In March 2020, when the government announced that the first case of Covid-19 had been confirmed in SA – and it became clear we would enter into an indefinite lockdown like most countries around the world had already done – something very ugly happened in our country.
Many people who had the means went to supermarkets to purchase basic necessities in bulk. In the first four days after the announcement, items such as toilet paper and canned goods consistently ran out in stores.
Those with the means were stocking up for their households, ensuring that those who did not have disposable cash that could be immediately dispensed would be on their own once the lockdown came into effect.
This practice continued even when the government, retailers and the consumer rights organisations repeatedly stated that there would be no shortages and implored people to not engage in panic buying.
A month ago, the US and the apartheid state of Israel started an illegal, unprovoked and unjustified war in Iran. In retaliation, Iran has closed the Strait of Hormuz, the world’s most critical oil chokepoint that handles more than 20-million barrels of oil a day, just over 20% of the global petroleum liquids trade.
As a result, oil prices have surged from pre-war levels of about US$60 to over US$100 per barrel. This has caused the price of petrol, diesel and LPG to increase exponentially. In SA, despite the government’s correct decision to reduce a tax imposed on fuel by R3 to offset the impact of increased oil prices, they will still have a devastating impact on households that are already faced with a cost-of-living crisis rooted in decades of stagnant wages.
In the midst of this crisis, some petrol stations across the country have been hoarding fuel, creating manufactured scarcity as a means of profiting from the increase that takes effect today. They wait until the prices officially increase and only release supply when it would be most profitable.
This profit maximisation is in no way linked to the crisis in the Middle East because most of the fuel had already been delivered to SA before the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Additionally, cargo destined for SA (and other nations that are not in conflict with Iran) is passing through the Strait of Hormuz without interruption as the Iranian government has given South African cargo ships and oil tankers safe passage.
This fact was confirmed a week ago by Gwede Mantashe, the minister of petroleum and mineral resources. The fact of the matter is that at the moment, SA is not experiencing a fuel shortage crisis; it is experiencing a greed crisis by fuel distributors and merchants.
Some households have also been bulk purchasing diesel, legitimising the narrative of a shortage that feeds the greedy motives of fuel distributors.
This is the ugly face of capitalism – that in a time of global crisis, some people, a minority, are able to insulate themselves by securing an oversupply for themselves at the expense of demand from everyone else.
It is a reminder that the poor and those with no access to disposable income will always be left to struggle on their own while a few live in a bubble that is built on a foundation of exploitation.
Wealth in SA, like everywhere else in the world, is built on the exploitation of natural resources and labour. It is built on tax avoidance, resulting in the burden of taxation resting on those with insufficient incomes while those with significant wealth pay barely anything.
A majority of those who hoard wealth in this country are beneficiaries of an unjust system and a racialised economy. This is a fact. And when chips are down, they demonstrate, as they did during the Covid-19 pandemic, that they are willing to burn this country and its poor to the ground to keep themselves warm.
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