Poor households hit hardest as paraffin costs soar across South Africa.
Image: PEXELS
South Africa's poorest communities are being plunged deeper into hardship as soaring paraffin prices tighten their grip on already struggling households, turning everyday essentials like cooking, heating water and keeping the lights on into an unbearable financial burden for families with nowhere else to turn.
For countless struggling households, the simple act of cooking a meal, boiling water or switching on a lamp at night is becoming increasingly unaffordable after the latest spike in the price of illuminating paraffin this week.
For Andile Chonco, who lives in a small one-room shelter outside Pinetown, the increase feels impossible to comprehend.
"I live in a one-room shelter. I don't work. I depend on SASSA child grants as I have three children.
"I don't understand why they would up the price of paraffin that much because it is my main source of energy," she said.
Now, the price of illuminating paraffin has increased once again by R4.22 per litre (wholesale) effective from Wednesday. This makes a litre R37.10.
Chonco said the increase is not just affecting her, but her children too, as basic daily needs become harder to meet.
"The children study and need light. I really don't get why they would increase it this much. They should also think of us, the unemployed. I can barely get by on the grant."
Already trapped in a cycle of poverty, Chonco said every day is a battle to stretch the little money she receives.
She explained that the paraffin in her home often runs out before the month ends because she simply cannot afford to buy more.
Now, with the latest increase, she fears conditions will worsen even further.
"There was no need for an increase in it. This government does not care for us because we're poor. We really are suffering. It can't surge by this much."
Economist Ulrich Joubert warned that the steep increase would hit the country's most vulnerable citizens the hardest, particularly low-income households already struggling to survive.
"It will have a severe impact on the finances of the people who utilise paraffin to cook, warm water and more.
"Those are mostly people from disenfranchised backgrounds. And it is reasonable to assume that many of them rely on welfare payments," he said.
The increase, driven by soaring global oil prices and escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, is expected to place even more pressure on families with little to no financial cushion left.
"Unfortunately, there is very little that people can do about this because they are dependent on it," added Joubert.
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