BULAWAYO – The government has banned motorists from buying fuel with jerrycans.
Energy Minister Jorum Gumbo says jerrycans are promoting hoarding, and he is threatening to revoke licences of petrol service stations found using them.
“Those using tanks, drums and jerrycans – all those forms of containers should stop and we are sending out inspectors and the Zimbabwe Republic Police,” Gumbo told The Chronicle.
“If anybody is going to be found maybe overcharging or using drums, they will have their licences withdrawn. We are not going to allow that.”
The minister was already being ridiculed on Twitter on Tuesday.
“Now that the government is planning to ban jerrycans, does that mean I will have to carry my petrol-powered water pump from the farm to town daily?” asked journalist Zenzele Ndebele on Twitter.
“Gumbo is being supremely obtuse. Seriously. Ban jerrycans and then what? Take our generators, tractors, lawnmowers etc. to the filling station to fill up? Tow out-of-fuel cars to petrol stations?” tweeted lawyer, Lashias Ncube.
“Our government bans so much stuff I’m convinced that one day they will ban banning,” joked @DrKhabo on Twitter.
Zimbabwe is battling a fuel crisis even as the government insists that it has enough stocks. The government subsidizes fuel imports by paying foreign suppliers in United States dollars, and fuel companies in turn sell to the market in bond notes which have lost value.
Essentially, it means the government is losing money in every transaction. It is for that reason that Gumbo says petrol service stations demanding payment in foreign currency are doing so illegally.
“We also had to warn some of the companies that we heard were demanding forex for fuel because it’s not their responsibility because the forex that we use to buy fuel from Msasa or Mabvuku or international companies is sourced by the government,” Gumbo said.
“So, there is no point in an individual company demanding payment for fuel in foreign currency and some of them were saying they were only serving their clients with coupons from their companies. That should not happen.”
