Europcar rental car rate increase of 47.5% in less than 1 year!

I recently (on 13/11/2017) hired a car from Europcar at King Shaka Airport. I hired their entry level car for 1 day and drove 42 km. My invoice shows 1 day car rental of R388 less my vitality discount plus a document administration fee.

I hired a car from the same entry level car group from Europcar at the same airport for 1 day and drove 36km at the beginning of this year (22/01/2017). My invoice shows 1 day car rental of R263 less my vitality discount plus a document administration fee.

Thus it can be seen that in the space of less than 1 year, Europcar rates for an entry level vehicle have increased from R263/day to R388/day! This equates to an enormous increase of 47.5%!

Whilst South African inflation 2017 has stood at the 5-7% mark, how can it be justified that a company can increase its rates so dramatically by 47.5% in the same period? This is highway *******!

Surely an increase of this excessively high margin is questionable!? At this rate of increase, the same entry level car will cost R572/day to hire this time next year and R843/day the year thereafter!

Please can Europcar advise with an explanation of their excessively high car hire increase rates?