Quarantine for truck drivers causes fuel shortage in Botswana

Botswana released 30.8 million liters of fuel from its strategic reserves to ease an acute shortage that’s caused long queues at gas stations as Covid-19 regulations disrupt supply chains.

Landlocked Botswana consumes about 3 million liters of fuel daily, government data shows. Most fuel is imported from South Africa, with the remainder arriving from Namibia and Mozambique. To contain the coronavirus pandemic, the government requires that truck drivers entering the country be subjected to tests and a period of quarantine.

“Oil marketing companies operating in Botswana have informed government that their supply chains have been disrupted, hence they are experiencing some challenges meeting the demand,” Mmetla Masire, permanent secretary of the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Green Technology, said in a statement Tuesday.

Unusual for Botswana, long queues at gas stations have become commonplace in the past two weeks, with motorists spending as many as eight hours waiting for fuel, and illegal traders hoarding supplies has led to the emergence of a black market.

“Panic buying is a major contributor to the rapid depletion of fuel at the filling stations,” Masire said. “We are concerned that the country is consuming almost double the normal usage because of this hoarding.”