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No festive cheer as Zim buses run out of fuel
Reuters via Independent Online (Zimbabwe) ^ | December 23, 2002

Posted on 12/23/2002 11:16:52 PM PST by Clive

Harare - Thousands of Zimbabweans hoping to travel to rural homes for Christmas were stranded at bus stations nationwide on Sunday as a severe fuel crisis crippled public transport.

Oil industry sources said emergency fuel imports that began trickling into Zimbabwe on Saturday had had little impact on a fuel shortage that had virtually brought the country to a halt.

Zimbabwe's fuel pumps have run dry in the past three weeks, dramatising a deepening economic crisis that many blame on mismanagement by President Robert Mugabe's government.

Harare's main rural bus station was jammed on Sunday with people, some of whom said they had waited two days.

"I have been here since Friday, but I have not been able to fight my way into one of the few buses to my home," one woman said on Sunday. "If I don't get anything by sunset today, I will have to give up and stay here."

Zimbabwe's state media reported that commuters in many other cities were stranded because of the lack of fuel.

The crisis has dampened the holiday season in a nation grappling with serious food shortages and its worst economic crisis in decades.

Energy Minister Amos Midzi said last week that a barter deal with Libya, which had been supplying 70 percent of fuel needs, had run into problems as Zimbabwe was unable to supply the beef, sugar and tobacco it had pledged.

He said Zimbabwe had ordered more than $15 million in fuel from Kuwait and South Africa, sparking a run on petrol stations as motorists waited for the emergency imports. Oil industry sources said some supplies had been trickling in. - Reuters


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Foreign Affairs
KEYWORDS: africawatch; zimbabwe

1 posted on 12/23/2002 11:16:52 PM PST by Clive
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To: *AfricaWatch; Cincinatus' Wife; sarcasm; Travis McGee; happygrl; Byron_the_Aussie; robnoel; ...
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2 posted on 12/23/2002 11:17:20 PM PST by Clive
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To: Clive
bump
3 posted on 12/23/2002 11:18:56 PM PST by Free the USA
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To: Clive
The crisis has dampened the holiday season in a nation grappling with serious food
shortages and its worst economic crisis in decades.


If they think things are bad now...
Just wait till next year...
4 posted on 12/23/2002 11:21:29 PM PST by VOA
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To: Free the USA
No doubt our Leftist press will soon be blaming this Zimbabwean fuel crisis on a drought or some other non sequitur...
5 posted on 12/23/2002 11:21:39 PM PST by Southack
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To: Clive
But on the bright side they no longer have a repressive White government.
6 posted on 12/23/2002 11:35:29 PM PST by byteback
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To: Clive
"Thousands of Zimbabweans hoping to travel to rural homes for Christmas were stranded..."

Not Kwanzaa?

7 posted on 12/24/2002 12:11:58 AM PST by Batrachian
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To: Clive
Could it be (gasp) be that the reknowned savior of Africa, Quaddafi, cut off shipments of Libyan oil because his fellow African brother's currency is worthless and even Quaddafy isn't that quacky?

But how will the "veterans" drive their jeeps to terrorize MDC members? How can the "vets" drive to do another mass murder as in 1983? Problems, always problems, but at least His Excellancy Mugabe will survive.

8 posted on 12/24/2002 4:44:48 AM PST by xJones
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