- Linda Mveni says her family can no longer afford peanut butter, eggs or meat more than twice a week.
- The Philippi mother says food prices are breaking the spirit of Ubuntu as people can’t afford to host visitors.
The rising cost of living has turned simple family joys into luxuries for Linda Mveni, a mother of two from Philippi East in Cape Town.
She says her family no longer goes out for ice cream or eats meat as often because prices keep going up.
“We are a small family, but I can’t buy everything we used to buy,” said Mveni. “Everything is expensive.”
Each month, she spends R3,000 on groceries, R800 on electricity, R1,500 for school transport and R1,000 on funeral cover. But even that doesn’t stretch far enough.
“The R3,000 groceries don’t last the whole month. We cut some things, but it didn’t save money,” she said.
Her family has stopped buying peanut butter, French polony, eggs, tomatoes and tomato sauce.
“We are going back to the days where things like mayonnaise and Ultramel were only for Christmas,” she said.
They now eat meat just twice a week. Her husband spends over R1,000 on transport to work, and there’s little left for treats.
“The high prices are killing the spirit of Ubuntu,” said Mveni. “People can’t afford to host visitors anymore – they just offer water instead of coffee or juice.”
She fears things could get worse. “If prices keep going up, we’ll have to eat only twice a day. My kids have already stopped taking lunch to school,” she said.
Pictured above: A family dinner.
Image source: Pexels
