A drastic 150 percent overnight rise in Zimbabwe’s fuel prices failed on Sunday to ease a nationwide petrol and diesel shortage caused by a lack of hard currency. 



Most service stations still had no fuel to sell to motorists who have been sleeping in their vehicles to queue. Some said they were awaiting an official notice from the regulatory authority (ZERA).



Deputy Information Minister Energy Mutodi tweeted that commodity price volatility “will be temporary before goods prices normalize”.



The acute shortage of U.S. dollars has made it hard for President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government to import not only fuel but also drugs and other goods.



Mnangagwa himself was on Sunday setting off on a five-nation tour that starts in Russia and ends at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.



Zimbabwe abandoned its own currency in 2009 after it was wrecked by hyperinflation, and adopted the greenback and other hard currencies such as sterling and the South African rand.



But now there is not enough hard currency to back up more than $10 billion in electronic funds trapped in local bank accounts, prompting demands from businesses and civil servants for cash that can be deposited and used to make payments.



Mnangagwa has said his government will not let businesses raise prices but they have been doing so anyway, arguing that they have no choice but to buy dollars at a premium on the black market.



Inflation is already at a 10-year high of 31 percent and, in the past two weeks, public transport firms have tripled fares citing a shortage of fuel, which some have been buying on the black market.



An assistant at a service station owned by Zuva Petroleum said: “We have not received any supplies since Thursday evening but we are hoping we will get a delivery before end of the day.”



A ZERA spokesman said all fuel companies had been notified of the new prices.



The Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) said it planned a national strike from Monday in protest at the “insensitive and provocative” fuel price increase, although such calls have in the past not been widely followed.



Teachers, who are not represented by ZCTU, are planning a nationwide strike from Jan. 22, and civil servants have threatened to join them. -Reuters



<ul><li>MacDonald Dzirutwe</li></ul>

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150 percent price rise fails to fill Zimbabwe’s fuel pumps

