Online Reporter
Takudzwa Karowangoro
The Government has urged the business community to unite in fighting against the selling of counterfeit products and smuggling of the same into the country.
This comes after a police crackdown on people selling fake products, especially night vendors who operate on the streets.
Industry and Commerce Minister Mangaliso Ndlovu made the call at the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) meeting with business member organisations held at Cresta Hotel on Monday.
Minister Ndlovu said the Government and stakeholders are dealing with the smuggling of goods problem and selling of fake products.
“The Government is working hard to reduce these problems, and some people are being arrested across the country for selling fake products,” he said.
“It looks like it is going to be a long fight. We had underestimated the extent to which people were now coming up with these counterfeit products.
“I challenge the business community, especially the manufacturers, to help us in this fight because they know their products. They will be able to distinguish their original products from the counterfeits.
“We have been working closely with quite a number of them, including National Foods, in identifying the counterfeit products, and we have reined in all the shops that are selling these, and they are helping us trace the supplier.”
One of the representatives of the business members, African Roundtable chief executive officer Mr Oswell Binha, applauded the initiative to meet all stakeholders.
“We had our routine engagement with the business member organisations. Quite a number of them came here and were represented at the highest levels of the president and CEOs, and it was an opportunity to just exchange ideas, assess the progress in terms of the targets that we set ourselves under the Industrial Reconstruction and Growth Plan,” he said.
“But also to appreciate their observations in terms of the macroeconomic environment and doing business in general, and I am happy that they really acknowledge the progress that we have made in terms of addressing the ease of doing business reforms that are currently taking place, in terms of dealing with the issues of smuggling and counterfeit products.”
