,” Abrahams said.
This means the affordability of food cannot be considered separately from the cost of getting to work, keeping the lights on or paying for other basic services.
Costs beyond the grocery aisle
The Competition Commission's third Cost of Living Report also highlights pressure across household expenses. The report tracks food prices alongside essential costs including electricity, water, housing, healthcare, transport, education and communication.
Siyabulela Makunga, spokesperson for the Commission, said consumers do not always benefit when costs fall further up the food supply chain.
“The report also raises concerns that consumers are not always benefiting from lower input costs,” Makunga said.
The Commission found that producer prices for brown bread, maize meal and sunflower oil remained elevated despite significant decreases in the prices of wheat, maize and sunflower seeds. Retail prices for individually quick frozen chicken and canned pilchards have also remained elevated despite stable or declining producer prices.
Between July 2025 and July 2026, electricity prices increased by 8.1% while water prices rose by 10.1%. Both increases were above overall inflation of 4.3%.
Transport has added another layer of pressure. Petrol prices increased by 26% between January and July 2026, largely due to global pressures linked to the conflict in the Middle East. Minibus taxi fares increased by 13% during the same period.
The Commission noted that commuters could continue facing higher transport costs even when petrol prices decline because taxi fares generally do not fall at the same pace.
Why food prices remain under pressure
South African economists Natalie van Reenen, Luyanda Matomane and Cassandra Dunstan said food inflation has been shaped by both international shocks and domestic conditions.
Supply chain disruptions following the Covid-19 pandemic, high oil and oilseed prices, animal disease outbreaks, weather conditions and geopolitical tensions have all affected food prices.
However, their research points to domestic cost pressures as an important part of the picture.
Their analysis of monthly data from 2013 to 2024 found that food inflation was primarily driven by cost pressures, including electricity and fuel prices, exchange rate movements and global food prices.
The research also highlights what economists describe as asymmetric pricing, where price increases move through the food value chain faster than price decreases.
In South Africa, previous research has identified a “rocket feather effect”, where consumer prices rise quickly when producer prices increase but take longer to fall when producer prices decline.
For households already spending most of their income on essential costs, this creates a difficult cycle. Even when some food prices ease, the money available to buy groceries can remain under pressure because electricity and transport continue to consume a large share of household income.
As Abrahams puts it, the affordability crisis is therefore not simply about the price of individual foods. It is about how households are forced to divide limited income among several costs they cannot easily avoid.
lutho.pasiya@nationalmg.co.za