FYI | Jul 10 2007
By Greg Peel
If it wasn’t so tragic it would be laughable.
It is easy to find stories about the current state of the Zimbabwean economy that are rather amusing. Consider a recent anecdote about three foreigners playing a round of golf in Harare. They had a beer at the clubhouse before tee-off and came in for another at the turn. The second beer cost more. At the end of the round they settled in for beers at the nineteenth, which cost more again. This is not satire – this was real.
President Mugabe’s latest move is indeed equally as farcical, and would actually be funny if not for the implications. It seems that Zimbabwe’s current official inflation level of 3,714% (realistically above 5,000%) has nothing to do with Mugabe’s printing press at all. It has all to do with treasonous shopkeepers.
In order to overcome runaway prices for basic foodstuffs – a state of affairs that may threaten Mugabe’s re-election chances – the government has imposed price controls which require the halving of the price of staples. Of course no one has imposed price controls at the input level, so shopkeepers are left with two choices – either flout the law or cease restocking. Manufacturers of basics such as cooking oil and salt have simply stopped production.
While shelves are quietly being emptied across the country, 1,328 shop owners and business managers of everything from supermarket chains to restaurants have been arrested. The charge is profiteering. The result will be that the government will nationalise any business found breaking the law.
To make the story even more Orwellian, Mugabe has accused any critics of price controls of being puppets of former colonial Britain who are determined to topple his regime. In the case of the shopkeepers, some were simply being greedy but others had actually been recruited by the British to cause turmoil, he suggested.
This is all supposedly related to the election which is to be held next year – that is if the entire population hasn’t starved to death in the meantime.