In 2023, fuel stations along the Garden Route noticed something unusual about the Mogas 95 unleaded petrol supplied by PetroSA. According to reports, the petrol left stains on pumps and even affected the paint on consumers’ cars. Now, the Automobile Association of South Africa (AA) wants the government to include the petrol additive used in Mogas 95 in South Africa’s petrol specification and to begin testing it.
The AA is calling on the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources to add N-methylaniline — which Sasol and Astron Energy reportedly found at more than 6% in the product — to the national petrol standard and publish the sampling protocol.
“A specification that does not test for a substance is not a specification. It is a document,” says Bobby Ramagwede, chief executive officer of the AA.
“Tell the country when the first test will be run and who will run it. If that cannot be done this financial year, the department should say so and say why,” Ramagwede adds.
Three consequences
The call follows an AmaBhungane investigation, published on 17 September 2026, into dealings between state-owned PetroSA and junior fuel trader Nako Energy.
The publication reports that Nako applied to the Western Cape Division of the High Court for an order placing PetroSA under provisional liquidation.
According to Moneyweb, PetroSA confirmed that it will oppose the application.
The AA says its main concern is the three consequences that reach motorists, fleet operators and taxpayers, no matter how the litigation ends: how fuel quality is regulated, how public liabilities are transferred, and who holds the country’s fuel stock.
AmaBhungane reports that an internal PetroSA investigation found that petrol had “reacted to car paint” and that panel beaters in Mossel Bay repainted affected vehicles.
It also reports that while Sasol and Astron Energy found more than 6% N-methylaniline in the product, the Fuels Industry Association recommends around 1.2%.
The additive is banned as a fuel additive in Europe, China and Russia. In South Africa, it remains legal.
Full audited schedule
AmaBhungane reports that PetroSA owes the South African Revenue Service (Sars) R4bn and more than R700m to the fuel trader Addax, and that it closed the 2023 financial year with R3.5bn in unpaid trade payables.
It further reports that Plane Tree Capital, which now holds Nako’s claim, has demanded R620,519,979 plus interest.
Therefore, says Ramagwede, “before a single liability is transferred, we also call for a full audited schedule of what the public is absorbing to be tabled.”
“A motorist who pays the fuel levy is a creditor in this story, and creditors are entitled to a statement.”
Domestic refining at risk
The AA cautions against describing the matter as the end of domestic refining.
The Mossel Bay gas-to-liquids plant stopped producing as far back as 2020.
“Liquidation would not close a working refinery. It would formalise a closure that happened six years ago,” Ramagwede says.
“The live exposure is storage capacity, import terminals and custody of national fuel stock.
“Those are the questions fleet operators should be asking this week; nobody has answered them in public to date.”
