Skyrocketing inflation, erratic power supplies, a skills shortage and a dearth of foreign exchange have combined to ensure Zimbabwe is missing out on a global boom in gold prices. The potential benefits for manufacturers and miners are being rapidly eroded by the collapse of the Zimbabwean dollar.
Zimbabwe’s Reserve Bank Governor said on Saturday he is not opposed to President Robert Mugabe’s controversial price controls that have wreaked havoc on the country’s battered economy. However, Gideon Gono repeated his call for measures to be taken to stabilise prices in the country’s hyper-inflationary environment.
Authorities in Zimbabwe announced the arrest of hundreds more retailers and executives as part of an ongoing price crackdown on Friday as it emerged the head of the central bank had warned against the blitz. Among the latest arrests were four police officers accused of looting from shops.
Zimbabwe may stop publishing inflation data for one year, an effort economists say is aimed at shielding the government from embarrassment over its failure to rein in soaring prices in the economically depressed nation. President Robert Mugabe’s government has failed to release inflation figures for May and June.
Zimbabwe has sent crack police to enforce price freezes in the rural strongholds of President Robert Mugabe, where businesses have failed to heed measures aimed at reining in inflation. Mugabe’s government, grappling with inflation of 4Â 500%, ordered businesses last month to roll back and freeze prices.
The government withdrew the licences of all private slaughterhouses on Wednesday, accusing them of defying orders to reduce meat prices by 50% in the state’s attempts to rein in rampant inflation. Their closure was expected to worsen already severe meat shortages.
Zimbabwe business leaders held out an olive branch to the government on Wednesday over its controversial price controls, pledging to make goods more affordable and accepting there would be no let-up of a crackdown that has seen hundreds of retailers arrested.
President Robert Mugabe’s government has no intention of stopping its blitz on price hikers, a Cabinet minister was quoted as saying on Tuesday. Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said Zimbabweans had welcomed the blitz on stores and supermarkets, which has seen prices halved and the arrests of more than 1Â 300 people for charging too much.
Zimbabwe’s main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, on Monday predicted chaos as a result of the government’s clampdown on the business community, which has seen the prices of many goods more than halved and over 1Â 300 business people arrested.
Zimbabwean police have arrested more than 1Â 300 shop owners and business executives for defying the government’s orders to reduce prices. President Robert Mugabe’s government, concerned by rocketing prices that could trigger social unrest, had ordered shops and businesses to reduce their prices to levels used on June 18, or face arrest.
Zimbabwean police have arrested 16 more business executives for raising prices above those stipulated by President Robert Mugabe’s government, a newspaper said on Sunday. The latest arrests bring to 33 the number of executives arrested since Friday under a police blitz dubbed Operation Reduce Prices.
Hundreds of war veterans and ruling party militiamen and loyalists summoned by Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe arrived by the busload at his party headquarters for a meeting on Friday as government-ordered price cuts spurred mounting chaos in the economy.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe on Friday told manufacturers to carry on with normal production despite an official price freeze, warning that his government would seize firms that stopped producing basic goods. Mugabe was addressing thousands of ruling Zanu-PF party supporters in Harare.
Hundreds of President Robert Mugabe’s supporters marched through Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, on Friday in support of an official price freeze introduced to curb the world’s highest inflation rate of over 4Â 500%. The march was planned ahead of a ruling Zanu-PF party meeting to adopt tougher measures against firms defying the freeze.
At least 20 children have died from a diarrhoea outbreak in a Zimbabwe mining town after drinking suspected contaminated water, official media reported on Friday. The Herald newspaper said the children were from the mining town of Kadoma, about 140km west of Harare.
A Zimbabwe Foreign Ministry official gatecrashed the United States embassy’s July 4 celebrations on Wednesday to criticise outgoing ambassador Christopher Dell, saying ”diplomats are supposed to be bridge builders not bridge busters”. Samuel Mhango criticised Dell for remarks he made in an address on Wednesday on the assault by police of opposition leaders in Harare.
