Zimbabwe triples price of petrol

The Zimbabwe government, desperate to ease fuel shortages, tripled the price of petrol today while introducing a second, lower price for its own vehicles, public transport and the agriculture industry.

The unique two-tier marketing system raised questions on how the system would be policed to stop corruption and black market selling of the cheaper petrol, oil industry executives said.

Energy Minister Amos Midzi said the government ended the state oil company’s monopoly on petrol imports to allow private oil companies to also bring in fuel.

The private companies would be permitted to sell regular petrol at about €1.35 a litre at the official rate of exchange.

The official rate of exchange is 870 Zimbabwe dollars to the euro. The black market rate is more than five times that.

The intention is to cushion impoverished commuters from continued fare hikes and keep fuel affordable to black farmers recently resettled on former white-owned property seized by the state as part of a controversial land redistribution programme.

Zimbabwe is suffering its worst economic crisis since independence in 1980, with record inflation of 400% and soaring unemployment. There are acute shortages of local currency, hard currency, food, medicine and other imports.

Autocratic President Robert Mugabe is not suffering as much as his people. It is reported this week that he is building a multi million pound mansion outside the capital, Harare.