By SIMON MUNTEMBA
An indepth investigation to examine the fuel vulnerability exposed at the weekend calls for a comprehensive audit of assets and tankers’ owners to avoid occurrence, Evangelical Youth Alliance executive director Moses Lungu has said.
And Minister of Energy Matthew Nkhuwa said local transporters rates have been reduced to match those of the foreign transporters from Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.
Commenting on the fuel shortage that hit Lusaka at the week, Mr Lungu said the Zambia National Service, Zambia Air Force and Army should take over fuel supply next time tankers drivers misbehave to avoid an economic shut down.
Mr Lungu also said there must be a clear asset audit in the industry to determine who owns tankers and how vulnerable the nation was to foreign ownership.
He said an influx of foreign owned tankers might lead to cartels aimed at arm-twisting government and may not be loyal to national demand.
This follows concerns that despite fuel depots and tankers being full to the brim, filling stations in Lusaka have not had fuel because tanker drivers unions believed to be working under political influence had parked their trucks.
Meanwhile, fuel supply has stabilised in Lusaka following President Edgar Lungu’s directive that the Ministry of Energy implements the 50 percent transportation of fuel allocated to Zambian drivers without delay.
The fuel shortage was as a result of a protest by Zambian fuel tanker drivers, who had been on a go-slow protesting that foreign transporters were being given preference in the fuel distribution business.
The protesting local tanker drivers blocked foreign tankers from delivering fuel to Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs), leading to shortages of fuel in most filling g stations in Lusaka.
A check by the Daily Nation at selected filling stations yesterday found tankers offloading fuel the commodity, while long queues of motor vehicles waited.
At some service stations which did not have the commodity, the fuel attendants talked to indicated they were expecting supply later in the day.
Mr Nkhuwa says this comes after the Presidential directive to actualize the 50 percent fuel supply for local transporters.
He said the OMCs opted to work with foreign transporters as the Zambian transporters were more expensive by 10 dollars per tonne.
Mr Nkhuwa said there was now no reason for the OMCs not to use Zambian transporters.
