The Minister of Industry and Commerce, Nqobizitha Mangaliso Ndlovu on Wednesday chided businesses for constantly raising the prices of goods, saying such a habit will eventually cause people to revolt.
Addressing a Bulawayo provincial investment conference at the Zimbabwe International Exhibition Centre, Ndlovu said:
They are pushing consumers to revolt… We want to have candid discussions around this issue, which is killing our economy.
Ndlovu berated businesses for pushing prices up citing the fall in the value of the RTGS Dollar against the United States Dollar. Said Ndlovu:
I don’t know whether our economy is a foreign exchange market or what, but this does not make sense.
National Consumer Rights Association (Nacora) advocacy and campaign adviser Effie Ncube told Southern Eye that the government should convene an all-stakeholders forum to deal with the cost of living. Said Ncube:
This rise in the cost of living cuts a deep wound in the lives of people, harming the young and old, employed and unemployed, in a profound way, even for people accustomed to pain in recent years.
We call upon the government to urgently convene a cost-of-living forum in which government, business and workers and consumers will be represented. It must be remembered that not all consumers are workers, so the unemployed consumer must have a seat at the table as well.
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