At midnight on Tuesday night, petrol goes up yet again.
It is the third month in a row that we have steep hikes in the fuel price, a trend that is becoming less and less sustainable.
Something had to give a long time ago and government has finally stepped in to try and do something about it.
Last week, our energy minister announced that government is going to cut the levies that it earns from the petrol price by R1.50, starting at the same time the increase takes effect.
It will stay in place until the end of May, giving us a two-month reprieve, but that is it.
It looks like after that, we are pretty much on our own, left to the whims of speculators, capitalist profiteers, oil barons and warmongers.
The pressure is on, as we are being hit from all angles with astronomical price increases on almost everything over the next few weeks.
The National Debt Counsellors Association says people are even borrowing more and more on their credit cards just to make ends meet.
And considering that many people are still trying to find their feet, after being blindsided by the pandemic, the next few months are going to be critical.
If we can’t spend on road trips, fast food outings, long weekends away or shopping sprees, the economy will take forever to recover.
More small businesses will feel the pinch, more jobs will be lost and the pressure won’t let up.
Government will have to do a lot more than a temporary stop-gap to prevent this crisis from becoming a catastrophe.