With supplies dwindling and no relief in sight, local suppliers are already starting to run out of gas.
As previously reported on Letaba Herald’s web edition, large parts of the country face a critical shortage of liquid petroleum gas (normal cooking gas) and the situation seems to be getting worse by the day.
This is due mainly to a month long planned maintenance shutdown of Chinese gas suppliers abroad.
This shutdown has created a forced bottleneck at refineries in South Africa. At the SAPREF refinery in Durban, trucks are waiting 4 to 5 days before receiving fresh gas supplies which they then transport to Polokwane, to be distributed further from there.
Because of load shedding, more and more South Africans have converted their households to gas.
Already, almost half of our national supply is imported from China.
This means the challenges of importing enough gas for the entire country have increased tenfold.
At present our gas supply is such a finely balanced affair, that something like the Chinese shutdown could be enough to tip the scales in the direction of a total countrywide shortage.
Zirk Buys of Gasman in Tzaneen confirmed today that they have no gas to sell to walk-in customers.
This was confirmed by other gas dealers in Tzaneen, Phalaborwa and Hoedspruit.
At the moment a system of prioritizing means that customers leave their empty cylinders at their gas supplier, where the cylinders wait in the order they were dropped off.
As soon as new stocks of gas arrive, the bottles are filled and the owners notified.
According to Buys this is the first time since Gasman opened their doors in 1976 that they are unable to help their customers.
At present they have a system of prioritizing in place with certain customers, like for instance Tzaneen Mediclinic, being helped with the little gas they have left. He states that there is nothing else he can do and apologizes to all his loyal customers affected by the shortage.
Afrox in Polokwane also indicated late last week that they have no gas in stock for delivery to dealers in the Limpopo Province.
Although it is known that some dealers keep limited stock in reserve for very large customers and emergency services, all indications are that absolutely NO GAS will be available soon.
Several restaurants in the area have indicated that they are aware of the problem and are taking emergency measures.
Most restaurants and take-aways use gas for all their cooking and this will, no doubt, soon affect everybody in the area.
Enquiries have confirmed that it is a national problem.
By late yesterday Afrox head office had not responded to enquiries but dealers countrywide seem to face critical shortages.
