R370 a month. Paraffin has nearly doubled. The grant has not moved a cent

In January, R370 bought about 20 litres of diesel at the wholesale list price. Today it buys 11.

Paraffin is worse. Wholesale paraffin cost R12.63 a litre on 1 January. On 7 October it cost R24.47. The same R370 that bought 29 litres now buys 15.

The Social Relief of Distress grant, the SRD, has stayed at R370 the whole time. Nobody has raised it, and the Budget Review funds it at R370 until March 2027.

How much less does R370 buy than in January?

We took the official fuel price table and divided R370 by each price. The bread row is there for contrast, and it shows the surprise. Fuel moved. Bread barely did.

Fuel prices are Gauteng prices from 1 January and 7 October 2026, from the fuel industry's published price table. Shop prices run higher than wholesale list prices, so real litres are fewer. Bread prices are urban averages reported by BusinessTech from Stats SA data.

A loaf cost 68 cents more in a year. Paraffin cost R11.84 more per litre in nine months.

That gap is the story. Diesel runs the trucks and most of the minibus taxis. When it jumps, the cost reaches a grant payment from two sides.

How high did the legal paraffin price go?

Paraffin is what many households cook and heat with. Government sets a maximum shop price for it every month.

That maximum swung wildly this year. On 4 March it was R15.87 a litre. On 6 May it hit R37.10. At that price, a whole month of SRD money bought 9.97 litres, so call it 10.

R15.87Mar

R31.47Apr

R37.10May

R29.15Jun

R22.18Jul

See the numbers

Mar	R15.87
Apr	R31.47
May	R37.10
Jun	R29.15
Jul	R22.18

Source: Government Gazette notices under the Petroleum Products Act, price periods starting 4 March, 1 April, 6 May, 3 June and 1 July 2026. Excludes packaging.

The maximum has since eased from its May peak. Even the July price of R22.18 is 40% above March's.

Photo: Denis kasozi / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0

Did taxi fares go up too?

Yes, earlier in the year. Diesel rose by more than R7 a litre on 1 April, according to reporting on the Santaco warning. Fares followed on 5 May.

Santaco's guidance was that local associations should add R2 to R6 to a fare, and long-distance ones R10 to R13. Each association sets its own price, so your route may differ.

Here is a worked example. Say you ride to work and back, 22 working days a month. At R2 more per trip that is R88 extra a month. At R6 more it is R264. That is between 24% and 71% of the whole grant, gone before you buy anything else.

On 7 October, after diesel passed R33 a litre for the first time, Santaco said no new fare increase had been decided. It said it would first talk to government, fuel suppliers and operators. Our guide on what taxi fares could look like after R30 petrol has more on the fare sums.

Photo: StephenMarquard / Wikimedia Commons, CC0

Is the SRD grant still R370, and when is the October payment?

Yes. The 2026 Budget Review keeps it at R370 and funds it until 31 March 2027, as Business Day reported after the President's February speech. Over a full year that is R4,440.

SRD money comes in batches, so two people can be paid days apart. Sassa has not published an SRD date for October that we could find. Third-party calendars put the batches in the last week of the month, and they disagree on whether it starts on the 24th or the 26th. Check your own status on the SRD website before you plan around a day.

Our guide to SASSA payment dates tracks the official schedule and the court fight over the R370 amount. If your money went missing when the old gold cards stopped, read what to do now that your gold card has stopped working.

Photo: Olga Ernst / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Every other grant had a rise in April. The SRD did not.

Sources are Sassa's 2026/27 schedule and the Budget Review figures. The SRD is 15% of the old age grant and 64% of the child support grant.

How far is R370 from the food poverty line?

Stats SA's new national poverty lines put the food poverty line at R868 a person a month, in May 2026 prices. That is the amount needed to buy the cheapest 2,100 calories a day, and the agency says it is not a healthy diet.

R370 is 42.6% of that. It leaves a gap of R498 a month, or about R12.33 a day for everything.

What happens to the grant after March 2027?

In 11 days, the person who sets the next number takes the floor. Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana tables the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement in Parliament at 14:00 on 21 October, Treasury says. Public hearings on it follow on 28 October.

Back in February, the President said the SRD would be reworked into a new grant. BusinessTech reported that Treasury had been looking at a model closer to a job-seeker allowance. No name, amount or start date has been given in the reports we found.

So the grant has stood still for a year. Paraffin has not. On 21 October, a minister walks into Parliament holding the next version of that number, and millions of people living on R370 will be waiting to see if it finally moves.