Chronicle Editor
Stephen Mpofu
Organised business in this country seems to have taken on the character of a choir conductor who repeatedly calls the wrong tune and expects the musicians to croon it and for audiences to part with their cash, now wafer-thin in value, and slavishly dance to the discordant tunes.
That the chief overseer of Zimbabwe’s national affairs is also expected, and does also join in the fray, appears to give the conductor more verve with his chaotic dealings in a bid to harvest more accolades from audiences who grow weaker and weaker with the greater exertion of their energy.
The matter in point here relates to the escalating prices of goods that are not matched by increases in the salaries of workers with the result that they and the general public now find it difficult to access food and the other essential commodities, not to mention paying fees for their school going children.
Which also suggests that with the country in the grip of a severe drought, rural dwellers with their scarce financial resources appear set for very difficult times ahead, especially if Government and other well-wishers do not chip in with food relief among other essential life savers to cushion the villagers.
Business gurus on hearing from Parliament this week that the Government would raise the salaries of civil servants against the ever rising prices of goods must have executed a sinjonjo dance in their executive offices amid controlled shouts of “got them (Government) right where we want them to be,” meaning that there was no condemnation of price rises this time around, nor hint on impending Government price controls.
The rejoicing must have been by business executives working in connivance with the political enemy within or without; otherwise how can businesses turn a blind eye to the plight of the masses on whom they depend for their survival, in an economy now on one knee as if they themselves are insular to the current economic challenges?
But if truth be told, businesses with their heads buried in the sand are unwittingly engaged in self-destruction with their extortionate pricing system.
One chicken farmer is known to have told a customer that the prices of the birds would soon rise from the present $18 or so to RTG$S30 “very soon because of the high prices of chicken feed”.
But come to think of it, shops and private dealers charge for a “full chicken” a price almost similar to that of a goat out in the rural areas, when in reality the chickens are not full as such with the insides removed before sale.
“These traders are pricing themselves out of business,” commented one irate citizen in the City of Kings and Queens.
What is probably worse to come is that if Government does not introduce price control or some kind of measures to curtail further price increases by organised traders who apparently believe they possess carte blanche rights to raise prices of their commodities as their whim dictates, the ease-of-business initiatives being pursued by the state will be seriously sabotaged with the result that foreign investors will be discouraged from bringing their hard-earned cash to do business in a country where the public’s buying power has or is being seriously eroded by get-rich-quick commodity prices.
In these difficult but passing economic times, one would have expected that unmitigated patriots be they in business or other activities would put the nation first before political, economic and other interests until the country recovers from its economic woes.
This writer and no doubt other patriotic Zimbabweans, keep hoping that God the Almighty will heal our land sooner rather than later.
Online Reporter