The Automobile Association of South Africa (AA) is calling on the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources to add N-methylaniline to a sample of South Africa’s petrol specification and to begin testing it.
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. PetroSA confirmed that it will oppose the application (Moneyweb, 18 September 2026).
The AA takes no position on the merits of the dispute. The AA’s concern is the three consequences that reach motorists, fleet operators and taxpayers, however the litigation ends: how fuel quality is regulated, how public liabilities are transferred, and who holds the country’s fuel stock.
The fuel which nobody was required to test
The publication reports that an internal PetroSA investigation found that petrol had “reacted to car paint”, and that affected vehicles were repainted by panel beaters in Mossel Bay. It also reports that Sasol and Astron Energy found more than six percent of N-methylaniline in the product, against a recommended level of around 1.2 percent cited by the Fuels Industry Association. The additive is banned as a fuel additive in Europe, China and Russia. In South Africa it is neither banned nor tested for.
“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. “Motorists on the Garden Route bought petrol at ordinary forecourts, watched the paint come off their cars, and paid the panel beater for the repairs themselves.”
“The AA calls on the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources to add N-methylaniline to the national petrol standard and publish the sampling protocol. 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.”
Billions in outstanding debt
AmaBhungane reports that PetroSA owes SARS R4 Billion and more than R700 million to the fuel trader Addax, and that it closed the 2023 financial year with R3.5 billion in unpaid trade payables. It further reports that Plane Tree Capital, which now holds Nako’s claim, has demanded R620,519,979 plus interest.
“Before a single liability is transferred, we also call for a full audited schedule of what the public is absorbing to be tabled,” Ramagwede says. “A motorist who pays the fuel levy is a creditor in this story, and creditors are entitled to a statement.”
What is actually at risk is storage, not refining
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.”
What the AA is asking for
- N-methylaniline added to the national petrol specification, with a published test method and a date for the first test.
- A published national fuel quality testing regime: who samples, at which depots and forecourts, how often, with results published quarterly.
- A full, audited schedule of PetroSA’s liabilities tabled before Parliament votes on the South African National Petroleum Company Bill.
- A clear route to redress for motorists whose vehicles were damaged: who is liable, and how to make a claim.
- Monthly publication of national days of cover for petrol and diesel.
What corporate South Africa can do without waiting
The AA is asking fleet operators, logistics companies and independent retailers to require a certificate of analysis with every bulk fuel delivery, and to keep a retention sample of each load.
“I would rather work with industry than around it,” Ramagwede says. “Any fleet buying fuel in bulk in this country should insist on a certificate of analysis tomorrow morning. It costs almost nothing. One large operator doing it makes it the norm for everybody else.”
