A Photo Essay by Cont Mhlanga 

The pictures of the three fuel stations you see where taken on Wednesday the 17th of October 2007 between 9.30am and 11: 30am. Its not new fuel stations ready to be opened for business to serve motorist. They have been closed for business for close to three years now. The National Oil Company of Zimbabwe is failing to supply fuel to all fuel stations in the country. End of story. The fuel station in the picture with crowded cars is the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe fuel station, the only one in Bulawayo a city with a population of more than 2 million people.

All fuel stations in the country are in this predicament. Those that are running some kind of operation in their premises are either a group of some elite black middle class tacking care of themselves or highly connected and protected individuals fueling class difference and corruption while the majority of Zimbabweans suffer in fear.

The national oil company of Zimbabwe instead of fueling the nation, it is now fueling corruption. It has now turned away from supplying all fuel stations to constructing their own stations and as you can see in the picture, this environment is fertile for feeding corrupt activities. They can’t even afford to fuel customers 24/7. Even banks operate longer than their fuel stations. Motorists sleep on queues here and will not even get a full tank of duce if they make it to the pump after two days. The situation is not only bad but desperate. Closed down fuel stations sum up in two words where the country’s economy is going- Closing Down.

Fuel is the life line of the economy yet everyday I read on the government controlled press the country’s economists shouting words of hope, the popular one being ‘turning the economy round’ every time the Reserve Bank Governor invents money schemes and sweet academic words to sell the money schemes to his employers, his friends, politicians, white collar economic criminals and the suffering nation. But fuel stations are closed and what economy can run on closed fuel stations until it turns round?

Are our Zimbabwean economists worth anything? Or they are worth just as much as our fruit vendors on the side of the road? We have as a nation seen these money schemes fail to make an impact on the national economy for the better since the current governor took office and our economists are not telling the nation why? All they do is sing success in turning around the economy. But when I look around I don’t see any success except closed down business operations, misery and suffering. May be I am blind. Yes the economy has been turning round, from where it was heading- upwards in 1996 to where it is heading now – downwards in 2007.

What then is the purpose of these economists and the governor’s money schemes?

Meanwhile motorists continue to fuel their cars from some very dramatic places, e.g. from car parks on the side of the streets when some guys wave you to a stop signaling to you that they can fuel your car. From a butcher’s shop where you should be buying meat instead you buy five liters of fuel, or from a house a residence of a sex worker or shabeen queen where you should be buying sex and beer. But this one is my favorite, from a politicians surgery.

It is as if Zimbabwe is a country that is on auto pilot running withought a President, Cabinet, Parliament and Electorate.

Beautiful Zimbabwe, Or Cry the beloved country!

Cont Mhlanga
Bulawayo
Thursday, October 18, 2007