Motorists can brace themselves for a hike of 71 cents a litre on all grades of petrol from Wednesday, the Energy Department confirmed on Monday.
The latest increase will take the per litre price of 95 octane petrol to R14.76 inland from December 6, and R14.27 at the coast. It is the fifth month in a row that the petrol price has risen,Fin24 has reported.
In a statement, the Energy Department confirmed a net increase of 3.9c/l in the annual margin adjustments on petrol and a net decrease of 0.70c per litre of diesel and paraffin were approved by the minister.
The statement said that the price of illuminating paraffin - wholesale and retail prices - will go up by 73.30c and 98c a litre respectively.
According to the statement, the rand depreciated against the U.S. dollar, with the average ZAR/USD exchange rate for the period 27 October to 30 November 2017 weakening to R14.0964/$, compared with R13.6210 to the greenback in the previous comparable period."
"This led to a higher contribution to the Basic Fuels Price on petrol, diesel and illuminating paraffin by 23.15c/l, 23.03c/l and 23.34c/l respectively," the statement said.