Chair, it is definitely not my intention to oust the hon Joan Fubbs. We have been colleagues for many years and I think we can view each other in that light. The hon Singh supported the Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement and we, of course, endorse that.
Chair, the hon member Mr Nene appropriately referred to the inflation dilemma in South Africa. Of course inflation is still climbing, but there is a reason for it, particularly the tremendous oil price increases. There is the food price hikes and then we are also facing the reality of an almost 18% hike in electricity rates.
Those are factors outside the ordinary consumer's basis. The Reserve Bank's response of increasing the repo rate from time to time does have a good impact on inflation, but the question arises whether it is the only aspect and whether we shouldn't consider the possibility of revising the inflation targeting at this stage.
I realise that this is not something that one can do just like that. We have been in this predicament for such a long time that there should, perhaps, be consideration towards this. Inflation targeting has cooled consumer spending but has had absolutely no effect on those other aspects that are beyond our control.
We know, in theory, that inflation means that too much money is actually chasing too few goods. Merely curbing the money supply and making debts that expensive cannot be the only option. It is a matter of increasing the supply of goods and, if we can work together towards that particular aspect, I am sure that we can do much better in that respect.
South Africa has to compete globally, and globally the United States and the European Union have not been on the increasing side of interest rates. That means our prices became competitively more expensive. I would implore the Minister to look into this particular aspect. I thank you. [Time expired.]