When Food Runs Short, Gogo Toti Goes Hungry so Grandchildren Can Eat

In a chilly morning, 68-year-old grandmother Gogo Thozama Toti sits beside a stove, watching her granddaughter prepare noodles for her twelve extended family members. Gogo Toti lives in a dilapidated three-room mud house in Emaxelegwini informal settlement near Ngcobo in the Eastern Cape with her five adult children and six grandchildren.

A 2002 relocation from her village for work, Gogo Toti now finds herself unemployed at the age of 63 due to arthritis, having worked as a domestic worker. Her five adult children and oldest three grandchildren, aged between 18 and 23, are also jobless. The family survives on a monthly income of R4080, mainly relying on Gogo Toti's R2,400 old-age grant and child support grants of R560 each for three youngest grandchildren between ages 3 and 10.

Gogo Toti explains that borrowing money from family or friends is necessary for food every month, with R2000 spent on groceries and the rest set aside for credit. Meat is scarce as it is seen as a luxury and they opt for cheaper soup packs, which barely last a month. For Gogo Toti and her adult children, skipping meals has become part of their daily routine.

Gogo Toti makes sure to have something in her stomach before taking arthritis medication, sometimes walking to the nearby Masonwabe township for small jobs just to eat. This struggle is shared by her family, with the high unemployment rate and below minimum wage piece jobs adding to their difficulties. Nontembeko, Gogo Toti's daughter, mentions that piece jobs in local shops pay only R200 a day and are scarce, with only foreign shops offering lower wages.

Nontembeko's three oldest children are also jobless. Despite the hardships, Nontembeko remains hopeful that their situation will improve in the future. The rising food costs have exacerbated Gogo Toti's situation, as she once enjoyed decent meals with salads and chicken, but now food prices keep rising, and government efforts to lower prices seem lacking.