Wilson Chipangura, Guest Reporter
HARARE – An organisation that stands for the interests and rights of consumers has declared war on local business operators over what they call unjustified price system.
The local board, Consumer Protection Commission (CPC) has threatened businesses with a licence revokes if ‘unjustified price hikes of goods and services’ continue to reign in the market.
CPC, a shadowy government scheme to control prices, reportedly deployed price monitors to deal with businesses that regularly increase prices of products.
The board is working in collaboration with law enforcement agencies to ensure success of their operation.
A chairperson of the organisation, Dr Mthokozisi Nkosi, was quoted saying the current pricing system is “madness” which has no justification.
“Our investigators are on the ground to unearth the motive behind this madness. There is very little justification for these price hikes as cost of inputs is relatively stable.
“We urge the sectorial associations to reign in their members before we take the drastic action which include revoking licenses of habitual offenders,” he said.
The issue of price controls is not new to Zimbabwe with the government regularly resorting to this draconian initiative whenever economics models fail to work.
Zimbabwe has always gone through hyperinflation during different periods under the Zanu PF government and some of the figures have broken world records.
It remains to be seen if the CPC initiative will not create a product shortage crisis and end up fuelling the rise of black market as businesses try to maximise their profits.
