Constant increases in fuel prices will push more people into poverty.

The EFF, Cosatu and a taxi association were reacting to the February 1 fuel price hike.

From Wednesday, petrol prices increased by 28 c/l , diesel with 0.05% sulphur went up by 9c/l, paraffin by 58.00 c/l while diesel with 0.005% sulphur decreased by 0.84 c/l.

Mpho Mukhari from Mamelodi local and long distance taxi association (MALLDTA) told TimesLIVE that fuel price hikes were killing their business.

“The hike of petrol and diesel is killing the business. The drivers are working for fuel, they spend from R4,000 to R5,000 a week for fuel. The sad part is that they are not even making that money,” Mukhari said.

He said coping with the increase was hard on the industry which was still limping from the effects of not operating for several months during the Covid-19 hard lockdown.

“Things are better now but taxi owners and drivers still get their cars repossessed by banks because they cannot keep up with the expenses.

“The average bank instalment for the taxis is R13,500 to R16,500. More than 10 taxis a month get repossessed because of rising expenses.”

Mukhari said some taxi owners fired their drivers for not bringing in enough money.

Cosatu spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said the increase spells bad news for all South Africans, but it was even worse for poor families.

“Poor households are already struggling to survive under these difficult conditions and an increase in the price of paraffin will leave many worse off,” Pamla said. 

He said many people were drowning in debt and the fuel increase with the recent electricity price hike, rising food prices and interest rates would make it even harder for workers to support their families.

“It will push thousands of workers to default on their loans and risk losing their homes, cars and other possessions. This will also threaten the sustainability of thousands of SMMEs [small, medium and micro enterprises] and place their employees in danger of losing their meagre wages and being retrenched.”

Pamla appealed to the government to provide relief to commuters and the economy by lowering fuel taxes.

The EFF said the rise in fuel prices would push many people to poverty, adding that “many workers will not be able to travel to work as they will not be able to afford transportation”.

“The EFF calls for an immediate halt on any form of increase until there is a substantive review of the fuel levy.”

This month’s increase comes after motorists were granted relief in January.

The department of energy and minerals dropped fuel prices after what it described as “steep increases” for November and December 2022.

TimesLIVE