Expect yet another price hike for petrol and diesel prices this March

Now that the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) has passed judgement on the official fuel price adjustments in South Africa for February, we turn our attention towards March 2025. Surely, we thought, after two months of back-to-back increases for both petrol and diesel, there’d be some sort of reprieve, right? How wrong we were.

Bad news for petrol prices

The Central Energy Fund (CEF) has continued to pump its daily snapshots, offering curious South Africans a glance at the upcoming petrol price changes that could either save or hurt their wallets. It’s worth noting that the CEF’s figures aren’t final, and are instead generated by the goings-on of the two biggest factors that affect the price of fuel locally: the current Rand/US Dollar exchange rate and the price of unrefined oil globally.

It’s not all bad news. While the CEF’s numbers below paint an ugly picture for all drivers in March, it’s a far cry from the R1+ hikes many are still recovering from over a week later. And who knows? By the time the first Wednesday of March arrives (when the price of fuel will be adjusted officially), we might even be discussing a price decrease. Best not to get your hopes up, however.

That won’t happen unless the Rand strengthens against the Dollar – or the price of oil drops globally. With a little over three weeks to go before any changes happen, that’s still entirely possible. That also means the opposite is possible too, resulting in a higher price at the pumps than initially predicted for March 2025. Either way, we’ll keep you well-informed of the pending onslaught.