The school holidays are here again and by this time next week, our pockets will be a whole lot lighter as a result.
Plus at midnight on Tuesday, petrol goes up by R1 a litre, the biggest increase we’ve had in four years.
The never-ending increases are now reaching catastrophic proportions, as middle-class households are starting to feel the pinch.
Not a week passes where I’m not part of a conversation about the impossible cost of living.
Most frustrating is the feeling of helplessness; that we can’t do anything about it.
I know this is a very simplified statement for an argument most economists will agree is extremely complex on a global scale.
But for me, everything always comes down to money. And the fact that those who control a commodity will do anything in their power to maintain their profit margins and projections.
So here’s the impossible thing we should all be doing to force petrol prices down: We should ditch our cars and any mode of transport that uses petrol.
If we all cycled, walked and even carpooled to our destinations for a period of time, I guarantee you the price will drop. Sure it will take a while; maybe even months, but if oil owners see the will of their consumers is causing them to earn no money at all, compared to a little less, then the price will come down.
But like I said, it’s impossible, because they have made us all so comfortable in our cars, that the only thing we will do with a sense of extreme enthusiasm is complain!