Bright Ntuli
Trade union federation COSATU says the looming massive fuel price hikes are yet another blow that the working class and the economy simply cannot afford.
This comes as the price of petrol is expected to go up by R3.12 and R3.33 per litre on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, diesel is expected to increase by R2.84 and R3.24 a litre .
Illuminating paraffin will go up by a record high R4.77 a litre.
Cosatu is calling on Parliament to pass the Second Special Appropriation Bill, which provides ten-billion-rand for the Central Energy Fund’s Equalisation Fund.
The federation’s Matthew Parks says this will ease the cost-of-living pressures facing workers, lower inflation and thus prevent yet another potentially devastating repo rate hike in November.
Parks said,”Increasing the fuel price in the past few months as a results of the war pushed inflation beyond the reserve bank’s target range this sparking repo rate hikes.”
He added,”This has further plunged millions of workers deeper into that and suffocated the already weak economic growth. It has been a major course in the rise of unemployment in the past two quarters.”
Fuel prices have increased a record six times in this year, resulting in further suffocation of South Africa’s struggling economy.
The biggest increase was in April, when petrol went up by R3.06 per litre, before the upcoming R3.33 increase.
Click below to listen to Parks audio…
