Shops comply with Dragon, Twizza decision

Harmony Agere
Most retail shops have cleared Dragon energy and Twizza soft drinks from their shelves in compliance with Government’s ban the two beverages for failing to meet health and importation standards.
Government recently banned the popular beverages because they contravened health and importation procedures; and the Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers says retailers are complying.
The confederation’s president, Mr Denford Mutashu, however lamented that the ban had resulted in many shops incurring huge losses.
Said Mr Mutashu: “There has been a swift response by retailers to comply with the ban and many of them have heed the ministry’s call. Unfortunately, there are those who had huge stocks but the response is generally good and the product has been cleared from the shelves in most shops.
“In business there are always risks and retailers should be prepared to deal with such. We are obviously affected by the losses but those are the risks that we should anticipate. Government should put in place measurers to monitor the quality of these products before they come into the country because the culture of banning is bad for business.”
A snap survey by this publication in major retail shops showed that the products were being removed from shelves and stocked in storage rooms.
Tuckshops, kiosks and vendors are, however, still selling the product openly. Some traders said they still hoped the ban would be reversed.
“The boss has instructed us to remove the products from the shelves. But we know that he has entered a deal with the vendors to sell the products on the black market,” said one shop assistant. “I understand his actions because simply disposing of them will be a huge loss.”