Should the road fright industry’s wage strike continue for more than a week, the country may be facing a national fuel crisis, the South African Fuel Retailers’ Association (FRA) said on Saturday.
”If we hadn’t had this [long weekend] relief, we may already have been in a crisis,” said FRA chief executive officer Reggie Sibiya.
Sibiya said the fuel industry, which was under pressure by the South African Transport and Allied Workers’ Union (Satawu) strike, was able to use drivers from the commercial side of the industry to service petrol stations.
”We believe as the RFA that this is only a short-term relief as the commercial industry will be back in full operation on Tuesday,” he said.
Sibiya warned that if the strike continued beyond Tuesday, a negative effect on fuel retailers’ sales would probably be seen.
However, he said motorists returning from holiday destinations over the weekend need not worry about fuel shortages as oil companies would prioritise deliveries to the national routes.
”When they arrive back in Gauteng, they will actually come back to a better situation than when they left,” he said.
But as the week progressed the fuel situation may worsen again. Sibiya was especially concerned about smaller retailers.
”Their overheads remain the same but they lose their income, so it is likely to impact the smaller retailers in the long run,” he said.
At the moment the hardest hit areas were fuel stations in Atteridgeville, Soshanguve, KwaMashu, Umlazi, Soweto and Alexandra.
Sibiya said this was because drivers were intimidated in these areas and oil companies diverted fuel to retailers on major roads.
Sibiya said it would take at least two weeks for all the stations to get fuel, should the strike end on Tuesday.
RFA’s meetings with Satawu would only resume on Tuesday, but there was no confirmation that the strike would be resolved on the day. – Sapa