Publications
Partners
On Tuesday evening, a driver of a Ford vehicle drove into the Engen Gerhaldo Vulstasie garage in Garsfontein, Pretoria, and asked for a full tank of petrol.
When the time came to pay the R753 owed to the garage, the man drove off.
"This is the second time that this has happened to us this month," Gerhard Vorster, owner of the garage, told News24.
Vorster said increasing fuel prices were putting motorists in a bind.
READ: Parliament to debate recession, fuel price hikes
"Last month, someone drove off without paying for more than R400 worth of petrol."
He said the driver of the Ford was in such a hurry he drove off before the petrol attendant could screw his fuel cap back on.
Although Vorster hasn't opened a case with the police, he said he had contacted Ford dealerships in the surrounding area.
He has requested that the dealerships contact him should a vehicle matching the registration number come in seeking a fuel cap, so police can intervene.
Vorster said as a preventative measure, the garage was now considering creating a prepaid system.
Reports on social media claimed that the petrol attendant featured in the CCTV footage, seemed to be carrying a weapon.
However, Vorster rejected this claim saying it was simply the palm of his employee's hand gesturing towards the vehicle as it made its getaway.
Predicted increase to R17 a litre
A recent report by the Automobile Association (AA) said that mid-month unaudited data from the Central Energy Fund had predicted the biggest fuel price hike in South Africa's history by some margin.
READ MORE: Bad news for motorists: Biggest petrol, diesel price hike 'in SA's history' - AA
"A spike in international oil prices and a huge swing in the Rand/US dollar exchange rate have combined to predict a knockout blow at the pumps at the end of September," the AA said.
"Based on the current data, petrol users will be paying R1.12 more per litre."
The AA said: "To put this in perspective, should this increase materialise, it will push the price of 93 unleaded octane fuel inland close to R17 a litre, off a January price of R14.20 – a total increase of around 20%, year-to-date."
