{"id":861855,"date":"2026-05-30T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=861855"},"modified":"2026-05-29T15:01:38","modified_gmt":"2026-05-29T13:01:38","slug":"a-rural-town-in-south-africa-where-people-make-r25000-a-month-has-higher-food-prices-than-joburg-durban-and-cape-town-wip","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/lifestyle\/861855\/a-rural-town-in-south-africa-where-people-make-r25000-a-month-has-higher-food-prices-than-joburg-durban-and-cape-town-wip\/","title":{"rendered":"A rural town in South Africa where people make R25,000 a month has higher food prices than Joburg, Durban, and Cape Town"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In May 2026, Mthatha in the Eastern Cape is the most expensive place among South Africa\u2019s major towns and cities for groceries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, this is closely followed by Springbok, Johannesburg, Mtubatuba, and Durban, which make up the top five most expensive places for food. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is according to data from the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity (PMBEJD) group, which tracks the cost of a household food basket across six towns and cities across South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The PMBEJD report found that while 21 of the 44 tracked food items became cheaper or saw no increases year-on-year, the other 23 experienced price hikes, with four items seeing double-digit inflation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Annual consumer price inflation spiked to 4.0% year-on-year in April 2026, up from 3.1% in March 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite this, annual inflation for food & non-alcoholic beverages (NAB) decreased for a third consecutive month, from 3.6% in March to 2.9% in April. Six of the eleven food & NAB categories recorded lower annual rates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continuing the pressure from the Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak in the country, meat prices continued to show high y\/y price inflation, recorded at 9.4% for April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, meat also registered the largest decline, easing from 11.6% in March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beef mince inflation slowed from 22.2% to 15.3% and stewing beef from 22.6% to 8.7%. The rate for pork moderated from 19.5% to 17.7%. The cereal products category recorded its third consecutive month of deflation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Five of the nineteen items in the category are cheaper than a year ago. These include white rice, maize meal, porridge, basmati rice and bread flour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Milk, other dairy products & eggs recorded their first annual increase since May 2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rate was 0.1%, up from March\u2019s -0.5%. Powdered milk and eggs continue to occupy deflationary territory, at -3.4% and -5.8% respectively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most expensive city<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As of May 2026, the average cost of a household food basket in South Africa, comprising 44 essential items that reflect typical purchasing patterns, reached R5,479.26.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cost of the average household food basket increased by R12.67 (0.2%) from R5,466.59 in May
2025. Month-on-month, the basket price increased by R27.17 compared to April 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, a breakdown of costs in each city shows that the change in food prices is greater in some areas than others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In May 2026, the household food basket cost R5,892.11 in Mthatha, a 4.2% increase of R236.51 from the previous year. However, this is also R175.76 more than the basket price of R5,653.34 in April. \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mthatha\u2019s basket price surpassed the national average by R349.85, making it the most expensive place for groceries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mthatha (formerly Umtata) is a historic city in South Africa\u2019s Eastern Cape province. Located along the N2 highway, it serves as a major commercial and transport hub for the Wild Coast. It is also renowned as the heartland of leaders like Nelson Mandela.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mthatha is the main city in the King Sabata Dalindyebo Local Municipality (within the O.R. Tambo District Municipality) in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the latest tax statistics published by the South African Revenue Service (SARS), the municipality has 41,273 registered taxpayers with an average taxable income of R304,952 a year, or roughly R25,412 a month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is slightly higher than the Eastern Cape’s average taxable income of roughly R292,061 annually, or about R24,338 per month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The household food basket cost R5,723.62 in Johannesburg, a notable 2.0% increase of R113.16 from the previous year, making it the third-most-expensive city behind Springbok in the Northern Cape.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cape Town overtook Maritzburg to become the cheapest city for groceries, recording further decreases compared to the year before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cape Town\u2019s food basket, recorded at R5,222.75, decreased by R206.43 (3.8%) from R5,429.18 in May 2025. However, the city also saw a month-on-month increase of 1.1%, or R54.78, from RR5,167.96 in April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Durban\u2019s household food basket of R5,284.48 decreased by R143,40 (2,6%) from R5,427.87 in May
2025.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Food basket comparison of several cities in South Africa for May 2026<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In May 2026, a historic city in the Eastern Cape is the most expensive place among South Africa\u2019s major towns and cities for groceries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":862003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9876],"tags":[24205,19982,853,1809],"class_list":["post-861855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle","tag-mthatha","tag-pietermaritzburg-economic-justice-dignity-group-pmbejd","tag-south-africa","tag-stats-sa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861855","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\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=861855"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861855\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":862004,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861855\/revisions\/862004"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/862003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=861855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=861855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=861855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}