Chronicle Editor
THERE was a time at the height of economic difficulties in the country when all basic commodities were unavailable on the formal market but abundant on the street.
Then, inflation was in the thousands, millions and higher.
Then local industry had collapsed totally.
Then there was no foreign currency auction and no interbank market.
In summary, our country had nothing called an economy then.
That was between 2006 and 2008.
Now we have a foreign currency auction and interbank market at which businesses are buying and selling their money in a transparent fashion.
Now, about 70 percent of basic commodities on the local market are produced locally. Inflation, while high, is certainly not in the thousands.
Yet, we have some businesses behaving as if the economic situation has become so bad that they want to get everyone back to the dire past.
We reported yesterday that some businesses are sabotaging the economy by removing some items from their outlets to the street and small shops where they are sold exclusively in foreign currency.
This is creating a false crisis, an artificial shortage of some products on the official market where customers are free to buy them in any currency they have.
This is forcing hard-pressed consumers to buy foreign currency on the parallel market for them to use that money to buy whatever they want on the street or in the small shops that are sprouting all over and not accepting local currency.
Maize meal, cooking oil, flour and sugar are some of the products whose supply on the formal market is getting erratic yet stable on the other market.
Consumer Council of Zimbabwe regional manager, Mr Comfort Muchekeza told us:”The chain stores hardly have basic commodities, but all these products are there in small shops where they sell strictly in forex.
These shops don’t accept the Zimbabwean dollar or other form of payments like swipe or EcoCash, One Money and TeleCash.
It seems they also get preferential treatment in terms of supply from producers in and around Bulawayo.
Even those in Harare prefer to trade with these small shops as they buy using hard cash.”
National Consumer Rights Association spokesperson Mr Effie Ncube concurred:”The availability of mealie-meal is dependent on where one is buying from and we have since noted that prices have just shot up even in USD from nowhere without any justification.
“For most of the time basics are now found in smaller shops in Bulawayo, usually the black market shops and they are slowly disappearing from large supermarkets where most of us buy from.”
Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers Association president Mr Denford Mutashu acknowledged the development, but blamed suppliers for preferring foreign currency in their transactions.
This situation concerns us very much.
What is the problem with local business? What do they really want? What action are they trying to provoke? What do they expect the Government to do in response? Can moral suasion work when one is dealing with a business culture we have in our country? We really don’t know.
While we don’t have ready answers to the foregoing and are unsure if moral suasion can work, we feel there is no harm if we appealed to our businesses — manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers — to be guided by business ethics.
Yes, they are in business to make profit, but just profit is what they must seek, not profiteering.
Also, the time may have arrived for the Government to punish the culprits in terms of the law it promulgated a few weeks ago.
A few big examples have potential to instil market discipline for no sensible person wants the economy to be at the low level it was in 2006 and 2008.
Online Reporter