Police in eastern Zimbabwe will soon launch night raids on businesses and bus companies trying to circumvent price controls by operating only in the dark, press reports said on Friday.
Police spokesperson for Manicaland province, Brian Makomeke warned that anyone trying to dodge President Robert Mugabe’s controversial price-cut campaign would be punished, reported the state-controlled Manica Post newspaper.
”Every gap should be closed and the police shall extend night price monitoring patrols well into the night in order to curb these illegal transactions,” said the spokesperson.
Shortages of basics have been worsening since 83-year-old Mugabe ordered prices be slashed by at least 50% early last month.
The opposition says the price blitz was a political gimmick meant to buy the support of Zimbabweans struggling under record inflation levels.
”Desperate businesspeople say they can’t afford to operate at a loss. Some are now opening their doors only after 5pm when police and price inspectors knock off for the day,” said the Manica Post, which, like the Herald daily, is tightly controlled by the authorities.
‘Meat in the moonlight’
”Butchers are offering scarce meat in the moonlight,” the paper said.
”Buses are plying their routes mainly at night, charging between Z$600 000 and Z$800 000 ($40 and $53 at the official rate of exchange) for a trip between the border city of Mutare and the capital Harare,” the paper said.
The government says the fare must be less than half that at Z$265 000.
”Road blocks will be extended to ensure that no operator charges ungazetted fares,” Makomeke warned.
In a bizarre twist, the Manica Post also carried claims that queues seen in many supermarkets — usually for scarce commodities like bread — were artificially-created and meant to tarnish Zimbabwe’s image.
”The queues at some shops are suspicious. Some of these people are just a rented crowd,” an unnamed source told the paper.
‘Everything is better here’
Meanwhile, Zimbabweans are flocking to the South African village of Musina.
Each day, about 2 000 Zimbabweans are arriving — either legally or illegally — across the border in order to carry out panic purchases of all those goods which are no longer available in their own country.
In Johannesburg’s Methodist church the air is filled with the stench of unwashed human bodies. Men and women have crowded the hallways, staircases and various other nooks and crannies of the church building in their search for asylum.
”Everything is better here than what we have at home,” says one young Zimbabwean man. For fear of repression of his country’s secret service, he declines to identify himself.
Each day, thousands of Zimbabweans are streaming across the borders to neighbouring countries in a bid to escape the chaos. Zimbabwe is bleeding to death and the economy is collapsing.
The last official inflation rate figure reported in April was more than 4 500% — a world record. International Monetary Fund experts even believe that by year’s end, a realistic prospect is inflation of 100 000%.
Shortages of goods in Zimbabwe are chronic and the suffering of the population is enormous. Many people have already fled. In South Africa alone, the number of Zimbabweans — be they legally registered or illegal — is estimated at three million.
But now a new mass exodus appears to be getting started.
Even the South African government, which for a long time had sought to play down the problem, is suddenly alarmed.
”Clearly, we must do more to see what we can do to deal with the this large influx of refugees,” Deputy Foreign Minister Azis Pahad warned on Thursday.
”If we don’t begin to assist the Zimbabweans to solve their own problems the flow into South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia and other neighbours will increase,” he said. ”It is in our interest, nationally and morally, to see what we can do to facilitate.”
His candid words stand in contrast to those by the authorities in the border province Limpopo, who officially say they know nothing about a crisis on the border.
The United Nations is warning that Zimbabweans could be forced to take desperate action in order to survive. In the town of Mutare there was a case in which students, out of pure hunger, slaughtered and ate dogs. Survival has become a daily struggle taking up all of peoples’ energy.
So far, many Zimbabweans have been able to acquire food items in neighbouring South Africa. But now Mugabe wants to block even this path. In the future, all imported goods going beyond a certain value are to be taxed.
For South Africa, time is becoming an issue: On August 10, President Thabo Mbeki is to report to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) of his mediation efforts with Harare. So far, these do not hold out any promise of success.
Mugabe (83) who has been ruling Zimbabwe since its independence in 1980, is steadfastly pursuing his re-election in elections set for March 2008, regardless of the worldwide dismay about the chaos and human rights violations rampant in his country.
And the two factions of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) are so divided that even if their demand for constitutional changes were met, it is questionable whether they could win the election.
In addition, Mugabe’s sharpest critic, Bulawayo Archbishop Pius Ncube, has been silenced by a character assassination campaign. The country’s state-controlled media have published videos which allegedly portray the 60-year-old Catholic clergyman in a hotel bed together with a married woman.
The erstwhile husband, who had previously separated from his wife, has just filed damage claims of Z$20-billion — $1,3-million at the official exchange rate — against Ncube. – Sapa-DPA, Sapa