Taking us for a fuel: DA, residents’ petrol price protest
|Published
ENOUGH IS ENOUGH: DA crew took to the streets of Bonteheuwel, Elsies River and Belhar Wednesday
The exorbitant price of petrol on Wednesday drove Capetonians to the street where scores of people protested and called for government intervention.
Bonteheuwel resident Deborah Ruiters said the petrol price, which rose to a record high of R23.52 a litre this month, is ridiculous and needs to be scrapped.
In a protest organised by the Democratic Alliance, she and over 20 Bonteheuwel residents along with Ward Councillor Angus McKenzie held a peaceful protest on the N2 highway near Jakes Gerwel Drive while other pickets were held in Elsies River and Belhar.
“We are struggling with the fact that we are not being paid proper salaries for various reasons but we must sit with this high price for petrol.
“When petrol goes up, everything goes up. We are already struggling as things stand,” says Deborah.
Protesters marched between 7.30am and 8.30am, carrying placards demanding the fall of the high prices.
“Because of this increase, the price of getting our children to school or people getting to work has gone up so much that we have very little left to live,” says Deborah.
“Of course the food also goes up, so we are getting less all the time while the government just takes more money out of us. This whole thing must really come to a stop because it is like they do not care for your average person on the street.”
McKenzie has called for an end to fuel levies which he says is inflating the petrol price.
“Putting a R1000 petrol in only gets you about R400 in your tank while about R200 goes to the stations and the rest are taxes and levies,” he says.
“This is simply unacceptable because people are now being forced to spend almost two-thirds of their disposable income on transport and then they are still expected to live on the third which is also being affected by the fuel price.”
DA provincial leader, Tertuis Simmers, joined party members in Elsies and said more demonstrations will follow until the prices are dropped.
“We will not let this go. We simply cannot pay this absurd amount of almost R25 per litre for fuel.”
He said a plan has been submitted to national government to cut the levies on fuel prices which could result in a price drop of more than R6 a litre.
Government has extended the R1.50 temporary reduction in the general levy on each litre of fuel from June 1 to July 6, to avoid an increase of close to R4 a litre, which would have pushed the fuel price above R25.
The costs of levies and surcharges total R10 a litre of petrol before the basic fuel price is added.
They include: Fuel levy of R3.93; Road Accident Fund Levy R2.18; retail and wholesale margins R2.74; storage and distribution R1.14.