While the price of some products including eggs and white rice decreased, products such as beef are still expensive. This, along with a rise in transport, electricity and rental costs, counteracted the mild relief offered by some staple food prices cooling.
While the price of some products including eggs and white rice decreased, products such as beef are still expensive. This, along with a rise in transport, electricity and rental costs, counteracted the mild relief offered by some staple food prices cooling.
Maverick Citizen has been tracking the prices of 14 basic food items that can be bought with the R370 Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant.
In the basket this month there were price decreases in staples such as white rice, and increases in curried powder, tea and flour. The overall cost of the Maverick Citizen basket is R378,87. This is more than the SRD grant and does not factor in transport costs involved in accessing the money, nor the data fees required for recipients to check their grant status for the next month.
The latest edition of the Household Affordability Index points out that even though there is a slight decrease in the household food basket, grant recipients are still not receiving enough to secure a basic nutritious diet.
The average cost of the items prioritised and bought first in the index's food basket decreased by R7,92 (-0.3%) from R2,865.08 in September 2025 to R2,857.17 in October 2025....
