SA needs a win. No pressure, Springboks.
The last seven days have been a traumatic rollercoaster ride of blackouts, poor explanations, invisible presidents, corrupt cops and now an increased repo rate.
Anyone looking for a silver lining might well struggle to find one, considering the horrendous effects of our power outages.
The SA economy is still trying to claw its way back from the negative effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Indications are that it is happening, albeit slowly. Stats SA a month ago reported 648,000 jobs were added to the market. While we can be cautiously optimistic about this positive turn in the jobs crisis, the potential of these gains being turned around is extremely high with the latest round of load-shedding.
Small business owners find themselves unable to keep regular hours and in some cases have to increase prices to make up for doing less business with the fewer available hours of power.
President Cyril Ramaphosa came back to the country, but hasn’t been seen publicly since his return. We hear he chaired a cabinet meeting on Wednesday, but in the circumstances, who knows? It’s hard to tell what is really happening without a reliable power supply.
And then, to round it off, the Reserve Bank decided it would be a good idea to increase the repo rate by 75 basis points to 6.25%. In a week of unmitigated pain and suffering for consumers, the latest blow is simply devastating. Every household with any kind of debt will be spending this weekend counting the coins to see how much further to make the limited budgets stretch.
The effects of the pandemic are still being felt in many households, where people have either taken pay cuts or lost jobs entirely. The rate hike is largely due to international effects, but with everything that’s happening, one wonders whether the Reserve Bank couldn’t have given us a break.
SA now enters a second weekend of load-shedding with no clarity on when the lights might return. The disdain from our government is such that even the president who rushes back home to deal with the crisis, is yet to tell us his next move.
Perhaps the only consolation we have is the fact that the Springboks have a good chance of winning the Rugby Championship on Saturday.
SA and New Zealand both hold 14 points, trailed by Australia with 10 and Argentina with 9 points. New Zealand has a more favourable points difference, leaving them in better standing to win the overall contest.
That aside a win on home soil, in Durban, would undoubtedly boost morale at least until Eskom figures out how to stop its switches from tripping.
Please, Siya Kolisa and team. We need a win. It’s been a rough week.
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.