The new year kicks off with some good news in the form of a reduction in the price of fuel, but who knows how long until the next increase wipes those savings away?
And let's not forget that Eskom’s request for 20+% tariff hikes for energy is also pending.
Reductions of 71c/l for petrol and 67.8c/l for diesel don’t really go far when the base fuel price hovers near the hefty R20/l mark. Still, we must take whatever crumbs come our way, especially with the soothsayers predicting a rough year ahead.
All of this makes it that much more important to become self-sufficient, a trend started by the Covid pandemic ‒ and subsequent looting here and in Gauteng ‒ when shortages convinced people to start their own little enterprises.
Even the not-so-green of thumb began turning over the soil, helped and encouraged by various community gardening projects which sprang up to support the poor, including one in Durban which gave away plants to start people off.
Our feature on today’s page 7 shows what’s possible when people take the self-sufficiency principle seriously, use some imagination and employ the elbow grease.
No longer the preserve of hippie communities, living off the grid is becoming an increasingly attractive option as people struggle to make ends meet and climate change forces us to think about our impact on the environment.
While billions are spent on space exploration, “Earthships” may go some of the way to preserving life here on Earth.
The Independent on Saturday