How much the average South African spends on petrol – Before and after Covid

The average South African drives 180km less per month now than they did before the Covid-19 pandemic, but spends anywhere from R142  to R188 more on fuel.

According to Discovery Insure’s latest Drive Trends report, approximately half of local motorists take 55 trips per month at an average distance of 12km per trip – which is 15 trips fewer than before Covid-19 – with the mean fuel consumption across the country sitting around the 7.0l/100km mark.

However, while they are travelling less, drivers are spending more on fuel than they did before the pandemic.

This can be attributed to a substantial increase of 47% in the price of petrol 95 and 56% in the price of diesel 50ppm between March 2020, the month in which the first lockdown was initiated, and December 2023.

The table below details the monthly spending on petrol for the average South African motorist before and after Covid.

For diesel, the costs look like:

Why fuel prices are so high

Fuel prices skyrocketed in South Africa over the past years mostly due to a depreciating local currency and an uptrend in international oil prices.

At the beginning of March 2020, the rand/US dollar exchange rate sat at R15.27/dollar, and today, it’s hovering at R18.97/dollar, which has significantly raised the Basic Fuel Price (BFP) at which we buy our propellants from other countries.

Exacerbating the issue was a rampant rise in the cost of Brent Crude oil since the pandemic.

Oil prices sat close to $52/ barrel on 1 March 2020 but swapped hands at a more substantial $80/barrel at the start of December 2023. This had a compounding effect as not only were the liquids more expensive to buy after the rand’s downfall, but they are now also more expensive to produce.

The poor performance of the South African currency coupled with an upsurge in oil rates has led to an average 87% increase in the BFP over the last 45 months.

In March 2020, the BFP was between R6.46-6.89/litre, depending on the type of fuel, and now in December 2023, it’s anywhere from R11.51-13.50/litre, with consumers forced to bear the brunt of these increases.

Of course, higher taxes and levies have played their part in elevating the prices at the pumps, too.

In March 2020, the General Fuel Levy (GFL) stood at R3.61/litre for petrol and R3.47/litre for diesel. At the same time, the Road Accident Fund (RAF) Levy was R1.98/litre for all fuels.

Today, the GFL ranges between R3.81/litre and R3.95/litre, depending on the fuel, and the RAF levy comes in at R2.18/litre.

These are the two largest taxes on South African fuels and account for over 90% of the total levies.

Numerous margin adjustments have also taken place since before Covid-19, including but not limited to a retail margin increase of 5.7c/litre in September 2021 to accommodate wage increases of service station staff, as well as a net increase of 60.1c/l in the annual margin adjustments on petrol and 13.88c/l on diesel effective from December 2023.