An official with the Rural Bus Operators Association said the problem was a lack of fuel. He said operators were being allocated just 500 litres a bus a week,enough for just one and a half days service.On June 26 the authorities ordered prices on all goods and services-including fuel-to be reduced by at least 50% in a bid to reduce inflation and halt spiralling prices.Fuel was now mainly available on the black market for about Z$300 l000 a litre-5 times the official rate.Private urban transport companies had also either scaled back operations, or withdrawn their vehicles from key routes.They said they couldn't run at a loss.
Desperate office and factory workers had to hitch lifts on the back of trucks,or walk.The official Herald daily newspaper admitted on Tuesday that since the imposition of price controls,the state-run oil company had only been importing 1.5 million litres of fuel a day, compared to a national demand of around 6.5 million litres.
As in the days of Noah...