Wednesday, 05 February 2025.

The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) notes the announced fuel price increases that came into effect today. As of February 5, 2025, the price of both grades of petrol has increased by 75 cents per litre, while diesel has gone up by between 70 cents (50ppm) and 73 cents (500ppm). A litre of 95 Unleaded petrol now costs R22.52 on the coast and R23.24 inland, while 93 Unleaded petrol has risen to R22.92 inland.

We were told that the coalition of neoliberal forces forming the so-called Government of National Unity (GNU) would stabilise the economy and reduce the cost of living. However, this petrol price hike is yet another reminder that the GNU has no practical plan to stabilise the economy. Instead, they rely on fiction and hope, refusing to adopt tangible policies that could alleviate the crisis. They remain fixated on waiting for the private sector—an entity that priorities profit and the exploitation of the working class— rather than implementing decisive state-led interventions.

The EFF warned that the coming together of these parties and their desperate concoction of policies, designed merely to please markets and financial institutions, would fail to create stability. These policies do not answer the fundamental question: how do they create jobs? Instead of gambling with economic theories and stock market speculation, South Africa needs cheap energy, beneficiation, employment, and productive industries, not an economy dictated by the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

We note that it is not only petrol prices that have increased. Food prices remain high, despite inflation stabilising in the lower range. Education costs continue to soar, and banks persist with discriminatory and exploitative lending practices, deepening financial insecurity for the working class. This burden is being placed on ordinary South Africans while the government fails to intervene meaningfully.

The EFF will write to the Chairpersons of the Portfolio Committee on Minerals and Energy and the Standing Committee on Finance to demand a joint meeting, including public hearings, to address the escalating cost of fuel. We will push for urgent interventions that can bring down the cost of living for our people and ensure that the economy is structured to benefit the masses, not a handful of elites.

The working class must resist this economic onslaught. The EFF remains resolute in the fight for a just, radical and realistic economic agenda that priorities people’s needs over corporate greed.

ISSUED BY THE ECONOMIC FREEDOM FIGHTERS

Leigh-Ann Mathys (National Spokesperson) 082 304 7572

Thato Lebyane (Media Enquiries) 078 304 7572