THE MAY 2026 FUEL PRICE INCREASES IN SOUTH AFRICA
BY : CHANON LECODEY MERRICKS ONLINE EDITOR KASiBC_AFRiCA
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) notes the latest adjustment of fuel prices by the Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources, effective from 6 May 2026. Petrol prices have increased by R2.04 per litre, diesel by up to R4.96 per litre, and illuminating paraffin by R4.21 per litre.
These increases come on the back of sustained global pressures, including rising crude oil prices and instability in the Middle East, but also expose the continued failure of domestic policy to protect South Africans from predictable external shocks. At the end of March 2026, National Treasury, together with the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources, announced a temporary relief measure which included a R3 per litre reduction in the general fuel levy for a period of one month, at an estimated cost of R6 billion in foregone revenue.
This intervention was presented as an immediate response to cushion households, with the possibility of review in subsequent months. However, the developments we are witnessing today confirm what the EFF has consistently argued that these measures were wholly inadequate, short-term, and fundamentally incapable of addressing the scale of the crisis.
A once-off, fiscally “neutral” intervention designed to be recouped later does not provide real relief; it merely postpones the burden onto the same struggling households and cannot be celebrated. The EFF maintains that the current crisis is not only the result of global factors, but also of a weak and incoherent fuel strategy.
The failure to rebuild and secure South Africa’s strategic fuel reserves, following their corrupt disposal, continues to leave the country exposed to global volatility without any meaningful buffer. The impact of these increases will be immediate and severe across all sections of society. Workers, including doctors, engineers, teachers, nurses, and other professionals, will experience a direct erosion of their real incomes. Transport costs will rise sharply, increasing the cost of food and all basic goods.
Households already struggling with debt, high fuel costs, and rising living expenses will be pushed further into distress. The increase in paraffin prices is particularly devastating. Paraffin remains a primary energy source for poor and working-class households who cannot afford electricity or alternative energy. This increase represents a direct attack on the most vulnerable, who are forced to absorb these shocks without any form of protection or organised recourse.
The EFF rejects the continued reliance on temporary and reactive measures. The National Treasury itself indicated that broader interventions would be developed over the medium term, yet no concrete, structural measures have been presented to Parliament or the public. This lack of urgency demonstrates a government that is disconnected from the lived realities of its people.
The EFF therefore calls for an urgent parliamentary sitting where the Minister of Finance must table a revised fiscal framework that takes into account the current escalation in fuel prices and the broader cost-of-living crisis. The existing fiscal framework has been overtaken by events and no longer holds any credibility or integrity.
The EFF will write to the Speaker of the National Assembly to demand that she directs the President and the Minister of Finance to account to Parliament and present immediate, decisive interventions. Parliament cannot remain passive while the costof-living spirals beyond control.
The EFF reiterates that fuel is not a luxury good, but a strategic economic input that affects every sector of the economy. Failure to intervene decisively is a political choice, one that exposes a government that prioritises fiscal arithmetic over human survival.
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