{"id":649854,"date":"2026-05-27T07:03:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T05:03:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=649854"},"modified":"2026-05-27T07:20:50","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T05:20:50","slug":"petrol-station-shutdown-threat-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/motoring\/649854-petrol-station-shutdown-threat-in-south-africa.html","title":{"rendered":"Petrol station shutdown threat in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Fuel retailers in South Africa, particularly those in rural areas, could be forced to cut staff hours or close their doors if fuel prices do not recover soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is because local motorists are driving less due to high petrol and diesel prices. As a result, forecourts sell fewer litres of fuel while maintaining the same margin, regardless of fuel prices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

South African Petroleum Retailers Association chairman Henry van der Merwe told Cape Talk<\/a> that fuel retailers were taking a beating in the current situation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

“If we sell fuel at R25 a litre, we get R2. If we sell it at R40 a litre, we get R2 because it’s a margin. That’s where the unfortunate situation comes in. When the high fuel price hits us, the litres go down,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“A lot of people are driving less, they are planning better, they are using other methods of transport because it’s part of their disposable income, and it’s hitting South Africa very, very hard.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that forecourts observed significant declines in fuel sales volumes. Furthermore, fuel sales generally decreased at night, which could mean some forecourts would move to close at that time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It hits us hard, specifically the smaller sites, the rural areas. Those people are phoning and saying ‘we can’t afford to stay open at night because of security risks and low litres at night’,” Van der Merwe said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that, particularly in rural areas, there would be a security-of-supply issue if prices did not normalise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“People are talking of retrenching people because they can’t afford them, or operating shorter hours, and that, for the entire country, is not a good thing,” Van der Merwe stated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van der Merwe also said that petrol stations had observed a substantial increase in motorists driving off without paying for their fuel. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Price relief set to disappear<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Enoch Godongwana, South Africa’s Minister of Finance<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The conflict between the United States and Iran has driven Brent crude oil prices much higher over the last two months. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As it’s the primary component in petrol and diesel, the prices of these fuels have also surged. To provide some relief, the South African government cut the general fuel levy in April and May.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The intervention saw the government reduce the fuel levies from R4.29 to R1.29 per litre for petrol and from R4.16 to R1.16 per litre for diesel on 1 April 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reprieve was initially set to last until 5 May 2026. However, the National Treasury announced an extension<\/a> of the general fuel levy cut in late April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For June 2026, the relief is set to be halved, with R1.50 per litre added back to the fuel price. The relief will come to an end when the remaining R1.50 per litre is added back in July 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

National Treasury estimated it will forego R17.2 billion in taxes from April to June as a result of the temporary relief measure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van der Merwe said that consumers should take the reduction into account when looking at preliminary fuel price adjustment data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The petrol price is not going to decrease. It might go up by R1.40 instead of a decrease of 8 or 10 cents per litre,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“But the oil price has decreased quite a bit from last week. It’s gone down from $109 to $98. Hopefully, it keeps going down.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Van der Merwe added that he expects diesel prices in South Africa to decrease by approximately R2 to R3 per litre in June 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

According to the chairman of the South African Petroleum Retailers Association, some petrol stations may be forced to close up shop, while others could stop operating at night. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":629442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29366],"tags":[104368,82991,105492,60225,105490,12285,51719,61206,105491],"class_list":["post-649854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motoring","tag-cape-talk","tag-diesel-prices","tag-forecourts","tag-fuel-prices","tag-henry-van-der-merwe","tag-national-treasury","tag-petrol-prices","tag-petrol-stations","tag-south-african-petroleum-retailers-association"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649854"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649854"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":650030,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649854\/revisions\/650030"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}