Motorists and public transport users unhappy over fuel hikes
“We do eight trips per day - to school, work, etc. We have to borrow fuel money every week just to get to work and now it’s going to be even worse.”
Yet another fuel price hike for the fifth month in a row has left public transport users and motorists fuming, saying the increases hit them hard financially and would leave them struggling.
The fuel prices in South Africa are regulated monthly.
Although the prices drop on occasion, there has been a steady rise overall. Prices may have dropped slightly in October and June but increased in July, August, September, November and December. The latest increase has seen a litre of petrol now costing over R20.
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The Department of Energy and Mineral Resources announced on Tuesday another fuel price hike effective as of December 1, petrol increased with a 71 cents per litre and diesel with 72.50 cents. Initially, petrol prices were reported to have an increase of 81 cents but this was said to have been an error.
A general worker, who most times specialises in garden work, Maxwell Maphosa from Soshanguve, north of Pretoria, said he feared the increase in fuel would prompt a hike in taxi fares.
“I earn on an average R200 a day through gardening work, I use R60 for taxi fare and that leaves me with R140. Remember that bread also costs R17. With another increase in taxi fares, it will leave my family of four with very little to survive on,” Maphosa said.
He said he currently spent R1 200 on transport per month for work only.
“When the fuel price goes up constantly, the taxi fares also increase. Another increase will affect our livelihoods because we will be working for public transport. We also have families to feed and children going to school to support. So the petrol hike is really going to kill us.”
He said the last taxi fare hike was in July.
“Food prices also increase after fuel. That is why when we see an increase in fuel, we fear for our lives because we know it will be difficult to survive.
“The problem for us public transport users is that when the fuel price drops, our fare prices do not change; once the fare goes up, it does not change.”
In a platform open for Rekord readers to tell how fuel price affects their lives, Pretoria resident Nadia Bianca Uys said it was difficult for her family of four to survive monthly.
“We do eight trips per day – to school, work, etc. We have to borrow fuel money every week just to get to work and now it’s going to be even worse,” Uys said.
“And after paying rent, buying prepaid electricity and fuelling up, there isn’t even money left to buy proper food. We eat bread every day because that’s all we can afford at the end of the day.”
Director and Chief economist at Econometrix Dr Jammine Azar said fuel prices could possibly drop in January.
“Given the dramatic fall in crude oil prices over the last three days, there could be a substantial decrease in fuel prices at the beginning of January.”
Explaining the factors that lead to fuel increase, Azar said it was caused by several factors which included the state of the South African rand and US dollar exchange rate.
“What affects just half of the petrol price depends on the movement of the rand price of oil that we import and the US dollar; it depends on what happens to the rand/dollar exchange rate monthly. What we had in the last couple of months, are oil prices moving up sharply and the rand weakening against the dollar.”
He said an increase in the fuel levies was also a factor influencing increase.
Azar said the weakening rand could be caused by decreasing investors’ confidence in the South African economy and government debt increasing sharply.
Following the news of the discovery of the new coronavirus variant Omicron in the country, Azar said there was a knock-on effect on the rand.
While many people feared for food increases, he said businesses feared increasing prices due to the weak economy.
“With the economy, as weak as it is, businesses are very scared to pass the costs to the consumer.
“I am not saying there will not be a knock-on effect on the rest of the pricing system but in recent times especially following the outbreak, we have found that businesses are finding it very difficult to just automatically increase their prices.”
Azar said the rand had not weakened over the past few days
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