00:00Junia Lemokwana is finding herself doing difficult calculations for her weekly shop.
00:06Whichever way she looks at it, it doesn't add up.
00:09What can she afford to buy for her family?
00:11And what does she have to leave behind?
00:14I think we're coping just by the grace of God.
00:16It's hard.
00:18The pinch is felt by everyone, everywhere.
00:20We're also feeling it.
00:21She's one of millions of South Africans nervously looking at both their wallets
00:26and events unfolding in Iran.
00:28The conflict pushed up petrol and diesel prices,
00:32making the transport of goods more expensive.
00:35This fellow shopper says the latest price increase has her on edge.
00:40I feel the price increase is hectically a very heavy knock
00:46because me speaking as a pensioner, it's very hard.
00:51I go into a shop and I take necessary stuff.
00:56I do away with luxuries.
01:00I do away with a lot of stuff.
01:02The owners and workers of this family-owned store are worried.
01:08Firstly, with the price of fuel already increasing,
01:12they're anticipating that it will become more expensive
01:15to get products like these onto their shelves.
01:18Secondly, they're concerned that in some cases farmers might choose not to plant certain crops
01:24because of the cost of fuel.
01:26And this in turn will lead to increases in prices that they'll have to pass on to customers.
01:32Terry Fock has been working with produce for over 40 years,
01:37first as a farmer and later in distribution.
01:40He says the increased costs can break a farmer's profit margin.
01:45Diesel affects everything.
01:48You know, the farmers need fertilizer.
01:49It's going to affect the price of fertilizer.
01:51They need seed.
01:53They need packaging.
01:54You know, the increase in diesel is going to affect all that stuff,
01:59that input cost.
02:00It's all going to go up.
02:01So it's not just putting diesel in your tank and driving.
02:05It's everything else.
02:06And many South African farmers are either preparing to harvest summer crops,
02:11which requires a lot of fuel,
02:13or plant winter crops, which require a lot of fertilizer.
02:18South Africa imports 80% of its fertilizer
02:22and 33% of global nitrogen supplies originate in the Middle East.
02:27We'll start to worry more about the fertilizer prices
02:30from June onwards because the next season,
02:33which is critical, starts from October 2026.
02:37And that's the reality of South Africa,
02:39but also that's the reality of the greater part of the continent
02:42because much of the countries in the sub-Saharan Africa region,
02:45they receive some of the fertilizer from South Africa.
02:48So availability of it here has implications from the region.
02:53While larger farms and businesses
02:56may be able to absorb the immediate shocks,
02:59smaller businesses and households could struggle.
03:04It's unfortunate, but in every price increase,
03:08that's where it ends up the consumer has to pay more.
03:11And that's the bottom line.
03:15And in a country with over 30% unemployment
03:18and poverty levels as high as in South Africa,
03:21small changes in the cost of living can have a big impact.
03:29hotel staff and goodwill relationships,
03:29and no matter what you'll have to do,
03:30We'll have an income that's going to be a big impact.
03:30We're going to see the details of the워ptown level.
03:30we're going to see that it's probably the next day.
03:30It doesn't matter if they're going to be
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