To: Shoprite CEO Pieter Engelbrecht and President Cyril Ramaphosa

Shoprite, bring your food prices down!

As the largest supermarket in South Africa, Shoprite feeds most households in Mzansi and has even boasted about being the country's biggest employer [1]. In the 2024 financial year, Shoprite's total profits rose to R130.8 billion, with the CEO making R83 million[2], making him the highest-paid retail CEO in the country. This is while 20 million people across South Africa struggle to afford to put food on the table!

Are we being overcharged for food? Mzansi has enough food to feed everyone, but food prices mean people go to sleep hungry. Shoprite and other food retailers must be transparent about their pricing. Some businesses have been ripping off consumers. For example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Pick n Pay admitted to price gouging garlic and ginger [3].

We demand that supermarkets and big food businesses provide data and information about their pricing throughout the supply chain, including how much is paid to producers. This will enable regulators and others to monitor prices more effectively. As the biggest supermarket in South Africa, Shoprite can lead by example.

We call on Shoprite CEO, Pieter Engelbrecht and President Cyril Ramaphosa to:

Drop food prices, especially for the 10 best buys (rice, long-life milk, soya, eggs, tinned fish, dried beans, peanut butter, fortified maize meal, amasi, and lentils). Access to sufficient food and basic nutrition for children is a constitutional right in South Africa. These foods are full of protein and energy. That doesn’t mean that other foods are not important. These foods could provide high nutritional value at the lowest cost, especially for families living below the poverty line [4].
President Ramaphosa must implement legislation on food wastage in South Africa; companies can’t just throw away fresh food when people go to bed hungry.
We demand more public engagement in the government's draft National Food Security and Nutrition Plan.

Why is this important?

Over the years, many organisations have built public pressure to increase and top up social grants. But even if we get the significant social grant increases we have been demanding, the cost of living will undermine these victories and keep people in poverty. The R370 is hardly enough to travel to a job interview or start a small business, let alone buy enough food for the month. The Child Support Grant is way below the Food Poverty Line.

We are tired of supermarkets like Shoprite pretending to care for consumers when they can increase their food prices without showing that the increase is justified.

This is just one step to solving the current hunger crisis in the country. There is a whole lot more that still needs to be done. Read more about it on the Union Against Hunger website here: https://unionagainsthunger.org/

Stay tuned to our events page to see if any events are happening in and around you: https://awethu.amandla.mobi/petitions/shoprite-bring-your-food-prices-down/events

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BljI1fBr2Ys

References

[1] Being part of the Shoprite team. https://www.shopriteholdings.co.za/careers/being-part-of-the-shoprite-team.html?p=6

[2] Shoprite CEO is SA’s best-paid retail boss as package hits R83m, by Nompilo Goba for Business Day, 15 October 2024. https://www.businesslive.co.za/bd/companies/retail-and-consumer/2024-10-15-shoprite-ceo-is-sas-best-paid-retail-boss-as-package-hits-r83m/#:~:text=At%20Shoprite%2C%20the%20CEO%20earns,%2C%20Clicks%2C%20Truworths%20and%20Spar.

[3] Pick n Pay agrees to cap some prices amid investigations into alleged price gouging. Business Tech. 15 March 2021

[4] Advocate-Double-Discounted-List-of-Ten-Best-Buy-Foods. https://dgmt.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Advocate-Double-Discounted-List-of-Ten-Best-Buy-Foods-V2-Online.pdf