Times are tough, mense. Tougher than we’ve ever seen before.
Just last week the Reserve Bank klapped us hard with the news that they were raising the repo rate by 50 basis points, due to runaway inflation.
This means that the prime lending rate has increased to 8.25%.
In other words, the repayment on a R1 million bond is R312 extra per month
On a R2 million home loan, cough up an additional R622.
But the knockout punch is still due to land next week – the big fuel price increase.
The Central Energy Fund’s data points to a rise of between R2.27 and R2.36 for a litre of petrol from 1 June.
A further R1.50 could be added on as well, as the government’s fuel tax relief comes to an end.
These hikes are expected to push the petrol price past the R25 level.
It’s brutal. And it’s only going to get worse with the war in the Ukraine raging on.
What impact the new fuel price will have on inflation, the price of food and transport is too much to fathom right now.
God help us.
Thankfully, Golden Arrow has announced that they are not going to increase fares this time, in order to give passengers some relief.
Much appreciated.
While ordinary people are sukkeling their moer off to merely exist, the privileged, spoiled brats at Bishops Diocesan College are literally throwing money away.
Last weekend the larney boys’ school was embroiled in controversy following their rugby derby with Wynberg Boys’ High School.
After getting beaten in their own backyard, the sore losers from Bishops apparently hurled R2 coins at their opponents’ supporters.
The pupils, whose parents fork out about R170 000 a year in fees, also waved credit cards and allegedly called their visitors a “poor school”, among other insults.
The embarrassed Bishops management said they would be investigating the incident with urgency, and also issued an apology letter to parents.
It read: “It is alleged that a small number of our boys tossed coins at our opponents, waved credit cards and chanted derogatory comments at our opposition.”
They added that the incident is “condemned in the strongest possible manner” and “it is deeply embarrassing to us all to be associated in any way with behaviour of this nature”.
R170 000 in fees every year and this is how these laaities turn out?
No wonder people are using words like “elitist” and “disgraceful” to describe Bishops.
The incident also once more underlines South Africa’s status as the most unequal country in the world.
“South Africa is the most unequal country in the world, with race playing a determining factor in a society where 10 percent of the population owns more than 80 percent of the wealth,” a recent World Bank report said.
The school really ought to give their pupils a reality check.
How about a student exchange programme, where the guilty parties get to spend a few weeks attending schools on the Cape Flats?
That should teach them some perspective.
taariq.halim@inl.co.za