Diesel prices set to spike by more than R14 in May as predictions warn of a tough month ahead

Still mentally exhausted by the official April fuel price adjustments? Too bad. The machine that is the Central Energy Fund (CEF) chugs along soundly, with or without you. Perhaps “without you” is accurate, if the latest predictions are anything to go by. Despite a tough month ahead, May is shaping up to be even worse. Far worse.

Diesel stays losing

If the CEF’s daily predictive fuel price snapshot captured on 1 April is accurate (and we’re sorry to say that it is), then petrol drivers could be facing yet another R6+ increase. Diesel drivers, once again, get the worst end of the deal, with early predictions currently setting them up for a R14+ per-litre price hike. It’s really that bad.

Of course, there’s still time to turn this ship around. The Central Energy Fund (CEF) tracks those factors that influence the price of fuel on behalf of the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) before it officially adjusts the country’s fuel pumps. This typically takes place on the first Wednesday of the new month.

In this case, that’d be 6 May 2026, leaving a little over a month for things to sort themselves out. It’s unlikely, but we can dream, can’t we? The CEF specifically tracks things like the price of oil globally, as well as the average Rand/US Dollar exchange rate over any given month. Neither of these is looking so hot right now, really.

With the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, oil reserves are slowly drying up all over the globe. Prices are fluctuating wildly, leading to the rough (in two senses of the word) estimates provided by the CEF below. Check back with Stuff regularly to get an idea of how South Africa’s petrol and diesel prices are shaping up this May.

Here are the petrol and diesel price predictions (so far) for May 2026: