Transport Minister Barbara Creecy has said the Road Accident Fund (RAF) fuel levy will not go up while she holds the job. Her promise comes as South African drivers pay record prices at the pump, IOL reported.
A report last week said the RAF wanted to raise its levy from R2.25 a litre to R3. Creecy has since said no such increase will be requested.
“As long as I’m in this job, we will not apply to National Treasury for an increase in the fuel levy. I think consumers are under enough pressure. What we have to do is sort out the mismanagement that has happened at the Road Accident Fund for a long time,” Creecy told eNCA.
The minister said three things must happen to fix the fund. Its finances and management need to be repaired to cut wasteful spending.
She said laws also need to change to bring in a form of “no-fault” compensation. The third step is to cut road crashes and deaths, which would lower the number of claims against the fund.
Drivers may still face a separate RAF charge when they renew their vehicle licences. Deputy Transport Minister Mkhuleko Hlengwa said last week that the government was looking at a hybrid funding model for the fund, Moneyweb reported.
The government has also appointed Waseem Carrim as the new chief executive of the RAF. Carrim oversaw nine clean audits in a row while he was at the National Youth Development Agency (NYDA).
Fuel taxes have come under the spotlight as prices hit record highs. Motorists pay a General Fuel Levy of R4.10 a litre on petrol and R3.93 a litre on diesel.
The R2.25 RAF levy is charged on top of that.
Earlier this year, the government brought in temporary fuel tax relief during the first price spike. This time it chose not to bring those measures back.
Several groups, including the ANC, the ATM and the trade union federation Fedusa, have called on the government to cut the levies at once.
Economists say Treasury has a reason to be careful about repeating the earlier relief, according to IOL.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said last week that the government was looking at ways to ease the pain of high fuel prices. He also said the state had to be careful with its money, The Citizen reported.
“We are now giving consideration. It’s a budgetary issue. It does actually eat into our country’s reserves and our country’s fiscal position. We’ve got to consider the impact of anything that we can do,” Ramaphosa said.
Source: this article is based on reporting by IOL. Image: IOL. Written with the help of AI and published by the Tzaneen Voice News desk. See our Editorial Standards.
Kgomotso Maake covers news and politics for Tzaneen Voice. Kgomotso reports on government, Parliament, municipalities, courts, crime and service delivery across South Africa, with a close eye on how national decisions reach towns like Tzaneen and the wider Limpopo province. Stories are written in plain English and focus on the facts: who made the decision, what it means, and what happens next.