{"id":876003,"date":"2026-09-17T14:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=876003"},"modified":"2026-09-17T13:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T11:34:08","slug":"more-bad-news-about-petrol-prices-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/876003\/more-bad-news-about-petrol-prices-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"More bad news about petrol prices in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources, Gwede Mantashe, says there are currently no interventions planned to help curb rising fuel prices in the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This, as daily recoveries are putting petrol prices on the path to hit over R29.50 per litre in October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responding to a parliamentary Q&A this week, Mantashe said that the department continues to administer fuel prices as prescribed by legislation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that the department is currently reviewing the regulatory accounting system, which will ultimately adjust margins across the fuel chain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is expected to be completed by March 2027.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, he said that the basic fuel price component of the price structure is currently driving the rise, driven by geopolitical volatility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This external impact is outside of South Africa’s control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mantashe’s comments follow statements from Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana last week that the National Treasury’s hands are also tied when it comes to offering South Africans relief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the Treasury could ease the burden on motorists by cutting the fuel tax components of prices\u2014as it did in April 2026\u2014this would come at a cost.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Godongwana, cutting the tax component would remove billions from the budget in foregone tax revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This would then have to be recovered from elsewhere: cutting department budgets, raising other taxes or turning to more borrowing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The April 2026 tax relief cost the budget over R17 billion. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Godongwana has not explicitly dismissed the notion of another bout of temporary relief, economists say it is unlikely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Finance Minister has explicitly stated that the government cannot fully insulate consumers from the fuel price crisis, and that doing so is not the purpose of the budget.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Godongwana stressed that fiscal policy is meant to support sustainable public finances, debt stabilisation, and measures to promote economic growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cResponding to cost-of-living pressures arising from external shocks is therefore part of a broader whole-of-government programme and depends on the effective implementation of these measures,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Petrol prices heading to R30 per litre<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

With both the DMPR and Treasury dimming hopes for any relief, South African motorists are facing record-high fuel prices in October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The daily updates on fuel price recoveries from the Central Energy Fund (CEF) are heading deeper into the red, adding around 30 cents per litre to under-recoveries over the past three days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Motorists now face a petrol price hike of between R2.47 and R2.62 per litre, with diesel in a similar space, at between R2.42 and R2.81 per litre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the current recovery levels, petrol\u00a0prices could escalate to R29.54 per litre<\/strong>\u2014a disastrous outcome for motorists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Petrol prices broke the worst-ever levels in June 2026 after the shocks of the Iran War filtered through global energy markets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The June 2026 price surpassed the previous record of R26.74 per litre reached in July 2022, when global oil markets were shaken by Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both the Iran War and Russia\u2019s war with Ukraine are ongoing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The picture for diesel prices is also bad. With the wholesale price of 0.005% diesel at R30.05, October\u00a0could set a new worst-ever level of R32.86 per litre.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before 2026, the highest per-litre diesel price was R25.53, recorded in July 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The table below outlines the escalating price changes this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Month<\/th>Petrol 95
Price<\/th>		Diesel 0.005%
Price (wholesale)<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
March 2026 <\/td>R20.30<\/td>R18.60<\/td><\/tr>
April 2026<\/td>R23.36<\/td>R26.11<\/td><\/tr>
May 2026<\/td>R26.63<\/td>R31.88<\/mark><\/strong>
(current record)<\/td><\/tr>
June 2026<\/td>R28.06<\/mark><\/strong>
(current record)<\/td>		R29.26<\/td><\/tr>
July 2026<\/td>R26.10<\/td>R25.67<\/td><\/tr>
August 2026<\/td>R25.58<\/td>R26.90<\/td><\/tr>
September 2026<\/td>R26.92<\/td>R30.05<\/td><\/tr>
October 2026 (projected)<\/em><\/td>R29.54<\/em><\/strong><\/mark><\/td>R32.86<\/em><\/strong><\/mark><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
    <\/ol>\n\n\n\n
    \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources (DMPR), Gwede Mantashe, says there are currently no interventions planned to help curb rising fuel prices in the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":855830,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2100555629110624608","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2208128833340849","_sma_instagram_post_id":"18393519688203083","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9874],"tags":[22148,2261,2923],"class_list":["post-876003","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-diesel-prices","tag-gwede-mantashe","tag-petrol-prices"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876003","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\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=876003"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876003\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":876030,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876003\/revisions\/876030"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/855830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=876003"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=876003"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=876003"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}