OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Wednesday 8.00am.
RIOT police were called in on Tuesday to break up clashes between drivers fighting over scarce diesel in Harare’s working-class suburb of Kuwadzana, the domestic Ziana news agency reported.
Witnesses said drivers engaged in fistfights and hurled rocks at each other after some mini-bus drivers tried to jump a queue. Some truck drivers had spent the previous night queueing up for the scarce diesel.
Fuel supplies have been hit by an acute shortage of foreign currency and mismanagement at the state-run oil procurement company (Noczim), which has run up huge debts of 9-billion Zimbabwe dollars ($225-million).
The diesel shortage, which began several weeks ago, has crippled many sectors including agriculture, tourism, refuse collection and the mass transport industry.
While diesel has been the main problem so far, petrol supplies have also begun dwindling, with several service stations on Tuesday beginning to impose rationing. — AFP