Features / 4 October 2024 / Michael Taylor

5 important things that happened in South Africa’s car industry this week

These were the five biggest stories in South Africa’s transport industry this week.

Official petrol price decreases for October

The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy’s latest fuel price adjustments took effect in South Africa this Wednesday.

Thankfully, both petrol and diesel saw a substantial decrease of a minimum of R1.06 per litre this month.

The drop is attributed to an improvement in the rand/US dollar exchange rate and international oil prices.

7 new Jetour cars coming to South Africa – Details

Jetour plans to introduce another seven cars in South Africa over the next three years.

The first entries will be a flagship model for the recently-launched Dashing and X70 Plus.

Later on, the brand will expand its roster with several new Adventure SUVs and a double-cab bakkie.

Petrol price pain for major South African metro

The Nelson Mandela Bay metro has been temporarily classified as an “inland” zone, meaning residents will not enjoy the same fuel price decreases as the rest of the country this month.

The change was made after the equipment used to transfer fuel to tanker trucks in the Port of Port Elizabeth was damaged and rendered non-functional.

As a result, fuel wholesalers have had to reroute their operations to East London, incurring additional costs that will be offset by the rezoning.

Alarm bells for Gauteng’s R20-billion e-toll debt

The Gauteng Provincial Government (GPG) this week made its first payment of R3.8 billion towards its portion of the e-toll debt.

The GPG claims it now owes Sanral and the National Treasury R20 billion – higher than the figure initially reported.

This has been flagged by the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse, as the GPG previously reported the debt was set at R12 billion with an additional R4 billion in maintenance fees, for a total of R16 billion.