The petrol price is likely to rise by around 70c a litre on December 6. That would take the price of a litre of 95 octane petrol inland to around R14.40, its highest ever and twice what it was at the start of the Zuma administration. As it turns out, the petrol price provides a great parable on the record of this administration, encapsulating so much of what is wrong with its economic policies. You pay more today in taxes and fees for petrol than you did for an entire litre of it in 2009. You pay R3.15 a litre for the general fuel levy. You pay another R1.63 to the Road Accident Fund to make amends for South Africa's horrendous road accident rate, barely ameliorated by law enforcement more concerned with raising municipal revenues through speed traps than penalising bad driver behaviour. That's a total of R4.78 in tax on every litre. It will raise nearly R100-billion for the fiscus this year. There is another R2.94 that goes to fuel manufacturers and retailers of the stuff. It ensur...
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