Radio: Zimbabwe's overchargers will be 'prosecuted'

Mar 12, 2008, 11:16 GMT

Harare/Johannesburg - Zimbabwe's state pricing commission has warned it will seek prosecution for businesses that hike prices as President Robert Mugabe's party tries to shore up popularity ahead of this month's polls.

With two and a half weeks to go before make-or-break polls, Mugabe's government is desperate to stop price hikes, saying they are the work of 'profiteers' who want to stir up discontent against the ruling party.

Godwills Masimirembwa, the head of the National Incomes and Pricing Commission (NIPC), warned businesses that continue raising prices they would soon be prosecuted, state radio reported Wednesday.

Shop floor workers Monday morning were seen marking up prices by around three times in some cases.

A loaf of bread is now selling for as much as 7.5 million dollars: a box of locally-produced cornflakes retailed in one grocery store for 75 million dollars.

Election officers for the state Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) were until recently being paid just 10 million dollars a day, reports say.

Zimbabwe's local dollar has taken a huge battering on the back of election jitters: shopkeepers say they are just trying to keep pace.

Zimbabwe's annual inflation rate is now running at more than 100,580 per cent, the highest in the world.

Two company officials have been arrested in the past week for flouting NIPC price controls.

Jeremy Brooke, the managing director of National Foods, was arrested for setting the price of flour at more than the official 600 million per tonne.

He spent several nights in police custody.

Michael Manga, the chief executive of Blue Ribbon Foods, has also been arrested for allowing huge mark-ups in the price of flour.