Zimbabwe’s government announced a 680% increase in the price of corn, the staple food, as the nation marked May Day amid rapidly worsening economic woes.
Agriculture Minister Rugare Gumbo said the new price Zimbabweans will have to pay in the shops is to back a 570% increase in the producer price of maize awarded to farmers to encourage food production, state radio reported.
In the current harvesting season, farmers will receive Z$3-million (about R1 400) a metric tonne. From immediate effect, a regular 5kg bag of corn meal will sell for Z$21 874 (about R10), up from Z$3 200 (R1,50).
The old price was held artificially low by the government in a bid to curb inflation relating to essential goods.
But overall official inflation surged last month to 2 200%, the highest in the world. Last week the central bank announced an exchange rate of Z$15 000 to one United States dollar for most transactions in hard currency and retained a long-standing 250-1 rate for other deals.
The food hike cast a pall over countrywide activities for a labour day already focusing on deepening poverty and continuing political turmoil.
Police banned union-organised May Day celebrations in three main provincial towns, Zimbabwe’s main labour federation said. It also accused the state of intimidating labour-day organisers in some districts.
The police ban applied to the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, aligned to the opposition, and did not affect smaller, government-backed labour groups celebrating May Day on Tuesday.
Kumbulani Ndlovu, an official of the main federation, said police denied clearance for parades in the towns of Marondera, Bindura and Norton, effectively banning them.
Under security laws, political gatherings require police clearance. Police were not immediately available for comment.
Labour activists have been targeted since the labour federation broke away from an alliance with Mugabe’s ruling party in 1992 and backed the formation of the main opposition party in 1999.
Last month, the federation called a two-day national strike to protest against economic mismanagement, acute shortages of food and most basic goods, and spiralling unemployment. The strike was poorly observed, with most workers saying they couldn’t afford to stop work. — Sapa-AP