On Thursday night, several drivers from different oil companies and buyers stations were caught while siphoning fuel at the Zimra controlled Road Motor Services (RMS) depot in Mutare where all fuel tankers coming from Mozambique park overnight.
Sources revealed over 2 000 litres of fuel was recovered while on its way to an unregistered service station owned by a Zanu PF politician. One of the fuel buyers caught in the act, who identified himself as Machiya, said on average they would siphon 800 litres from one tanker. Close to 100 fuel tankers park every night at RMS.
Sources told The Standard the illegal activities were taking place right under the nose of customs officials who control the area. He said due to the fuel scam, oil companies could be losing millions of dollars every month.
“Complains have been made but nothing has been done to address the situation because the syndicate involves influential politicians who own most of these backyard garages which are selling fuel at a cheap price,” said a source.
The biggest fuel importer in the country, Sakunda Energy confirmed that siphoning of fuel was threatening the survival of the industry as established companies were finding it difficult to compete with the unregistered service stations which were offering cheaper prices.
Spokesperson for the company, Sarah Manyengawana said such illegal activities caused price distortions on the market especially in centres such as Mutare where most of that stolen fuel ended up being sold $0,12c cheaper than normal retail prices.
She said motorists who buy such fuel also risk contamination of their vehicles “As Sakunda, we will continue to be alert and try to curb such activities so that our operations are not affected. Most of our fuel comes through the pipeline,” said Manyengawana
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She said some of the affected tankers would be ferrying fuel to countries such as Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.“As for Sakunda, we mostly use the pipeline to import our fuel, but we also use tankers as we have been contracted by other countries to supply fuel,” said Manyengawana.
Efforts to get a comment from Manicaland province police spokesperson Inspector Leonard Chabata were fruitless as he was said to be writing examinations.
