The Central Energy Fund has announced Nelson Mandela Bay motorists will have to pay more for fuel than motorists in other parts of the country.
The situation is predominately related to “the temporary closure of the Port of Port Elizabeth”.
According to the fund's latest pricing schedule, SA motorists will benefit from another price reduction and even the inland zone (“Gauteng”), usually more expensive because of the cost of trucking fuel up from SA harbours, is set to dip significantly.
But this is not the case in the Bay.
The fund said in Gauteng as of Wednesday the wholesale price of petrol would decrease by between 114c and 106c per litre, and the price of diesel would decrease by between 114c and 112c per litre.
However, it said Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe, “with affect from October 2... has approved an interim adjustment of all the affected magisterial district zones in Nelson Mandela Bay, due to the temporary closure of the Port of Port Elizabeth.
“The affected zones are indicated on the fuel price schedule for October 2024. The adjustments to the road transport tariffs applicable in petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin price structures will range from a decrease of 0.9c per litre to an increase of 10.5c per litre.”
The minister's announcement follows on an application by fuel suppliers to have the Nelson Mandela Bay area rezoned to allow them to charge more for their retailed products.
They argued that this is reasonable following the incident in June in the Port of PE in which a fuel tanker damaged a tanker berth.
This berth has still not been fixed and fuel suppliers say they consequently now incur extra costs trucking in fuel from further afield such as East London. To mitigate these overheads, they applied to Minister Mantashe to allow them to charge NMB motorists more.
HeraldLIVE
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