A taxi association's fuel depot is said to charge R10 a litre. Petrol everywhere else costs R30.25

R500.

That is what a full 50-litre tank would cost if a taxi depot in Tembisa really sells fuel at R10 a litre. Anywhere else in Gauteng, the same tank of 95 petrol costs R1,512.50.

A post on 12 October said a taxi association has opened its own fuel station, called the "TELTA Depot", in the Oakmoor section of Tembisa. The price it gave was R10 a litre for both petrol and diesel. It has been seen more than 66,000 times.

In the replies, one person wrote that they were already there. Another asked where the fuel comes from and whether you get a slip when you pay. The poster did say the depot is open to the public.

Is the Tembisa R10 fuel station real?

A news graphic is going around with the words "Tembisa taxi association opens its own fuel station". It shows a man at a pump and balloons strung up behind him, the way a shop looks on opening day.

Photo: Ossewa / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

We could not find a published news report or an association statement that gives the R10 price. We also could not confirm what the letters TELTA stand for. The post and the graphic are what exist so far.

So the opening of a station looks real. The R10 price rests on one post.

How far below the normal price is R10 a litre?

Since 7 October, 95 petrol costs R30.25 a litre inland. The government's wholesale price for 0.05% diesel is R31.95.

R10 is about a third of the petrol price.

R500.00Claimed depot price

R1,512.5095 petrol, official

R1,597.50Diesel, wholesale

See the numbers

Claimed depot price	R500.00
95 petrol, official	R1,512.50
Diesel, wholesale	R1,597.50

Petrol 95 inland R30.25 and 0.05% wholesale diesel R31.95 from 7 October 2026 (Central Energy Fund and BusinessTech). The R10 price is the claim in the post and is not confirmed.

Here is the same gap for a working taxi. We assumed 80 litres a day and 26 working days a month. These are our worked numbers, not reported figures.

For a taxi owner, that gap is more than a salary. It also shows why this claim spread so fast. Taxi fares are already under pressure, as we reported in what your ride could cost after R30 petrol.

Is it legal to sell petrol cheaper than the official price?

Petrol has an official price that the government sets every month. The money behind it is laid out in where the R30.25 goes.

We have been here before. In 2017, a Johannesburg-area taxi association opened a station in Roodepoort and sold petrol 50 cents a litre below the gazetted price. It sold 93 octane at R12.88 when the official price in that zone was R13.38.

The Department of Energy said then that charging a different petrol price inside the same pricing zone is illegal, and that nobody can be exempted from the gazetted price. The association said the product belonged to them and they could set the price. We could not find out how that dispute ended.

Diesel works differently. The government publishes a wholesale price, but stations set their own pump price. Even so, R10 would be less than a third of that wholesale figure.

How can anyone sell fuel at R10 a litre?

Nobody has said. There are ordinary explanations that people may offer. It could be a short opening special. It could be for taxi owners only. A group could be covering part of the cost to win members.

The arithmetic is tight. In our breakdown, R7.46 of every litre of petrol is tax and levies. At R10, that leaves R2.54 for the fuel itself, the trucks that bring it, the wages and the rent.

We are not saying anything is wrong at this depot. These are the questions people are asking, and a pump that cheap invites them.

Photo: Sara Essop / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Do taxi associations really run their own fuel stations?

Yes, it has happened before. The Roodepoort station in 2017 was run by an association for its own members. Taxi owners spend more on fuel than on almost anything else, so buying in bulk is an old idea.

We could not find a published figure for how big a bulk discount normally is. That matters, because a discount of a few rand is believable and a discount of R20 a litre is not what a normal bulk deal looks like.

Photo: Shade Schutze Photography / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0

Petrol is expected to go up again on 4 November. Every petrol story we have is on one petrol price page.

How common is fake or cheap fuel in South Africa?

This is the part drivers worry about, and it is not about any one depot.

Between April and December 2023, the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources received 70 failed diesel samples. Its tests found paraffin in the diesel. Five of those stations were in Gauteng.

In June 2025, a SARS and police operation across Gauteng, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal detained 953,515 litres of contaminated diesel. Some tanks held up to 68% paraffin.

This month, BusinessTech warned that adulterated fuel is likely to rise as diesel heads for record prices. Paraffin is taxed far less than diesel, so mixing it in is a cheap way to make more money from each litre. The Fuels Industry Association says it can damage an engine, and in bad cases write off a vehicle.

What should you check before you fill up at a cheap pump?

Three things take less than a minute.

First, ask for the slip. Every proper sale gets a receipt, and it is your proof if the engine starts to cough two days later.

Second, look at the pump for an inspection seal or sticker. It shows the meter has been checked, so you get the litres you pay for.

Third, use your nose. Diesel mixed with paraffin can smell sharper and lighter. Ask the attendant straight out whether the fuel has paraffin in it.

At the normal price, R500 buys you about 16.5 litres of petrol. At the Tembisa depot, the post says it buys 50.