Nearly 5Â 000 store owners, managers and business executives have been arrested since the Zimbabwe government began its campaign to slash prices last month, state media reported on Thursday.
The Herald newspaper said that at least 23 owners and managers of shops and gasoline stations had been arrested for overcharging on Wednesday, bringing the total to 4Â 926.
A senior police official, Bothwell Mugariri, told the newspaper — a government mouthpiece — that the latest to be arrested were rounded up in Harare’s CBD and would appear in court on Friday.
Most of those arrested — among them several of the country’s top businessmen — have been briefly jailed.
The government last month ordered that prices be slashed by about 50% to curb inflation, officially at 4Â 500% but estimated to be twice as high.
Already scarce staple foods, gasoline and many basics have disappeared from shelves because store owners say they can’t afford to sell at the new low prices.
President Robert Mugabe told Parliament on Tuesday that his government was committed to its programme to restore ”price stability” and protect ordinary consumers from ”inexplicable and astronomical” price increases by profiteers.
Foreign investment, loans and development aid to Zimbabwe have dried up amid years of political and economic turmoil after Mugabe’s government began often-violent seizures of thousands of white-owned farms in 2000.
Mugabe rejects criticism that the meltdown is the result of mismanagement and instead blames Western sanctions. — Sapa-AP