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| This rusted fuel pump in the coastal hamlet of Hondeklipbaai in South Africa shows the future of all fuel pumps. |
The record high fuel prices has sparked a predictable flurry of fuel saving tips and articles comparing SA’s highly taxed fuel to much lower prices paid in other African countries.
Like Angola, where a litre of petrol costs R3,70, or Nigeria, where a can of dubious fuel costs about R6 a litre.
But would those who so bitterly complain about SA’s highly taxed fuel want to live in either country?
Fact is, governments that are good at pulling on the fuel teat to milk out every last drop of tax, generally spend the funds on creating infrastructure and providing services that make for places more taxpayers want to live in.
BILLIONS FROM FUEL SALES
South Africa’s government hopes to make about R126 billion from fuel levies on the current financial year.
This money comes from the General Fuel Levy, (R3,93/l) the RAF Levy (R2,18/l) and exclude the VAT and taxes fuel companies pay on things like freight, storage, wholesale and retail margins, insurance and cargo dues.
All this money used to be ring-fenced to improve SA’s road infrastructure, but that time is long past. These days, a lot of the fuel tax go to funding the “irregular and wasteful expenditure” that shows up in the audits of all state-owned entities and most government departments outside the Western Cape.
Among them all, the KZN transport department is SA champion tax waster. In February this year, the Auditor General tallied R17,84 billion that had basically been wasted by KZN Transport during 2019/2020 financial year.
To put R17,84 billion in terms that even former President Jacob Zuma can read — KZN’s Transport wasted two million, thirty six thousand, five hundred and twenty nine rands every hour of every day last year. To add insult to injury, this was no anomaly.
KZN Transport’s irregular expenditure amounted to R14,11 billion in 2018/2019. And yet this department continue to say it is unable to bus 150 000 pupils to schools in KwaZulu-Natal “due to budget constraints”.
WHY PEOPLE WILL BUY EVEES
American-based thinktank RethinkX, warns governments who rely on the fuel cow for funds they must start planning for an udder that will soon dry up.
The analysts at RethinkX base their prediction on the fact that electric vehicles (evees) have about 20 moving parts, compared to some 2 000 moving parts in a fossil fuel burner.
Fewer parts that wear out means evees last much longer in terms of distances traveled than cars that rely on thousands of small explosions per second to turn the wheels. Right now, evees stand to drive at least 800 000 to 1,6 million km with little wear other than tyres and seats. (All thse claims of course ignores that fact that a tiny dent in the battery pack will also see insirance companies write off the car as too expensive to repair, with technicians unwilling to work on the very high voltage, self-combusting, fire bomb that is otherwise known as a lithium ion battery pack.)
Rethink X conservatively puts the cost of evee maintencnce at 20% of a fossil fuel burner.
An 80% saving in running costs forms the main attraction for buyers — one which RethinkX states will drive the rapid adoption of evees.
“The transition will happen far faster than expected, driven mainly by economics.
“Existing owners will abandon their vehicles, stranding up to 100 million gasoline and electric vehicles in the United States,” states the thinktank in their ReThinking Transportation report.
CHEAP SOLAR POWER
Motorists who drive evees do not buy petrol or diesel. This is a nightmare scenario for governments who have become addicted to sucking on the fuel teat. There is even more bad news for municipalities who survive on selling electricity at extortionate prices.
With evees come solar infrastructure, which already delivers electricity cheaper than any coal-fired powerplant. Witness Wheels last week reported on the start of the solar-power trend in South Africa, with Johannesburg-based logistics specialists Aeversa using the first all-electric JAC truck in SA to prove how a row of solar panels on a factory roof can supply all the fuel for a company’s small trucks.
Aeversa CEO Rick Franz said Eskom power deliver running costs of R0,75 to R1/km while solar power purchase agreement can deliver motive power at as little as R0,45/km.
The record high fuel prices in South African will see more fleet managers check evees’ savings compared to their high price.
This in turn, will lead to a revolution in SA’s transport and motoring sectors, and a sea change in how national and local governments collect revenue.
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(First published in Witness 5 Aug 2021)
