Maverick Citizen has been tracking the prices of 14 basic food items that a consumer can buy with R370, the amount of the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant. (Photo: Naledi Sikhakhane) 
Maverick Citizen has been tracking the prices of 14 basic food items that a consumer can buy with R370, the amount of the Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant.
All consumers are under strain as headline consumer inflation increased to 3.5% in July from 3.0% in June. This is the highest rate since September 2024, when it was 3.8%.
“Household food budgets under pressure — annual inflation for food & non-alcoholic beverages (NAB) continued to rise, accelerating to 5.7%,” said Stats SA on 20 August.
The Household Affordability Index said the average cost of its Household Food Basket in August was R5,380.62. The index tracks the prices of 44 basic foods from 47 supermarkets and 32 butcheries.
Because most low-income households cannot afford this basket, the researchers created a core foods basket. The average cost of the food in this basket in August was R2,869.26 — an increase of R25.80 from the previous month.
Protein
Snqobile Mchunu (22) uses the SDR grant to add protein to the family meals. Mchunu lives with her mother, who is employed, and her brother. “There is not a lot you can buy. I usually get a braai pack for around R180 and the cheaper meat in small trays,” said Mchunu.
Mchunu lives in central Durban and does not have to factor in transport costs, unlike those who live in peri-urban areas.
The Household Affordability Index said that because of constantly rising food prices, “There is less money to secure other important mostly nutritionally rich foods, which are essential for health and wellbeing and strong immune systems (viz, meat, eggs and dairy, which are critical for protein, iron and calcium; vegetables and fruit, which are critical for vitamins, minerals and fibre… The data show that the core foods contribute 53% of the total cost of the Household Food Basket.”
Exclusion
Grant and social services activist Elizabeth Raiters said she had been inundated with requests for help from SRD grant beneficiaries who had been blocked from receiving their grants. Some end up in debt when they borrow money to travel to the nearest town to collect the grant, only to find they have not received it.
Raiters said the Department of Social Development had amended the SRD grant rules without communicating this to beneficiaries.
“It seems two people cannot use the same number to access the grant any more, so when they get to the retailers, it writes ‘error’ — this is one of the many ways people are excluded now because some people do not have phones and use relatives to apply for the grant and check their status.”
A former recipient of the grant, who wished to remain anonymous, told Daily Maverick she used to receive the grant, but it was declined when she began her Work Integrated Learning internship. The internship ended months ago, and she reapplied to no avail.
She went to the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) office twice to get help, but was unable to get unblocked.
“They told me they are not dealing with issues about the R370 grant; they said they only have certain days. My mom went back on one of the days they said. She spent time there and didn’t receive help. I never went back again after that,” she said.
She said the money was helpful, but she was discouraged by how hard it was to access.
Biometric system
Sassa has announced that it will introduce a mandatory Beneficiary Biometric Enrolment system at all its offices from 1 September.
The agency said the new system would revolutionise the administration of social grants and would detect any potentially fraudulent activities.
The agency said applications without biometric data would be put into the review cycle, “notifying the client of the need to capture biometrics as per the review processes”.
The beneficiaries Daily Maverick spoke to did not know about this, and Raiters says this was also the case with the people who asked her for help.
“Some clients get blocked every month before it is time to get money. They get blocked and have to go do eKYC [electronic Know Your Client] to reverify themselves, and to do this you need a smartcard ID. There is a self-service portal where they can unblock themselves.”
Raiters said this was an exclusionary requirement, as not everyone was technologically savvy, and sometimes even those who figured out how to verify themselves online were still unable to receive the grant.
“Most people wait until the system unblocks them somehow. Some people received a back payment from May, but when they checked again the next day, they were blocked again. If you receive the money, you get happy thinking you will be getting the grant from here on out, only to find you are blocked again.”
Some beneficiaries have not received their SRD grants since March.
“The Sassa offices are already strained with the review process of all other grants. How will they roll this new process out? The Sassa office is not equipped to verify people each month. The SRD grant is in shambles; beneficiaries are going through a tough time, and no one is paying attention to that.
“I wish the minister could speak to beneficiaries on the ground and see how many hoops they have to jump through to receive this R370, and they still get excluded — every month it’s something,” said Raiters. DM