NOIC boss threatens to cancel licences for service stations diverting fuel

National Oil Infrastructure Company of Zimbabwe (NOIC) board chairman Engineer Daniel Mackenzie-Ncube has warned that he will cancel licenses for service stations allegedly diverting fuel to the black market where it is sold in foreign currency and in the process creating an artificial shortage of the commodity.

“We have noted with concern a lot of indiscipline at service stations across the country. This corruption at service stations is causing artificial shortages of fuel. We have identified several stations in Zvishavane and these are under the spotlight and the Government will not hesitate to cancel their licences,” Eng Ncube said.

Ncube said corruption has been noted at various service stations around the country and some dealers are going to the extent of giving fuel to their workers to sell on the black market.

“There is corruption at the dealership level which we have noticed. We have seen that fuel attendants are given for example 300 litres each and at night they come and empty all the tanks and sell it on the black market for United States dollars. Sometimes the transactions are done in the middle of the night or at the homes of the fuel attendants and the motorists are forced to buy the commodity from the black market and at exorbitant prices,” Eng Ncube said.

Last week, Eng Ncube said NOIC is working with the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) to secure lines of credit to enable it to import more fuel to meet market demands. 

-State Media