The rising oil prices are a cause for concern for many in developing countries like South Africa. With crude oil now fetching more than $135 a barrel, the entire world is in a grip of uncertainty and hopelessness.

Skyrocketing food prices have become one of the many woes the poor have to face. The majority of the people are forced to live their lives in relative poverty.

Many will not be able to attend school, few parents will put food on the table and life in general is likely to benefit the few wealthy individuals at the high echelons of our society.

This is all so despite the existence of abundant coal in this country from which Sasol makes oil. Sasol is a world-leader in this technology.

With all the accolades heaped on it over the years, it has not ceased to rake in funds from its international investments and earlier from the South African government.

What happens here is the consistent use of the working class' resources to boost this oil-from-coal plant.

Sasol is able to make as much profit as the amount by which the world prices are rising. At the end of it, the few shareholders and the MDs are the ones who benefit at the expense of millions in this country.

Mzukisi Sindane, a self-employed iron fence creator in Tshwane complained about the escalating price. "My lifestyle is slowly declining since the oil prices have begun reaching the clouds..

I can no more afford to drive my children to school; worse I cannot afford the petrol to deliver the material and run the generator to weld the steel together… the government must please come to the rescue."

Sindane's situation is not an isolated one. There are millions more people whose lives have been torn apart by these prices that could very well be contained.

Is the country facing a crisis of leadership? The deafening silence of the South African government is disturbing because it was the taxpayer's money that was used to develop and market Sasol.

Why the government has not curbed the escalation of oil prices is a matter that requires investigation?

Source

Numsa News No 20 2008