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A petrol station attendant fills up a car ahead of a petrol price increase effective from midnight, at a filling station in Johannesburg, South Africa on May 31, 2022.
The Forum for South Africa (FOSA) has criticised the government’s extension of the fuel levy relief, calling it deceptive.
On Tuesday, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana announced the extension of the relief into May.
The government introduced the relief to provide a buffer for motorists against rising oil prices and a weakening rand due to the United States-Israel war on Iran.
FOSA National Leader Tebogo Mashilompane says the measure is a short-term fix that fails to address the country’s economic crisis.
Mashilompane says, “The relief, but temporarily so, and then in June we are going back, so that means we are going to pay back the very same thing, and the price will still go up abnormally. That’s why we are saying there’s no solution here, we need the government to come up with interventions that will make sure that we don’t have to face the same thing time and over again. We reject that we want a proper intervention, not something that will put a burden on using the next two months.”
PODCAST | Interview with Mashilompane on SAFM’s First Take Programme:
RISING FUEL COST
The Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice and Dignity Group says the impact of the rising fuel cost in South Africa is already being felt on the price of some essential food items.
It has attributed this to the US-Israel war on Iran.
The Organisation’s Program Co-ordinator, Mervyn Abrahams, says with another fuel price hike on the cards, consumers are facing a further financial burden.
Abrahams says, “Between January and March of this year, we saw food prices stabilise and even come down by a few percentage points, but in April, we saw quite a large spike in the price of our basket. So the cost of our basket spiked by 2.3% or in rand terms R123,56.”
Related video | Fuel levy extension welcomed by South Africans
Reporting by Ntombi Sithub, Tashlan Naidoo and Hoosen Ebrahim.
