GOVT Dodges Fuel Blending Subject

It appears the government is avoiding a public debate on why they are forcing motorists to continue using the controversial blended local fuel.

Minister of Energy Power and Development Fortune Chasi could not provide a satisfactory response during a weekly cabinet briefing.

Rather he chose to answer his own question.

Asked during this week’s cabinet briefing on why the government continues to enforce a quality and price compromised product against the will of the will people, Fortune Chasi said, “There could be contamination of fuel we need to investigate that and check with relevant fuel stations and establish what it is that is contained in the fuel, if there has been tempering authorities will take action.”

“Blending is part of our fuel substitution given the foreign currency challenges the country has been facing.”
The contentious mandatory blending was adopted back in 2013 through legislature.

Although the then late president Robert Gabriel Mugabe was serious against the move due to its monopolistic nature, political pressure eventually decided the verdict.

Mugabe had opposed the proposal for years, insisting government could not enact a law that benefits one person (an apparent reference to Rautenbach) and was supported in his stance by his then coalition government partners, the two MDC parties who demanded an investigation into the deal and compatibility of common cars in Zimbabwe with the fuel.

The blending ratio started from just 5%, 10%, 15% mandatory blending of ethanol with unleaded petrol.

By March 2014, the ratio had reached 20%.

Although they have been reservations around the quality and pricing of the blended fuel, government has continued to impose the product on resisting consumers.

As opposed to preliminary arguments that blending reduces fuel costs, the opposite is now true.

Unblended is now way cheaper than blended.