We must be grateful for small mercies, the old people told us. They may well have been preparing us for what we went through this past week.
With the Fuhrer of Jerusalem and his Chihuahua, the madman of Mar-a-Lago, having precipitated a worldwide economic meltdown by launching an unprovoked attack on Iran, we found ourselves facing a fuel hike of around R7 for petrol and R11 for diesel. Not of our making, for a change.
The national shocked reaction to the announcement was real as the airwaves and the social waves buzzed with exclamations. “That’s madness! Where will we get the money! All prices are going to go up! There is no way we can cope! The government must do something to cushion the people!”
And the government listened. The R7 became R3 and the R11 became R7. And we all breathed a huge sigh of relief. “At least, you know, the government has helped.” But obviously, by the time the first announcement was made, the government knew it was going to suspend the levies.
The announcements could have been made at once but that wouldn’t have had the same impact as creating the shock and awe first and then bringing some relief. In fact, had they done it the other way, there could still have been an outcry that it was not enough, I mean R7 for diesel is big, not to mention R15 for paraffin.
But did you hear anyone still being really strident? In the psychology of winning hearts and minds, you start with a magnified problem, create indignation and then provide a solution, no matter how small. The appreciation, the gratefulness for the small mercies, is eternal.
Thus we saw finance minister Enoch Godongwana, brim hat and all, beaming like father Xmas as he told the nation, “… and I don’t even know yet where I am going to get the money … or how long we will do this because it all depends on the war in the Middle East”.
Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump plunged the world into a crisis because the former wanted a war to keep Israelis behind him, so that the corruption charges awaiting him could stay in abeyance. Prosecuting the prime minister in the middle of a war doesn’t sound patriotic.
Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump plunged the world into a crisis because the former wanted a war to keep Israelis behind him, so that the corruption charges awaiting him could stay in abeyance. Prosecuting the prime minister in the middle of a war doesn’t sound patriotic.
With Gaza somewhat receding into the background, a new war was needed. Why not Iran, which you have accused for many years of being on the verge of producing a nuclear weapon? Wasn’t that the reason given for the June 2025 “obliteration” of Iran’s nuclear facilities?
And of course, despite being obliterated last year, they had to be obliterated again this year. Netanyahu knows what he is doing. Nothing concentrates the mind like the possibility of jail.
It is not clear whether the leader of the free world knows what he is in for and why.
Trump’s chopping and changing of the goals of the war, from regime change to facilitating a popular uprising, to wanting all of Iran’s oil, indicate a mission whose goals are based on the latest bomb, whether it falls in Israel or in the Arab proxy nations that bow before the two masters.
Trump had hoped for a quickie of a war that would provide a respite from the Jeffrey Epstein files scandal. Just as the raid on Venezuela had done. However, Iran is no Venezuela, nor is it Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The Iranian centre has held, despite the elimination of a layer of national leadership, including the supreme leader. The war has instead been a tit for tat, with the Arab enabler states that house US troops feeling the brunt as they are both attacked and doubly strangled.
About 90% of food for these desert nations is imported through the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has closed. Their petrodollar wealth relies on the export of crude oil to different countries. Iran has stopped both flows.
And the world watches as the emirs, rulers, sultans and princes shuttle between capitals trying to find a solution that would avoid them joining the two infidels in attacking a Muslim nation. And despite the daily bombardment, Iran still stands, retaliating and fighting. The fact that one month into this war, Iran can still dictate what it wants shows the miscalculation on Trump’s part about how this was going to unfold.
As the world waits, we wait too, and citizens scramble to fill tanks and store diesel in a vain attempt to survive another day. And Godongwana hopes that by May 5 sense will have prevailed in Washington and Trump will have found an exit route he can spin into victory after using it.
Tsedu was an editor of Sunday Times
