Over 5000 arrested so far in price blitz.
By Lance Guma
26 July 2007.

Over 5000 business executives, shop owners and store managers have been arrested since a controversial crackdown on prices was launched last month. On Wednesday another 23 shop owners and managers were arrested for what the state claims is overcharging. The group was rounded up in Harare’s central business district and are set to appear in court on Friday. The majority of those who have already gone to court have on each occasion been fined.
The regime ordered a 50 percent price slash in a bid to reduce runaway inflation. It’s now reported that a cabinet taskforce on pricing and incomes stabilisation is meeting manufacturers who have stopped production owing to the pricing chaos. When the clampdown started government basked in the limelight by claiming to reduce prices on behalf of the people, but the long-term consequences have seen the ‘command economics’ backfire. Empty supermarket shelves have put pressure on the regime to secure a more sustainable solution.
Several people interviewed by Newsreel in Bulawayo said the prices imposed by government were only valid during visits by price monitoring teams and the police. As soon as the teams left the shops, the old prices were put back on by shop staff. This seems to explain why so many businesses owners are being arrested. No one can afford to sell below cost. In several speeches made since the clampdown started Mugabe has made it clear he believes the business community is trying to unseat him by hiking prices, in complete denial of government’s role in the economic collapse in the country. This latest Mugabe economic policy has only served to create shortages, with empty shops becoming the norm in the country.
Ruling party chefs however seem to have been the biggest beneficiaries of the chaos. Businessman Philip Chiyangwa is reported to have bought 6 months worth of cement production at Circle Cement in Harare at the new gazetted price of Z$150 000 per bag. Other senior officials have been following price monitoring teams and buying the majority of stock for resale in their own shops. Analysts believe an inner circle of 5000 close Mugabe aides are shielded from the adverse effects of his policies and it is this group that is strategically placed in different organisations to keep Mugabe in power.
Meanwhile it’s reported that although South African shopkeepers are benefiting from a flood of Zimbabweans who are shopping for basic commodities there, the high consumer demand is fuelling inflation in that country. Zimbabweans are buying essential items like cooking oil, rice, milk, maize meal and bread. The demand has been so great many shops are recruiting extra staff to cope. A South African Business Day report says the number of buses ferrying shoppers from Zimbabwe has doubled in the past year.