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 a report by investigative journalism outfit amaBhungane that revealed a 2024 PetroSA investigation found that petrol had “reacted to car paint” and that affected vehicles were repainted by panel beaters in Mossel Bay.

Petro SA, South Africa’s state-owned oil and gas company, allegedly bought the contaminated fuel from Nako Energy, a South African junior fuel trading company founded and led by Nkosinathi Ngwenya.

At the time that Sasol and Astron Energy found more than 6% of N-methylaniline in the product, against a recommended level of around 1.2% 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.

There is no indication this chemical is currently in fuel bought in South Africa in 2026.

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Bobby Ramagwede, chief executive officer of the AA, says: “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.”

The AA is also asking for:

• A published national fuel quality testing regime: Who samples, at which depots and forecourts, how often, with results published quarterly.
• A clear route to redress for motorists whose vehicles were damaged: Who is liable, and how to make a claim.

Petro SA fighting a liquidation claim by Nako

Nako Energy is attempting to place Petro SA into liquidation over a R600 million debt that the fuel trader claims the oil company is refusing to cover.

According to initial reports by Amabhungane, PetroSA owed Nako R605 million for a cargo of petrol it bought in June 2024, but had struggled to sell because it was tainted with the problematic chemical additive, N-methylaniline.

Nako, in turn, owed PetroSA R832 million for a cargo of diesel it had bought and never paid for.

The Amabhungane story has detailed PetroSA’s debt including R4 billion owed to the South African Revenue Service (Sars) and over R700 million to fuel trader Addax. The AA has also asked for a full, audited schedule of PetroSA’s liabilities tabled before parliament votes on the South African National Petroleum Company Bill.

“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.”