Fuel gets paid first. The instalment gets what is left.

Petrol went past R30 a litre in October. Inland 95 is R30.25, up 40% on a year ago.

Nobody's debit order went up by 40%. But for most of the people paying one, fuel gets paid first, at the pump or the taxi rank, every day of the month. The instalment gets whatever is left.

Two examples

Someone who drives to work and uses 80 litres a month now spends R690 more on fuel than a year ago, close to 10% of a R25,000 take-home. A taxi commuter on R8,000 is paying around R128 more a month, before the latest hike reaches the fares.

Most South Africans never fill a tank

Half of all employees earned R5,417 a month or less in the last Stats SA earnings report, and four in five people who take public transport to work go by minibus taxi. For them, fuel arrives as a fare. In Pietermaritzburg the fare went from R20 to R24 this year while the minimum wage went up 5%. A minimum-wage worker taking four taxis a day now spends about 40% of their pay getting to work. Add electricity and 65% is gone before anyone buys food.

The borrowing shows the same strain. Banks opened 16.8% fewer credit cards in Q2 than a year before, while new small loans from non-bank lenders were up 21.3%. Fuel is not a line on a credit application, but in the mass market it decides what is left for everything that is.