EXTRACT
South Africans are becoming restless with the New Dawn hype. In real terms, people's lives have become harder since Ramaphosa took office. We are in the midst of a winter of discontent as the impact of the VAT increase hits home, hiking the price of food, clothing, electricity and communications. Successive fuel price increases have resulted in further escalation in the cost of living.
Ramaphosa's response to the disgruntlement has been to appoint an independent panel to consider "the most effective way to mitigate the impact of the increase in the VAT rate on poor and low-income households". Earlier this month, he said a group of ministers would announce in two weeks a package of economic measures to cushion the public from the crippling effects of fuel price hikes and the VAT increase.