SCTM Customers Upset, Gradually Served

Customers are gradually being supplied the basic commodity after two months of scarcity.

In rain and sun, they stood on their feet, swearing not to leave the sites if not served. Yaounde dwellers that have SCTM gas cylinders have since the beginning of this week, been crisscrossing the city to purchase the household commodity.

When Cameroon Tribune got to the Polytechnic neighbourhood in the Yaounde VI Subdivision yesterday, April 5, it was a cream of SCTM customers that had taken up vantage positions at the gas depot, shouting at the top of their voices. The truck with loads of Liquefied Petroleum Gas, commonly referred to as domestic gas, was still offloading, when disorder set in.

It started when the hundreds of customers learnt that only 60 gas cylinders were destined for the depot. It was hope already lost for some customers who could no longer bear the scorching sun. Most of them had visited more than two depots and sales points.

Theodore Enyenga was bitter. He frowned at what he referred to as “prejudice and connivance in the sale of the commodity. He had been to the SCTM main distribution point at Mvan before being advised to follow the distribution van to Polytechnic.

There was still no possibility of getting hold of the commodity after hours of criss-crossing the city. “I am disappointed. I am taking my cylinder back, hoping to have the precious good anytime whosesoever,” he lamented.

Meantime, some customers, lucky as they were, smiled home with their SCTM gas cylinders filled. Mamy Martha Talba, was the first client to be served amidst hundreds. She however testified that it was not a bed of roses.

She spent a whole day at the depot before, and saw others served.

“It is out of pity that I finally got this,” the woman said. Mamy Martha Talba explained that she was advised to be at the depot as early as possible, which she heeded.

In the Carrier neighbourhood in the Yaounde II Subdivision, it was total depair. There was no sign of availability of the SCTM gas. Customers had invaded the depot. While some sat on bare ground, others gathered at nearby drinking spots; all waiting for distribution.

The depot attendant remained indifferent, saying she could not confirm whether or not they will be served. “Customers do not want to understand the reality.

It is a progressive comeback and they should understand that supply cannot meet demand,” a manager of a gas sales point in Madagascar told Cameroon Tribune, pointing to another sales point where 40 cylinders supplied a day before could not last 10 minutes.

At Miniferm, activity was slow. No trace of the SCTM brand. At the SCTM hub in Mvan, activity was booming.

Company staff loaded trucks with cylinders for depots around city. Few customers could be spotted, begging to be served.

Activity at the SCDP station in the Nsam neighbourhood where the SCTM gas cylinders are filled alongside those of other companies is full circle. The Unit Head for the SCDP Depot for Yaounde, Malloum Bra, explained that they started servicing the company on Friday April 1, 2016.

This followed a consensus between SCTM and Tradex owing to debts accrued the latter by the former. Government, through the Ministry of Trade, he stated, stood its ground to see the suffering of gas customers lessened.