Well, it finally happened. Petrol and diesel prices are (likely) going up come November. Despite months of petrol and diesel shortfalls, our luck has taken a turn for the worst. We’re referring to the royal ‘we’ here, after the Central Energy Fund (CEF) released its latest crop of petrol price predictions, captured on 14 October, promising a price hike for both petrol and diesel next month.

Sure, it’s a far cry from the R1+ increase the country experienced in March, but after five glorious months that saw prices falling continually, we’re not all that excited by the prospect of paying more at the pumps. There’s no use getting upset just yet. As ever, the CEF’s figures below are not indicative of the true prices at the pump, and could drastically change by the time the first Wednesday of the month rolls around – 6 November.

Start running. Now

The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) are the official deciders of the country’s fuel prices at the beginning of a new month. The CEF is responsible for tracking the economic factors that can alter fuel prices on a daily basis, offering this finding to the DMRE at the end of any given month. The DMRE uses this information to determine the official pricing.

Those economic factors involve the current Rand/US Dollar exchange rate and the price of fuel internationally. In short, the stronger the Rand, the cheaper prices will be at the pumps at home. The same goes for the price of fuel overseas – with cheaper barrels meaning good things for the folks in South Africa. Unfortunately, with the Rand weakening and the price of oil shooting up, we’ve been stuck with the prices below:

There is, however, time to turn the situation around – or for things to get worse.