THE MASHUP WITH JACOB 🇿🇼

The Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA) has warned illegal fuel dealers that they risk prosecution.

This comes as some unlicensed fuel dealers are advertising fuel on social media platforms promising to provide the product at low prices.

In a statement, ZERA said it is a serious offence for any unlicensed company to buy or sell fuel without the requisite license. Reads the statement:

It has come to the attention of the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA) that there are some illegal fuel dealers offering fuel for sale to retailers and the public via social media.

Trade in petroleum products is a regulated activity that must be conducted in terms of relevant licenses and license conditions.

In terms of the Petroleum Act Cap 13:22, no person other than a licensed petroleum company shall procure or sell or produce petroleum products in the country.

Therefore, be advised that it is a serious offence for any unlicensed company to carry out an activity in the petroleum industry without the requisite license.

It is a breach of license conditions for a licensed petroleum retail company to buy petroleum products from a company that is not licensed to procure/import or wholesale petroleum products.

ZERA takes the issue of illegal fuel trading seriously as it endangers quality of product and safety of the public whilst creating an uneven playing field in the industry.

ZERA is working with relevant government agencies to curtail this malpractice.

The Authority would like to strongly warn that any unlicensed person found trading fuel will be prosecuted.

In addition, any licensed petroleum company found buying fuel from an unlicensed wholesaler will have their license cancelled.Petroleum retail companies are advised to conduct due diligence by engaging ZERA to verify the authenticity of any company that may be offering fuel for sale in a suspicious manner.

The list of all licensed petroleum companies is available on the ZERA website http://www.zera.co.zw.ZERA would like to urge the petroleum companies and the public to report anyone they suspect to be illegally doing business in the petroleum industry as soon as they get such information.

Source Emailed

THE official exchange rate jumped to ZWL$3 673 yesterday against the United States dollar, shedding 42,6 percent points when compared to the last week’s rate of US$1: ZWL$2 577.Economists have for a long time recommended that the Government liberalises the exchange rate to curb speculative behaviour on the parallel market, which has tended to cause price distortion.It is hoped that the widening of the formal exchange rate would narrow the disparity with the parallel market rate and that this, aided by tight controls on the money supply, would somehow stabilise inflation and restore consumer purchasing power.The fine-tuning of the forex auction system is part of a string of new policy measures recently introduced by the Government to stabilise the economy and protect consumers from price madness.

The Government has committed to full implementation of the Dutch Auction System (timely payment, notification of funds available in advance and selecting the highest bidder), so as to improve transparency and efficiency in the trading of forex in the economy.

When the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) auction system was introduced in June 2020, it was expected to act as a foreign currency price discovery mechanism that would eliminate the parallel market. The weekly auction will now be limited to US$5 million.

In an update following the weekly auction, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) said US$4,99 million was allotted to businesses with US$4,2 million on the main auction while US$829 418 was allotted to the Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) auction.

The main auction received 215 bids and 210 were accepted while the allotted bids were 38. The SMEs platform received 304 bids, accepted 298 and allotted 82 bids.

As has been the tradition, regardless of the amount allotted, the bulk of the foreign currency continues to be channelled toward the procurement of raw materials, machinery and equipment.

At this week’s auction, US$2,3 million was allotted towards procurement of raw materials and US$254 261 was allotted to machinery and equipment by the main auction.

The SMEs platform was allotted US$345 922 towards procurement of raw materials while US$260 143 was allotted to machinery and equipment. 

ONE of the licenced Community radio stations Bayethe FM from Matobo in Matabeleland South province has gone on air. In a Tweet the station confirmed the development.

“Bayethe 107.6 FM is officially live on air. We are on 107.6 FM in Kezi, Maphisa and in whole of Matobo district. Big up to the Transmedia engineers who worked till early morning hours to put ‘The Voice From the Hills’,” said the station.

One of Matobo Community Radio Trust (Bayethe FM) Founding Trustee Mr Zenzo Ncube also confirmed that the station went on air early today. He hailed Transmedia, Zimbabwe Association of Community Radio Stations (ZACRAS) and the licencing authority Broadcasting Authority of Zimbabwe (BAZ) for assisting them reach the major milestone

“Basically, we installed transmission equipment and we are broadcasting mostly music at this time. Programs will be added to the schedule incrementally. Next week, our transmission studio should be complete. Our radius of coverage will shortly be increased to reach all out licenced geographic are up to Mangwe district after we install a more powerful transmitter and use a 120m high tower at Maphisa,” said Mr Ncube. He said the station was still appealing for donations in cash and kind to meet the needs of the station.

The stations joins Bukulanga FM (Plumtree), Ntephe Manama FM (Gwanda) and Lotsha FM (Beitbridge) in Matabeleland South Province which have gone on air

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The satisfaction of our customers is our Chief priority and for that we offer our personal and professional services to fulfill the needs of our customers to our greatest ability.
We as Gen-workers feel proud to serve our customers for every job no matter how big or small it is.

VISION

Gen-workers is supervised by Jacob C Muronda & Ngazile Muronda. They first started the company over 5 years ago.

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MISSION

The core of our success is our faithful commercial and residential as well as industrial customers. We offer a variety of services with experienced professionals on the job.

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GEN-WORKERS together we make it.

Story by Tichaona Kurewa

PRIME resort facility, Kingdom Hotel which closed its doors early this year, is set for re-opening soon according to the latest statement by its new owners, First Capital Bank.

The re-opening of the 294-roomed facility will be a massive boost to the country’s Tourism Recovery Plan and Growth Strategy.

The hotel which was then run by African Sun Limited closed its doors early this year after the operator surrendered the operating licence to the owners of the premises, First Capital Bank and Pension Fund.

This negatively impacted the room capacity in the resort city which was already struggling to meet accommodation demand, triggered by increasing appetite for the destination through meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions.

The unavailability of the hotel, resulted in some delegates during big conferences seeking accommodation in neighbouring countries, depriving the country of the much needed foreign currency.

Officials from First Capital Bank told journalists recently in Victoria Falls that the property will be renovated to meet international standards before it re-opens.

“We are at the moment doing several things, we have a market study going on to understand where the market is in Victoria Falls, and we want to understand where we can position the hotel.

“We have the architect and various people inspecting the hotel giving us advice on what we should do, we then compile all that and we go to the market for a lease operator.

“We will go to the market for tenders in the third quarter of this year, we sincerely hope that the hotel will be back up and running and fully open with necessary investment in the first half of 2024, it will be a world-class hotel,” said First Capital Bank, Managing Director, Mr Ciaran McSharry.

Experts see tourism as a low-hanging fruit and the government has identified the tourism and hospitality sector under the National Development Strategy One, as one of the key pillars for the economy alongside agriculture, mining and manufacturing.

According to the NDS 1, one of the key strategies is to achieve tourism growth.

This will be achieved through, product development and diversification, market development and diversification, destination accessibility and tourism investment promotion.