From News24 (SA), 13 July

Zim braces for new fuel hike

Harare - Hardly a month after fuel prices went up by 70 percent, the government is reported to be considering raising pump prices again, this time by a further 20 percent, industry officials said Thursday. The last fuel rise led to a two-day mass stayaway which cost the country an estimated R2 billion in lost production and exports. And tension is still high. Trade unions gave the government another 14 days notice to reverse the now old increase as a condition for paving the way for dialogue.

The government's debt-ridden National Oil Company of Zimbabwe Limited (Noczim) has indicated that another increase was necessary because of fluctuations in international oil prices. John Robertson, an economist, told the independent Daily News that a fuel price increase could not be ruled out because international fuel prices constantly changed and Zimbabwe needed money to repay its debt, anyway. Factored into the last fuel price increase was what Noczim called an Amortisation Levy of R1 a litre for all motorists, who were also made to fork out a R1 road user levy, another R1 for the Noczim Bond, and a duty of about 50 cents.

The new proposal, however, comes amid a stand-off between the ZCTU and the government over the last increases which led to the recent two-day stayaway. Noczim officials confirmed that the company needed more money to remain afloat, service debts and procure more fuel. "An increase is definite. About 20 percent or so. Soon," said an official who requested anonymity, citing what he called the politically sensitive nature of the subject as the reason. On 12 June, when the hotly contested increase was announced, the Noczim chairperson, Nicholas Kitikiti, said: "In keeping with the Millennium Economic Recovery Programme, the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe will be making regular price adjustments in line with the movement of the exogenous factors which affect prices of petroleum products on the international oil market. These factors are crude oil prices, Free On Board (FOB) prices of refined petroleum products, exchange rate movements and interest rates on the local market."

Zimbabwe spends about R240 million a month on fuel imports. Analysts say with the foreign currency shortage and the general poverty worsened by the loss of international confidence on Zimbabwe, it had become difficult for Noczim to source foreign currency at the official exchange rate of Z$55 to the US dollar. Noczim, like most Zimbabweans and their companies, has had to resort to what the government prefers to call the parallel market which is asking for at least Z$140 to the US dollar. The fuel increase has hiked the cost of living to a level where Zimbabwe has become a very unsecure place to live, said John Makumbe, a political scientist at the University of Zimbabwe. "Most families are hungry and this makes everybody unsafe," he said.

From The Financial Gazette, 12 July

Upgrade for road to Nkomo’s village

Kezi - The government, criticised for failing to adequately honour the late Vice President Joshua Nkomo, is upgrading and widening the rundown and potholed strip road leading to Nyongolo village, Nkomo’s rural home, it was established this week. Government workers were yesterday clearing tracts of land to facilitate the proposed extension of the 185-kilometre narrow strip of road that cuts through the world-famous Matopos National Park. Only about 32 kms of the strip road is wide and tarred, allegedly for the benefit of tourists that flock to the national park, where imperialist Cecil John Rhodes is buried.

Lovemore Moyo, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) legislator for Matobo under which Kezi falls, told the Financial Gazette that his constituency hoped the upgrade would be completed before the onset of the rainy season and next year’s presidential elections to enable easier access to outlying areas. "It’s a positive development which the villagers in my constituency fully applaud," said Moyo. "One would have expected people from here to have good roads considering that the late Vice President was born and bred here. We also pray and hope that this is a genuine development and not a campaign gimmick to hoodwink the electorate in my poor constituency."

The narrow and treacherous strip road, the site of many fatal traffic accidents, is part of a poor road network that leads to the dilapidated Nyongolo village, which observers say contrasts sharply with President Robert Mugabe’s Kutama Village in Zvimba and Vice President Simon Muzenda’s Zvavahera Village in Gutu. Both villages have wide tarred roads, brick-and-tile houses as well as piped water and electricity, while the only sign of development in Nyongolo village is the late Vice President’s family graveyard with its marble and brass tombstones. Moyo said: "We don’t want to celebrate yet until we see how the development is concluded. They might just clear the trees and dump gravel along the road and leave it at that. This is African politics."