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The Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber has called on the Minister of Mineral and Petroleum Resources, Gwede Mantashe, to find an equitable solution to what it said was an impending fuel crisis in the Metro.
The Chamber was reacting to an application to the Minister by the Liquid Fuel Wholesalers Association to temporarily exempt the metro and surrounding areas from lower fuel prices in September.
This was because the LFWA said it was still unable to bring fuel tankers into the Port of Port Elizabeth following an accident in June.
According to the Daily Maverick, CEO, Peter Morgan said a fuel tanker being piloted into the harbour during huge swells crashed into a crucial bunker normally used to transfer fuel to tanker trucks for distribution to petrol stations.
He said with the bunker out of commission, liquid fuels wholesalers had to fetch petrol and diesel from the East London harbour and had already been trucking in 88 million litres of petrol and diesel a month at extra cost, including for extra tankers.
Morgan confirmed to the public that his organisation had applied for the exemption.
Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber CEO, Denise van Huysteen, said businesses and residents must not be penalised with higher fuel prices.
She said the Chamber and its 700 members were calling for an “equitable solution” that addresses the concerns of the LFWA but does not unfairly disadvantage local businesses and residents.
“While we accept that the LFWA’s members are in the untenable position of incurring additional costs that they cannot recover, it is blatantly unfair to transfer this burden onto the shoulders of the people and citizens of Nelson Mandela Bay.
“The Eastern Cape economy is in recession and has amongst the highest unemployment rates in the country.
“The impact of an unnecessary and unfair increase in fuel prices is of grave concern, especially given the knock-on effect on food and transportation costs, as well as the costs of doing business in a metro where we need to be protecting investments and jobs,” she said.
Van Huyssteen said that the LFWA had advised the Chamber that the extra costs incurred by the fuel wholesalers and transporters cannot be recovered under the wholesale fuel pricing regulations, while indications from Transnet are that the berth will not be in operation before January next year.
“While the LFWA argues that the increase to inland fuel pricing will be ‘but a small fraction’ of the October price reduction, it remains unacceptable that businesses and residents in the metro should pay the price for a problem not of their making.
“Transnet must expedite the repairs with the necessary urgency and in the meantime, the ministers of Transport and Mineral Resources and Energy need to find a workable solution to address the cost concerns and the delivery of fuel to a city with two ports,” Van Huyssteen said.
