I would firstly like to thank InTheNews.co.za for giving me this opportunity to air my views. I feel it is a matter which is overlooked and not too many people pay attention to it or those that ‘matter’ have no idea what is going on. Lots of people travel in their own cars around South Africa today and they complain about the price of fuel and traffic, which they have every right to! I am a normal citizen who travels but minibus taxi’s every day to work. Last week I used to pay R4 for a trip and on Monday I am now being told that, that same trip will now cost me R5.

Now to most you maybe wondering, so why am I complaining? It is only one extra rand. But don’t we all deal with percentages when we are looking at increases? Only yesterday, it was announced that inflation in South Africa is now 8.6%. But for me, my inflation has gone up by 25%. Yes it is only R1 but it is also a 25% increase. Now imagine if the prices of everything else went up by 25%.

As I mentioned, I travel by taxi everyday to get to work and thus my transport expenses for every month include my taxi fare. My wages are obviously not going to go up by 25% to help meet my increasing expenses. Not too long ago, we were buying 1 litre of milk for about R5, now that same bottle is R9. And I will not even start about talking about how the price of meat has gone up! Inflation is spiraling out of control now and it has to be stopped somehow. I am not an economist and I have no idea how it can be done but something needs to be done!