Aiming to enforce new fuel price controls, the Zimbabwean government has deployed baton-wielding soldiers and police to fuel stations in Harare and Bulawayo, where the uniformed forces were also helping proprietors manage motorist queues.
The government last week ordered service station owners to cut the price of gasoline at the pump by around 50% to Z$355 a liter. One station owner said he is getting fuel from the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe, or NOCZIM, and selling it at that price.
Transport spokeswoman Paurina Mpariwa-Gwanyanya of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change told Jonga Kandemiiri of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that the militarization of fuel stations reflects management failure at NOCZIM.
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