President Robert Mugabe has saluted the security forces in Zimbabwe for supporting his government’s controversial campaign to slash prices of all goods and services in the country, reports said on Monday.
The 83-year-old leader was speaking on Sunday as he gave out prizes after the President’s Medal shooting competition in the capital, Harare.
”I wish to commend our security forces for the assistance they have given to various government programmes, with the latest being the price-stabilisation exercise,” Mugabe said in comments carried by the official Herald daily.
For the past two weeks, police and state agents have been travelling around the country, forcing companies and shops to slash prices by half or more.
As a result, shops have been emptied by bargain hunters, some of them apparently working in cahoots with the price inspectors. There are now acute shortages of basics such as bread, flour, cooking oil and fuel.
Many of the goods have resurfaced on the black market, at much higher prices than they were being sold at in the shops.
Prices had been spiralling out of control due to inflation of more than 4 500% before the imposition of the sweeping price cuts.
Mugabe last month accused the business community of trying to foment civil unrest to oust his government and ordered them to stop raising prices or risk having their companies seized.
On Sunday, Mugabe said the security forces were playing an important role in maintaining peace in the country.
”The role played by the security forces in containing the machinations of our detractors and their local puppets and thus ensuring the peaceful and tranquil environment obtaining in our country today is praiseworthy,” said the president.
He said his government would continue with the clampdown on the business sector, as well as pursuing other programmes that he said would benefit the majority.
”We endeavour to pursue the interests of our citizens with ever renewed vigour, regardless of the spirited efforts by our detractors to frustrate initiatives designed to improve the general well-being of our people,” the president said.
So far 3 200 shops and businesses have been prosecuted in the police blitz against high prices, the hoarding of goods and the failure to display prices, said the Herald.
Police spokesperson Oliver Mandipaka said the price-reduction campaign was expected to head to rural areas where prices were still high.
”There is no significant progress in rural areas as businesspeople there continue to defy the directive,” Mandipaka told the Herald. ”Our inspectors will soon be moving in to deal with them.”
But many businesspeople in the rural areas are ruling party members and there are suggestions the campaign could backfire.
‘Agents of regime change’
Meanwhile, Mugabe has taken a new swipe at Zimbabwe’s ailing business sector, accusing bosses of fanning record inflation by overcharging before the imposition of price cuts, state media said Monday.
While retailers and manufacturers struggle to absorb the impact of government-ordered price cuts, Mugabe said efforts to revive the economy had been undermined by ”business malpractices” and sanctions imposed by the West.
”The cocktail of such business malpractices as unwarranted profiteering, which is compounded by the unjustified declared and undeclared sanctions on our country, has undoubtedly played a role in fuelling the current inflationary environment we are experiencing,” the state-run Herald quoted Mugabe as saying.
”The sanctions against our nation show desperate actions of the agents of regime change who seek not only to undermine the credibility of our government, but also to reverse the gains and values of our independence and sovereignty.” — Sapa-dpa, AFP