Mwinilunga District in North Western Province has been hit by a shortage of fuel forcing motorists to access the commodity on the black market at exorbitant prices.
The only filling station in the district has had no fuel for close to a week now forcing motorists to buy petrol as high as K40 and diesel at K35 per litre, compared to the official prices of K17.62 for petrol and K15.59 for diesel respectively.
Mwinilunga District Commissioner, Anort Mapulanga has confirmed the development to ZANIS in the district today.
Mr Mapulanga said his office has engaged management at the filling station and advised them to urgently resolve the fuel challenge.
And Bilex Kananda, a taxi driver complained that they are risking the safety of their vehicles because of using fuel from the black market whose quality is not guaranteed.
Mr Kananda said the situation has forced them to hike taxi fares within local routes due to the high prices at which they are buying fuel.
“We have no choice, but to increase the taxi fares because we are buying the fuel at exorbitant prices. Fuel prices keep increasing every day,” he said.
Another taxi driver, Mark Malichanga said business has become difficult because customers are not booking their taxis due to the hiked fares.
Mr Malichanga said the district is expanding and has a lot of economic activities, hence the need to have a reliable filling station to service the area.
Commuters are now paying as high as K50 on local routes which they have been paying K30 to K40.
The motorists have since called on oil marketing companies to consider investing in the fuel sector in the district.
Meanwhile, Mwinilunga Filling Station Manager, Tranex Lupinda attributed the fuel shortage to the long holiday, saying his company could not load fuel from Ndola because the fuel depots do not operate during holidays.
Mr Lupinda assured that the filling station is expected to receive fuel supplies within this week.
Fuel shortage has actually hit all districts. Creditors are not releasing fuel because zambia has defaulted on an interest payment so they are worried if zambia will be able to pay for fuel if given on credit.
Poor leadership.
I will comment tomorrow I’m not like Kangaroo Zoo (KZ) every day on LT.
PF must go!
Madilu you just missed me you silly upnd cadre. Lyonse kz this kz that
KZ, I miss you because you’re the only fool I know on LT.
PF must go!
Eurobond holders signaling to wind up Zambia’s financial affairs brace yourselves for tough time ahead.
We actually after Edgar Lungu’s down fall he has failed miserably.
Time is catching up with and very soon riots will be all over. Take note of what is happening Nigeria.
PF must go!
Mwinilunga which is close to Angola should not be experiencing fuel shortages. How myopic can we Africans be? After 54 years of independence we should have constructed a pipeline to Angola from Mwinilunga but we think trade lines are what the colonialist left us. We cant create our own. Where are Africa’s visionary leaders? We cant have Lungu type of leadership who only supervise what they have found. We desperately need creative leadership.
Pabwato….Viva Pf, 2021 nafuti nafuti.
This fuel shortage is because the person in charge of the person in charge thinks campaigning is more important than sorting the economic mess he has created .Zambia under this clueless government is running under autopilot because the guy in charge thinks campaigning is more important that sorting the man made economic mess he has created and should take responsibility for .
This fuel shortage is because the man in charge thinks campaigning is more important than sorting the economic mess he has created .Zambia under this clueless government is running under autopilot because the guy in charge thinks campaigning is more important than sorting the mess he has created and should take responsibility for . Where has he been all along and what has he been doing all this time ? Where are the mango farms he spoke about when he was eating a mango by the road side ?