Price blitz: Cops set roadblocks
11/07/2007 09:10  - (SA)  

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Johannesburg - Zimbabwean police have set up roadblocks to stop the movement of basic commodities between cities and rural areas, ZimOnline has reported.

Police spokesperson Oliver Mandipaka said they had information that city shop owners were moving loads of basic commodities to rural areas for "safe keeping".

Owners were apparently seeking to evade government price control and anti-hoarding squads.

Mandipaka said the roadblocks were also aimed at preventing farmers from moving maize to urban areas, but didn't explain why.

Police sources said at least 100kg of maize from travellers ferrying it to the city were seized on Tuesday at a roadblock along Victoria Falls road linking Bulawayo to the rural Matabeleland North province.

Govt freezes prices of commodities

Industry minister and head of the government's Price Monitoring and Stabilization Taskforce Obert Mpofu was not immediately available for comment.

Last month, the government froze prices of all commodities after a spate of price hikes that had seen prices of basic goods rising by more than 500% within three weeks.

Soldiers and police have raided several shops in Harare to force owners to lower prices.

More than 1 300 people had been arrested during the crackdown and the figure was set to rise as the police intensified the crackdown on businesses defying the order to reduce prices.

The price cuts had seen goods such as bread, cement and fuel vanishing from shop shelves only to resurface on the illegal black market.

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