South Africa is literally one big crime scene full of bad actors in an unlawful society and one needs to be aware of all the scams. The latest warnings are regarding diesel being diluted with other liquids like paraffin and lubricating oil to help raise the profits.
The problem is diesel has increased in price so much lately and from the 1st January till today has risen by 77-82% which is good news for those looking to dilute the diesel and make profits. The problem is the rand has depreciated along with the increased oil prices then it has created a double whammy.
The problem is the diesel is now being remixed at fuel depots before the diesel is being distributed. More than 100 fuel depots have been found to be illegally adding paraffin, kerosene, lubricating oils and various industrial solvents. This along with Diesel prices being unregulated it has allowed unscrupulous petrol stations to offer cheaper diesel attracting motorists not knowing what they are purchasing whilst offering those unscrupulous suppliers extra profits.
Truckers will be tempted to stop and fill up because of the so called savings as many drivers work on a percentage of profits so a so called saving will not be as it seems once the engine needs replacing. Paraffin has wax in it and under cooler temperatures that wax solidifies and clogs up everything in the engine.
The problem is what the dirty diesel does to the engines as the damage is serious. Engines do rely on fuel with lubricating properties and diluted diesel will destroy parts like fuel pumps, filters and injectors. If purchased over a period of time this will lead to higher fuel usage, poor engine power outage and possible engine failure.
The problem is not what is taking place and it is more to do with the policing of the situation as the entire policing system is so corrupt. Just in the last month myself personally I have encountered an entire police station on the books of organised crime who refused to lay charges against the people I was charging because these corrupt individuals were paying those in charge who also happen to be corrupt.
In the past depots caught mixing diesel with paraffin were found to be as high as 68% contamination meaning only 32 % is genuine diesel. Back in 2023 70 depots were fined and this year already 100 depots nationally have been highlighted for testing due to irregular purchases. Surely this is not rocket science and one could tell quite quickly from the volumes of diesel purchased over a period of 12 months. If the supply decreases significantly then something has to be a miss and is not a drop in sales, but something more sinister.
I was reading up about this dirty diesel today and it is happening not only in South Africa, but Kenya as well and I am sure other places around the world. Wherever there is easy profit there is always some crooked angle that will effect so many people not caring what damage they have created.
Roughly 10 years ago we had our local petrol station have contaminated petrol due to rainwater finding it's way in the stations storage tanks. Water and fuel is not great and we had issues when driving until we found out what the problem was and have never returned to that petrol station again.
