Pressures on fuel supplies should start easing by the beginning of next week, the South African Petrol Retailers Association said on Wednesday.
“We should get going again by Tuesday,” the association’s national director Peter Noke said.
This comes after motorists reported not being able to find fuel at some service stations.
“There is stock going around. There is definitely no need to panic buy, that’s the last thing we need now.”
Noke denied some shortages were being caused by retailers withholding stock to profit from fuel price increases that came into effect on Wednesday.
“There is a perception that retailers are skelm [crooked] but this is not the case,” he said.
The problem was caused mostly by difficulties during planned maintenance at the South Africa Petrol Refinery in Durban and problems at a refinery in the Western Cape.
There was also a rush on fuel ahead of price increases at midnight, which included a 36 cents a litre hike in the cost of petrol. — Sapa