Zimpapers Logo

Stephen Mpofu

Basic commodity prices escalating at an unprecedented rate would appear to suggest that retailers in this country intend brazenly to continue to run rings round the government come what may; otherwise they would not plug their ears, as they appear to do, in the wake of continued calls on them not to raise prices on hearing salary increases for public and/or private sector employees or when the exchange rate rises as what happened last week, triggering a new wave of price hike madness.

Unfortunately, statements by Government officials, such as the one by the Minister of Industry and Commerce, Cde Nqobizitha Mangaliso Ndlovu, earlier this week do not seem to deter the get-rich-quick traders who appear to thumb their dirty noses at the Government.

When a sharp rise in the exchange rate between Wednesday and Friday last week – which saw US$1 selling for ZW$24 from ZW$13 stabilised to US$1to ZW$15 — retailers should have reduced prices to levels before the crash.

The minister said: “Prices went up when exchange rate went up but the exchange rate in the parallel market has dropped hence we expect prices to also come down. It’s mainly the retailers who are fuelling this. I’ve been trying to get in touch with their representatives but they are nowhere to be seen. We will direct the retailers to reduce prices to levels before the volatile crisis.”

Already known for their defiance of Government orders, the retailers gleefully read the Minister’s statement and probably said: “Got him, got them. He holds his worried head in his hands, but how does he expect people, us, who are nowhere to be seen, to follow his directive?”

Are ordinary folk, whose measly wages are swindled out of them expected to say: “Sorry, Cde Minister, for your inability to see and rein in the profiteering retailers?”

Or is the Minister’s boss and performance appraiser expected to say: “Sorry, chum, for your failure to get hold of those unrepentant traders. Don’t lose sleep over that, we will see what we can do about their refusal to abandon the price hikes impoverishing our people?”

Come to think of it, one would have expected that upon their appointment government ministers are invested with the wherewithal to get what the state requires in order to serve the public without let or hindrance.

Which means that ministers have at their disposal all the relevant measures, including summonses, to have other functionaries appear before them to receive orders on what to do to improve people’s welfare.

And so we say kudos to the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority for blitzkrieging corruption in that public institution with the suspension of 36 officers implicated in lifestyle audits while processes are underway at the High Court to forfeit ill-gotten wealth.

Zimra Commissioner General Ms Faith Mazani said the taxman was working with the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission who were handling cases where internal investigations would have pointed to corruption.

In the circumstances, President Emmerson Mnangagwa must be commended by all patriotic Zimbabweans for his no-holds-barred crusade against corruption which must have begun in the First Republic and might reach endemic levels without the relentless campaign against it by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission with many heads rolling so far: otherwise the President’s 2030 vision of an upper middle class economy would be rendered an ever-receding mirage.

Zimbabweans must be aware that rampant price increases and corruption militate against tourism which brings the country much needed foreign exchange as well as against foreign direct investment, respectively.

Tourists will obviously shy away from a good destination, such as ours if they consider that their hard-earned money will not enable them to travel widely and enjoy their rest in a country where costs are prohibitive.

Foreign investors, too, should be expected to shy away from Zimbabwe and remain too close with their money if they consider that the buying power of our people has been eroded by high prices to the extent that their investment here will yield little or virtually no dividends if sunk in any project on our soil.

Any such abstention from foreign investors will serve as a death knell to the ease- of-doing-business campaign by the Government to woo foreign investment to catalyse economic growth en route to a rosier future for our nation.

Thus in both rampant profiteering and corruption reading the riot act loud and clear has the potential to rein in the culprits in point.