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Zimbabwe: Prices Blitz - MDC Condemns Zanu PF
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Zimbabwe Standard (Harare)
8 July 2007
Posted to the web 8 July 2007
Caiphas Chimhete, Kholwani Nyathi and Nqobani Ndlovu
Harare
THE main faction of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) yesterday dismissed the government's price controls as a Zanu PF "election gimmick".
Addressing about 1 000 party supporters in Dzivaresekwa, Harare yesterday, MDC president Morgan Tsvangirai, said the price slashing drive by the government was a ploy to win the support of "gullible" Zimbabweans ahead of next year's harmonised elections.
"This is a cheap political gimmick. It's useless to cut prices today and tomorrow you don't find the goods in the shops. Very soon all basic commodities will run out," he said.
Meanwhile, in Bulawayo, the government's controversial blitz on manufacturers and retailers to reduce the prices of basic commodities turned ugly with enforcement teams, led by the police, allegedly engaging in an orgy of looting goods from shops.
A number of businesspeople who took their time to review prices lost billions of dollars after the so-called crack teams forced them to comply, at times under threat of violence.
A number of millers operating from the old Cold Storage Commission premises were allegedly manhandled by youth militia (Green Bombers) for failing to comply with the directive.
Nkayi Member of the House of Assembly, Abednigo Bhebhe, the Movement for Democratic Change pro-Senate's deputy spokesperson, said he lost 50 000 litres of fuel after the so-called crack units seized the keys to the fuel pumps at his service station in Bulawayo.
The police and the militia forced the attendants to sell the fuel at $60 000 a litre, although Bhebhe said he had imported it from Botswana.
The raid was in contempt of a Magistrates' Court order allowing Bhebhe to sell the fuel at $140 000 a litre and warning the police against interfering with his business.
Bhebhe was dragged to the court by the Price and Stabilisation Committee on Tuesday, accused of failing to comply with the government directive.
"The police have no respect for the courts and the fuel I am selling is not from the National Oil Company of Zimbabwe but from Botswana," Bhebhe fumed. "My lawyers are working on papers to challenge the police to stop harassing me over the sale of fuel which I am importing."
In what analysts describe as a populist move, the government recently ordered all wholesalers and retailers to return to prices obtaining as of 18 June this year.
Tsvangirai said Mugabe had in the past 27 years systematically destroyed the economy, once the "jewel" of Africa, because of scorched-earth policies.
"Now he (Mugabe) wants to invade firms. There will be more job losses and it us the poor who are going to suffer. He is like a snake which kills what it does not eat."
The MDC leader urged his supporters to register as voters in the on-going voter registration exercise, saying it was the only way to remove Mugabe.
"We might have support, fill up stadiums, but it doesn't help anything if we do not go and vote to remove Mugabe." he said.
In Bulawayo, meanwhile, junior police officers, excluded from monitoring teams, were now allegedly leading syndicates in buying goods in bulk, channelling them to the black market where they are sold at the old prices.
It is understood the junior officers use their links with the force to target retailers soon after they are raided by the monitoring teams.
Only senior police officers, soldiers and the Border Gezi graduates have reportedly been recruited to carry out the operation, leaving the junior police officers fuming.
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The Standard witnessed dozens of the junior officers driving away shoppers while allowing their colleagues access to supermarkets and shops where prices had been slashed.
In the ensuing chaos, the police bought most of the goods at the shops under the guise of controlling queues.
It is feared many of the affected supermarkets and businesses will incur massive losses as a result of the looting.
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| Copyright © 2007 Zimbabwe Standard. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com). To contact the copyright holder directly for corrections -- or for permission to republish or make other authorized use of this material, click here. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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