HARARE – Finance Minister Tendai Biti  says fuel shortages that hit the country last week can be traced back to an inefficient fuel procurement system set up by the previous Zanu (PF) government.
Commenting for the first time on the fuel shortages that almost ground the entire nation to a halt, Biti, who is also the secretary general of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC-T party, said Zimbabwe does not have long term supply contracts with fuel producers.
Biti told the MDC’s The Real Change Times newsletter that the "major reason for fuel shortages in Zimbabwe emanates from the lack of standing contracts with refineries and suppliers". The fuel crisis resulted in commuter omnibus operators unilaterally hiking fares by as much as US$0.50 for all routes. Some such as those plying the busy Harare-Chitungwiza route doubled fares to $2 per trip up from the usual US$1.
"Zimbabwe does not have a long standing contract with refineries and suppliers of fuel, we have got short term sporadic contracts which when prices go up, of which fuel prices have been going up from as little as US$45 per barrel to US$90 per barrel of which the price is still going up, you have to start negotiating again," Biti said.
The Minister said Zimbabwe was dependent on road transportation of fuel and this exposed it to fuel shortages and unnecessary price hikes anytime. "Because we do not have long-term supplies, we are not able to use the pipeline which then becomes a constant supply of fuel to the huge reservoirs," Biti said.
He added: "We have not been able to use the reservoirs because the previous Zanu (PF) Government was bankrupt. To use the pipeline, we need dead stock of at least US$11 million worth of fuel because the pipeline is like a river and it has to continuously flow, but the government does not have the money to have the dead stock."

By Staff reporter and agencies