It’s official, folks. The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) has published the official fuel price adjustments for April 2025, covering the coming changes to petrol, diesel, and paraffin in South Africa. Continuing the recent trend from the last couple of months, motorists have yet another price decrease to look forward to going forward. Diesel drivers are the biggest winners this month with a R0.85 decrease planned.

It’s not like petrol drivers will be complaining, however. But before you rush out to the nearest garage to take advantage of these prices, we should warn you that these won’t go into effect until Wednesday, 2 April, or the first Wednesday of the new month. Until then, you’ll need to muddle along with the current, more expensive fuel prices at the pumps. Fingers crossed you’ve got enough fuel in the tank to keep you going until then.

Finally, some good news

This decrease won’t come as a shock to Stuff readers who have kept up with the constant stream of petrol and diesel price predictions throughout March, courtesy of the Central Energy Fund (CEF). The CEF, a state-owned energy company reporting directly to the DMRE, keeps track of the various economic factors that can inflate or deflate the price of fuel locally, and provides daily predictive snapshots for all South Africans.

These factors are the Rand/US Dollar exchange rate as well as the price of unrefined oil, internationally. These are the biggest deciders of the official fuel price in South Africa every month. The one aspect the DRME imposes is the Self-Adjusting Slate Levy Mechanism, which will remain at R0.00c/l throughout April 2025.

“The average international product prices for Petrol, Diesel and Illuminating Paraffin decreased during the period under review. The Rand appreciated against the US Dollar during the period under review, on average, when compared to the previous period. The average Rand/US Dollar exchange rate for the period 28 February 2025 to 27 March 2025 was 18.2957 compared to 18.5047 during the previous period. This led to a lower contribution to the Basic Fuel Prices on petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin by 11.72 c/l, 12.42 c/l, 12.24 c/l respectively,” the Department wrote.