South Africans forced to pay R300 to government every time they fill up at a petrol station
With record fuel price hikes, South Africans with a 50-litre tank pay over R300 in taxes when filling their cars up at the petrol station.
While the surging oil prices play a role in these costs, South African motorists are also paying for government debt, broken infrastructure, and decades of poor fiscal decisions.
This is the feedback from National Debt Advisors CEO Sebastien Alexanderson, who argued that South Africans filling up their tank is not just paying for oil from the Persian Gulf.
South Africans are now paying the highest fuel prices in the country’s history, with petrol 95 climbing to R26.63 a litre in Gauteng and inland diesel breaching R31 a litre.
While global oil tensions and the conflict in the Middle East have dominated headlines, Alexanderson said the real crisis runs far deeper than international events.
According to Alexanderson, South Africans are forced to carry the burden of years of government debt, failing infrastructure, and mounting state liabilities.
“The war in the Middle East makes for a tidy headline. But strip back the geopolitics and the harder truth sits much closer to home,” Alexanderson said.
He explained that, before motorists even leave the stations, a substantial portion of every litre purchased already goes towards levies and taxes.
These include the General Fuel Levy, the Road Accident Fund levy, carbon taxes, transport and storage margins, and the recently increased Slate Levy.
“At the full unsubsidised rate returning in July, a 50-litre tank will send R317.50 to government before the car has even moved,” Alexanderson warned.
He added that one of the newest and most controversial charges is the R1.23-a-litre Slate Levy, introduced to recover a R14.173 billion shortfall in the country’s fuel pricing system.
Alexanderson described the levy as an indirect form of debt collection targeting motorists. “It is not an oil-price increase, but debt collection through the pump,” he said.
A financially broken RAF
The pressure on consumers is being worsened by the deepening financial crisis at the Road Accident Fund (RAF).
Treasury projects the RAF’s liabilities will increase from R387 billion to R426 billion by the 2028/29 financial year, despite collecting roughly R45 billion annually through fuel levies.
Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts has already described the fund as effectively insolvent.
Motorists currently contribute R2.25 per litre to the RAF, even as the claims backlog has reportedly exceeded 440,000 cases. Alexanderson said the fuel crisis reflects broader structural failures within South Africa’s economy.
“South Africa’s fuel crisis is also being worsened by an import-parity pricing model that overcharges consumers, and no meaningful strategic fuel reserve to cushion global shocks,” he said.
The impact is already changing spending patterns across the country. Discovery reported that fuel spending dropped by 35% in April, while filling-station transactions declined by 28% as consumers began cutting back wherever possible.
He warned that rising fuel costs ripple through the entire economy, pushing up transport costs, food prices, inflation, and ultimately interest rates.
“When fuel goes up, it costs you at the pump, at the till, in your taxi fare, and in your interest repayments when inflation forces rate hikes. This is not just a fuel price crisis. It is a cost-of-living catastrophe,” Alexanderson said.
Although the government temporarily reduced the fuel levy by R3 per litre to soften the blow, Alexanderson warned that the relief is only temporary.
“The relief ends in June, and the full General Fuel Levy is set to return in July unless the government intervenes again,” he said.
He urged consumers to immediately reassess their finances by accounting for higher fuel, food, and transport costs, prioritising essentials and avoiding the use of credit for daily expenses.
“If fuel, food, and debt repayments are rising while income stays the same, that is a red flag. People need to assess their debt situation now, not when they are already drowning,” Alexanderson said.
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