The Sunday News
Thandeka Matebesi, Business Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF) has applied for a licence to allow the organisation to import fuel for its members in a bid to improve efficiency within the small-scale mining sector.
The Government announced a few weeks ago that it has liberalised the importation of fuel with Cabinet giving big companies with free funds the green light to import fuel for their own consumption. The move by Government is meant to augment supply gaps in the market, especially for the mining sector.
ZMF general council chairman Mr Makumba Nyenje said the miners’ body had already applied for the licence and they were waiting for a response from the Government.
“We have applied to the Government to be given a permit to import our own fuel. We have applied through Zera (Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority) to the Ministry of Energy and Power Development to get a licence for us to import our fuel as a federation. We are still waiting for the response and as soon as we get the green light we will start importing for our members,” said Mr Nyenje.
He said the licence will save them from queuing for fuel which takes up most of their time.
“We would like to have fuel in all garages in mining towns for our membership. Miners will be using their e-cards and we also want to introduce the coupon system so that miners can be able to redeem them at the garages we would have made arrangements with. Currently the problem we are having is that we are queuing like everyone else which is greatly affecting our work,” he said.
Mr Nyenje also highlighted that most small- scale miners were embracing the e-card that was introduced by ZMF in partnership with Met Bank. ZMF in conjunction with Met Bank last year launched an electronic multi-purpose membership card for miners which is linked to the mobile phone that can enable a miner to access loans and mining equipment offered by the bank, confirm membership, buy goods, pay bills and transfers among other things.
