October's official fuel prices are here – and petrol is soaring past R30/l

Someone, please take us back to 1985, when the biggest problem facing motorists was the R1/l price of petrol. It’s a far cry from the absurd fuel prices plaguing Saffas in 2026, with the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources (DMPR) officially confirming an R3/l+ hike for October, sending petrol prices soaring above R30/l.

Those new prices will kick in on the morning of Wednesday, 7 October. Unless you want to pay more for your petrol, you’ll want to get down to the nearest fueling station. Uh… now. It’s an equally dire situation for the country’s diesel drivers, who will be expected to fork over R3/l+ per litre more throughout October 2026.

Sorry, kids, Christmas is cancelled

Anyone familiar with Stuff’s fuel price predictions will already be braced for the hit on Wednesday. Throughout September, the Central Energy Fund (CEF), in conjunction with the DMPR, has warned against the coming hikes for both petrol and diesel. It’s not a truth we wanted to believe, but the CEF rarely leads motorists astray.

Like the CEF, the country evaluates the average price of oil globally, as well as South Africa’s Rand/US Dollar exchange rate to arrive at the official fuel price adjustments. What with the US-Iran War driving up the price of oil in 2026 — regularly hovering above $100 a barrel — the coming hikes seemed like a foregone conclusion.

The Rand has remained resilient and contributes a very minor under-recovery (price decrease) to the overall hike. Until tensions overseas ease, however, it seems that South Africa is in for a pretty rough 2026, and possibly 2027. Earlier this year, when fuel prices threatened motorists, the government stepped in to provide temporary relief.

Tracey-Lee Solomon, an economist at the Bureau for Economic Research, speaking to CapeTalk in September, reckons the government may not be able to intervene if prices were to rocket once again. “…This time, it seems there isn’t enough scope for our National Treasury to actually decrease our fuel levy…” she said.

“In line with the provisions of the Self-Adjusting Slate Levy Mechanism, a Slate Levy of 87.66 c/l will be implemented into the price structures of Petrol and Diesel with effect from 07 October 2026. The increase on the slate levy will be from 83.28 to 87.66, resulting in an increase of 4.38 c/l in the price structure of Petrol and Diesel.”

From 00:01 on the morning of Wednesday, 7 October 2026, petroleum-based fuels will see the following changes:

Petrol 93: increase of 312 cents per litre (R3.12)
Petrol 95: increase of 333 cents per litre (R3.33)
Diesel 0.05%: increase of 284 cents per litre (R2.84)
Diesel 0.005%: increase of 324 cents per litre (R3.24)
Illuminating Paraffin (Wholesale): increase of 358 cents per litre (R3.58)
LPGAS: increase of 42 cents per kilogram (R0.42)