Bidvest Protea Coin warns illegal fuel practices threaten logistics, vehicle safety and regulatory enforcement
Fuel price volatility is placing significant strain on the sector, while illicit fuel networks continue to rise at an alarming rate.
Although fuel blending is not uncommon in the industry, such practices pose serious risks. Not only are they unsafe, but they can also damage vehicles, creating further challenges for South Africa’s logistics sector, which plays a vital role in transporting essential goods such as food, clothing, and other daily necessities.
In an interview with eNCA on Wednesday morning, Waal de Waal, Chief Operating Officer (COO) at Bidvest Protea Coin, raised concerns about the rapid growth of illicit fuel networks disrupting operations.
“You know mixing and blending has been there all the years, but on a very small scale. But now these days it’s just getting out of hand. There are a few factors that play a role. First of all, paraffin doesn’t have that VAT implication; it’s a zero VAT product, so it’s easy to blend it with diesel, although the price now is a bit different. The difference in the price now is about R2, but if you take 2022, it was R8,80, 2024 R5,60, so it’s still cheaper than diesel,” said de Waal.
He explained that although paraffin in South Africa cannot be sold without a marker, sellers of illicit fuel have found ways to bypass the system by removing the marker. This makes it easier to blend paraffin with diesel, as once the marker is removed, the contents can no longer be easily detected.
“You know paraffin in this country can’t be sold without a marker. It’s called an A1 marker specifically for that reason, SARS (South African Revenue Service) and DMRE (Department of Mineral Resources and Energy) can monitor. When you import paraffin, you need to get the marker, so this is where people get these wash bays, where they try to get rid of the marker because SARS and DMRE have equipment that picks up the marker. It can’t analyse the product, it can only pick up the marker,” he said.
In cases like this, a key solution would be for the DMRE and SARS to upgrade their systems so that detection technologies can not only identify markers but also analyse the quality and composition of fuel.