Pretoria - BP commissioned an independent company to carry out an investigation after a complaint from a customer that the diesel tank of his car was filled with water at its Clubview service station, and says the diesel tanks and their nozzles at the site were found to be clean.
BP South Africa spokesperson Reneilwe Letswalo said: "This confirmed that the fuel and systems were compliant and identified no issues with the quality. Checks also confirmed the absence of water in the fuel.”
Mahonisi Maluleke turned to the Pretoria Small Claims Court, saying attendants at the service station filled up the diesel tank of his Ford Ranger with water. He wants to be compensated more than R5000 he spent fixing damage to his car, which he was convinced was caused by water in the diesel.
Letswalo, however, said: “It should be noted that we received no complaints from any other customers whose vehicles received diesel from the same tanks, and specifically from the same nozzle as the complainant’s vehicle."
File photo: Tobias Schwarz / Reuters
BP said it was confident the contamination didn’t originate from its site.
"These investigations lead us to conclude that if there was an issue with water contamination with the customer’s vehicle, it did not originate from BP Clubview," Letswalo said.
“We are confident that the fuel provided to customers at BP Clubview is of the highest quality,” she added. “We take pride in the quality of our fuel and we have controls and stringent processes throughout the entire distribution chain, from refinery to nozzle, to ensure its quality is maintained.”
After filling his car with diesel in 2017, Maluleke claims he drove straight to his home in Laudium about 20km from Clubview. On entering his suburb the car started to jerk. The next morning it wouldn’t start and a light was showing that there was water in the petrol tank.