• Waiter Lungisani Malamo has cut his monthly food spending from R1,500 to R1,000 so he can spend R500 on electricity.
• Zikhona Folo cooks with gas to save electricity while putting her tips aside to buy Christmas clothes for her children.
For Khayelitsha waiter Lungisani Malamo, keeping the lights on now means putting less food on the table.
The 40-year-old Cape Town waiter used to add his tips to his grocery budget.
Now every cent of those tips goes towards electricity.
“My tips now go entirely towards paying for electricity, as it has become too expensive for my salary. Because of the high cost of electricity, I had to cut back on my food budget,” said Malamo.
He used to spend R1,000 a month on groceries and added his tips to increase his food budget to R1,500.
But he now spends R500 on electricity, leaving him with only R1,000 for groceries.
That has forced him to change what he eats.
Malamo said he has stopped buying items including red meat, bread and sausages.
“I never thought I would spend this much on electricity. It has become too expensive, and cutting back on food was the only option I had,” he said.
Malamo said tips from customers have become an important part of his income.
“The customers who are giving out tips are playing a huge role in our lives. What they are doing is not small,” he said.
He said low wages mean workers like him are being forced to choose between food and electricity.
“We are no longer buying our favourite food, or the food we like, we now buy basics that keep us going for a month,” he said.
Switching completely to gas is also not a simple solution for Malamo.
He still needs electricity to charge his cellphone and keep his lights on.
“We are in a very tough position, and things aren’t looking to get better,” he said.
Fellow waiter Zikhona Folo, 38, has also changed how she uses electricity.
She mainly uses power to charge her cellphone and keep her lights on while using a gas stove for cooking.
Folo saves her tips to buy Christmas clothes for her children.
“I save them, and during the year I make lay-bys, which I will take out at the end of November,” she said.
Folo said using gas for cooking lasts longer and saves her money compared with relying on electricity.