I felt green to the core. The Vice-President of the United States (US), Al Gore, was coming to South Africa to deliver his An Inconvenient Truth address at Maropeng and I was going to introduce him to a packed audience.
But there was a slight challenge. Gore could only travel from the airport in a small convoy of hybrid vehicles.
A Japanese luxury vehicle manufacturer had recently brought out a range of stunning hybrid SUVs, with enviable fuel consumption and low emissions, and were keen to supply them for the trip to the Cradle of Humankind. But the reply from his office was quite prescriptive; he could only be seen in a hybrid sedan.
This was duly arranged and the Maropeng gathering was supercharged with Gore’s mission to save the planet and how we could make a difference.
The missing link is how did he return to OR Tambo that evening? Well… in a rather large helicopter. In some ways I turned from dark green to light green in a matter of minutes.
Make no bones about it, I’m not saying that we don’t need to preserve fossil fuels and cut down on all forms of pollution. I wouldn’t dare argue with the experts who have exposed holes in the ozone layer and correlate this with dwindling ice caps.
By its very definition, pollution has harmful, and even poisonous, effects and you will find it difficult to get an appointment with an ENT specialist in many of the areas around Africa where industry rules the airwaves.
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And when it comes to vehicle emmissions you can’t help but be totally shocked when the US Environmental Protection Agency calculates that the average passenger car spews out
4.7 metric tons of carbon dioxide a year!
So, for many of us, it was a like Tiger Woods moment when the Volkswagen (VW) scandal over rigged emissions tests broke and our minds went back to the ads for the Beetle comeback which showed flower power over two generations.
It is a gaffe that has denuded faith in VW and is likely to have long term affects on their market value, and possibly even the German economy. It is the biggest crisis in their 78-year history.
Media reports say the overall cost of the debacle could amount to $86 billion – that’s $30 billion more than the BP oil spill in 2010!
VW say that the defeat devices were fitted to around 11 million vehicles worldwide. But it seems not every owner will have to rush to get their cars refitted or reprogrammed. Volkswagen Group South Africa says that no action is required on the part of their customers or dealers.
Here is where things get complicated. According to VW Brand PR Manager Andile Dlamini, the irregularities reported overseas relate to a nitrogen oxide emmission standard known as Euro 5. In South Africa, the compliance standard is EU2.
So the VW and Audi diesel engines in question comply with South Africa’s regulations in relation to nitrogen oxide and, according to Dlamini, the software does not negatively affect the carbon dioxide values – which leaves me feeling that I should have concentrated harder in science class.
So any recall of cars around Africa will depend on that country’s specific emission standards.
Surprisingly, in terms of numbers, this won’t rate among the biggest recalls in history.
The automotive world is still reeling from the defective Takata airbags which can shoot out sharp metal shrapnel when deployed. Around 35 million vehicles may be affected in the US and an additional seven million have been recalled worldwide.
Nearly two dozen brands have been affected in this rather frightening scenario which has left some dealers disabling the airbags and affixing ‘Do Not Sit Here’ stickers to the dashboards as a temporary measure!
If we focus on a single manufacturer, then the recall record goes to Ford in the late seventies. It involved a failed safety catch which allowed all Ford automatics to slip from Park to Reverse with no warning. The safety defect was blamed for 6,000 accidents and 98 deaths. Repairs to 20 million vehicles and a host of law suits reportedly cost Ford $1.79 billion. A fortune back in the day!
It was a testing start for Mary Barra when she took the helm of the General Motors Company (GM) in the midst of a massive recall at the beginning of last year. Under the spotlight of becoming the first woman to head a major automobile manufacturer, she faced revelations about faulty ignition switches and pressure from investors to return more cash to investors.
Listed by FORBES as one of the Top 10 most powerful women in the world, Barra inherited the ‘new’ GM which was founded in 2009 after the trials and tribulations of bankruptcy and a Chapter 11 reorganization. And the leaner operation has been declaring profits since 2010 despite the costly recall and a dip in share prices.
GM sold over 180,000 vehicles in their Africa markets last year – which represents a 10% market share. The President and Managing Director of GM Sub-Saharan Africa, Ian Nicholls, says he is excited about the growth potential of the business.
“We are finalizing the details of our agreement with Isuzu to build higher volumes of vehicles in South Africa. The Isuzu range has a reputation for reliability and capability, and is engineered for local conditions,” says Nicholls.
The Chevrolet portfolio extends from that tiny Spark, through the Captiva, to the daunting Trailblazer. The updated Trailblazer is handily placed to take a slice out of the Fortuner market with an attractive and comfortable cabin, in grey and black trim, and the model I tested with the 2.8-liter Duramax turbodiesel engine has grunt to spare with a fairly stable fuel gauge – well a claimed 8.5l/100km.
Strangely it’s the infotainment system of the beast that impresses me the most. The Chevrolet MyLink setup, with rearview camera included, is the essence of simplicity and makes you wonder why so many German marques make choosing a radio station a life study.
But it’s Opel that is really turning heads and order books.
“The Opel brand is on the rise with sales volumes up more than 76 percent year to date, on the back of a product onslaught,” says Nicholls.
For me one of the surprise packages of the year is the tiny Opel Adam, available in funky guises of Jam and Glam, with a one-liter turbo engine that loves to canter. It’s even more appealing than a Fiat 500 and has more standard features than any luxury car I have tested.
Little wonder it is bagging international awards.
But despite these positive outlooks, GM and virtually all car manufacturers, many surviving as hybrids born of takeovers, must be nervous about further major recalls that could spell financial disaster.
And here’s what will make them even more wary. The British government is to start its own enquiry into car emissions, running new tests on engines from across the industry and comparing the results with on-the-road emissions.
These independent tests could even challenge the claimed fuel consumption figures which, in many cases, seem to have been calculated on some of the steep downhills of the Tour de France.
Accountability is going to be the name of the game.

Do You Recall?

