The punches SA shouldn’t roll with

It is understandable that consumers are feeling angry about the battering they have been receiving from spiralling food prices. But why, then, has no-one complained to the Competition Commission about why food inflation is double the overall inflation number?

Perhaps that’s because we’re so used to the sundry batterings we get in this country – crime, politics, inflation, the rand collapse, infrastructure collapse and problematic service delivery – that we’re punch-drunk by now.

It does seem strange that food inflation should still be soaring while the overall inflation rate declines, in line with other world economies. It has taken a while, but the spanner thrown in the global financial works by the Ukraine war is, gradually, having less of an effect.

Pointing fingers

Should we point the finger at food retailers, given that producers – the farmers – are not seeing huge rises in what they are paid for produce?

It is true that retailers, big and small, are for-profit businesses and will squeeze everything they can out of their profit margins. But, what is being missed here – and Francois Baird, founder of the Fair Play movement, points it out today – is that food security is heavily depending on energy security.

It goes without saying that we do not have the latter in South Africa – and that load shedding has forced food retail businesses to spend billions in extra fuel to keep their power on during load shedding, as well as huge sums to install solar energy systems.

That is a cost which, unfortunately, must be passed on to the consumer. Therefore, the reason you are paying extortionate prices for your food is simple: the ANC thieving and incompetence, which collapsed our power grid.

Yet, yesterday, Electricity Minister Kgosientso Ramakgopa blamed the warm weather for supply problems. Previously, he and others blamed winter. Which proves one thing: the ANC is a year-round disaster.

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