Be wary of motive of those seemingly fighting for the poor

I TOTALLY agree with the comments made by Jayraj Bachu in his letter “Politicians wake up late to fuel hikes” which appeared in the Independent On Saturday dated August 4.

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 over $40 a barrel and our rand was very stable, fluctuating between R10.40 and 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, they also affected the poorest of the poor with the rise in prices of basic foodstuff and household fuel, such as paraffin.

The consumer was taken for granted as the sacrificial cow to be milked by the government to offset the costs for the Road Accident Fund and other parastatals and also for looting by some corrupt administrators and other officials.

How else can one explain that the fuel price in some poorer countries like our (fellow) African states is lower than ours?

Bachu rightfully points out that our opposition political parties like the DA, IFP and others, including Visvin Reddy’s People Against Petrol and Paraffin Increase (Papppi) are not the champions of the poor masses but political opportunists ready to exploit a situation which was allowed to go unchecked over the past decade.

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