The price of fuel is set to go up at midnight tonight by 50 cents a litre for petrol this after a 55 cent increase in April. The price of unleaded petrol in Gauteng thereby increases to 996 cents a litre and to 972 cents at the coast. Diesel 0.05 percent sulphur goes up by 71 cents, 0.005 percent by 70 cents and wholesale paraffin by 71 cents. Illuminating paraffin shoots up by 94 cents. Diesel in Gauteng now costs 10.80 rand a litre and 10.66 at the coast. If this is not bad news then, I do not know what is!
As the country grapples to get to grips with escalating food and power prices we have another fuel price increase. If the price of fuel goes up, the price of everything else goes up. As world oil prices continue to rise, this may not be the last increase we will face any time soon.
What will be interesting to note is that most fuel dispensers at service stations across South Africa can not display more than 3 digits i.e. the maximum they can show is 9.99. Now that fuel is set to enter the 4 digit mark, fuel stations are going to have to put a ‘x10′ sign next to the price and the dispensers reset so that the displayed price has to be multiplied by 10. I remember the first time I saw this happening was in Zimbabwe and look how things have turned out there? I hope the same is not set for South Africa.
