DA to submit bill aimed at deregulating the fuel price

The announcement comes on the same day as news of another massive fuel price hike.

The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy announced on Monday that the price of 95-octane unleaded petrol will rise by R2.57 a litre in July, while 93-octane unleaded petrol will go up by R2.37 a litre.

Diesel prices will rise by R2.31 (0.05% sulphur) per litre and R2.30 (0.005% sulphur) per litre respectively.

The DA’s Kevin Mileham told the media outside Parliament that the bill seeks to amend the Petroleum Products Act, which gives government the power to prescribe the price of petroleum products.

“We intend to publish our ‘Notice of Intention to Introduce’ in the Government Gazette later this week, within which the public will be invited to provide comment on the stated aims of our Bill. Now the ball is firmly in the ANC government's court, and it has the chance to do the right thing. The success or failure of regulating the fuel price, now rests with the ANC in Parliament," said Mileham.

Mileham added that the increase in the fuel price will affect South Africans’ ability to afford basic goods.

“The tragedy of high fuel prices is that their knock-on effects will hit the poorest the hardest at a time when they are already struggling under the consequences of 46% unemployment, load shedding, soaring global inflation driven by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and a state increasingly unable to deliver on even its most basic mandate.”

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