You are lucky this is not China, Mnangagwa warns businesses overcharging

President Emmerson Mnangagwa yesterday asked business players to play fair saying that they were lucky this was not China otherwise some would have been executed for overcharging.

According to the Chronicle, Mnangagwa said this in response to comments by Finance Secretary George Guvamatanga who lamented that some private players were milking poor consumers by charging exorbitant prices.

Guvamatanga said some hotel operators were charging the equivalent of up to US$600 for accommodation and meals per day, while flights were going for the equivalent of US$1 500.

“This is not acceptable and it has to stop Your Excellency,” Guvamatanga said at the Zimbabwe Economic Development Conference at the resort town of Victoria Falls.

“Your statement was loud and clear and we shouldn’t be having people doing this in our society. We don’t want our society as a nation to be constituted by such characters,” Mnangagwa is said to have responded.

“We have a duty as citizens of our nation to play fair and be remembered for building our country and not destroying it.

“It’s unfortunate that what he said is happening in Zimbabwe, if he said it in China we’ll be having candidates for execution. But in Zimbabwe I as the President don’t want death penalty and we need to find other means of punishment.”

Zimbabwe currently has at least six exchange rates. These are the:

1. Auction rate
2. The interbank rate
3. The gold coin rate
4. The cash rate
5. The mobile money rate
6. The swipe or zipit rate

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