It looks like the fuel price could be going up again next week according to some economists in South Africa. They predict that petrol will go up by 12 cents a litre, diesel and paraffin could go up by 16 cents a litre.

With the inflation figures coming out yesterday showing a slight drop in the CPIX rate, a rise in fuel prices could signal a further rise in September’s inflation figures. The main contributing factors to a rise in fuel prices would be the higher world oil prices and the volatility of the Rand.World oil prices have peaked to US$83 a barrel over the last few weeks and one day the Rand is trading at R7.50 to US$1 and then in a couple of days time you see it trading at R6.90.

A fuel price increase will not help South Africa especially after the article published in the Financial Mail titled High and Dry which underlines the fuel supply crisis South Africa could be facing in the near future. We saw what a potential disaster it could be in South Africa a few weeks ago when the fuel delivery industry went on strike and there were fuel shortages at South Africa’s service stations. Now imagine something more serious than that and occuring on a more regular scale? With the number of cars in South Africa we could be headed for a disaster!

South Africa has not been able to deal with the electricity supply shortages and it looks like there will also be a fuel supply shortage just now. Two critical components of a country : Electricity and fuel are needed for any country in the world to survive. We do not have to look far, look at Zimbabwe, they have had a serious shortage of these two for the last six years and look at where they are now. Let us hope that the same does not happen to South Africa or would ‘the forces that be’ allow it to happen?

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