Fuelling opportunists

I TOTALLY agree with the comments made by Jayraj Bachu in his letter “Fuelling surprise”

August 8-12).

For the past decade the world has seen a dramatic fall in the price of Brent crude oil – from a high of $125 to almost $70 a barrel. Within this period the rand has only depreciated slightly against the US dollar. Yet South Africans, instead of paying less, are in fact paying a record high of R16 a litre for petrol at the pump.

When crude oil was trading at $125 a barrel and our rand was R13 to the US dollar, motorists were paying about R14 a litre for petrol. About four years ago, when Brent crude oil was trading just above $40 a barrel and our rand was very stable, fluctuating around R10.40 to R11 to the US dollar, motorists still did not see any benefits from the low price of crude oil.

The colossal increases over

the years not only hit motorists hard but also affected the poor, with the rise in the price of basic foodstuffs and household fuel, such as paraffin.

The consumer was milked by the government to offset costs for the Road Accident Fund and other parastatals. How else can one explain that poorer countries in Africa have a lower fuel price than us?

Jayraj Bachu rightfully points out that our opposition political parties, like the DA, IFP and others, including Visvin Reddy’s People Against Petrol and Paraffin Price Increase (Papppi), are not the champions of the poor but opportunists ready to exploit a situation.

The electorate must be wary of politicians who seemingly appear to be fighting for the poor and the downtrodden, whereas the real motive is to garner votes in 2019.

SANJAY SINGH Queensburgh