It isn’t easy being a motorist in SA, particularly in the present climate. What with the massive increase in April, only offset slightly by the government’s R3 intervention, getting into a car can be an expensive venture. If the latest reports from the Central Energy Fund (CEF) are accurate, it’s still set to be an expensive venture come May.
The suspense is killing us
Still, the outlook is certainly looking brighter since we last looked at the CEF’s daily data. Only a week ago, early data foretold a rather ugly increase for both petrol and diesel drivers that would see some motorists paying more than R11/l more than they currently do. The latest snapshot brings that down to a more reasonable R8/l.
That’s specifically for diesel drivers, who have suffered the brunt of the price hikes for some time now. Petrol drivers, on the other hand, are currently positioned to see a far smaller increase of roughly R2-3/l. That’s a far cry from the early reports that saw that figure rise closer to R4/l. Give it some time, and it may continue to drop.
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See, the CEF, in conjunction with the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE), tracks those economic factors that influence the price of fuel locally. That means the price of oil globally, as well as the average Rand/US Dollar exchange rate. With oil prices continuing to fall — though still sitting higher than we’d like — the CEF’s daily predictions snapshots have responded kindly. We might be looking at even lower figures next week.
As ever, the DMRE typically adjusts South Africa’s fuel prices on the first Wednesday of the new month. That’ll be 6 May, 2026, though the DMRE generally publishes the changes a few days beforehand. This gives motorists adequate time to prep for the incoming hikes. Check back with Stuff to keep up with the fuel price changes.
Here are the petrol and diesel price predictions (so far) for May 2026:
- Petrol 93: increase of 243 cents per litre (R2.43)
- Petrol 95: increase of 280 cents per litre (R2.80)
- Diesel 0.05%: increase of 851 cents per litre (R8.51)
- Diesel 0.005%: increase of 853 cents per litre (R8.53)
- Illuminating Paraffin: increase of 679 cents per litre (R6.79)
