Minister of Minerals and Energy Lindiwe Hendricks is due to make an announcement on Wednesday following a meeting with the petroleum industry over fuel shortages.
Hendricks called a meeting with the South African Petroleum Industry Association (Sapia) for Tuesday evening to discuss fuel shortages affecting parts of the country.
”The meeting hasn’t started. The minister is still meeting with internal officials from the department,” spokesperson Yvonne Mfolo said at 7.30pm on Tuesday.
”She will make an announcement tomorrow [Wednesday] at a press conference in Cape Town in the early afternoon,” Mfolo said.
Addressing the National Assembly earlier on Tuesday, Hendricks said: ”Everybody knows the industry is to blame in this case. From the government side, everything has been done to prepare us for the start of cleaner fuel.”
The BP oil company said fuel-supply problems are still being experienced in some parts of the country.
Diesel is being ”severely rationed” in the Cape Town area until supply is received from the refinery. A consignment is also expected to arrive by ship this week.
Supply of 95-octane and unleaded petrol in Cape Town has improved, but delivery backlogs are being caused by increased demand.
In Gauteng, there are no immediate shortages of diesel or petrol, but a backlog is causing delivery delays, the company said in a statement.
In the Eastern Cape, East London is experiencing ”severe diesel supply problems”. The product will be rationed until the situation improves — probably by December 16. Petrol in the city also remains in short supply, particularly the unleaded type.
In Port Elizabeth, unleaded petrol remained in short supply by Tuesday, but deliveries were expected overnight, BP said.
The problems arose when refineries restarted after switching over to cleaner fuel technology.
This was aggravated by spiked demand following last week’s fuel-price cut, and a ”run” on service stations following reports of a shortage of fuel at Cape Town International airport.
Motorists and businesses struggling to find fuel were advised on Tuesday to contact petroleum companies for information on where and when deliveries are to be made.
They could also try stopping for fuel at petrol stations on major routes, Sapia director
Colin McClelland said.
Motorists should reduce fuel consumption by eliminating unnecessary trips and driving in a ”fuel-conscious” way.
McClelland advised prospective long-distance travellers to keep topping up their tanks along the way, rather than assuming fuel would be available in a particular town.
”Special efforts will be made to keep national route sites going,” he said. ”We don’t want people to have to camp out at Beaufort West on the way to Cape Town.” — Sapa