Record power cuts have caused shortages of some staples, threatening price rises that could make some popular items too expensive for poor families, agricultural industry body AgriSA said.
"The affordability of food is going to be a challenge particularly to the lower income household, especially with chicken which is one of the cheapest protein staples in the country," AgriSA's chief economist, Kulani Siweya, told AFP. Scheduled blackouts, known as load-shedding, have burdened Africa's most industrialised economy for years, with state-owned energy firm Eskom failing to keep pace with demand and maintain its ageing coal power infrastructure.Poultry farmer Herman Du Preez, said at least 40,000 of his chickens were asphyxiated last week with disruptions in power supply causing the farm's ventilation system to stop working.
"It wasn't a pretty sight to see how much money we lost due to the fact that Eskom is so unreliable," Du Preez told AFP on Monday at his farm in the North West province.