Township consumer insights: The high cost of coping in 2026

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SIMON BROWN: I’m chatting with Mongezi Mtati. He is senior brand strategist at Rogerwilco. Mongezi, appreciate the time. Rogerwilco’s 2026 Township Consumer Experience Report has just come out. Before we dig into some of the numbers – and there are a lot of them – give us a bit of a high-level view of what this report is, how you do it, and what you’re looking for.

MONGEZI MTATI: Absolutely. Thanks so much for having me, first of all. Always an honour. We’ve been doing this report now for six years. This is the sixth one. We track customer experience in the township, how people interact and engage with the brands around them.

We poll around 1 600 people every year in all nine provinces. This gives us a sense of how people engage with brands, how they shop, how they save, how their lives have changed, and increasingly how they interact digitally as well.

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SIMON BROWN: I like that ‘how their lives have changed’, because my immediate statement was going to be that load shedding has largely gone – and I say that with an urban hat on. If I’m living in a city or something, load shedding has largely gone.

Yet 79% of your respondents are losing power once a month, 55% losing water once a month. This has real implications for the broader market for them – how they shop, how they buy, and how they trust the broader local government – ‘government’ as infrastructure, I guess.

MONGEZI MTATI: Yes, absolutely. And to add to that, 47% say they lose both power and electricity at least once a month. This is sort of the national figure that we are finding.

But when you drill down to a province like Gauteng, for example, that’s where it’s most prevalent. While the average might be once a month, in Gauteng you may find that it’s probably two, three times a month for four to six hours at a time.

So it really varies when you look at the numbers and you look at them deeply. How it changes lives is that people don’t really know, or at least have adapted to how they shop, what they buy, what food they prepare, because if you get home at six or seven o’clock in the evening and suddenly don’t have power and don’t have water, and don’t have the money to buy the fast food, you have to think about what you are preparing for supper for a family of four to six.

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SIMON BROWN: And that’s in many cases a more expensive process. The good old-fashioned stuff in the refrigerator, fresh food, is now suddenly going to be shelf food, it’s going to be processed food. It might be takeout. Whatever it is, it is going to be a more expensive way to eat.

MONGEZI MTATI: This is really true. And I think what we are also seeing is that township residents are telling us that brands, they believe, make life more expensive rather than easier for them.

One of the numbers thrown about is, I think, that in the region of 15% of a low-income household’s [income] is spent just on transport. Another figure is that 69% of income in a township or a low-income household is spent on transport, water and electricity alone, just the basics, even before you shop for food.

These are some of the things that we are finding have really changed lives, which takes us to the theme of this year, which is the really high cost of coping that people need to account for.

SIMON BROWN: Absolutely. One of the data points is that 44% have switched stores because of price, just price. And 38% are waiting for specials to do a main shop. That fits exactly into the point that you make there.

Who are the winners and losers this year? Are spaza shops winners? Is it wholesalers taking a share? Or are the big brands into the townships?

MONGEZI MTATI: We track this number year on year; it varies every year. This year we are finding that 14% of our respondents are saying they shop in spaza shops, which is equal to the number of people who say they shop more in supermarkets.

So what we are seeing is that things are almost levelling out. It’s also showing us that year on year we find that the spaza shop, the smaller store, is usually used for a top-up. So it’s as though people are topping up with smaller items almost as much as they’re shopping for groceries – like going to a supermarket.

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SIMON BROWN: And that’s the challenge for brands. You mentioned that in a previous answer to a degree. Visibility is nice, but it’s not enough anymore. The township consumer is saying, hang on a second, does this brand really make my daily life easier? Is it actually benefitting me – which is a position brands need to be very cognisant of.

MONGEZI MTATI: This is really true. I think the idea of visibility is fading away – if not fully faded away – in townships. You can no longer put a billboard or an ad up and think people are going to flock to a supermarket, looking for your new product or whatever the case is.

People are saying visibility alone is no longer enough. Come in to contribution, at least 91% of our respondents are saying that they believe brands should contribute in some way or other when government services fail.

They’re saying: ‘We don’t expect you to replace the government. But we are saying look at some of the shortages, look at areas that need assistance. Help in a township – and support where possible.’

I think again this is not to suggest that all brands should do things in all townships. So if something positive is happening in Tembisa, that story spreads about that brand. If something is happening in Gugulethu, that story spreads. This is what we are seeing.

SIMON BROWN: I like that. I like that it spreads. I also like the fact that brands can do proper sort of community involvement, and real community involvement – not just banners but the real McCoy. It does spread, and they get the benefit for it, because they totally should.

It’s great that it is actually happening, that wherever it might be – KwaNdengezi down in KZN – there is a benefit which the brand can get.

MONGEZI MTATI: Absolutely. And this is really what we are seeing. We are also seeing – I think of the things that are a little maybe on the bleak side – that people are also reporting hopelessness, a feeling of hopelessness with a lack of optimism.

Part of it is because of service delivery challenges, but also the fact that prices are rising to a point where people can’t afford things. This leads to a feeling of hopelessness and stress among people.

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SIMON BROWN: And to your point around how much the township market spends disproportionately on transport – and we know what’s happened to transport.

That brings me then to my last question. About half of your sample has placed a bet in the last year, a third has engaged in a stokvel. The third in the stokvel love it.

The half placing a bet – that really talks to a sense of hopelessness, despair. It is tough out there being a South African consumer, and I imagine in many cases tougher in a township environment. Hence the gambling.

MONGEZI MTATI: Absolutely. And I think what surprised us a bit here is we often talk about gambling and saving – or at least being responsible with your money and disciplined – and then on the other end of it, people who gamble.

What we are finding is that 55% of people who are part of stokvels – people who have the discipline of saving every so often – report that they’ve gambled as well. So what we are seeing is that, of course when someone has saved and has done their disciplined thing, that they have a little bit of discretionary income that they feel they can increase, absolutely.

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But the higher the bet, people who report betting R300 to about R1 000, say they don’t save, and those people feel more hopeless than the people who only save. So there’s this thing that’s really interesting in the market that we are seeing.

SIMON BROWN: Yes, and it’s a sad number.

We’ll leave it there. Mongezi Mtati, senior brand strategist at Rogerwilco, appreciate the time.

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