Governor of Tete catches driver apparently selling fuel

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Governor of Tete catches driver apparently selling fuel

7:47 CAT | 05 Dec 2016

File photo / Paulo Auade, governor of Tete province

The governor of the western Mozambican province of Tete, Paulo Auade, on Friday personally caught a long distance truck driver illegally selling fuel (diesel) on the public highway, and demanded that measures be taken urgently to stamp out the illicit trade in stolen fuel.

According to a report in the Beira daily paper “Diario de Mocambique”, Auade was returning from a working visit to Mutarara district when he saw the driver siphoning the fuel out of his truck’s tank into 20 litre plastic bidons. This hazardous operation was taking place not far from Caphiridzange, in the district of Moatize, where, on 17 November, the theft of fuel from a tanker truck led to a devastating explosion in which 100 people died.

Auade ordered his motorcade, which included several provincial directors and journalists to stop, and he spoke angrily to the driver.

“It’s inexplicable that, less than a month after the tragedy of Caphiridzange, truck drivers are still involved in the illegal sale of fuel”, he declared. “You are the ones who create problems on the roads. So we’re going to speak to your employer, so that measures are taken, because this situation cannot continue”.

Auade insisted “urgent measures must be taken, so that deaths such as those at Caphiridzange, no longer happen in our province”.

But the driver, named Sergio Pensar, and employed by the company Transportes Ali, denied that he was selling fuel. He said his truck had two tanks and he was transferring fuel from one to the other, because the vehicle did not do this automatically.

“I came from Beira, and I was taking this cargo to Mutarara”, he said. “But when I got this far, I saw that the fuel in this tank was not enough to reach Mutarara. So I stopped and I asked for bidons from the local people so that I could make the transfer”.

Source: AIM