Botswana bans sale of bulk fuel to Zimbabwe

By Tichaona Sibanda
8 May 2008

Botswana last week banned the export of bulk fuel to Zimbabwe, in a move seen as welcome regional pressure on Mugabe’s regime, to respect the will of the people.

As Zimbabwe’s fuel problems increased, reports said authorities in Botswana began turning back buyers last week at the border posts in Kasane in the far northeast, and Maitengwe about 130km north of Francistown, Botswana’s second city.

However, the main Plumtree border post, about 100km southeast of Bulawayo, was still allowing single drums through. MDC MP for Makoni central John Nyamande said the ban may signal Botswana’s exasperation with the regime in Zimbabwe.

‘The ban is long overdue. This may be a message to the regime that other countries are not happy with what is happening in Zimbabwe. On the other hand authorities in Botswana are saying the bulk export of fuel to Zimbabwe was crippling its own supplies,’ Nyamande said.

Nhanhla Sibanda, a fuel dealer in the informal market, told a news agency that the move by the Botswana authorities was surprising and that the decision would seriously affect Zimbabwe’s already crippled economy.

Before the ban trucks laden with drums and large plastic containers of fuel used to be a permanent feature along the Bulawayo-Francistown highway, the main road linking Zimbabwe to Botswana.

The state-owned National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (NOCZIM), plagued by allegations of widespread corruption and mismanagement, has had its problems compounded by foreign currency shortages and rocketing inflation, leaving it unable to meet local demand since 2000. Since then the country has been forced to rely heavily on the entrepreneurial spirit of cross-border traders and their parallel imports from bordering countries like Botswana. This has been the only source of fuel for most Zimbabweans.

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