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Weekly Media Review - Issue 3
The Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe
Monday January 17th - Sunday January 23rd 2011
January 28, 2011
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Reports on resurgent
fuel shortages, prevalent in Zimbabwe before the introduction of
multi-currencies in early 2009, finally attracted the attention
of the official and private media this week.
But did we get
any clear, credible explanations from these media on the causes
of the new fuel crisis, which began to make itself felt during the
festive season and resulted in sharp increases in fuel and transport
costs?
The Herald did
actually carry one report about problems with diesel just before
Christmas, but it took a national outcry from the public complaining
about unscheduled increases in commodity prices and transport costs
as they returned to work after the holiday season before the media
paid attention.
ZBC carried
nine stories on these issues this week, while the private electronic
media carried five reports [private radios (two) and online agencies
(three)].
The print media
carried six stories. Five of them appeared in the private Press
and the other in The Herald. These all blamed the rising costs of
fuel but still did not explain fully why there was a shortage.
Instead, the
public was fed a hotch-potch of vague excuses in the media, some
of them bordering on the comical...and most without a clear and
logical explanation.
We list
some of them:
"Another
push factor is the increased demand for winter stocking in Europe.
There is always a high demand for oil around this time from the
European markets as they experience chilling conditions in winter"
- an unidentified official at Redan Petroleum, one of Zimbabwe's
largest fuel suppliers (The Herald, 21/12/10).
"We have . . . experienced
limited supplies from the onset of the cold spell in the Northern
Hemisphere. But we have managed to get supplies to other parts of
the country . . . " - Energy and Power Development Minister
Elton Mangoma (Newsday, 20/1/11).
"Ships
have been having problems in docking because of the water levels
at Beira and this has caused problems . . . " - an unidentified
Mozambican official attributing fuel shortages to low water levels
at the Port of Beira in Mozambique, which allegedly made it difficult
for oil tankers to dock and offload fuel (The Herald, 22/1/11).
"Given
the low water levels, no captain could take the risk to dock because
there was a high possibility that the vessels would be trapped in
the mud" - another Redan Petroleum official (The Herald, 22/1/).
"Rising
water levels at the Mozambican port are making it difficult for
ships to dock, resulting in delays in fuel delivery" - PetrolPlaza
news
(28/12/10).
"For the
good part of December we didn't have any ships coming to Beira
and the only fuel that was coming into the country was from South
Africa . . . South Africa did not have adequate supplies hence they
also stopped supplying us. Then we had our own domestic affairs
with $35 million disappearing from Noczim (the National Oil Company
of
Zimbabwe), which was due to Zimra (the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority).
Zimra garnished the account, which contained the debt redemption
levy and the strategic reserve levy hence taking away everything
from Noczim" - Minister Elton Mangoma (NewsDay, 21/1).
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