The government will enforce price reductions as some shops were not adhering to the price moratorium which they had committed to following a multi-sectoral stakeholders agreement last month.
This was said by Vice President Kembo Mohadi on Friday at Gwanda Provincial Hospital during a visit to monitor progress in fighting Covid-19. He said:
We had a moratorium where we agreed that prices had to revert to the prices of 25 March.
Some have observed that and some haven’t but since it’s something that we didn’t coerce anyone into as they signed voluntarily, we will have to enforce it to see that it’s done.
It’s not price control, it was a mutual understanding that we need to help people.
The price moratorium seeks to reverse recent steep increases in prices of basic goods including bread, super-refined maize meal, cooking oil, flour and sugar to March 25.
Some retailers have not only failed to reduce the prices but have actually increased them.