Elderly forced to choose between electricity, food

CRISES IN COMMUNITY: Pensioners across the city are struggling to meet the rising costs of electricity. Picture: SUPPLIED

Mandy de Villiers wakes up each day dreading the possibility of finding her 83-year-old mother dead from starvation — forced to choose between buying food or paying her electricity bill, which has skyrocketed to more than R3,000 since the implementation of the increased basic service charges.

August 1 saw the Buffalo City Municipality implement steep increases, standing at R432,40 for prepaid consumers and R763,60 for credit/post paid consumers, vat included. De Villiers’s mother who lives in Brookeville, close to Greenfields, earns a pension of R5,000 a month and with the implementation of the surcharges, her electricity bill is R3,300, which is more than half of what she receives.

In addition to her electricity costs, she also must cover medical expenses which include medicine for skin cancer treatment, high blood pressure and diabetes.

She is a recipient of the property rates rebate supplied by the municipality however, because of the increased electricity charges, the rebate is no longer truly a relief for her.

With a monthly pension of R5,000, De Villiers’s mother also earns above the threshold required to receive the municipality’s electricity relief package which is only for indigent households earning less than R4,400 per month and includes free subsidy package of R887 per month discounted rates including free 50 kWh electricity and 6kl of free water.

De Villiers said: “My mom is living in fear every month of her electricity bill. She’s eating so sparingly to save money — making the electricity increases a direct threat to her survival.

“Her electricity bill used to be R2,100 a month and she was able to bake food to sell to supplement her pension but with the bill standing at R3,300, she has no money left over to buy ingredients or to use extra electricity for her baking. The increase in the charges has robbed her of the last means she had left for independence.

“After her electricity is paid, she only has R1,700 left, from which she must cover her medical expenses and buy food that is compatible with her medical conditions. How can she afford all of that from R5,000?

“The municipality needs to reduce the rates for the elderly across the board because they deserve to live their last few years on earth with dignity and peace.

“They should not have to worry that their water and electricity will be cut.

“I foresee worse things to come for our elderly, who are going to take desperate action like eating dog food, which is a human rights travesty, especially for elderly people who have specific medical needs.

“The outcome of these electricity charges is death for elderly people like my mother.”

An 84-year-old resident from Willow Park said she is R24,000 in credit card debt after being forced to use her credit card for essential needs every month since the implementation of the basic service charges.

With a pension of R5,830 a month, she also does not qualify for the indigent relief package, despite being financially responsible for her granddaughter and herself.

She said: “My medical expenses are more than R3,000 and the electricity bill eats up whatever money is left.”

Roedolf Kay from the SA Older Person’s Forum (SAOPF), a national advocacy body for the rights of elderly people, said that the electricity increases sweeping Buffalo City and other municipalities across the country was a crises for elderly people, who would be forced to choose between going to bed without electricity or without food. Kay said: “We have heard from many older people that they believe their survival will force them to give up having electricity.

“Both social grants recipients and private pensioners are not keeping up with the skyrocketing cost of living and although many officials at local level acknowledge this, there seems to be little they can do about it because nationally there needs to be more political will to engage with older persons and to stop perpetuation of ageism.

“The SAOPF is working on amending the Older Person’s Act to provide better protection against abuse, neglect and ill-treatment. However, poverty alleviation support will have to come from the private sector but often older people receive much less funding than other vulnerable sectors.

“The increase in electricity costs is not a good situation for older people, whether they are indigent or live off of private pension.”

In addition to being unable to afford rising electricity costs, researchers have documented the challenges faced by older people especially concerning threats to their pension. Over the years, older people have become responsible for the financial care of their families and as inequality and unemployment grows, pensioners are becoming breadwinners for multi-generational households in ways that leave them vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.

This is exacerbated by the rise in food prices which as of this month, according to the Competition Commission’s Essential Food Price Monitoring Report, has remained high enough to stoke nationwide fears of food insecurity.

This is especially concerning given that in January the Eastern Cape department of social development confirmed that close to half a million people in the province ran out of money to buy food in 2023, with the elderly, children, and women, most vulnerable to food insecurity.

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