Cllr Vernon Pillay of Stanger writes:
Corporations, SA government, entrepreneurs and the like are referring to this age as the “Fourth Industrial Revolution”.
World War 2 brought the US out of the Great Depression with a boom in employment in terms of weaponry. However, we hope SA is not banking on China to help its parastatals and more out of our recession (and other ways pundits want to dress it up).
The SA Depression is affecting the collective psyche and collective pockets.
Dare one say don’t be stressed. We the people are now being forced to rethink and adjust lifestyles to the bare minimum. The age of asceticism and anti-consumerism can be easily adopted (not by choice).
The VAT hike and the fuel hike upon hike delivered the Tyson-like punches absorbed. VAT 14% (1993) became VAT 15% on April 1, 2018.
In March the fuel price dropped by R0.36 to R13.76 like a teaser that made the Value Added Tax (VAT) increase seem just “one of those situations”.
Like VAT did in April to kick start increases across the board, fuel took after the tax and did the following: Increased by 72c in April to R14.48; then 49c in May, then 82c in June, 23c in July, 1c in August, 5c in September and then a whopping R1.00 this month to stand at R17.08 (stats via Eyewitness News *Inland prices).
The average over these seven increases in seven months is R 0.37 and this may look like little, but the trend is alarming.
“We face a far greater risk of psychological depression than of economic recession.” (Todd D Buchholz).
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