Official May fuel price hike hits hard as diesel surges past R32/l

It’s that time again. Time for the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources (DMR) to make or break the coming month with the official fuel price adjustments for May. If you’ve been paying attention to the CEF’s petrol and diesel price predictions throughout April, you already know what to expect. If not… we’ve got some bad news.

Diesel’s on the rise (again)

Real bad. By the time the DMR has had its way with South Africa’s pumps this coming Wednesday, 6 May, Saffas will be shelling out R26.52/l for a litre of petrol. It’s even worse for the country’s diesel drivers, who have suffered another massive increase, bringing their costs up to R32.09/l. We hope you’re working from home this May.

This is despite the government’s R3/l relief scheme (R3.93/l for diesel drivers) being extended throughout May.

“The Minister of Finance approved that the R3 per litre reduction in the general fuel levy for petrol is extended until Tuesday 2 June 2026. Given the large expected increases in the price of diesel, the Minister of Finance approved that the temporary relief for diesel is increased by 93 cents to R3.93 per litre,” it wrote.

Saffas won’t feel the full extent of the government’s relief owing to the changes made to the Self-Adjusting Slate Levy Mechanism, which will see another R1.23c/l added onto petrol and diesel prices this Wednesday. This has supposedly been implemented to help counter the ‘combined cumulative petrol and diesel Slate balances’, which amounted to a negative balance of around R14.173 billion. Tough break.

The biggest contributors to the rising fuel costs have to do with the average Rand/US Dollar exchange rate as well as the price of oil globally. Through a myriad of bad luck for everyone involved, this has led to vastly increased oil prices, negatively impacting the price of fuel everywhere. It’s just too bad South Africa is included in that list.