Photo: Unsplash
Photo: Unsplash
The government has issued a statement to confirm that the petrol price will increase in August, making it a hat-trick of consecutive rises. We’ve got the breakdown of what our fuel will cost, and why it’s going up this month:
From midnight on Tuesday (essentially, the first minute of Wednesday 5 August), all increases will come into effect. They will be reviewed at the end of August, with a change likely in the first week of September.
If you’re wondering why we have had three petrol price hikes in a row, you can blame the oil market. A rapid decline in demand brought record decreases to South Africa in April, but those gains have been wiped out over the winter. A world emerging from various lockdowns is buying up oil supplies, sending the prices skyrocketing again. SA relies heavily on imports, meaning our petrol price largely depends on global activity.
ZAR has managed to strengthen its value against the US Dollar, climbing to R16.82 against the greenback. This helped claw about 10 cents per litre off the initially forecasted hike, but ultimately, it wasn’t enough to cancel out the impact of the oil price. The rand was trading at R17.43 to the American currency last month.
[Statement] #Petrolprice is set to go up by 5 cents a litre at midnight for both grades of 93 (ULP and LRP) 95 (ULP and LRP), while both grades of diesel (0.05% Sulphur) and diesel (0.005% Sulphur) will increase by 45 cents a litre pic.twitter.com/s3hnLfWidz
— South African Government (@GovernmentZA) August 4, 2020