HEADLINE:   Petrol dealers

PUBLICATION: Cape Argus

PAGE NUMBER: 4

AUTHOR:     Zubeida Jaffer

DATE:       2001-03-27 22:00:00

Protesting petrol dealers air gripes

Owners battling to keep businesses afloat

ZUBEIDA JAFFER

Special Writer

HUNDREDS of petrol dealers protested around the country yesterday sending a strong message to the government and oil companies that they were battling to keep their small businesses afloat.

The protest meetings in seven city centres were organised by the SA Fuel Dealers Association, who said several businesses had already faced closure in the past year.

Organisers kept agitated dealers at bay in Cape Town when they suggested blockading fuel depots and unilaterally marking up the price of petrol in protest. "We are not advocating civil disobedience," said Jeff Osbourne, chief operations officer of the Retail Motor Industry. "But we want the government and the oil companies not to ignore the mood out there. Dealers are a significant force." 

Numerous suggestions for action were made from the floor, but the strongest demand came for the association to negotiate a fixed profit margin of 12%. Dealers are complaining that their profit margins have been eroding consistently over several years, making it increasingly difficult for them to keep afloat. 

Yesterday's meetings came after the recent interim increase of 1.5c a litre for dealers by the Department of Mineral and Energy Affairs until a proper evaluation of the crisis is made.

A further increase could be possible after the evaluation, which is expected to take at least three months.

In the meantime, dealers are keeping up the pressure with more than a 100 attending the meeting at Bellville. They came from as far afield as Namaqualand and Worcester.

Strong calls were made for the government to regulate the oil companies and to absorb the price increases which would allow dealers to make a decent profit. 

"I'm worse off than I was five years ago," said Jacques Malan, a Namaqualand dealer.

"We need a bigger return. I'm dead scared of my financial situation."

Applause came for long-time Gugulethu dealer NomaHlubi Vokwana-Ndungane when she spoke about the discrimination against dealers in previously disadvantaged communities, and called on the association to tackle all dealers' problems. 

"The oil companies often do not deliver petrol to us when there are petrol increases, preventing us from benefiting on the day.

"They don't deliver to us when we need the petrol and keep us waiting into the night," she said.

After the meeting she said the oil companies needed to correct historical injustices which resulted in major discrimination against dealers in poorer communities.

"The government must ask the oil companies why they are adopting policies which rob us of owning the land," she said.

Within the next week the association will send protest letters to both the Department of Mineral and Energy Affairs and to the oil companies' representative body.

"We will process all the suggestions made at the meetings and come up with a plan of action," said John Coutts, the association's provincial chairman.