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
Not Kwanzaa?
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.
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