A recipe for civil unrest

ELECTED public officials, including MPs and MPLs, supposedly represent our interests. These people must protect and shield us – especially the poor and most vulnerable – against exploitation, high food prices, unfair business practices, colluding cartels and unscrupulous enterprises.

They need to use their positions to legislate against these unfair practices and ensure those empowered by the constitution, including Chapter 9 institutions and the National Prosecuting Authority, are held accountable when they fail us.

If this is the case, why are these elected officials allowing major supermarket chains, municipalities, essential service providers and telecommunications companies to continue, by turning a blind eye to the sheer profiteering going on?

Daily, poor people are faced with massive price increases on essential goods and services. Municipalities are increasing the cost of water, electricity and other services.

Basic food prices have rocketed over the last few years. A basic food basket in a supermarket could easily set you back R1 000. A trolley load could set you back more than R3 000. Are these people crazy? In the meantime, wages and salaries appear to be increasing way below the inflation rate.

Even people whom I considered well-off are complaining about the high prices of basic items.

If we, the people, do not rise up soon and force the government to deal with this, we’ll have huge problems.

These companies are profiteering at the expense of the poor. Do yourself a favour and read the financial statements of major corporates and retailers.

Even after tax, these companies have billions of rand in the bank. Their CEOs take home annual salaries range between R7 million and R50m, excluding bonuses and other benefits.

I understand business needs to make a decent profit and keep investors happy. However, when they border on profiteering and make essential items inaccessible for the majority of people, it becomes profiteering and the government must step in.

The government’s tardiness in dealing with major corporates in the private sector involved with price fixing, collusion and corruption, is worrying.

The public should closely scrutinise their elected officials and investigate their roles in supporting some of these retailers who continue to rip off people. Some politicians are shareholders in some of these companies and that is where the problem lies.

This criminal and reckless profiteering, the massive unemployment rate in this country, the huge disparity between the rich and poor, and related issues are a clear recipe for disaster and can lead to civil unrest.

We can no longer expect the poor majority of this country to hope and pray that prosperity will some day filter through to them.

I urge the government to urgently kick-start meaningful discussions with the private sector, especially those companies dealing in essential food items, communications companies, banks and government entities, in an effort to bring down these rocketing prices.

Failing this, the people should consider going back to the 1980s and ’90s and begin consumer boycotts of companies and products which contribute to the demise of our people and communities. Consumer boycotts would negatively impact all our lives, but would drive down prices, especially of essential goods and services. Companies will only change their ways once we start hitting them where it hurts.