Zimbabwe’s fuel supplies have dwindled to alarming levels mainly due to a weakening economy and acute foreign currency shortages despite interventionist measures by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ).
The fuel shortage comes at a time the country is facing a wave of price increases, which spectators say are linked to foreign currency shortfalls.
Motorists in some parts of Zimbabwe like Beitbridge have been buying fuel from the black market for a couple of days as all the nine service stations in the border town have run dry.
Reserve Bank Of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor Dr John Mangudya, had dismissed the rumours saying that its Logistical challenges.
“There cannot be a crisis because we allocated enough fuel for the week,” he said.
“Since I am not around, I can only assume that suppliers may have had logistical challenges collecting fuel from Msasa Depot (in Harare) for them to distribute countrywide.”
The government doubled foreign currency allocation to fuel suppliers from $10 million to $20 million per week in May this year, to ensure constant supplies.
The past week has resulted in some long-winding queues at some fuel stations around the country with the capital being the hardest hit due to a higher volume of vehicles.
However, yesterday morning motorists in some parts of the country woke up to long winding queues at fuel garages, while some outlets had no supplies at all.
Parallel market dealers who sell fuel in containers at street corners were selling 5-litres for as high as $10, about $3 more than the pump price.
