By Correspondent
Mutare City Council is set to build its own service station after receiving no objections to its plan to borrow US$500 000 for the project.
In its August Full Council, Mutare resolved to apply for borrowing powers to fund the fuel service station construction project.
Acting Town Clerk Blessing Chafesuka said they had resolved to achieve the objective at a value of US$500 000.
“Council intends to borrow the funds from financial institutions for funding of the capital project.
The Local Authority then flighted a notice inviting ratepayers and other stakeholders with objections to lodge them.
Negative Sentiment
However, Mutare’s decision comes at a time public sentiment is growing against service stations.
Over the years, the country has witnessed a rapid increase in the number of fuel stations.
Some have been built in questionable spaces like road servitudes, residential areas and even close to water sources.
According to the energy regulator, Zera, in 2023 the country had 913 licenced fuel stations.
These were selling diesel and petrol, across Zimbabwe.
However, over the last 4 years Zera has issued more than 3 300 fuel retail licences.
This reflects a marked increase in the number of new service stations in the country in recent years.
In a bid to bring order to the sector ZERA, last year, nabbed 292 individuals who were already operating illegally.
Meanwhile, others were also arrested for setting up shop without authorisation.
Late last month nearly 12 service stations were also found guilty of a variety of infringements.
Some of them had their licenses revoked while others were fined.
