ANC-sponsored fuel price nightmare continues

3 April 2024

Between February and April 2024, South Africans have not only been paying more for fuel but they are now spending a considerable portion of their income on the most expensive fuel on record. The inland price for 95 unleaded petrol, which has jumped by over 30% since President Cyril Ramaphosa was inaugurated in May 2019, now costs a staggering R25.12 a liter.

Consumers are paying for overpriced fuel because the ANC government has, over the years, become hooked on fuel levies to fund a bloated government and out of control spending. The general fuel levy alone adds R3,95 to the fuel retail price – an amount that has inflated the price of fuel to the point of unaffordability.

The Minister of Energy, Gwede Mantashe’s favourite scapegoat for the fuel price swings – the international price of crude oil - is a lazy cop-out and can no longer go unchallenged. If the ANC government was committed to providing relief to consumers on the fuel price, they would have heeded DA calls to revise the fuel pricing methodology and do away with administrative levies that are inflating the price.

The ANC government has lost the confidence of the governed and South Africans have an opportunity to vote them out on 29 May 2024. The DA is the only party with a plan to rationalise the fuel pricing system in South Africa that will grow the economy and provide relief to consumers.

Issued by Kevin Mileham, DA Shadow Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, 3 April 2024