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Price Controls and Shortages - Index of articles
Fuel
coupons banned as war on business community intensifies
Lance Guma, SW Radio Africa
July 19, 2007
http://www.swradioafrica.com/news190707/fuel190707.htm
Zimbabweans
in the diaspora who had been sending money, fuel and groceries home,
woke up to a new reality Thursday when government announced a ban
on the sale of fuel coupons. Up until now the coupons allowed Zimbabwean
exiles to send fuel to their loved ones, while helping to beat perennial
fuel shortages. The new directive adds to the ban on the importation
of groceries that begins on the 1st August. As the country edges
closer to the brink almost everyone from students, the opposition,
informal and formal business sectors and now the diaspora are being
affected by government policies that are putting a stranglehold
on everything.
Industry and
International Trade Minister Obert Mpofu announced that the sale
of fuel coupons has been banned and those already issued must be
redeemed within two weeks. Authorities say fuel should be accessed
'through approved sites.' Various companies serving the diaspora
have started informing their customers of the cancellation of the
service while advising those who have placed and paid for orders,
to collect their coupons as soon as possible. Many people who spoke
to Newsreel asked 'what are we to do for our families now?' They
accused Mugabe's regime of trying to starve people, by taking away
basic things like food and petrol.
Economic analyst
Bekithemba Mhlanga said Mugabe's regime was determined to control
the market and force everyone to trade within its structures. He
said the country is being run by the Joint Operations Command (JOC)
a grouping of military and security organisations. 'They thrive
on instructions and commands,' Mhlanga added. He says the regime
has put in place an 8-month strategy to control the economy until
elections in 2008. Once the elections are over, they will then begin
to deal with the consequences of their actions.
Some believe
Mugabe is targeting the business community because he claims they
are trying to push him out of power by hiking prices and in the
process make him lose the 2008 election. There are suggestions that
a prediction of Zimbabwe's economic collapse made by outgoing US
ambassador Christopher Dell has been seized on by Mugabe, to justify
a crackdown on the business sector. But there is consensus that
bad political decisions and corruption have combined to drive the
country under. A violent land grab that began in 2000, after Mugabe
lost a constitutional referendum, was the final nail in the coffin
as the agriculturally based economy collapsed.
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