How fuel hike will hit poor

The fuel levy reduction is set to end and rising petrol prices threaten to take the food out of the mouths of the needy, unemployed and the vulnerable.

Gert Jonker, founder and chief executive of orphanage The Bethany House Trust, said: “It is a nightmare. We have to daily drive 120 children to and from schools, attend court cases and conduct community investigations.”

Jonker added that financial contributions have been declining since the Covid outbreak. “Fuel expenses are the third-largest expense the orphanage has,” he said.

Jonker said the orphanage relied on small state subsidies and community donations.

CEO of Cradle of Hope and Tokkers vir Jesus creché Melodie van Brakel said if the petrol price went up again, it would cause a disaster.

“I am worried and bitterly restless but I trust the Lord. Our work becomes more and more every day. And it is not going to get any better,” she said.

Van Brakel said if the petrol price increased, everything else went up: from transport for the toddlers to bread for the needy.

“We buy 290 loaves of bread every day. Currently, it costs us R10.80 per loaf of brown bread. After the bread is delivered at 5am, a team of volunteers arrives at 8am to make peanut butter and jam sandwiches to hand out at noon. There is usually enough bread and soup for 800 adults and children,” she said.

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Van Brakel said the queues for sandwiches were getting longer. “The need is terrible. As the financial pressure on families increases and people lose their jobs, our pressure only becomes more and more every day,” she said.

“We are handing out 1,000 food parcels every week that are big enough for a family of four for about five days.”

Van Brakel said people started queuing from 4am to get food handouts at 6am on Monday mornings.

Political analyst Piet Croucamp said the petrol increases had a ripple effect and that inflation was a worldwide problem. “If the war in Ukraine stopped it could get better,” he added.

Economist Dawie Roodt said the sharp rise in the fuel price would push up inflation, which was already at 5.9%.

“If inflation rises, the reserve bank will increase the repo rate. Food prices will soar. It will have a devastating impact on economic growth,” Roodt said.

Motor Industry Staff Association spokesperson Sonja Carstens said they had called on Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe to urgently review the fuel pricing methodology.