Fuel prices haunt motorists

OARABILE MOSIKARE
Correspondent | Friday July 25, 2008 00:00

 

Motorists here are in a state of hopelessness. Lawyer, Thami Selitshena, says the situation is hopeless and it has nothing to do with the government of Botswana.

Selitshena is placing his hopes on the election of US Democratic presidential candidate, Barack Obama.

'Maybe Obama will be able to talk to the Arabs,' hoped Selitshena. Another motorist, Nchidzi Gunda, says a full tank of his VW Beetle used to cost P180, but not anymore. It now costs him a whopping P331.

The young Gunda asserts that he is unable to do the same kilometres as before because the fuel expenses have almost doubled. He feels that more research should be dedicated to bio fuel.

Although he advocates for research on bio fuel he suspects that the costs of development might also spiral down to the consumer.

A taxi driver, who identified himself only as Tichaona, complains that 'these continuous fuel prices are affecting our business big time. The transport business is no longer lucrative,' Tichaona bemoans.

The youthful Toyota Tazz driver laments that they are competing for customers with 'mechova' or illegal taxi operators. 'At the end of the day, I will be forced to fork out P430 for a full tank of petrol.

How much will be left to take home?' he asks. 

A newspaper distributor who refused to be named reveals that his Toyota Venture needs P510 for a full tank. Last year he needed only P375 for the same litres of petrol. The increased pump price of petrol is affecting his business profits, he says.

His parting shot: 'Don't be surprised to hear another announcement of a petrol price increase in less than two weeks'.

Apart from the rise of crude oil prices on the international market, the depreciation of the Pula against the US$ has also contributed to rising fuel prices on the domestic market as more Pulas are required to buy the commodity which is traditionally sold in US$ terms.

On a year-to-date basis the Pula has weakened by about 9.5 percent against the US$.

The latest increase in retail fuel prices will compel motorists to fork out much more than they anticipated at this time of the year as the increases are far much higher than usual.

In the past, fuel price adjustments used to be in the range of between 20thebe and 25 thebe and the latest increase will also hit the poor workers hard because they will face higher transport costs on top of the already high bread, milk and other basic foods prices.

On the back of the higher energy and food prices inflation has broken past double digit figures on a 10 month continuous run

However the massive fuel and food prices are not peculiar to Botswana alone, with the World Bank estimating that 33 countries around the world face potential social unrest because of acute rises in food and energy prices.

Food riots, which started last year with the tortilla protests in Mexico, have now spread to Cameroon, Senegal, Cte d'Ivoire, Mauritania, Egypt, Haiti, Indonesia and Peru.