Fuel queues return to Malawi
It does not rain; it pours for motorists in Malawi. After an almost three-week break from long fuel queues due to the commodity’s scarcity, motorists have to brace for another fuel nightmare experience as fuel supply returns to being erratic.
In Lilongwe, the capital city, fuel is completely scarce and the long queues of motorists have returned with desperate motorists waiting for hours on end to have their vehicles refilled.
“Diesel is the scarcest but you can also hardly find petrol. I am at Total Filling Station after Area 30 Police Headquarters since morning. This filling station I hear belongs to a Director at Total, a Mr. Mawindo. Two tankers full of petrol are delivering whilst no other Total Filling Station has received any; it’s pathetic,” a desperate motorist told Nyasa Timeson Saturday.
Mr. Mawindo also owns the Chitipi Service Station on the way to the Natural Resources College off the Lilongwe-Mchinji Road. In Blantyre, a long queue of diesel vehicles stretched up to Mandala Suburb from the Petroda Service Station at the Clock Tower on Friday.
A spot check in most service stations by Nyasa Timesrevealed the ‘fuel woes’ are back as most of them were either completely dry or only had a few litres of petrol remaining with no hope about when some more would be available.
Petroleum Importers of Malawi, the company solely mandated to bring fuel into the country recently denied that it had cut its fuel imports by half as a policy but that the fuel scarcity was due to the shortage of forex.
The company said the country needs 30 million litres of fuel but that due to the prevailing lower forex reserves, that amount is unattainable.
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