Online Reporter
Post Reporter
FUEL dealers in Manicaland are cashing in on the spiralling pump prices by smuggling cheap petrol and diesel from neighbouring Mozambique, The Manica Post has established.
The racket is driven by a massive price gap: diesel sells for just US$1,09 per litre in Mozambique, compared to US$2,11 locally, while petrol goes for US$1.,12 across the border against US$2,23 in Zimbabwe.
At the current exchange rate of 73 Meticais to the US dollar, that is 79,89 Meticais for diesel and 82 Meticais for petrol — a bargain smugglers can’t resist.
With Manicaland’s 700km porous border stretching from Nyanga to Chipinge, long notorious for illicit trade, runners and dealers have carved out a thriving underground supply chain.
Fuel is being ferried in illegally and resold at knock down prices as official pump rates soar.
Sources revealed that smugglers are offering five litre containers of petrol or diesel for as little as US$6,50 to US$8, depending on the buyer’s ties to the supplier.
Dealers are strategically positioned near border points, feeding the black market with cheap fuel and undercutting licensed operators.
In Zimbabwe, five litres of petrol costs US$12.
The Manica Post has it on good authority that arrests were made recently, including one involving 26 000 litres of diesel in the Burma Valley.
The other arrests are of smaller quantities by small players, while the other cheap fuel is being drawn from the big trucks draining and selling to small operators around Mutare or along the Mutare-Harare Highway.
Although such illegal activities have been going on in the past, the amounts were negligible, but since the announcement of the sharp increase of fuel prices in the country, the volume of illegally imported fuel has drastically increased.
Apart from the usual fuel dealers, truck drivers transporting the commodity, or even those transporting other commodities, are also taking advantage of smooth passage at Forbes Border Post and other entry points along the border to smuggle different loads of fuel into the country for resale.
This newspaper also observed that big-smuggling syndicates have become crafty by taking advantage of corrupt Government officers at roadblocks, where an advance vehicle reaches the roadblock first, and bribe the officers so that trucks carrying the smuggled liquid are guaranteed smooth passage.
Efforts to get a comment from Manicaland provincial police spokesperson, Assistant Inspector Wiseman Chinyoka were fruitless as he referred all questions to the national taskforce on smuggling.
The national taskforce was unreachable for a comment.
However, the Ministry of Industry and Commerce provincial head, Mr Kupukani Masunungure, said efforts are under way to restore sanity along the border with regard to fuel smuggling.
Mr Masunungure is part of the Provincial Anti-Smuggling Taskforce, pursuant to the Cabinet directive issued in October 2024.
“There are anti-smuggling efforts to thwart the syndicates smuggling fuel through the border posts of the province. But as you might be aware, our border line stretch is 700km long and is quite porous.
“Our anti-smuggling efforts do not cover the border since that border stretch falls under the Zimbabwe National Army (ZNA) and its Joint Operations Command (JOC) team.
“Due to the geo-political situation in the Middle East, the price increase of fuel regionally has increased the demand for cheap fuel coming from our neighbouring countries. In the last few weeks, ZIMRA and other security agencies actually upped the game to try and curb the smuggling of all goods from our neighbouring countries, and a number of arrests have been made in this regard,” said Mr Masunungure.
The Provincial Anti-Smuggling Taskforce comprises the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, Ministry of Women Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprise Development, Ministry of Information, Office of the President and Cabinet, City Council, ZNA, ZRP, ZIMRA and ZPCS.