It pays to get up early in a country where even the most basic goods are disappearing from shop shelves. Long queues of shoppers now form early in the morning at many Harare supermarkets and shops, hoping to grab essentials such as sugar and oil amid a price crisis that has sharpened already desperate consumer shortages.
Store shelves normally stocked with staples such as corn meal, cooking oil and sugar were empty on Tuesday as the Zimbabwe government threatened to take over manufacturers and retailers who failed to slash prices by half. Smaller shops shut down after running out of stock.
Zimbabwe’s government on Monday threatened to close businesses defying its order to halve prices, accusing them of working to topple President Robert Mugabe. Mugabe’s government last week ordered a 50% cut in the prices of basic goods and services after prices shot up by as much as 300% in a week.
A blanket ban on political rallies in the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, has been lifted although demonstrations will still need prior authorisation, police said on Friday. the temporary banning order was issued on February 21, with authorities claiming that protests could lead to an outbreak of rioting.
President Robert Mugabe’s new push to get tough on the economy may bring short-term political benefits but is likely to leave Zimbabwe in even worse straits as its economic infrastructure collapses. Mugabe this week warned that he was ready to nationalise firms accused of ”dirty tricks” against his rule.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe threatened on Wednesday to seize mining firms and other companies if they persist with ”dirty tricks” and keep raising prices in the face of rampant inflation. ”This nonsense of price escalations must come to an end,” the 83-year-old head of state said.
Accountant Shawn Kureva was left cursing his decision to delay buying cement at a Harare hardware store until he had compared prices elsewhere in inflation-ravaged Zimbabwe. ”The price for a bag of cement was Z 000 and I had enough money for five but thought it was not a bad idea to compare prices,” he said of his shopping trip last Friday.
Basic commodities had all but disappeared from some shop shelves in Zimbabwe on Wednesday, a day after the authorities ordered a drastic 50% price slash. A snap survey in several supermarkets in Harare showed that bread, milk, flour and cooking oil were no longer on the shelves.
With street protests banned and a once-vibrant press muzzled, dissident theatre productions are becoming an increasingly popular outlet to vent frustration towards Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe. Cont Mhlanga’s satire The Good President has been playing before packed audiences — but police are not impressed.
Retailers in inflation-ravaged Zimbabwe on Tuesday shunned a new government order to slash the prices of basic goods such as bread and sugar, arguing that such a move would drive them out of business. Industry and International Trade Minister Obert Mpofu said price cuts of up to 50% had been ordered overnight.
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe’s government ordered the prices of basic goods to be slashed by about 50%, reports said on Tuesday. Bus fares, bread, fertiliser, milk and many other commodities have shot up in price in the past days. Industry Minister Obert Mpofu said the price increases were unjustifiable.
A group of women on Monday staged a peaceful demonstration outside the South African embassy in Harare to demand the inclusion of civic rights groups in South African-mediated talks on the Zimbabwe crisis. The women hung posters on the security fence surrounding the embassy in northern Harare.
Zimbabwe’s escalating food crisis comes amid resurgent accusations that food aid is being abused as a political tool. The Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Food Programme have said that more than 2,1-million Zimbabweans in both rural and urban areas will be in dire need of food aid in the third quarter of this year.
The government of the Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe still has the support of the country’s people, the information minister said on Saturday, dismissing predictions by the United States ambassador to Harare that regime change is imminent.
A judge ordered a bail hearing for suspects accused of trying to topple Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to be held behind closed doors on Friday to protect the identity of the alleged ringleaders. ”This case is a very sensitive one,” High Court Judge Tedius Karwi said, granting a prosecution request to bar the media.
The value of the Zimbabwean dollar suffered its worst crash in memory, dealers said, sparking a run on dollars and forcing stores to close early to put new prices on what little they could afford to stock. ”It’s gone crazy,” said the trader, who spoke on condition of anonymity because his dealings are illegal.