Editorial: The high cost of war

As the US-Israel war on Iran continues unabated, we should brace for the pain at the pumps as fuel price hikes hit the country in the coming weeks. As we report today, global oil prices surged past $100 a barrel this week, spurred by the Iran war and setting new inflation fires. The war, triggered by warmongering US President Donald Trump and his Israeli henchman Benjamin Netanyahu, is wreaking havoc across global markets.

Some countries are hiking fuel prices while others prepare for shortages as reserves plummet and panic buying grips the market. Oil price shocks have ignited new inflation across several markets. In the UK, there are calls to freeze duty to cushion families from a “Trump-made-cost-of-living crisis” as fuel is set to hit two pounds a litre.

Closer to home in Namibia, the country has three months of fuel reserves left, according to theNamibian Sunnewspaper, which also warns citizens to brace for higher pump prices. Namibia’s oil storage facility at the port city of Walvis Bay has a capacity of 75 million litres of fuel — hardly enough to sustain the country beyond three months if the war continues. Nearly two weeks after the war broke out, the Middle East has been dragged into the senseless fighting while global energy markets count the cost of the conflict.

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South Africa has not been spared the impact. The announcement by the country’s largest domestic airline, FlySafair, that it will implement a fuel surcharge to cushion itself against increased operational costs, is an indication of what’s to come for South African consumers. No doubt the entire aviation industry will follow FlySafair in a bid to keep their planes in the skies.

This will hurt domestic and international tourism in the same way as a global pandemic would. The message is clear: we must begin planning for possibly the worst period since the Covid-19 pandemic. We are not insulated from global crises and the Middle East war has shown us that artificial borders are just that: lines drawn in the sand.

The war in the Middle East isn’t coming to our doorstep — it is here. You will feel it at the pumps, in the supermarket aisles and in your beer mug. The ripple effect of fuel price increases is such that everything else including taxi fares and food prices will shoot through the roof.

While we count the economic cost of the war, we must also be concerned about the human cost, with millions of people in the Middle East facing an unprecedented humanitarian crisis as missiles rain on their countries and civilian casualty numbers keep rising. It is a test of character for the United Nations Security Council, which has adopted a resolution condemning Iran’s attacks on Gulf states. But with super powers China and Russia abstaining from the vote and Iran rejecting it, the message is loud and clear: the conflict is far from over.

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