I felt sorry for the protesters in Durban on Monday, organised by and representing People Against Petrol and Paraffin Price Increases, as they could not have picked a worse day for their demonstration — the day the rand tumbled to more than R15 to the dollar. It was ironic that they were calling on the president to issue a moratorium on petrol price increases. Cyril Ramaphosa has so many other, bigger problems, including land expropriation, Eskom’s debt black hole, the SA Revenue Service and the EFF pushing his buttons daily. Even if the dollar price of a barrel of crude remains steady until the end of August at about $73 per barrel, the spat between the US and Turkey that shook emerging markets and had a ripple effect across the globe, sending stocks and currencies to their lowest level for at least a year, and the continuing "trade war" the Trump administration instigated, will cause more turmoil in markets worldwide. Not to mention our trade and service deficits, plus all the oth...
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