{"id":861639,"date":"2026-05-27T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=861639"},"modified":"2026-05-27T16:17:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T14:17:54","slug":"petrol-stations-considering-closing-at-night-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/861639\/petrol-stations-considering-closing-at-night-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Petrol stations considering closing at night in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africa\u2019s fuel price shocks are forcing petrol stations to consider cutting jobs, reducing trading hours at night, or even shutting down completely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Petrol stations across South Africa are under mounting financial pressure as fuel price hikes are causing a decline in customer spending and soaring operating costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the feedback from Henry van der Merwe, chairman of the South African Petroleum Retailers Association (SAPRA).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following a large swing in diesel prices in South Africa, petrol prices have now also moved into an over-recovery, but drivers can still expect a hike at the pumps next week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is because the National Treasury\u2019s fuel levy relief will start being phased out from June, reversing the recovery trend and pushing petrol prices back into the red.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the latest data from the Central Energy Fund (CEF), petrol price recoveries have finally turned positive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having started the month with an under-recovery of around 85 cents per litre, petrol prices are now showing an over-recovery of between 3 and 8 cents per litre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, the over-recovery is nowhere near big enough to offset the coming reintroduction of R1.50 per litre to petrol prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This will come as the National Treasury starts terminating the R3.00\/litre fuel levy relief it introduced in April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From June, R1.50 per litre will be added back, with the full relief terminating in July, when the remaining R1.50 will be added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This will take the small cut on the cards for petrol and turn it back into another huge increase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the current recoveries, with the fuel levy added back at 50%, petrol prices are still expected to rise by over R1.40 per litre next week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Speaking in an interview with CapeTalk<\/a>, van der Merwe said many motorists wrongly believe petrol stations benefit when fuel prices increase, but retailers\u2019 margins remain fixed regardless of the pump price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf we sell fuel at R25 rand a litre, we get R2, and if we sell it at R40 rand a litre, we get R2 because it\u2019s a margin,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo when the high fuel price hits us, the litres go down, and that\u2019s where the problem comes in. So the fuel retailers are really suffering.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Service stations reviewing operating hours<\/h2>\n\n\n
\n
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Henry van der Merwe, chairman of the South African Petroleum Retailers Association (SAPRA).<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

According to van der Merwe, motorists are changing their driving habits significantly as fuel becomes less affordable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of people are driving less. They are planning better, they are using other methods of transport because it\u2019s part of the disposable income,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that many customers, including taxi operators, are no longer filling up their tanks completely and are instead buying fuel in smaller amounts at a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result is a sharp decline in fuel volumes sold at forecourts nationwide, particularly at smaller, rural filling stations that rely heavily on steady fuel sales to remain profitable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThose people are phoning and saying we can\u2019t afford to stay open at night because of security risks, because of low litres at night,\u201d said van der Merwe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He warned that some stations are already considering reducing operating hours, retrenching workers or shutting down overnight operations entirely to cut costs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo there\u2019s going to be in the rural areas, it\u2019s going to be a security of supply issue because people are talking of retrenching people because they can\u2019t afford them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShorter hours\u2014and that\u2019s for the whole country\u2014that\u2019s not a good thing. That\u2019s not what we want, but that\u2019s what is happening on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van der Merwe also highlighted growing concerns about fuel theft, noting that incidents tend to rise when petrol prices increase. \u201cThe more expensive the petrol, the more drive-offs they have,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He stressed that attendants are not held financially liable for fuel theft incidents, with stations instead relying on CCTV footage and police investigations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On government relief measures, van der Merwe said temporary adjustments to the fuel levy have helped cushion some of the pressure, but warned the reprieve may not last.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van der Merwe said SAPRA has already engaged with the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy over the crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had discussions with the department and the department\u2019s going to have a relook at the whole model, but that unfortunately is not going to happen in two weeks\u2019 time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fuel price shocks are forcing petrol stations to reconsider their operating hours in South Africa.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":861650,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9874],"tags":[2923,853,25364],"class_list":["post-861639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-petrol-prices","tag-south-africa","tag-south-african-petroleum-retailers-association-sapra"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=861639"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861639\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":861651,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861639\/revisions\/861651"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/861650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=861639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=861639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=861639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}