The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) expresses its deep alarm at the ongoing rise in the cost of living and the consequent erosion of working-class living standards.
A recent survey by Debt Rescue South Africa reveals a harrowing reality: households are being forced to cut back on basic essentials such as food and transport simply to keep the lights on. This crisis deepens even before the newly approved 0.5 percentage point increase in Value-Added Tax (VAT) and the 12.7% electricity tariff hike granted to Eskom by NERSA come into effect.
When these increases are implemented, millions of working-class and poor South Africans will be pushed further into poverty, squalor, and inhumane conditions. The relentless rise in the cost of food, housing, electricity, and transportation is systematically stripping working-class families of their ability to maintain even the most basic standard of living.
As SAFTU has warned, the government’s decision to increase VAT and NERSA’s approval of Eskom’s tariff hike represent direct assaults on the poor and working class, already buckling under the weight of economic hardship.
The latest data from the PMBEJD Household Affordability Index confirms the worsening situation. Between February and March 2025, the average cost of priority food items in the household food basket increased by 1.2%, rising from R2,888.74 to R2,923.52. Over the year from March 2024 to March 2025, the same basket rose by R101.95, from R2,821.58 to R2,923.52.
Staple foods have surged alarmingly:
- Maize meal, a basic necessity in most working-class households, reached a 17-month high in
- February 2025, increasing by 10.6% over the year.
- Samp recorded a 19-month high, rising by 18.7% over the same period.
This is occurring in a country without a legislated living wage, where over 6.5 million workers earn around or below R5,400 per month, the unemployment rate stands at 41.9%, and social grants fail to keep pace with inflation. Families are being forced to cut food spending in a nation where 21% of children are already malnourished.
It is therefore clear that the coming VAT and electricity price hikes will further crush working-class households, turning an already unbearable situation into a full-scale humanitarian catastrophe.
SAFTU demands urgent government intervention to mitigate the impact of these increases and to protect the working class:
- Price controls on essential goods and services to prevent profiteering
- Immediate introduction of a living wage to ensure workers can afford a decent standard of living
- Access to affordable housing, transport, and healthcare for all
- Substantial increases to social grants, indexed to inflation
We call on all formations of the working class — including community-based organisations, independent unions and federations, progressive student movements, and civil society allies — to unite in mass action to demand meaningful responses to the deepening cost-of-living crisis.
Issued on behalf of SAFTU by:
Zwelinzima Vavi
General Secretary
For media enquiries, contact:
Newton Masuku
National Spokesperson
Tel: 066 168 2157
Email: newtonm@saftu.org.za
