Zimbabwe Shelves Empty!

There is no bread, Butter, sugar, salt; Zimbabwe shelves are getting empty every single minute.

 While the political crisis is scaling to heights, back in the shops, politics has entered an ordinary mans survival ground; business. Shop owners no longer own their own shops. Zimbabwe’s government now takes charge of business as well.

July 3 is one of those days Businessmen and women in Zimbabwe will continue remembering as a day when Mugabe and his government threw up a policy to cut prices for goods` prices by half to cub the ever-rising inflation.

In the face of soaring hyperinflation, President Robert Mugabe’s government ordered a 50 percent cut in the prices of basic commodities. Defiance of the order was seen as a move to topple Mugabe and businesses have been raided and threatened with closure on Monday 2 July.

Two weeks down the road indeed, Zimbabweans want to topple the government after mildly but seriously resisting the Governments move. Many of their shops have been raided by government forces, looted and if lucky closed down.

Manufacturers hardly have outlets to sell their goods and production reducing vastly, a reason for the empty shelves because of a limited supply and a reluctant mood by the shop owners to stock their shops foreseeing economic fatalities.

The climate Zimbabwe is seated on now does not support anyone apart from Government addicts.

Literally courts are supposed to be independent from the state and that is history in the troubled Southern Africa country as courts now openly show sides.

On July 10, a renown Zimbabwe magistrate in Bulawayo openly warned “companies that the courts would impose jail terms for offenders and profiteers who could easily afford fines” while clearing the air on controversial slashing of prices.

Zimbabwean citizens do not have a cave to hide. While courts are supposed to instill justice, fairness and opportunities amongst residence of a given country, Zimbabwe courts now have their side well marked.

Robert Mugabe has gone ahead to accuse industry owners of trying to undermine his leadership boldly referring them to “snakes” who want to tarnish his name a head of next year’s election in which his party ZANU-F to stand cleared him threatening to nationalize businesses, which refuse to comply.

When Mugabe speaks loud, his juniors speak even louder. Robert Mugabe`s Co-Vice-President Joseph Msika never stops barking. “Their (business and industry) actions call for retaliation. We will uproot this rot within us, and if they don’t agree they should close shops, or we will do it for them and take over their businesses,” Msika told irinnews.

By July 10, private slaughterhouses in Bulawayo and Harare were taken over by the government after continuously defying orders to slashing prices of beef.

Announcing the cancellation of licences July10, Industry Minister Obert Mpofu said the government controlled Cold Storage Company (CSC), was the only abattoir granted sole responsibility to slaughter livestock in Zimbabwe.

The one man who has faced all the oppression, opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai hardly has words for the ever-improving dictatorship in Zimbabwe.

“When your prices are going up 10 times in one month, as happened in June; when basics are no longer on the shelves because of the Government trying to force prices by half so that business people can no longer make any profit; in a situation like that, people can no longer live, and even his own soldiers can’t live, his own police… can no longer live,” Morgan told ABC.

As the policy stands today, more than 1 500 businesses have been charged and fined over the previous two and half weeks for defying orders to slash prices in half or for hoarding goods.

Inflation in Zimbabwe is pegged at nearly 5000 percent, the highest in the world outside a war zone, and is expected top raise to 10 000 by year’s end. Shops are headed for more crises with an average Zimbabwean set to hold all the burdens.

With the already inflated currency, it’s a misfortune that they can no longer carry these bags of cash to buy necessities for themselves.

Robert Mugabe will continue eating the best foods, he will continue having sleep full nights, Robert Mugabe will not be pinched by his own policies, and the average Zimbabweans are headed for starvation because Zimbabwean shops are deserted.