With a crippling fuel price hike in place for the month of October, unions and political parties say consumers will now be forced to choose between putting food on the table and spending a significant amount of their income on transport.
UK inflation fell in August as a drop in hotel and air fare costs, combined with a slowdown in food price rises, helped offset the acceleration in fuel costs.
The Automobile Association (AA) said unaudited data from the Central Energy Fund points to a petrol price increase of around R1.20 cents a litre and an increase in the wholesale price of diesel of as much as R2.