Countries in sub-Saharan Africa are set to clock up the fastest pace of growth since the global financial crisis struck five years ago, despite the weak global environment. But it has not prevented the finances in many of their economies from deteriorating. The question is, should we be worried?
Budget deficits in the region have swelled in the past decade, as governments have ratcheted up their spending. According to research from UK-based Capital Economics, the combined shortfall for the region in 2012 amounted to 2.5% of gross dom-estic product (GDP) – a key financial health ratio – compared with just 0.5% in 2000. Ironically, the trend has nothing to do with excessive borrowing. Over the same period, government debt as a share of GDP plunged to 33% from 70% – a respectable level.
However, the improvement in debt ratios has been driven largely by debt relief from Western donors. As these countries grapple with their own fiscal constraints, this is likely to dwindle. At the same time, prices for exported commodities, the mainstay of the region’s economies, are starting to subside after reaching historic peaks in the past decade. This means that governments will have less to spend on financing their own development, and may have to borrow more to do so.
The marked acceleration in spending that has taken place across the region is generally viewed as positive. Most of the money is invested in capital projects, which will ultimately boost growth potential. Sub-Saharan Africa needs an estimated $93 billion a year for infrastructure development. But some governments are pumping increased amounts of money into what is known as current spending. This includes the salaries of civil servants and subsidies on necessities like fuel, electricity and food. These eventually become unaffordable.
The biggest spenders on subsidies in the region are Angola, Ghana, Nigeria, Mozambique and Zambia. Ample oil revenues mean that Angola and Nigeria can cope with the financial burden, but the finances of the other three countries are not as healthy. In Ghana, fuel and electricity subsidies swallow nearly a quarter of official revenues. Power subsidies alone account for 17% of revenue in Mozambique and 20% in Zambia.
Yvette Babb, Standard Bank’s Africa strategist, believes that countries in sub-Saharan Africa are trying to address the burden of fiscal subsidies. She says that there has been a strong improvement in the way that fiscal budgets have been managed. She also says that the debt burdens of countries in the region are generally still “enviable” when compared with the US and Europe.
However, there are significant exceptions. The region’s two main offenders are Ghana, its biggest cocoa producer, and Zambia, its top copper producer. Both countries’ economies are growing at a heady pace of more than 7%, so there is little justification for fiscal slippage.
In what was seen as a bid to garner support ahead of the 2012 elections, Ghana overhauled its government salary structure in 2010. The public wage bill was pushed up to nearly half of overall spending. This had disastrous effects on the country’s financial credentials. Ghana’s budget deficit ballooned to about 12% of GDP in 2012, nearly double its official target, from just 4% in 2011. Its debt had reached 50% of GDP at the end of 2012, up from 41% a year earlier.
Ghana’s government has pledged to narrow its budget deficit to 9% in 2013 and 6% by 2015, but there is widespread skepticism that these targets can be achieved. In what was seen as a step in the right direction, the country scrapped fuel subsidies worth $500 million in May.
Despite partial cuts in fuel and maize subsidies in 2013, Zambia’s budget deficit is also expected to widen, reaching 8.5% of GDP in 2013 from 2.8% in 2012. After a broad-based increase in civil servants’ salaries, the country’s budgeted wage bill will climb to more than half of official revenues in 2014, from 40% previously.
One of the strategies that Ghana, Zambia, and several other sub-Saharan African countries have deployed to deal with their fiscal challenges is tapping international capital markets. In 2013, governments from the region raised more than $5 billion in global sovereign bonds – including several debuts. That compares to issuance of just $1 billion a decade ago.
More bonds are in the pipeline, with Zambia, Kenya, Tanzania and Senegal all likely to enter the market. And there is ample appetite from investors. In 2012, Zambia’s debut $750 million Eurobond was 15 times oversubscribed. Provided the money is allocated wisely, the trend is set to continue.

