Incompetent Minister under fire over diesel shortage

Energy and Power Development minister Elton Mangoma has come under fire over the ongoing diesel shortage that threatens to cripple industry and has resulted in an increase in the prices of food and transport costs among other things.

The shortage has incensed ordinary citizens with some going to the extent of calling for the minister's resignation.

According to Mangoma, the shortage was triggered by the huge demand of fuel in the Northern Hemisphere and the garnishing of $35 million from the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe's (Noczim) bank account by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra) last month.

Zimbabwe imports its fuel from South Africa and Beira in Mozambique.

Fuel shortages in the last two weeks have seen the price of the commodity shooting up by more than 25% since the beginning of the year.

As a result of the shortage, the price of diesel has gone up from $1,10 to $1,40 a litre.

Zimbabwe residents have asked to be saved from this madness or they reject the minister's party in the next election. They claim that Tunisians taught them a lesson and the minister and his party can only underestimate the power of the people at their own peril.

Engineer Tungamirai Chisaga said Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai's Cabinet in which he replaced Elias Mudzuri with Mangoma at the energy ministry, had not paid off.

"Six months into the new minister's tenure we are witnessing a reversal of the gains made during Mudzuri's tenure in the form of the current fuel shortages and conflicting explanations on the causes thereof.

"It is almost like we have gone back to the times of the last Zanu PF Energy minister when the nation got inundated with varied and often weird explanations of the causes of the shortages."

Several residents said the resurgence of fuel shortages in the country was completely unacceptable and showed that MDC-T and Zanu-pf are blankets  of the same fabric.