The government recently increased the mandatory blending of unleaded petrol from five per cent ethanol to 10 per cent.
Speaking soon after the government made the announcement through an extraordinary Government Gazette, Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (Zera) chief executive Engineer Eddington Mazambani said:
The country had a low ethanol supply and Government reduced the blend level to five per cent. Because of the improved availability, the Government has increased the level of 10 per cent. This increase will obviously impact on our fuel import bill, although in a minimal way.
Norton Member of Parliament, Temba Mliswa (Independent) claims that fuel companies use different blending ratios. Below is his list of fuel traders and the percentage of ethanol used:
ETHANOL CONTENT IN YOUR FUEL
GLOW dilutes with 18%
PUMA dilutes with 21%
ZUVA it’s 32%
TOTAL dilutes with 9%
ENGEN dilutes with 21% where’s the consistency & doesn’t such discrepancies damage cars?