South Africa's government is planning to impose a price cap on 93-octane gasoline, Bloomberg financial news agency reported Saturday, citing a decree published in the country's official gazette.

According to Bloomberg, the government is inviting interested agents to comment on the proposal within the next 30 days, in time for it to be amended should the government see fit.

The cost of gasoline has risen 36% since the beginning of the year, prompting strong criticism from opposition parties and unions, a protest that is also occurring in Mozambique, having already led to several strikes.

In early July, South African truckers and taxi drivers cut the N4 highway, the main highway in the northeastern part of the country that connects to Mozambique, in protest against rising fuel prices.

In addition to rising fuel and food prices, South Africa is also facing unprecedented multiple power cuts in the middle of winter, affecting its more than 60 million residents with 12 to 16 hours a day without power, the most severe since before the covid-19 pandemic.

The rise in transport prices has been one of the main topics of debate in Mozambique in recent weeks, after the "chapas," light vehicles that serve as transportation within the cities, have paralyzed their activities earlier this month in protest against the rising cost of fuel, causing long lines and confusion in some areas of the Mozambican capital.

Around the same time, Mozambique's Energy Regulatory Authority (Arene) announced the third fuel price hike this year, with cooking gas up almost 20%.

The war in Ukraine and global inflationary pressures led to the new prices, which went into effect Saturday in Mozambique.

Gasoline went up from 83.30 meticais per liter to 86.97 meticais and diesel went from 78.97 meticais to 87.97 meticais per liter.

In 2008 and 2010, the increase in the price of road transport, accompanied by the rising cost of essential goods and services, sparked popular uprisings in some of the country's major cities, resulting in clashes with the police and destruction in some places.