Prices more than double overnight

By Tererai Karimakwenda
March 14, 2008

Zimbabweans woke up Friday to find that prices for most basic goods and transport had more than doubled overnight. Our correspondent said drinkers were shocked to find that a quart of beer was now selling at Z$50 million, up from Z$20 million. Cascade orange drinks that were Z$7,5 million are now Z$25 million. Mealie meal ran out in the shops but can be found on the black market at Z$100 million for a 10 kg bag.

Even with the huge salary increases that civil servants and teachers received this week, it won’t be long before they are demanding more, again. Robert Mugabe awarded them a 750% pay raise, and said they should be happy with it.

Our Harare correspondent Simon Muchemwa said teachers from the Zimbabwe Teachers Association accepted the new salary structure and were back at work on Friday. The lowest paid teacher now makes Z$2,2 billion per month.

But Muchemwa said some teachers just left work and went back home when they discovered that prices had already doubled before they received their first pay cheque, showing the new salaries. It is believed that they were mostly teachers from the Progressive Teachers Union Of Zimbabwe. We were not able to reach the PTUZ to confirm this.

Muchemwa said bus fares into Harare city centre from the outer suburbs went up to Z$10 million from Z$5 million. He said people are in panic mode because they cannot afford the things they need and that this will definitely affect the outcome of the elections this month.