While everyone has been preoccuppied by the whole Statutory Instrument 127 saga, the South African Rand has been appreciating against the USD. This gain in value has been so significant that the South African Department of energy has decided to reduce the pump price of fuel for South Africans this month. On average South Africans will be paying about 10 cents less compared to what they were paying in May.

So how do South African Fuel prices fair against what we pay as Zimbabweans?

Fuel Type	June Prices South Africa	South Africa USD	Zimbabwe USD
93 Petrol/E10	R16.91	$1.23	$1.20
Diesel (bulk)	R14.66	$1.07	$1.17
Diesel (retail)	R14.71	$1.07	$1.15
Paraffin	R8.77	$0.64	$1.17
LP Gas	R27.86	$2.02	$2.00

Petrol and diesel prices per litre. LP Gas prices are per kg

In doing our comparisons we used the actual prices Zimbabweans are paying at the pump. ZERA allows prices up to US$1.30 per litre. No service station is charging prices above US$1.25 as that would see them lose customers. Service stations that are on the side of busy roads and the CBD tend to charge higher prices. Those in off-road locations tend to charge lower prices.

Conversions from Rand were done using the current prevailing mid-rates as supplied by Google. The Rand can be pretty volatile so the actual USD prices might vary but hopefully you get the picture. Despite ZERA’s very high prices Zimbabweans are paying prices that are not very different from what South Africans are paying at the pump. In fact, South Africans seem to be paying more for Petrol although theirs is actually E7 and not E10. You also need to bear in mind that prices vary from pump to pump even in Zimbabwe.

Click here to see current fuel and LP Gas prices in Zimbabwe