Cape Town - Analysts yesterday generally dismissed speculation that the two double whammies directed by the government at synthetic fuels giant Sasol over the past week reflected continued apartheid-era hostility by mainly ANC members to a company that had been created to thwart international sanctions.
Hints by finance minister Trevor Manuel last week that the treasury was considering a windfall tax on Sasol and PetroSA, which are benefiting enormously from current high international crude prices because of the import-parity pricing system, sent Sasol's share prices tumbling. Both companies have either had, or still have, close links with the government and were initially bankrolled by the taxpayer.
It has been speculated that the government had fully backed the Uhambo deal but that doubts had been raised about whether the empowerment deal envisaged would meet the more exacting requirements of new thinking about how to make these deals more fully representative of black empowerment economic aspirations and needs.
Because the competition authorities had been created precisely to monitor and prevent anti-competitive behaviour, they would steer clear of any politically motivated statements or decisions, especially as they had to follow "a very stringent legal framework", one analyst said.
The relationship between the government, the public and the oil industry in South Africa has always been a prickly one.
The government and the public faced with rapidly rising fuel costs and what they describe as a very secretive sector, have been quick to accuse the oil industry of profiteering at their expense.
The oil industry has been very defensive, has lobbied various levels of government hard to get its point of view across and had embarked on a nationwide public relations exercise to pep up its image.
Lately, firms such as Sasol, which has been the hardest hit by the hostility against oil companies, must have been wondering if the effort has been worthwhile.
This could have only been reinforced by the recent call by the SA Communist Party, an ANC alliance partner, for strategic assets such as Sasol to be renationalised to help bring down crippling fuel prices.
When Manuel raised the issue of a windfall tax, officials were quick to claim that the market was overreacting to the statement but added that it was but one of many possible solutions being considered to deal with cases of excessive profiteering in the oil industry.
Along with many countries around the world, South Africa was examining ways in which to bring the cost of fuel bills down to contain inflation. These included the introduction of greater competition by allowing more players in the market, efforts to explore the production of biofuels and making greater use of the huge, largely untapped, gas fields off the coasts of Namibia and Mozambique to make more synthetic fuel.
The windfall tax has been introduced in several developed countries with mixed results, usually not bringing in as much revenue as expected and, in some cases, depressing capital expenditure and output. Manuel has reassured the industry that the government would not be reckless in imposing any such tax.
Sasol is in the bad books of many South Africans because it had been created during the apartheid era to combat international oil sanctions to keep the wheels of the regime turning at a cost of billions of rands to the taxpayer in the form of various kinds of subsidies.
These only ended in 2000 and many believe that the money could have been better spent dealing with ageing infrastructure, housing backlogs and inadequate social services.
Sasol was established as a state-owned entity in 1950 and was listed in 1979. It has "paid back" the state about R500 million and still pays taxes on its "superprofits".