No more white elephants, please

are guilty of rewarding mediocrity; of allowing incompetent line ministers play poker with the country’s economic and energy well-being.
We now know all too well what the Honourable Energy and Power Development Minister Mr Elton Mangoma is planning to do with our precious ethanol liquid from Chisumbanje: He plans a spectacular dishonour of the country by encouraging exports, to import same later, when Zimbabwe’s own fuel needs are barely met.
We also know that 20 years ago, another short-sighted minister advised Government against continuing with the ethanol project at Triangle in Chiredzi, which had been operational with significant socio-economic benefits since the mid-1970s.
Typically, lost reason returned decades later after the country endured debilitating fuel shortages for several years between 2003 and 2009 prompting an urgent revisit and revitalisation of old policies long buried.
Now one thing is needful, and it is promoting the biofuels sector by imposing legislation that compels fuel handlers to blend locally manufactured ethanol with petrol, in the current ratio of 10 percent to 90 percent, increasing with need to as much as 85 percent ethanol.
Consumer education on the benefits of using ethanol blended fuel as a motor fuel also need to be strengthened through organised campaigns by all concerned stakeholders and eliminate the prevailing market uncertainty, not add to it.
The people are not interested in cheap politicking, scoring cheap political goals at the expense of sustainable economic development.
There should be no delay in instituting mandatory ethanol blending policies, contrary to the gospel of regression through exports preached by some from high Government offices in the energy sector.
Every other right thinking government blessed with the production of ethanol is doing it, from Brazil to Europe to the United States.
In the US, the world’s biggest fuel consumer, locally manufactured ethanol accounts for at least 15 percent of all fuel needs.
It is shocking why the responsible ministry here at home is failing to sponsor legislation that enforces mandatory ethanol blending given the vast economic, environmental and social benefits that come with it.
The minister cannot make his bed, haphazardly, and expect everyone to sleep on it. Zimbabwe already has the US$35 million bio-diesel project north-west of Harare to show for that.
The well-meaning project has turned into a white elephant for several reasons, key among them lack of feedstock and other operational challenges.
This is the risk facing the Green Fuel’s ethanol project in the Lowveld, touted as the biggest plant south of the Sahara, similarly so the biodiesel plant, but achieving naught. Green Fuel is now stuck with several millions of litres of unsold ethanol because of lack of supporting legislation.
That much-hyped Government talk, perhaps policy, of promoting and protecting the local manufacturing industry is certainly cheap talk applied selectively and discriminately.
It has clearly and regrettably eluded the ethanol fuel industry.
One would have thought years of difficult could have taught Zimbabwe a good lesson for life: That self-sustenance was the only major way forward, particularly for an internationally isolated country.
Why biofuels?
Chisumbanje cannot be allowed to fail, not for any flimsy excuses coming from the responsible Government offices. It took great effort not without sacrifice just to convince a foreign investor to sink US$600 million into a Zimbabwe being shunned by most of the outside world, as a suitable destination for their money. Nearly 5 000 jobs will be on the line if the ethanol project was allowed to fail due to politicking, and poor decision-making from those who have been entrusted by the people to make those decisions on their behalf.
A sustainable biofuels sector in Zimbabwe would ensure liquid fuel sufficiency, independence and efficiency within the next decade, according to research, while the balance would be exported for foreign currency savings and generation. It could significantly slash Zimbabwe’s US$2 billion yearly fuel import bill, which the Energy Minister, guided by his recent pronouncements, vainly and desperately wants to maintain at this level, or worse.
For those making noise about price volatility, stability can be achieved if Government effectively tackled supply side constraints, which could be seriously augmented by ethanol.
The greatest advantage for using ethanol is its wholesale environmental benefits.
As a clean burning and renewable fuel, ethanol is non-toxic and 100 percent bio-degradable. Compared to other fossil fuels such as oil or coal, ethanol reduces greenhouse gas emissions by more than 90 percent.
Also, the production of ethanol at Chisumbanje has resulted in several downstream positives, especially the promotion of rural agriculture for sugarcane growers that provide produce to the plant.
What is ethanol fuel?
Ethanol fuel is a renewable, clean burning, high-octane motor fuel that is produced by the fermentation of plant sugars.
It can be hydrous (wet) or anhydrous (dry). Hydrous ethanol, which is what Zimbabwe produced before the ban in the early 1990s, is the most concentrated grade of ethanol produced by simple distillation, containing 4 percent water and 96 percent ethanol. Green Fuel produces anhydrous ethanol — an ethyl alcohol that is free of water, has a purity of 99,6 percent, and is produced using the latest distillation technology.
Anhydrous ethanol is the highest quality ethanol available for fuel with excellent performance benefits.
The fuel grade ethanol used in Europe is anhydrous and is usually blended with lower percentages of petrol, as it mixes better than hydrous ethanol.
Ethanol has been used by humans since prehistoric times, mainly as the intoxicating ingredient in alcoholic beverages.
The fuel was first prepared synthetically in 1826. It has been used as a lamp fuel in the United States from as early 1840. From 1908, some vehicles in the US were adapted to run on ethanol.
God is faithful.