
Supplies of fuel in the southern African nation have been
intermittent since September, which has seen motorists spending hours in queues
at service stations.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa in January announced a 150
percent hike in the price of fuel, sparking violent protests in major towns,
which were met by a brutal security crackdown.
“Cabinet has given a green light to large companies such as
those in the mining sector, transport sector, commerce to use their funds to
import fuel for their use,” Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa told
reporters after a weekly cabinet meeting.
The world’s top two platinum producers Anglo American
Platinum and Impala Platinum Holdings are some of the big mining companies
operating in Zimbabwe, which will be able to buy their own fuel.
Zimbabwe’s central bank provides between $80 and $100
million a month in scarce dollars to fuel companies to import the commodity. By
allowing companies to buy their own fuel, the government expects to ease
pressure on demand for dollars.
Long queues that resurfaced last week after a brief lull
continued on Tuesday and Mutsvangwa said the government had been forced to take
8 million liters of diesel from the country’s strategic reserve to supply the
market.
Despite previous promises by the central bank and energy
minister to end the fuel shortages, Zimbabwean motorists have got used to queuing
for hours for the scarce resource.
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