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Editor – Last Wednesday I came face to face with the evil face of corruption being practised by service stations in Bulawayo.

This country will never move forward as long as this vice is not crushed.

Unfortunately, the people with the oversight mandate are either incompetent or complicit.

The latter is more likely.

Back to the above issue. A group of people wanted to attend a funeral in Mberengwa but could not find fuel.

They approached a certain reputable (name supplied) garage along Plumtree Road where they were told there was no fuel.

When the desperate people pleaded they were willing to pay black market rates suddenly the fuel was available.

At the end, they paid $400 for 200 litres of diesel.

The attendants probably made $140 profit from just one desperate customer. How many more would pay and how much are attendants, including garage managers making?

Where is Zera when all this is happening?

So, we have a situation where the desperate public is being ripped off. In addition, we have overnight millionaires buying fuel from service stations like these, sell it on the black market at exorbitant prices, use the proceeds to buy more and the cycle continues.

Others are selling it in United States dollars, “burn” the US dollars on the black market to buy bond notes, use the bond notes to buy more fuel from these service stations, resell in it USD and overnight they are millionaires! What has become of our country!!

-Patrick Makamure, Bulawayo

Price increase should make fuel available

Editor – Following the increase in fuel prices, there is hope that it will be readily available in Zimbabwe’s service stations.

Fuel in Zimbabwe is part of the eco-system of our economy and should be top priority when it comes to political and economic decision making.

One of the defining moments that brought forward the independence of Zimbabwe was on December 11, 1978, when there a was a huge explosion that reverberated over the city of Salisbury, (now Harare), followed by a huge fire ball that lit up the western sky of the city.

The source of fire was caused by the freedom fighters who had bombed the fuel storage tanks that belonged to BP Shell and was the source of fuel where the Rhodesians drew most of their fuel to drive the growth of the Rhodesian economy.

The freedom fighters strategists knew then that the last nail in the coffin on their walk to freedom was to hit the fuel reserves and two years later Zimbabwe was independent.

Now 39 years on it seems the training and the advise that was provided during that time is not being put to good use.

Fuel shortages have a massive impact on the whole economy with service stations and the transportation sector already taking heavy financial losses from the prolonged and widespread fuel shortage, if this continues into next week, the impact on the economy will widen, with transport operators taking at least part of their fleet off the road.

There is hope that the recently announced fuel price increase will resolve the fuel shortage problem promptly in order to avoid an impact on public transportation, the transportation of goods and the supply of raw materials as well as the cancellation of services.

There is a need for government to collaborate with the private sector to import more fuel in order to get more fuel to stations in affected towns and cities.

The Zimbabwean Government should come up with a comprehensive plan with specific measures and timeframes.

In the petroleum private sector there is a need to collaborate and regularise the situation as quickly as possible.

-Engineer Jacob Kudzayi Mutisi