Bootlegged fuel costs Swazi government dearly

JAMES HALL MBABANE - R100 million in illegal fuel is flooding Swaziland’s market, costing government a fortune in lost tax revenue and putting possibly a tainted petroleum product into the fuel tanks of the nation’s trucks and cars. “A lot of fuel is coming into Swaziland somehow and from somewhere. As yet, we don’t know the source of this fuel. All we know is it’s getting into our cars, and government is taking a huge loss as a result,” said Minister of Finance Majozi Sithole. Sithole was speaking at the recent launch of the government’s Motor Vehicle Fund, which provides payments to road accident victims, as a public enterprise. Sithole said a plan was afoot to tag legitimately imported petroleum, making it possible to identify illicit fuel imports. Although Swaziland has one border gate with Mozambique, the landlocked country probably receives the bootlegged petrol from South Africa, which provides all of the country’s petroleum products.