# Fuel hikes strangles households

An episode of [The Midday Report with Mandy Wiener](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1074292047), 14 Oct 2026, 4:16.

Audio: https://traffic.omny.fm/d/clips/5dcefa8e-00a9-4595-8ce1-a4ab0080f142/fe8d1a9a-a053-424d-9f40-a57500d5394b/06844d82-143e-467f-a5d9-b4e300b37585/audio.mp3?utm_source=Podcast&in_playlist=18146681-7843-46cf-9a9c-a57500d59fe7

Mandy Wiener speaks to Associate Professor in the School of Economics at the University of Johannesburg, Professor Frederick Kirsten about how households are increasingly struggling to make ends meet with the recent fuel hike. The Midday Report with Mandy Wiener is 702 and CapeTalk’s flagship news show, your hour of essential news radio. The show is podcasted every weekday, allowing you to catch up with a 60-minute weekday wrap of the day's main news. It's packed with fast-paced interviews with the day’s newsmakers, as well as those who can make sense of the news and explain what's happening in your world. All the interviews are podcasted for you to catch up and listen to. Thank you for listening to this podcast of The Midday Report Listen live on weekdays between 12:00 and 13:00 (SA Time) to The Midday Report broadcast on 702 https://buff.ly/gk3y0Kj and on CapeTalk https://buff.ly/NnFM3Nk For more from The Midday Report go to https://buff.ly/BTGmL9H and find all the catch-up podcasts here https://buff.ly/LcbDdFI Subscribe to the 702 and CapeTalk daily and weekly newsletters https://buff.ly/v5mfetc Follow us on social media: 702 on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TalkRadio702 702 on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@talkradio702 702 on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talkradio702/ 702 on X: https://x.com/Radio702 702 on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@radio702 CapeTalk on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@capetalk CapeTalk on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ CapeTalk on X: https://x.com/CapeTalk CapeTalk on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@CapeTalk567 See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

