EDITORIAL | Government, don’t add fuel to SA’s burning embers of discontent

A “rise like none other seen before” is what the Automobile Association (AA) has told South Africans to expect of next month’s looming fuel price increase.

The default position of South Africans, whether we like it or not, is to just grin and bear it, especially when it comes to government wasting money.

Food prices go up — South Africans, please assume the grin and bear it position, even if it means your children are eating sand so they can feel full, as the Sunday Times recently reported.

Government sends many millions of rand in food to Cuba — citizens, please assume the grin and bear it position while your plates remain empty and your children go to school and bed hungry.

Government prepares to spend R22m on a large and very impressive flag — South Africans, please assume the grin and bear it position while little if no further assistance is provided to our growing number of poor.

South Africans are battling economically. From the poorest of the poor to the middle class. FNB’s retail division recently said it takes an average of five days for a middle-class consumer to spend up to 80% of their monthly salary. Those earning between R180,000 and R500,000 a year survive on 20% of their salaries for more than 20 days a month.

The upcoming fuel price hike, which has been cushioned for three months thanks to a temporary reduction in the fuel levy, will plunge South Africans into deeper economic distress.

Geopolitics, international oil price fluctuations and bombs raining down on Ukraine aside, if the government stopped wasting our taxes and spent in the right places and on the right people, citizens might, just might, be able to bear the brunt of the increase.

But what hits South Africans hard is knowing how our taxes are spent.

While our children eat sand, the government feeds another nation’s youngsters, who know nothing of our children, our history, our culture or our aspirations.

The government is prepared to buy a flag which will not put food on tables or boost a person’s social relief grant, yet it is clearly prepared to ensure poverty creeps closer to so many more by not extending the fuel levy reduction.

Government, while you plan to unfurl this expensive flag and send much-needed food elsewhere, please remember that an increasing number of plates are empty.

Please also remember that millions of our citizens who rely on minibus taxis, the backbone of SA’s transport system which people use daily to get to work and social grant payout points, are now preparing to scramble to find extra money for a looming  fare tariff increase.

Government, in guiding your decision to drop the fuel levy relief and raise the prices of petrol and diesel, please remember finances are limited.

People only have so much to spend.

Our citizens are more than tired of being pushed and squeezed into terrible financial corners while watching their taxes being wasted.

South Africans, for far too long, have assumed the grin and bear it position.

Government, this is your cue to maintain the fuel levy relief and make it a top priority to review SA’s fuel pricing model. People are tired.