Mnangagwa accuses Indian business people of hoarding basic goods, threatens to confiscate them
President Emmerson Mnangagwa has issued a stern warning to the business sector and specifically targeted Indians, accusing them of stockpiling basic supplies to create artificial shortages and boost prices.
“We are being attacked currently by price hikes. Why, just when we announced that we are going for general elections? Our enemies decided they must cause problems among our people and started hiking prices such as Innscor,” Mnangagwa said, although Innscor had provided some of the food that people ate at the rally and had also displayed their banner alongside Zanu PF banners.
President Mnangagwa singled out businesspeople of Indian origin and said he had information that they were illegally hoarding basic commodities.
“I have been told today that some Indians in Harare are stocking basic goods in warehouses. They buy sugar from Chiredzi, all the basic goods like flour and so on to stock in their warehouse then raise the prices, let me warn them,” he said and added that his team was investigating this issue and would proceed to confiscate the goods.
“If it is true, we shall confiscate, not only the warehouses but the things inside them and give it to you and distribute to people.”
The president said if foreign businesspeople based in Zimbabwe wanted to hoard goods, they should “go back to their countries.”
“Our government will never tolerate such activities in an independent Zimbabwe,” Mnangagwa said.
There has been a sudden disappearance of basic commodities including sugar, cooking oil and flour in most shops, especially in major urban areas, resulting in price hikes, which the Mnangagwa-led government has blamed on economic saboteurs trying to dent its works ahead of the national elections slated for August 23.