## Transcript

[0:00] Speaker 1: Well, we know a lot of people are struggling following
[0:02] Speaker 1: the fuel price increase, putting enormous pressure on household budgets.
[0:07] Speaker 1: We had a massive increase last week. Government also in
[0:12] Speaker 1: April this year introduced a temporary three rand a litre
[0:14] Speaker 1: reduction in the general fuel levy following those global oil
[0:19] Speaker 1: prices surging. That relief was extended into June, but then
[0:23] Speaker 1: it was phased out. So let's speak about how this
[0:26] Speaker 1: is impacting on us with Professor Frederick Kirsten. who's an
[0:29] Speaker 1: associate professor at the School of Economics at the University
[0:34] Speaker 1: of Johannesburg. Prof, good afternoon to you. Thanks very much
[0:38] Speaker 1: for your time. Cyril's economy, it's a difficult place to
[0:42] Speaker 1: be for us at the moment.
[0:44] Speaker 2: Yes, thank you very much. Thank you for having me
[0:46] Speaker 2: on the show. Yes, no, it's quite a difficult place.
[0:49] Speaker 2: I think, as you rightly said, the fact that the
[0:52] Speaker 2: government has not yet announced anything regarding a fuel level
[0:55] Speaker 2: decrease is technically saying that at the moment the fuel
[0:59] Speaker 2: hike is going to be solely felt on the consumers.
[1:03] Speaker 2: And that is creating a lot of worry in the
[1:05] Speaker 2: economy at the moment, especially for where it's going because
[1:09] Speaker 2: of the uncertainty with how long the Middle East conflict
[1:12] Speaker 2: can still last.
[1:14] Speaker 1: I have seen some commentary saying that it is disingenuous
[1:18] Speaker 1: to only blame the Middle East conflict on the price
[1:21] Speaker 1: of oil for the price of our petrol price. But
[1:24] Speaker 1: that's the economics of it, right?
[1:26] Speaker 2: Yes, I think in the larger scheme of things, a
[1:30] Speaker 2: lot of countries probably have more reserves. So it's easier
[1:34] Speaker 2: for them to maybe absorb the shock of the increase.
[1:37] Speaker 2: But I think South Africa at the moment, we don't
[1:39] Speaker 2: have that type of reserve. So we are very much
[1:43] Speaker 2: dependent on what is happening in the outside world in
[1:45] Speaker 2: terms of these shocks, even the Russia-Ukraine conflict. So I
[1:49] Speaker 2: think all of these just combined is creating that instability
[1:52] Speaker 2: in the oil price with the demand and supply. And
[1:56] Speaker 2: that's creating a lot of worries, especially in the South
[1:59] Speaker 2: African sense that we don't have control over what's happening outside.
[2:03] Speaker 2: But it's still influencing us in terms of our pockets.
[2:06] Speaker 1: We've seen trade unions warning that people are literally having
[2:11] Speaker 1: to choose between food and going out to find employment.
[2:15] Speaker 1: So we're likely to see a decline in the number
[2:17] Speaker 1: of job seekers out there. What does that mean then
[2:21] Speaker 1: for our labor force?
[2:24] Speaker 2: I think the most important thing there is the fact
[2:26] Speaker 2: that with the petrol price increases and so on, budgets
[2:30] Speaker 2: have to be cut and also budgets have to be
[2:33] Speaker 2: well allocated. We have necessities like food and so on,
[2:36] Speaker 2: necessities to be spent on. But then also transportation costs
[2:40] Speaker 2: is going to go up. Taxi prices might also go
[2:41] Speaker 2: up in the future, near future. And we haven't even
[2:45] Speaker 2: talked about probably the effect this will have on our
[2:48] Speaker 2: festive season spending in terms of the bus ticket, flight tickets,
[2:52] Speaker 2: all of that will go up. since we're expecting that
[2:55] Speaker 2: it's also going to be probably a November hike in
[2:58] Speaker 2: the petrol prices. So I think it's going to be
[3:01] Speaker 2: a delayed impact even on the spending over the festive
[3:05] Speaker 2: seasons where households will really have to allocate where do
[3:07] Speaker 2: they spend money, where do they travel to, and even,
[3:10] Speaker 2: like you said, traveling for jobs, what's the best place
[3:14] Speaker 2: to do job hunting and reduce the traveling amount.
[3:18] Speaker 1: And then lastly, Prof, what is the way out of this?
[3:21] Speaker 1: Is it entirely dependent on what happens in the Middle
[3:23] Speaker 1: East or is there anything government can do?
[3:25] Speaker 2: At the moment, the government is trying to reduce the, well,
[3:29] Speaker 2: increasing the repo rate is one of the ways the
[3:31] Speaker 2: Reserve Bank is trying to fight the inflation. But again,
[3:34] Speaker 2: that is not really helping consumers because that's also increasing
[3:36] Speaker 2: the debt repayment they have to make. But the biggest
[3:39] Speaker 2: thing the government at the moment can do is try
[3:41] Speaker 2: to find some money and try to absorb the shock
[3:43] Speaker 2: with the fuel level decreases again. Whether they can do
[3:46] Speaker 2: that because they're already in a trying for this physical consolidation,
[3:50] Speaker 2: I don't think they will. But that's the best place
[3:54] Speaker 2: they can do is to try and absorb the shock.
[3:56] Speaker 2: But the length of the shock is the issue, not
[3:59] Speaker 2: knowing how long the shock will last and how many
[4:03] Speaker 2: more hikes we're expecting in terms of fuel price and
[4:05] Speaker 2: oil price increases.
[4:07] Speaker 1: Prof, thank you so much. Professor Frederick Kirsten is Associate
[4:10] Speaker 1: Professor at the School of Economics at the University of Johannesburg.
[4:13] Speaker 1: speaking to us there about Cyril's economy.

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