He accused them of delighting at the misery of the majority
and urged a return to ethical business practices.
Prof Ncube caught the money changers, popularly known as
osiphatheleni, and managers of some of the city’s biggest retail outlets
napping when he made an impromptu tour in Bulawayo’s central business district.
The Minister visited fast-food outlets first. Some people
have accused cashiers at such outlets of claiming that point-of-sale machines
are always down.
At some major supermarkets, Prof Ncube expressed his dismay
when he was told that the price of some basic commodities like mealie meal had
doubled in the last week or so.
At a supermarket located on Fort Street, an incensed Prof
Ncube took matters into his own hands, tearing down a sign that advertised
goods in US dollars only. Addressing a manager at the outlet, Prof Ncube said:
“We want to send a message to your bosses. We are saying that they must stop
these price hikes, which are totally unjustifiable. I am saying this because
the next time we ask you to close and withdraw your licence, you will be out of
a job and so will a lot of other people. Then the Government will be blamed for
shutting down businesses when this is the only way because their behaviour is
not proper.”
Prof Ncube continued: “Have you heard of the word
schadenfreude? It is a German word that means taking delight from the misery of
others. In English, they call it epicaricacy. That is what you’re practising.
It is not good.”
At Tredgold, money changers ran away from Prof Ncube, with
the few who were willing to interact with him blaming retailers for the rising
cost of living.
In an interview after his tour, Prof Ncube said Government
would soon crack down on businesses that were working hand in glove with the
illegal money changers.
“Selling currency on the street, freely without shame,
where do they get this money from? They have brand-new notes and this is
unacceptable. We want to send a strong message as Government that, firstly, we
are not happy with these price increases and secondly, we are not happy with
movements that we are seeing on the parallel market. We are taking action on
it. I saw swipe machines on the street and these people are running businesses
from their cars, changing currency. Clearly, they are working with organised
businesses,” he said.
Prof Ncube said Government had pinpointed middlemen
operating between producers and retailers as some of the culprits fuelling
price increases. So far, he said, Government had identified six companies that
would soon be blacklisted, with their bank accounts already frozen.
“As Government, we are not going to tolerate this kind of
behaviour, where shops are refusing domestic currency and only accepting US
dollars. Both currencies should be equally accepted but there’s just a wanton
increase of prices, for no reason because nothing changed between this week and
last week. It’s totally unacceptable and unjustifiable and, as Government, we
are forced to allow citizens to import anything in terms of basic commodities,
which is what we did when we opened up the borders.”
“Then the big shops will complain and say we are
informalising the economy yet it is them that are pushing up the prices. We
have also just discovered that the middlemen between the producers and the
retailers, the so-called aggregators, are also part of the problem. We have
decided that on Monday, we are going to fine and blacklist six of them. I won’t
mention their names but I have got the list and we want them to stop behaving
badly. Any shop that will be behaving in that manner will have their licence
withdrawn,” he said. Sunday Mail
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