Motorists on Wednesday night stormed the fuel station
demanding answers after they had bought petrol.
Motorists were fuming with anger and had no kind words for
the owners of the station while others were shouting at operators. Some
motorists were having their vehicles drained of the contaminated petrol and
having it replaced with clean fuel.
In interviews, the motorists said the operator’s licence
should be cancelled as the service station was prejudicing motorists by causing
faults on their vehicles.
They said they had now engaged the Zimbabwe Energy
Regulatory Authority (ZERA) to test all fuel at Meru fuel stations to establish
its authenticity.
Mr Tashinga Musonza said he realised that he had been given
contaminated petrol after his vehicle suddenly stopped while he was driving.
“I am disappointed with what Meru is doing. Imagine a
reputable service station like this one selling contaminated fuel to its
customers.
“This is very bad and had my car not stopped while I was
driving after filling up my tank at the service station, I was going to think
that it has developed a mechanical fault,” he said.
Ms Doreen Muyambo said the officials at Meru should
compensate her and repair her vehicle.
“These people are not serious and I want them to compensate
me. I no longer want their petrol and I will never fill my car with petrol at
any of their service stations,” she said.
Other motorists were of the same view and demanded that the
service station officials compensate them.
Mr Dhairya Solanki, one of the directors of Meru, said they
have since compensated the affected motorists and they have closed the pump
with the contaminated fuel pending investigations on the cause of the
contamination.
“We gave the motorists whose vehicles were affected their
money back and we also gave them new fuel as well. We have closed the affected
pump and we have people on the ground working to find out the cause of the
contamination.”
Meru public relations officer Mr Moreblessing Cherayi also
admitted that their fuel was contaminated and said they were working on
rectifying the problem.
“We developed a technical fault at Meru Service Station in
Mbare. One of our tanks which was carrying blend petrol got contaminated with
water. So we have shut down the tank completely and we are draining out all the
product in that particular tank and we will proceed with normal operations
after ZERA tests and approval,” he said. Herald
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