Everyone knows the petrol price is high, very high. And most people know the weak rand and high crude oil prices are to blame.
But we don't always realise the full extent of the increases as we tend to focus on the price only when it rises. We'd rather forget that petrol used to cost less than R2/litre at the beginning of 1998.
And unfortunately, petrol is a necessity.
We need 200250 litres every month to get to work and back and to fetch the kids from school. The result of higher petrol prices is everybody had to reduce spending on other things to pay that extra R1500 per month for fuel.
Not only did the increase in the cost of petrol cut deeply into our disposable income, the little we have left buys much less because of higher inflation.
Unfortunately, things won't change while the oil price remains high and the rand stays weak. Let's hope oil prices don't go any higher.
