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Arrest blitz of execs in Zim
08/07/2007 12:00 - (SA)
Harare - Zimbabwean police have arrested 16 more business executives for raising prices above those stipulated by President Robert Mugabe's government, a newspaper said Sunday.
The latest arrests bring to 33 the number of executives arrested since Friday under a police blitz dubbed Operation Reduce Prices, said the official Sunday Mail.
Those arrested included the executives of clothing stores, butcheries and fast food outlets, said the paper.
Police meanwhile threatened to extend their blitz to pharmacies, hardware stores and Harare's flea markets, informal market places that many city dwellers rely on to buy cheap clothes, shoes and electronic goods.
"There has been non-compliance in sectors such as flea markets, hardwares, pharmacies and the transport industry, just to mention a few," police spokesman Andrew Phiri told the paper.
"We are therefore giving the last warning to those who may think that the directive (to reduce prices) excludes them."
Mugabe's government two weeks ago warned businesses to reduce their prices by half, or risk being taken over by the government. Teams of police and price inspectors have been moving around the country to enforce the decree.
In a move likely to precipitate a fuel crisis, the teams on Saturday ordered service stations in Harare to reduce the price of a litre of diesel and petrol from about 200 000 Zimbabwe dollars to between 55 000 and 60 000 dollars.
The new price is worth around 0.34 US dollars per litre, which is way below the selling price for fuel in the region. In neighbouring Mozambique, petrol sells for nearly 1.50 US dollars a litre.
On Saturday Mugabe told a meeting of his ruling Zanu-PF party that price controls were here to stay.
The 83-year-old leader has accused the business community of being behind a plot to unseat his government by raising prices to unaffordable levels.
"Any normal person could see that the pricing system was no longer predicated only on the need to sustain business but now bordered on criminal and even political considerations," he said in the capital Harare.
"Let it be known that we intend to ensure that the price controls do not only stay but begin to bring long-term tangible relief and more disposable incomes to our people."
Business executives say the price hikes are necessary to remain profitable amid an economic crisis marked by acute shortages of fuel, power and foreign currency and inflation of more than 4 500%.
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