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Editor – Please can we stop running Maranatha Junior School as a village shop.

It is a school with stakeholders and this must be respected. 

I received a newsletter from the school advising me that they are now charging transport in United States dollar at US$105. 

Who did the school authorities talk to and how did they come to that figure? Why in United States dollar and yet fuel is sold in RTGS? Who is making these decisions on our behalf?

The reason why the school is able to do this is because it is being run without a school development association\school development committee (SDA/SDC) and we as parents want to know who is making such ill-conceived decisions. 

Last term you made a decision to raise school fees to $1 500 without consulting us as parents/guardians and advised us that the extra $500 was to cover transport and now you are introducing another transport fee of US$105 in a country where fuel is sold in local currency. 

We are kindly requesting the Ministry of Education to act and demand that Maranatha Junior School immediately convene a meeting with parents, guardians and stakeholders to address this abuse of parents by an institution that continues to siphon money from parents/guardians. 

We want the new transport fee removed and the school to continue providing transport, the reason why we decided to have our children attend the school.

Please can we stop running this top school as a village shop owned by one individual and recognise that there are other stakeholders, that is parents/guardians. 

We hope this meeting is held soon to resolve this matter.

-Concerned Parent, Bulawayo

Businesses must adapt or die 

EDITOR — The last time I went to Victoria Falls I decided to sleep on the Zambian side after comparing the prices in shops and hotels. 

The majority of businesses in Zimbabwe have poor pricing formulas.

They are unwilling to lower prices and push volumes and are behaving like they are more of dealers than businesses. 

They are causing havoc in the economy and are probably worse than both the sanctions imposed on the country by Western countries and corruption perpetrated by some our fellow leaders. 

The government should seriously look at how they can assist our businesses in terms of understanding modern business concepts.

It should maybe facilitate intensive training of our businesses and engage on a one on one with each business, ring fence those businesses that agree to adjust their pricing formulae and give them incentives. 

I would like to suggest that business leaders like Busisa Moyo should sit down with his counterparts and tell them how overpricing can force consumers to cross borders and buy goods, some from Zimbabwe, at cheaper prices — this at the detriment of our economy.

In simple terms the Government should just take it that our businesses are at kindergarten level in terms of understanding how to do business. 

They just need some form of reorientation as businesses are very critical to the success of the economy and the country at large.

-Goto