Police in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, arrested three more company executives for hiking prices without government consent but a judge has said the police are being overzealous, it was reported on Tuesday.
Those arrested were from fertiliser manufacturers Windmill and Zimbabwe Fertiliser Company, and Circle Cement, the state-controlled Herald reported.
The arrests bring to six the number of top executives arrested for illegally hiking prices since last Friday as President Robert Mugabe’s government battles another round of shock price increases.
Meanwhile, Harare judge Paradzai Garufu has lambasted the police for detaining officials from a major bakery and a plastic packaging company for more than 30 hours at the weekend, the Herald said.
Garufu said the police were overzealous and should not have detained Lobels Bakery operations director Lemmy Chikomo and Saltrama Plastics managing director Edward Madza.
Madza’s lawyer complained that the arresting police officers behaved like raging bulls in a china shop, the Herald reported.
The prices of basics like bread, milk, maize meal, sugar and cooking oil shot up at the end of last week as annual inflation peaked at 1 204,6%, rousing the fury of the authorities.
Retailers and wholesalers are not allowed to increase the price of many commodities without permission from the Ministry of Industry and International Trade.
Some shops this week temporarily reversed the bread-price hikes but there are now fears of bread shortages. Bakers complain that the price of inputs has risen substantially and they will go out of business if they are not allowed to charge the new prices.
Surveillance teams have been deployed countrywide to check shop prices and more arrests are expected, said the Herald. — Sapa-dpa