Influx at filling station along Ali Hassan Mwinyi Road in Dar es Salaam yesterday as motorists literally went hunting for fuel on the second day of a nationwide go-slow by oil dealers.
A survey by this paper at various filling stations found that while diesel was available, it was petrol which was either out of stock or very little.
Intermittent chaos reined at the few stations selling the item, as motorists jostled each other and youths with jerry cans seeking the item, in some cases prompting station owners to call in the police to restore order.
The Guardian learned that in some filling stations, each customer was allowed to purchase only 10 litres of petrol, but the filling station had run out of stock by 10:00 am.
Most of the stations along Ali Hassan Mwinyi road were not offering services with some claiming to have run out of stock, while others protested the new price.
Filling stations that were offering services at the new prices were Oryx, Total filling station at Mlimani City and all Big Bon stations.
The reluctance of some oil companies to sell the fuels resulted into a transport problem with some commuter buses abandoning services especially during the morning rush.
A lot of people were seen walking with jerry cans searching for fuel.
Oilcom Assistant Manager at Magomeni-Kagera, Mohammed Hafidhi said they had bought 10,000 litres of petrol and by 10 am had run out of stock.
“Most of the customers were buying between 10 and 30 litres,” said Hafidhi.
James Magali, a taxi driver said the government should stick to its directive to oil dealers to sell fuel at the prices set by EWURA.
Steven Ruta, a resident of Kinondoni in Dar es Salaam said it took him over six hours to get petrol on Wednesday evening.
Ruta said that he started searching for petrol late evening but he succeeded at midnight at Victoria filling station. He said that there were no stations selling petrol on Wednesday night with the exception of Victoria and Bamaga stations.
“I think the shortages is artificial, because oil companies were selling fuel until Tuesday evening. How come now they tell us that they have run out of stock?” wondered Ruta.
Another resident of Mbagala in Temeke district who spent most of the day searching, for petrol, said most of the stations he visited were selling diesel only.
Godfrey Mtei, a taxi driver at Mwenge said the shortage of petrol had affected their business because most of the drivers would only agree to short trips for fear of running out of fuel.
“Most of the drivers normally put in their tanks between five and 10 litres of fuel. Therefore, when the problem started most of our vehicles had very little fuel in the tanks. We resumed activities on Thursday morning after struggling whole night in search of petrol”, he said.
Mtei said he was surprised at the oil dealers’ defiance of the government order. He said EWURA should take measures against the companies so that such incidents do not occur in future.
The dealers’ failure to comply with the government order prompted the Members of Parliament to question the government’s silence on the matter.
Leader of official Opposition in Parliament, Freeman Mbowe had sought government stance on oil dealers who went refused to sell at the new prices announced by Ewura.
He said Ewura had been given enough time to work on the matter adding that the reluctance of oil dealers to reduce the price in different parts of the country was an indication that there was negligence in handling the matter.
But Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda told the House that already the government has directed the Ewura
No comments:
Post a Comment