Editorial Comment

One of the biggest problems in Zimbabwe is over charging for goods and services and unfair business practices. This problem has brought suffering to many vulnerable Zimbabweans who have to pay a fortune for goods and services that they should be accessing easily and cheaply.

It started during the early 2000s were basic commodities were scarce. Most goods were accessible only on the black market .This resulted in traders overcharging for their goods.

We thought when goods were back on supermarket shelves there would be changes but we have been wrong. Traders continue to charge between 100% and 200% profit margins. In other countries sellers realise profit margins of between 5% and 15 %.

The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe introduced bond coins in a bid to drive prices down. It has worked in some instances with the price of bread falling for $1 to $0.90 for example.

However prices for most commodities have remained relatively high. Prices continue to be high. Econet has asked its suppliers to cut prices. Whether the suppliers comply or not time will tell.

But big corporates such as Econet are not the only victims of overcharging. In some cases they have also been perpetrators of overcharging. Government departments and local government authorities such as municipalities are also being overcharged by suppliers and service providers.

Of course much of the blame has been heaped on high hidden costs of doing business in this country. There are reports of massive red tape, bureaucracy and corruption in high offices. You have to pay people in the system and even police officers on our roads. All these costs have to be paid for by the consumer.

The effects of overcharging are felt more by ordinary citizens who expect service provision. For example if the government is buying cars at inflated rates from local suppliers, the national purse suffers and everyone is affected. Likewise if chemicals for treating water are overprices the result is lack of water in the taps.

I was privy to a social media discussion last week where a friend of mine a Christian, questioned the business practices of his fellow Christians who overcharge in their business dealings. Despite Zimbabweans claiming to be Christians, some of those running their businesses do not adhere to the demands of the bible on
overcharging.

The Bible says God is not pleased with those who use unfair scales. There is a threshold on how much profit a man can make from
his dealings. The Quran also commands the same. God even puts a limit on how much interest people can charge others and ironically finance costs in this country are very high.

Traders are driven by the desire to profiteer rather than make descend moral profit margins. Prices are then distorted in order for sellers to make huge profits.

We obviously do not want to advocate for the government to intervene and restore order in our markets but clearly the’ invisible hand’ has failed to work. There is a lot of price fixing and overcharging which will only harm our society in the long run.

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