Zimbabwean authorities on Tuesday more than doubled the price of fuel in a bid to ease critical shortages, state television reported.
The price of petrol was hiked from 3 600 Zimbabwe dollars (R2,60) per litre to Z$10 000 (R6, 70) per litre. The cost of a litre of diesel was increased from Z$3 650 (R2,40) to Z$9 600 (R6,40).
Zimbabwe’s government sets the price of fuel and many other basic commodities.
Zimbabwe is currently in the grips of a severe fuel crisis, which the government blames on a lack of foreign currency and spiralling world prices for fuel.
Most fuel stations in Harare have not had deliveries for several weeks and petrol is reported to be changing hands on the black market for up to 70 000 Zimbabwe dollars (R47) per litre.
It is not clear whether the new prices will be sufficient to end the shortages. Some suppliers are rumoured to be holding on to stocks so as not to sell at a loss.
In a bid to alleviate the transport crisis, police this week allowed urban commuters to catch lifts on the back of open lorries.
Meanwhile employers have been urged to provide transport for their workers.
Restoring ‘dignity’
More than 100 families made homeless by a police raid on shacks were moved on Tuesday from a government holding camp in Harare to rural areas, state television reported.
The families were the first to be moved out of Caledonia Transit Camp, a farm on the outskirts of Harare where more than 4 000 people are reported to be living in tents.
They were ferried on the back of open lorries to areas in central and northern Zimbabwe, the television said.
Police launched a wave of shack demolitions, dubbed Operation Restore Order, on May 19. Human rights groups say it has left at least 300 000 people without shelter.
President Robert Mugabe says the operation aims to restore ”dignity” to Zimbabweans.
But the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) says it is meant to punish its supporters and banish them to rural areas where they will be easier to control.
”The number of people volunteering to go away is not really large,” the superintendent of the camp, Wilfred Moyo, told the television station.
”Some [put] forward the reason that they can’t relocate because they have never been to the communal areas,” he added, referring to the farming areas where most Zimbabweans live.
An envoy of United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan is currently in Zimbabwe to assess the humanitarian impact of the police operation, which has been condemned by many Western countries, human rights groups and churches.
The envoy, Anna Tibaijuka, is due to meet Mugabe on Wednesday, state television said.
Zimbabwe’s Information Minister Tichaona Jokonya said that British Prime Minister Tony Blair wanted Tibaijuka to do a ”dirty job” on Zimbabwe when assessing the situation.
Last week, British Foreign Jack Straw said the police operation in Zimbabwe was of ”serious international concern”. The United States and Australia expressed similar concerns. ‒ Sapa-DPA, AP