This should be interesting

From Jan Raath in Harare



PRESIDENT MUGABE of Zimbabwe has threatened to seize the facilities of leading oil companies operating in the country and use them to distribute fuel.
At the annual congress of his ruling Zanu (PF) party, Mr Mugabe said that the Government could “acquire” service stations and storage facilities, compensate the companies to which they belonged and dispense the fuel. There are five multinational oil firms with a presence in Zimbabwe — BP, Shell, Mobil, Total and Caltex — and their assets there are worth millions of pounds.

Lawyers said that such a move would be illegal. One lawyer, who did not wish to be identified, said: “It would be patently unconstitutional. Besides, most of the international oil companies are covered by bilateral treaties from this kind of nationalisation.”

The President’s remarks came two weeks after the Government said that it was drafting a new policy within its so-called indigenisation programme to allocate fuel supplies to the 24 “independent” companies licensed to retail fuel, nearly all of which are owned by senior Zanu (PF) officials.

Fuel reserves in the country have reached their lowest levels in three years, since leading oil companies cut off supplies to the state-owned National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (Noczim) when the Government failed to pay arrears for imports.

In the past week the queues of drivers have lengthened and more service stations have been putting up “no fuel” signs. Vehicles abandoned at the roadside for lack of fuel have become commonplace.

In Chinhoyi, the venue of the conference, fuel was available only for party officials. A journalist was told at a Mobil service station that he could buy petrol only if he could prove that he was a delegate.

Mr Mugabe said that the oil companies were making huge profits while the Government made losses from importing fuel via Noczim, which sells it on — for just 3p a litre, making Zimbabwean fuel among the world’s cheapest — to the multinationals to distribute.

Economists say that total state control over fuel distribution would condemn the industry to the same failure affecting much of the country’s agriculture, transport, mining, telecommunications, railways and power industries.

“Mugabe’s thinking is that taps make water,” a Western diplomat said. “If he goes ahead (with the takeover of multinational service stations), the country will dry up far quicker than it is doing already.”

the bloodbath that our soldiers will have to quell. how many folks are we going to loose to re-civilize that shit hole.