'Have people at heart,' Zimbabwe minister tells businesses

Mar 18, 2008, 16:24 GMT

Harare - A government minister in Zimbabwe has pleaded with businesses to 'have people at heart' and stop hiking prices ahead of this month's elections, the official Herald reported Tuesday.

With less than two weeks to go before presidential and parliamentary polls, prices are shooting up sometimes two or three times a day.

Bread is selling in some stores for up to 15 million Zimbabwe dollars a loaf, up from 9.5 million last week. Fresh milk sold Tuesday at around 14 million dollars a 500ml packet, nearly half a farmworkers monthly salary.

'We are calling upon manufacturers, shop owners and even the transport sector to have people at heart and work together with the government for the betterment of every citizen,' Local Government Deputy Minister Morris Sakabuya was quoted as saying.

The authorities suspect prices are being raised simply to erode a massive hike in civil servants' wages awarded last week by President Robert Mugabe. Teachers are now being paid 3.4 billion Zimbabwe dollars, up from around 300 million.

But storekeepers quote the terrifying fall of the Zimbabwe dollar on the parallel market for foreign currency.

The local unit traded Monday at 68.5 million to the US, against an official rate of 30,000. Last Friday the rate was 48.3 million.

Sakabuya said the authorities would consider withdrawing trading licences, imposing fines and 'even taking legal action against the profiteers to ensure that they did not hike prices willy-nilly.'