We’re almost tired of reporting the ever-falling petrol and diesel prices around South Africa these past few months. What happened to the excitement? The danger? The risk that the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy might just entirely derail your Tuesday drive home from work? We’re obviously joking, but the never-ending news of falling fuel prices around the country does somewhat limit our snark potential.

The Central Energy Fund (CEF), the state-owned energy company responsible for tracking the various economic factors daily that massively affect the country’s fuel prices before reporting these findings to the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, provided us with yet another batch of predictions, captured 16 September, foretelling yet another R1+ price drop for petrol and diesel drivers alike.

Adding fuel to the fire

We’ll need to wait until the first Wednesday of October before the country’s drivers can reap the reward the CEF is promising us. In this case, that’ll be 2 October – a little over two weeks from today. It”s worth noting, however, that the CEF’s figures are not fact, and are merely predictions that can be altered by several economic factors over the coming weeks. It also does not cover the slate levy mechanism.

Those factors are the current Rand/US Dollar exchange rate and the price of oil internationally. Lower barrel prices in recent months, now stabilising near the $72/barrel mark have led to the lower prices for South Africa. The slightly strengthened Rand when compared to this time last month will also play a factor in the lower prices, though not to the extent of oil prices.

The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy looks at the average for these factors throughout any given month to determine South Africa’s fuel prices.