WC premier says fuel supply in the province remains stable

Western Cape Premier Alan Winde says he believes fuel supply in the province is stable following last week’s price hike that led to some filling stations running dry.

Last Thursday, as the Easter weekend began, Winde said 30 stations were out of diesel, and 20 ran out of petrol, but the situation had improved by that afternoon.

The Astron Energy Refinery in Cape Town was shut down last month for planned maintenance.

"We’ve got an allocation of fuel and the coming back online of the refinery here in the Western Cape, with the crude oil already delivered for that refinery and it’s firing up. But that is probably going to take us into another month-and-a-half to two months."

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Winde said his government’s focus is now to plan for a war in Iran that could extend beyond another month.

"For every week that we go on with further conflict, we have to start putting different mechanisms in place. That is making sure that we have got sufficient fuel for standby for firefighting, for hospital generators, etc. But those are all the mitigation plans that are more medium-term.

Winde said he expects another update on the fuel situation in the province once officials have met with the fuel industry.