Johannesburg - Pressures on fuel supplies should start
easing by the beginning of next week, the SA Petrol Retailers Association said
on Wednesday.
"We should get going again by Tuesday," the
association's national director Peter Noke said.
This comes after motorists reported not being able to find
fuel at some service stations.
"There is stock going around. There is definitely no
need to panic buy, that's the last thing we need now."
Noke denied some shortages were being caused by retailers
withholding stock to profit from fuel price increases that came into effect on
Wednesday.
"There is a perception that retailers are skelm
(crooked) but this is not the case," he said.
The problem was caused mostly by difficulties during planned
maintenance at the SA Petrol Refinery in Durban and problems at a refinery in
the Western Cape.
There was also a rush on fuel ahead of price increases at midnight, which included a 36 cents a litre hike in the cost of petrol.