Healthy finances Africa’s spending PATTERNS

I’ve driven a Lexus before, I know to expect the trademark luxury, refinement, comfort and the executive feel but the Lexus GS450h F-Sport is so much more&#8230; It’s a hybrid that’s super fast.
Lexus’ new baby is a hybrid car and the first of its kind I’d ever driven. It made for a good start. In one moment I could pose as a tough businessman who’s made it and has a howling V6 rear wheel drive executive sports saloon to prove it. In the next moment, and at the push of a button, I could be the world-peace advocate who hugs trees.
The car has four driving modes. EV mode is when only the battery is being used. The battery has to be sufficiently charged and this mode is ideal for driving at low speeds. It’s eerily silent but highly entertaining when you sneak up on people before honking. ECO mode is when the car is powered by a combination of the electric motor and the engine. It delivers decent performance with reduced fuel consumption and emissions. Sport and Sport+ modes transform the car’s throttle response and handling to give you a sharpened, engaging and, dare I say it, a fast car to drive.
The GS450h is driven by a V6 petrol engine that delivers 213kW of power but it also features an electric motor that is capable of delivering 147kW of power. However, don’t add these figures together to work out the combined power because it isn’t 360kW. These systems work seamlessly together to deliver a combined output of 252kW of power and that is all carried to the road through a CVT gearbox.
Hybrid cars are not new to the market and they are clearly becoming more popular as consumers look for a cleaner, greener drive. BMW has recently released its hybrid models and the 5 Series ActiveHybrid is in direct competition to the Lexus GS450h. BMW claims 6.7l/100km and Lexus claim 6.2l/100km, both of which are fantastic consumption figures for cars of this size. I managed to average an 8.8l/100km and that was on the combined cycle.
Let’s not forget that we are talking about a luxury sedan capable of seating five adults in a contemporary cabin with an oh-so-crisp Mark Levinson sound system. I particularly liked the simplified facia design that has been made possible by Lexus incorporating a huge multimedia unit into the dashboard. The 12.3-inch display is one of the best on the market and carries a lot of information, should you want it. Lexus has made use of a “mouse” type controller for the multimedia display and though it is placed in an easily reachable spot it isn’t user-friendly, especially when driving on uneven surfaces. The idea is good, but the system is way too sensitive and can be quite annoying.
Further experience of the interior of this car makes you realize the levels of craftsmanship and detail surrounding you. The electric-powered seats feature heating and cooling and has technology to only feed air to the seats that are actually occupied. (These guys take energy-saving seriously). I had no issues of space in the front and rear and the boot space has not been compromised even with the battery packs being packed in there.
It’s a car that will turn heads. Looking at it, you’ll appreciate the new wave of Lexus design. The angular “spindle” grille is apparent on all new Lexus models and not counting the LFA hypercar, the design suits this car best. It’s a good looking car with some aggression and some sophistication thrown in.
You’ll also notice the Lexus logo on the front and rear of the car is surrounded by a blue hue. The color indicates the hybrid version of the car. The F-sport version that I drove also wore 19” charcoal alloys that gave it a unique presence especially as the car I test drove was black.
Choosing a Lexus GS450h F-Sport would be an easy choice for me if I was in the market for this level of car. At $88,400 it’s competitively priced especially considering the fuel-saving and emissions saving this car offers. You do have the choice of diesel alternatives from other brands, but this car does everything you may need a diesel car for. Fuel-saving? check. Reduced emissions? Check. Entertaining drive? Check. It arguably has the last word in refinement, luxury and comfort too. It looks classy but has a flair of sportiness. The drive is whatever you want it to be—civilized should you choose, or tail-wagging fun. And isn’t that what technology should be about? Giving you power and freedom to choose when you’ll use that power. This car gives you everything; you just decide how and when let it really roar.
Recent research showed that South Africans are not in love with the Lexus brand as much as they are with the likes of VW; Audi; Mercedes Benz and BMW. A few months ago, I possibly would have been in that group of South Africans, but now, I am a big fan of the brand because I’ve had a taste of luxury as Lex

Tag: Fuel

FORBES AFRICA SOCIAL MEDIA

150 percent price rise fails to fill Zimbabwe’s fuel pumps

Do You Recall?

Healthy finances Africa’s spending PATTERNS

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