ENERGY minister Forune Chasi has refused to answer questions
about the pricing of ethanol supplied by business tycoon Billy Rautenbach’s
Greenfuel, which legislators said was overpriced.
Greenfuel sells ethanol at $1,70 per litre compared to the
landing price of only $0,50 cents of ethanol from Brazil. Zimbabwe enforces
mandatory ethanol blending for fuel, which is meant to reduce costs.
MPs felt that Rautenbach’s monopoly opened avenues for
corruption because government cannot opt to buy expensive ethanol when there
were cheaper alternatives and other local companies like Triangle that can
supplier cheaper ethanol.
Norton MP Temba Mliswa demanded to know whether Rautenbach
was “eating with some big fish”.
“The issue is that our fuel is blended with ethanol from
Rautenbach’s Greenfuel, but it is still very costly at $4, 98 per litre, yet we
are blending,” he said.
“Why is that we have one man who has monopolised ethanol
and what is so great about him? Who is he eating with?
“Rautenbach is not bigger than this country, he never went
to war or held a gun but today he talks about sanctions, which have made his
ethanol expensive.
“Triangle Limited can sell cheaper ethanol, but you closed
Triangle and said Rautenbach can do it and this is corruption and as Energy
minister you need to deal with it because ethanol from Brazil is only 50
cents.”
Mbizo MP Settlement Chikwinya (MDC) said there was need for
Chasi to find out if neighbouring countries like South Africa or Zambia were
also blending their fuel with ethanol.
Chasi had told Parliament that a six million litre capacity
ethanol storage tank was under construction and almost complete, adding that
the blending ratio of 1:20 of petrol to ethanol was helping to reduce the
country’s fuel exports.
He referred further questions to the Zimbabwe Energy
Regulatory Authority (Zera), which he said presided over the fuel sector.
“On issues of ethanol, what I am able to say at the moment
is that blending has been tested and it is up to international standards,” he
said.
“My function as Energy minister is stipulated in the law
and it is to give general policy direction.
“Pricing is part of the mandate of Zera and I do not want
to conduct myself in an illegal way,” he said.
Harare East MP Tendai Biti said there was no law in the
country that covered ethanol and Chasi had no control over the matter.
“The only law that covers petroleum is the Petroleum Act,
which was passed way back in the time of the federation,” he said.
“It does not cover ethanol, which is agriculture and so the
minister is at large when it comes to ethanol.
“The law that introduced mandatory blending of petroleum
with ethanol was a statutory instrument that was enacted in 2013 by the Energy
minister, and it had two things that are unacceptable which are demand and the
monopoly where it says we can only purchase ethanol from a company that is in a
joint venture with government which is Greenfuel.”
Zimbabwe has been experiencing serious fuel shortages since
September last year due to foreign currency shortages. Standard
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