JOHANNESBURG - Food prices continue to soar. It may just get worse with increases in diesel prices.
Bloomberg's Shisa Nyama Index shows an increase of 15 percent year-on-year.
It reflects the cost of a typical braai in townships and rural areas.
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The Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity and Dignity Group's own data shows much the same.
It says while there has been some easing, core food prices continue to increase.
"We've seen a little bit of a decline in things like maize meal, in some meats, in milk, in eggs and in some vegetables like tomatoes and spinach and so on," said the group's Mervyn Abrahams.
"But when we look at the core foods of that basket, so about 20 of those 44 foods are the foods that women say they must buy every month, so those are the foods that are prioritized and bought first.
"When you just take those foods, we see that those foods are still increasing, and that has increased by something like R35 over the past month, so food prices are remaining stubbornly high," he said.
"For the first time, we're seeing a slight decline of R15 even though the foods are remaining high, but we don't know whether this will keep because of factors like load-shedding etc."