Bus fleets have been grounded, passengers stranded, cargo undelivered. In Harare, workers wait up to three hours to catch a bus. Some commuters get up at 4am, stake a place in the queue, perhaps by leaving an older child, and go back to sleep for a couple of hours. Operating at a loss, fuel filling stations are working short hours and considering lay-offs. Rubbish lies uncollected.
Milk deliveries are down.
Many farmers have only half their trucks working. A flower exporter, desperate to get a consignment of roses to the airport, has filled his refrigerated trucks with half paraffin and half diesel. Many commuter buses, trucks and tractors have done the same. Paraffin, the cooking fuel of the poor, costs one-third the price of diesel. Private sector oil companies cannot step in to import fuel because of controlled fuel prices and a shortage of foreign exchange.