Sibusiso Moyo, Minister of Foreign Affairs has warned uncooperative business operators who unjustifiably raise commodity. He said their behaviour, if continued, risks attracting government’s compliance measures meant to cushion consumers.
Speaking to the NewsDay last week, Moyo claimed that the ongoing price hikes were a result of indiscipline.He said:
This is a very temporary phenomenon, what we are going through and sometimes also they say in a democracy there must be discipline.
We cannot separate democracy and discipline. If you lack discipline, then what it means is that people would want to maximise on profits, but in reality profits are basically 10-15%. That is not exactly what is happening on the market.
We are saying we must be united in achieving the specific national interests, but if we behave in an undisciplined manner, unfortunately, it will pain a lot of people. We could have ameliorated that particular pain if we were disciplined as a society, as a business, as different sectors of the economy.
Moyo added that although it would be ideal to let market forces determine the prices, the need to protect the consumers will force the government to intervene. He said:
Definitely, as government we are going to enforce discipline, but what we don’t want was to try and be hard-handed to our people, we want to talk to our people so that they understand that we are together and we are moving in a particular direction.
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