EFF statement on misleading media headlines forecasting a R4.61 petrol price cut and mistruths regarding economy recovery in the DA-ANC grand coalition

26 September 2024

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) has noted the nauseating and false media reports by media platforms in South Africa, which have published deliberately misleading headlines which forecast and suggest that there will be a decrease in the price of petrol in South Africa by R4.61 in October 2024.

These media headlines which portray protracted and year-on-year decreases in the cost of petrol, that would accumulate to R4.61 in October 2024 should there be a decrease, are now presented as if they are a massive decrease in petrol prices of this cumulative amount on one projected occasion in October 2024, as a result of the DA-ANC coalition.

This is done deliberately, and is part of a much larger narrative by economic publications in South Africa, to develop a sentiment that there is economic recovery in the country as a result of the DA-ANC Grand Coalition.

This is not the first of this kind of reporting, and South Africans ought to be aware that media publications whose mandate is reporting on economic affairs have taken an editorial posture to misrepresent economic data and peddle falsehoods about purported economic growth, declines in the cost of living, and the minimal decrease in inflation rates as work done by the neo-liberal coalition that is in government.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) is behind the misinformation campaign which must be refuted whenever it presents itself as lies, opportunism and manipulation of objective reality.

Recently, Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) released its Gross Domestic Product Second Quarter Report for 2024, which revealed the reality of a jobless economic growth of 0.4%, where the financial sector amassed massive profits, while the agricultural, manufacturing and mining sector all declined. These are the labour intensive sectors which create jobs, that are all dwindling into insignificance, while the financial sector thrives of the profits of economy characterised by debt, privatisation and unemployment.

This jobless economic growth, wherein only the financial sector actually grew due to the high inflation in South Africa, is presented as a victory by the neo-liberal DA-ANC government.

In the past week, the South African Reserve Bank (SARB) announced a 25-basis point cut in the repo-rate, which will provide an insufficient relief to debt-ridden South Africans on the cost of their repayments for home and car loans. The SARB has been celebrated for decades for its professed independence, which we as the EFF denounce as untrue due to the private shareholding in the bank, which has inspired its misguided monetary policy that promotes inflation that only benefits the parasitic financial sector.

It is for this reason that the EFF has called for the nationalisation of the Reserve Bank to ensure state-guided monetary policy that will regulate our currency and inflation rate to benefit domestic growth of our economy, and relieve consumers and ordinary citizens from being enslaved by financial sector interests.

If the claims by the DA-ANC Coalition are true, that the repo-rate has been cut as a result of the emergence of this neo-liberal government, then this places the argument that the Reserve Bank is independent from political influence into question.

The SARB, in fact, has a duty to refute these claims by the DA-ANC coalition and assert its independence from political influence of the ruling government, because its work is being utilised for political expediency by political parties that essentially claim to determine monetary policy.

The reality of the DA-ANC led government is that unemployment and destruction of State-Owned Entities for purposes of privatisation is entrenched, while any developmental prospects of South Africa disappear at the behest of an agenda of austerity and privatisation.

Just today, Stats SA announced the Quarterly Employment Statistics for the second quarter of 2024, which paint a grim picture. The manufacturing industry cut 16 000 jobs in the second quarter, while business services cut 14 000 jobs, mining and transport cut 7 000 jobs each, trade cut 5 000 jobs and the construction industry cut 1 000 jobs. This is all under the so-called "Government of National Unity" which is parading its own success.

It is an objective fact that under the "GNU", there will be less teachers in our schools because of an austerity budget developed by the South African Treasury which has cut funding to Basic Education by billions of Rands, and this will mean that school nutrition and scholar transport programs will decline, and teaching posts will be vacant across thousands of schools in South Africa The fictious and inconsequential "strength" of the currency, is nothing but a political ploy to deceive South Africans into an facade that the economy is growing and investors are participating. It is an objective fact that multinational corporations that operate in South Africa are involved in accumulating profits domestically, and then shifting it to invest in foreign economies and Stock Exchanges, meaning a positive investor sentiment is meaningless in South Africa because the liquid assets of these corporations are abroad.

Further to this, to dispel the so-called resurgence of the Rand, political influences on the currency were conceded to be a vital negotiation tool between the ANC and DA after the Provincial and National Elections in 2024, and the perceived strength of the Rand today is part and parcel of the use of our currency as a bargaining chip for public faith in a failing government.

South African media ought to be more responsible in their reporting of the economic climate in South Africa, and not allow themselves to be pawns in a game to garner public support for the DA-ANC coalition government.

Issued by Leigh-Ann Mathys, National Spokesperson, EFF, 26 September 2024