March's official fuel prices are in: start heading to the nearest station now

If you’ve been paying attention to the Central Energy Fund’s (CEF) latest run of petrol price predictions for March 2204, you haven’t turned up expecting good news. For the naive few who had any hopes of the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy blessing the country with a decrease in fuel prices… we’d wisen up before continuing to soften the disappointment below. But that’s just us.

Yup. The Department just published March’s official petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin prices and… they’re not pretty. It’s not all bad news, however. The increases promised won’t be coming into effect until midnight on Wednesday, 6 March. This means there’s still plenty of time to get to your nearest petrol station and make the most of the somewhat ‘reasonable’ prices while you still can.

Not South Africa’s best March

If you’re in search of somebody to blame, it won’t be the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, despite them being the country’s official fuel regulators. No, it’ll be the economy at large hearing your grievances, with Eskom’s constantly shifting load shedding schedule doing more bad for the Rand than good. If anyone is to blame, it’s the state-owned power controller that stopped you watching TV last night.

All the Department is responsible for is informing the country of their woes, landing on a price based on the average Rand/US Dollar exchange rate for the past month, and the average price of refined oil internationally. Throughout February, the Rand weakened significantly, leading to the increases you see below, according to the Department.

Fortunately, things weren’t as bad as they could have been. The Department’s announcement mentions that the current Slate levy on petrol and diesel will remain unchanged at R0 — meaning the government isn’t imposing a further increase on residents this month. Still… there’s a R1+ increase to deal with. Let’s get down to it, shall we?