JOHANNESBURG – One of South Africa's leading retailers, Shoprite, is helping to ease the burden of rising education costs by offering its customers a basic school uniform for less than R100 and giving more than 460 learners the opportunity to have their 2019 school fees paid for.
For less than R100, customers are able to buy a basic school uniform consisting of a shirt, shorts/skirt, socks and a pair of shoes at selected stores.
It is also offering learners who enter its Class of 2019 competition by 27 January the chance to be one of hundreds of deserving winners to have their school fees paid for by Shoprite.
The Class of 2019 competition calls on Grade 1 to 12 learners across South Africa to submit a short essay or creative drawing describing what they wish to be when they grow up. The competition gives the retailer the opportunity to support learners who demonstrate creativity and are able to dream big.
Above-inflation school fee increases are leaving families more cash-strapped than ever and struggling to pay for fees, uniforms and stationery.
The low-price uniforms and fee competition form part of the retailer’s unwavering commitment to deliver the lowest prices on essentials every day and help to give learners the opportunity to become educated without concerns about affordability.
Neil Roets, chief executive of debt counselling company Debt Rescue, said they were gearing up for one of the busiest periods in January, February and March in the history of the company.
“Parents suddenly realise that they have to pay school fees that had not been budgeted for and with credit cards maxed out on luxuries in November and December many have no choice other than to seek relief by going under debt review to prevent debt collectors from seizing their property,” he said.
Roets said many South Africans who barely made ends meet during the year had plunged themselves ever deeper into debt over the holiday season by spending money on expensive holidays and generally having a good time – often on credit cards or with money borrowed from money lenders at exorbitant interest rates.
He said experience over time had shown that January was the month of the great reckoning when these chickens came home to roost.