The Basic Needs Basket is a monthly survey of the cost of essential food and non- food items that comprise the items that a low income family in both rural and urban areas across the nine provinces of South Africa consider to be basic necessities.

With the estimated income for a single black South African at R2900, spread across a household of 3.9 people, the cost of living is proving to be unaffordable. The Basic Needs Basket is a monthly survey of the cost of essential food and non-food items that comprise the items that a low income family in both rural and urban areas across the nine provinces of South Africa deem necessary.

The Department of Justice and Constitutional Development (DoJ&CD) and Foundation for Human Rights (FHR) put out a term of reference for their Community Mapping and Active Citizenry Programme in the latter part of 2015. The programme is in part, a response to the National Development Plan (NDP) which recognises the “need to build a capable active citizenry and to address the obstacles preventing them from playing an active role”. This document reports on one project funded for the first phase of the Community Mapping and Active Citizenry Programme.

As the fifth Parliament draws to a close, the Budget Justice Coalition (BJC) has opted to develop a submission that provides an overview of the key budgeting trends of the past five years, as well as the impact of these on two elements of the social wage: health and education. The submission also focuses on Parliament’s oversight role in relation to the budget, looks at how budget decisions have been made and provides recommendations to support greater and wider participation by the public in the budget process.

This submission is made in response to the call by National Treasury for public comment on the report by the Panel for the review of the current list of zero-rated VAT items. This submission objects to the February 2018 decision to increase VAT and call on Treasury and Parliament to reconsider this decision.