{"id":127861,"date":"2016-06-23T14:23:26","date_gmt":"2016-06-23T12:23:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=127861"},"modified":"2016-06-23T14:26:06","modified_gmt":"2016-06-23T12:26:06","slug":"this-is-how-much-food-you-can-buy-with-r753","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/127861\/this-is-how-much-food-you-can-buy-with-r753\/","title":{"rendered":"How much food you can buy with R753"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Democratic Alliance (DA) has put to the test claims by the Minister of Social Development, Bathabile Dlamini, that social grant beneficiaries can survive on R753 per month.<\/p>\n<p>Dlamini stated in a <a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/0B_-slGu8-FTxeFZvbWRzWDFnOVU\/view\" target=\"_blank\">reply<\/a> to a DA parliamentary question that Social Grant Beneficiaries should be able to live on R753 per month to buy \u201cadequate food as well as additional non-food items\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>As a cabinet minister, Dlamini earns R2.3 million annually \u2013 R191,000 per month.<\/p>\n<p>DA went shopping in Dobsonville to see if the minister&#8217;s assertion that social grants are \u201cadequate\u201d rings true.<\/p>\n<p>According to the DA, it could only afford the following items with R753:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>5kg chicken<\/li>\n<li>a can of Ricoffy<\/li>\n<li>1kg milk powder<\/li>\n<li>5kg sugar<\/li>\n<li>5kg cake flour<\/li>\n<li>2l cooking oil<\/li>\n<li>10kg maize meal<\/li>\n<li>5 packets of soup powder<\/li>\n<li>4kg rice<\/li>\n<li>2 cans Lucky Star pilchards<\/li>\n<li>5 cans of mixed vegetables<\/li>\n<li>1kg brown beans<\/li>\n<li>5kg samp<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&#8220;This hardly fills half a shopping cart,&#8221; said Bridget Masango, DA shadow minister of Social Development.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The Minister of Social Development is clearly out of touch with reality. To assert that current social grants are &#8216;adequate&#8217; is, quite frankly, an insult to the millions of South Africans who live in poverty, as proved in our shopping exercise.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/R753-e1466683446325.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-127863\" src=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/R753-e1466683446325.jpg\" alt=\"R753\" width=\"600\" height=\"800\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>It would cost a family of five at least R1,146.57 per month to buy the most basic groceries, an investigation by Fin24 recently revealed.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/finance\/127473\/how-much-it-really-costs-to-feed-a-family-of-five-in-south-africa-its-not-r753\/\" target=\"_blank\">How much it really costs to feed a family of five in South Africa \u2013 it\u2019s not R753<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Fin24 embarked on a shopping trip to Shoprite in Mowbray in Cape Town to find out how much it would cost a family of five people to buy the bare necessities, including perishable and non-perishable items, for one month.<\/p>\n<p>It said that it selected the cheapest items on the shelves, and the quantities were conservative.<\/p>\n<p>The DA noted that 12 million South Africans receive only R350 a month in child grants.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Our shopping exercise showed that the most basic products for child needs (Baby wipes, Shampoo, Soap, Bum cream, diapers, formula milk, etc.) amount to R744, more than double the monthly grant.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Add to that basic toiletries like toilet paper, tooth paste, sanitary pads and shaving cream, and the total reaches more than R850,&#8221; Masango said.<\/p>\n<p><a  data-lightbox=\"post-image\" href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/R753DA-e1466683527348.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-127865\" src=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/R753DA-e1466683527348.jpg\" alt=\"R753DA\" width=\"600\" height=\"800\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The government\u2019s child support grants are not adequate to support South African families and the children that are the future of this country. It is therefore inexplicable that the Minister could claim that R753 a month is sufficient for social grant beneficiaries,&#8221; the shadow minister said.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">More on South Africa<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/126711\/minister-who-said-south-africans-can-survive-on-r753-accused-of-r11000-luxury-hotel-room-splurge\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Minister who said South Africans can survive on R753, accused of R11,000 luxury hotel room splurge<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wealth\/126321\/minister-says-south-africans-can-survive-on-r753-a-month\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Minister says South Africans can survive on R753 a month<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/124181\/why-rising-food-prices-hit-the-poor-hardest\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Why rising food prices hit the poor hardest<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The DA has put to the test claims by the Minister of Social Development, Bathabile Dlamini, that social grant beneficiaries can survive on R753 per month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":114712,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-127861","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127861","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=127861"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127861\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":127873,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127861\/revisions\/127873"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114712"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=127861"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=127861"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=127861"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}