[It was reported on SABC TV3 news this evening that the fuel shortage in Johannesburg has worsened. It is mainly unleaded fuel which we are short of.

But now, the fuel shortage is affecting the farmers. This is the busiest time of year for them. With the recent rains they are desperately ploughing and trying to plant.

Of course the Government, who started all this nonsense of immediately moving to “environmentally friendly fuels” is the one who is now trying to blame this all on the oil industry.

But what about the fact that it is GOVERNMENT that has forced all the oil companies to change the fuels now?

The problem seems to be that the changes to the actual refineries are taking longer and this is disrupting fuel production.

The oil companies say that it will take about a week to restore some level of normality.

Apparently there has been panic-buying of fuel and this has pushed up demand by 20%. (Well, people obviously have little faith in Government pronouncements!)

So I still blame our Government for this typical stuffup. The Democratic Alliance has said that the Government should have given the oil industry more time and that maybe this whole endeavour should be phased in more slowly. (I agree).

This is just typical of the autocratic way our Government goes about things, stuffing up things that work, meddling in one industry after another instead of leaving things alone. Jan]