Posted on 12/15/2002 3:43:24 PM PST by MadIvan
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 Presidents 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 to the multinationals to distribute. However, industry executives said that Noczims enormous losses were a result of price controls that forced it to sell fuel at the equivalent of about 3p per litre while buying it for about ten times that price.
Mr Mugabe has ignored Noczims pleas for a price increase.
Economists say that total state control over fuel distribution would condemn the industry to the same failure affecting much of the countrys agriculture, transport, mining, telecommunications, railways and power industries.
Mugabes 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.
I guess the California energy model doesn't work for them either.
I think if Mugabe is killed that will take care of it - there are rival factions within his own party which are held in check only by his presence. If he dies, that will create a window of opportunity for the opposition to his rule.
Regards, Ivan
Probably true but within the last year or so he packed the Supreme Court (or whatever its called over there) with loyalists so the Constitution no longer matters.
(BTW, FDR tried the same court packing scheme here but fortunately failed.)
I plead guilty to being in favour of maintaining British colonies particularly in Africa; the people who live there have not benefitted whatsoever from being independent. Kwame Nkrumah, the man who started the whole tide of African independence, was a fool and a charlatan - he allowed no transition time whatsoever for any devolution of power to take place.
Democratic institutions require building up habits that take several generations to develop - less than 100 years of colonialism in Africa didn't do it.
Regards, Ivan
Hey, don't forget the "students"!!!
Belatedly and unfortunately, I'll Bump that.
However, as Bush pointed out recently in his "get off the dime" speech to the UN.............."What is the relevace of THIS organization?"
To paraphrase: What is the relevance of this organization when people are being burned out of their houses by a genocidal madman?
What is the relevance of this organization when it allows one of its members to literally create a situation where a whole economy is allowed to self destruct resulting in rape, murder, starvation and chaos?
What is the relevance of this organization when it allows one of its members to create a situation where the starvation of the citizens of country is brought on by the megalomanical dictates of a demented Marxist?
The problem with the UN in situations like this is that it was created by governments for governments, not individual people. This allows a lot of repression to be overlooked by the UN, as long as it happens internally in a member state.
Too true. Again, unfortunately.
It's just a matter of time. Bet on it.
Are these poor slaves, to their own government, better off than they were before they ran "old honky" out and nationalized?
Of course not but how could they know that a hot stove will not burn their fingers if they don't touch it.
But like the extreme left liberal Dems of this nation, some people will not learn a better way which is "get your head out of your butt" and watch where you're going.
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