PMBEJD to release a new Household Affordability Index with Food Price data from Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town, Springbok and Pietermaritzburg.

On Wednesay, 30 September 2020, the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity Group will release the first edition of our new Household Affordability Index.

The deepening food crisis in South Africa, exacerbated by Covid19 compelled us to expand the scope of our Household Affordability Index beyond Pietermaritzburg.  We ran a pilot project from April-August and are now able to provide new food price data in four areas:  Johannesburg, Durban, Cape Town and Springbok.  Using the Pietermaritzburg methodology, and in conversation with women, we have designed a new household food basket which women living on low incomes tell us constitutes a good proxy for the typical core foods and volumes of these foods in the trollies of low income households, given affordability constraints.  Food prices are tracked directly by women data collectors off the shelves of 44 supermarkets and 30 butcheries which target the low-income market.  The supermarkets are in Soweto, Alexandra, Tembisa and Hillbrow (Joburg), Khayelitsha, Gugulethu, Philippi, Delft, Dunoon (Cape Town), KwaMashu, Umlazi, Durban CBD, Mtubatuba (Durban), Springbok (in the Northern Cape) and Pietermaritzburg CBD. This expanded data provides a better lens into the national picture of household affordability and food prices in the homes of families living on low wages and low social grants, and with workers who are unemployed in a time of deep economic and financial crisis.

Visit our website to see the new HAI.