Politburo recommends extension of price crackdown

By Tererai Karimakwenda
17 July, 2007

The state controlled Herald newspaper reports that a meeting of the ruling party's politburo on Monday had decided to extend the three-week old price reduction exercise, saying it had yielded positive results. This is despite the obvious fact that businesses lost billions and shops are now empty, since they were ordered to cut prices in half. There are now serious shortages of basic goods and a transport crisis has developed due to the shortage of fuel. Police and price enforcers have also been accused of looting.

Dubbed Operation Dzikiza Mitengo (Operation Reduced Prices), the campaign saw shoppers flooding the stores in search of cheap products, with near stampedes being reported. Journalist Angus Shaw told us on Tuesday that the situation is deteriorating quickly. He said the shops that are open have empty shelves, minibuses are largely off the road and huge queues at bus terminals are seen every morning, for the few ZUPCO government buses still running. Shaw predicted the transport system will come to a complete standstill by the end of the week. He added that the power cuts that are a regular feature of life in Zimbabwe now last much longer than before and businesses that need electricity are suffering badly.

Despite all the obvious signs the Herald quotes Nathan Shamuyarira, Zanu-PF's secretary for information and publicity, as saying the meeting chaired by Robert Mugabe had decided to extend the Operation because it had already brought prices down. The results on the ground and the effect on businesses were ignored. Shaw said the politburo commended the price task forces for having brought “sanity” to the economy. But the Harare based journalist described what he sees daily as “quite the reverse on the ground. It is insanity.”

Shamuyarira is reported as saying: "The politburo came up with a number of measures to tighten and intensify the process and these will be tabled before the central committee tomorrow [Tuesday]. But we were quite impressed with the process." Shaw said there has been talk in the business community about “face-saving” price increases being considered by government. It is not clear if this is what the politburo recommended to the central committee on Tuesday.