Tendai Ruben Mbofana
The Government of Zimbabwe’s recent announcement that it intends to introduce mandatory diesel blending is a move wrapped in the noble language of economic stability and national resilience.
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However, it rings hollow to a populace that has spent years as the captive market for “solutions” that only serve to drain their pockets.
Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube, speaking from the comfortable sidelines of the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair, framed this policy shift as a “shield” against the volatility of global energy markets and a “critical component” of a broader fiscal toolkit.
However, to any Zimbabwean, this proposal is not a shield—it is a spear aimed directly at the already depleted purchasing power of the ordinary citizen.
The government’s recurring strategy is clear: manufacture a crisis or leverage a global one to justify a localized monopoly that enriches an oligarchic clique while the rest of the nation subsidizes their windfall through inflated pump prices and diminished engine efficiency.
The Minister’s assertion that diesel blending will lower the cost of doing business is a blatant disregard for the mathematical reality currently facing motorists.
The introduction of diesel blending is particularly dangerous because diesel is not a luxury; it is the fundamental input for the production and transport of every basic commodity in the country.
To force a blend that is less efficient and potentially damaging to older heavy-duty engines is to invite a new wave of cost-push inflation.
If the logistics and farming sectors are hit with higher effective fuel costs—which they will be, given the inevitable markup on biodiesel and the drop in mileage—every loaf of bread and every kilogram of mealie-meal will become more expensive.
The Minister’s claim that this will “protect consumer purchasing power” is a cruel irony.
In reality, it will further insulate the wealthy elite from the foreign currency shortages of the state by allowing them to collect USD-denominated revenues from a mandated domestic market, while the ordinary citizen sees their local currency and their meager savings eroded by the rising costs of transport and food.
The diesel blending proposal is merely an extension of a logic we have seen before, targeting the lifeblood of our agriculture and mining sectors.
By mandating biodiesel, the government creates a fresh opportunity to award lucrative contracts for oilseed processing and blending infrastructure to the same small circle of oligarchs who already dominate the economy.
In a sober market, a dilutant like ethanol or biodiesel should lower the final price of the product.
Yet, in Zimbabwe, history shows us that the cost of locally produced additives is frequently pegged higher than the landed cost of pure petroleum.
This is not innovation; it is a sophisticated form of state-sanctioned extortion.
If the government truly wished to lower the cost of doing business, it would dismantle the layers of crippling taxes and levies—such as the Carbon Tax and the Strategic Reserve Levy—that make our fuel the most expensive in the SADC region, rather than mandating a new layer of “blending” that serves only to satisfy the bottom line of the politically connected.
The blueprint for this extraction is already well-established.
The petrol blending mandate has for years served as a massive transfer of wealth from the Zimbabwean public to Billy Rautenbach’s Green Fuel Ltd.
Despite the lowveld’s capacity for sugarcane production, the promised “cheap fuel” never materialized.
By the time this expensive additive is blended with petroleum, the consumer is forced to pay a premium for a fuel that possesses roughly a third less energy density than its pure counterpart.
We are effectively being forced to buy a diluted product at a higher price than the concentrated original, all while our vehicles cover fewer kilometers per liter.
Motorists are legally barred from choosing pure petrol, trapped into supporting a monopoly that thrives not on competitive pricing or superior quality, but on the sheer force of legislative decree.
This is the hallmark of the Zimbabwean “solution”: a policy that is sold as a national benefit but functions as a private paycheck.
This pattern of “enrichment through supposed intervention” is visible across every sector.
We saw the same cynical theater with the national borehole scheme, where the desperate need for clean water in rural areas was weaponized to benefit the few.
Paul Tungwarara’s Prevail International was reportedly positioned to receive a staggering US$16,000 per borehole—a price point that defies the logic of the local market—while the actual delivery of these boreholes remained a fraction of what was promised.
The “solution” was not about water for the thirsty; it was about the astronomical margins for the contractor.
While Zimbabweans navigate a crippling energy crisis, the government awarded a $5 million contract to Wicknell Chivayo for a 100 MW solar project that—ironically—never saw the light of day.
When the government speaks of “innovative, localized solutions,” the ordinary Zimbabwean should immediately check their wallet, because history proves that these projects are designed with the enrichment of the “clique” as the primary objective, and the alleviation of public suffering as a distant, and often ignored, afterthought.
Zimbabweans are tired of being the laboratory for “solutions” that only ever produce one result: the further concentration of wealth in the hands of those close to the corridors of power.
The global energy crisis is real, but using it as a pretext to install a new biodiesel monopoly is a transparent act of opportunism.
A government truly focused on the people would foster a competitive energy market, reduce the heavy tax burden on fuel, and ensure that any green energy transition is driven by efficiency and affordability rather than cronyism.
Until the “fiscal toolkit” includes transparency and the removal of parasitic monopolies, policies like diesel blending will remain what they have always been—a sophisticated heist masquerading as national progress.
We do not need more shields that only protect the oligarchs; we need an economy that stops treating its citizens as a resource to be harvested for the benefit of the few.
- Tendai Ruben Mbofana is a social justice advocate and writer. To directly receive his articles please join his WhatsApp Channel on: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaqprWCIyPtRnKpkHe08
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