Bus fares and price of bread go up

By Tichaona Sibanda
03 October 2006

Bus fares in Harare went up on Monday by between 50 and 100 percent while fuel remains in short supply. The increases are likely to exacerbate problems facing commuters and the transport industry. Recently the government said it would identify at least a hundred garages that would get fuel from the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe. But a dire shortage of foreign exchange caused by the regime’s policies has resulted in Noczim failing to fulfil its promise.

Our correspondent in Harare Simon Muchemwa said bus operators were now charging up to Z$400 for a journey that was Z$200 or Z$300 last week.

'It varies with the distance but most notably those travelling to Norton or Marondera are now forking out close to Z$700 for a single journey,’ Muchemwa said.

The instability of Zimbabwe’s exchange rate has made things worse, forcing transport costs to rise severely in the country the last two years. Most people in the capital are forced to walk to work.

The rising bus fares and bread prices are the latest symptom of the economic crisis facing Zimbabwe. Many bakeries as well have hiked the price of bread by more than 50 percent, increasing the misery of ordinary consumers.

Sources told our correspondent that government seems to have backed down on the new price increases for bread when a police crackdown on bakeries last week resulted in a severe shortage of the commodity.

Bakeries had argued that other inputs used to produce a loaf of bread, such as sugar and yeast, had shot up. They said selling bread at government’s stupulated price of Z$200 a loaf is unviable.

Muchemwa said since the Bakeries were given the green light to sell a loaf for Z$295 ‘almost every shelf in the shops and supermarkets in Harare is full of bread.’