South Africa's Record Fuel Price Is a Story of Bad Timing, Not Just Bad Luck

South Africa is about to break its own fuel-price record for the second time in four months. Central Energy Fund data from early September puts petrol on track for an under-recovery of between R1.81 and R1.93 a litre in October, which would push 95-octane petrol to roughly R28.85 a litre and wholesale diesel to R32.08, both comfortably above the previous all-time high of R28.06 set in June 2026. What makes this increase notable is not simply its size, but the fact that it is landing at the exact moment the one buffer designed to absorb shocks like this has been fully withdrawn.