In a briefing before the Portfolio Committee on Energy in Cape Town, Tuesday 21 August 2018, the Department of Energy said it is intesifying efforts to cap and bring down the escalating cost of fuel.
The Ministry briefing comes amidst call to the government to bring down the cost of fuel. This after commentators registered concerns that high cost of fuel will impact not only businesses, but disposable household income.
Shortly after the July fuel increase, the economic cluster ministers released a statement expressing concern over the increasing fuel prices in the country and explained that as a non oil producing country, South Africa has to accept the price of crude oil, as determined by the international market.
In a briefing Minister of Energy, Jeff Radebe indicated that at government level, they have engaged with the oil producing countries regarding the impact of fuel prices in countries like South Africa.
In the short term, we have to intensify our fuel-saving measures…We have had to intensify engagements with oil-producing countries, with a view of indicating to them the impact of high crude oil prices on developing economies but also seek to obtain pricing regimes that would be favourable to our economies.
Amongst other factors which the Minister cited as contributing to fuel price increases were, the recent political turmoil in Venezuela, which has led to a near collapse of oil production in that country which had negative impact on global oil market.The Minister has told the committee that there are technical teams from the Department of Energy and National Treasury that have started to work on the review of the fuel price structure to see whether there can be any adjustments that can be made.