ZPP conducted a brief survey on the impact of the price increases to the ordinary citizens
and here are some of the responses:
“I personally think the price increases are affecting us civil servants more, looking at
how most Zimbabwe dollar salaries are being eroded every minute and many retailers
and service providers are demanding payments in US Dollars. So, we have to go to
the parallel market, where the exchange rate is nearly double the official rate and that
leaves us with very little.”
“Everything is uncertain. One day you wake up with the (Finance) minister telling you
that the economy is improving, and yet all that I have known for the past three years
has been price increases, changes in currencies and people rejecting the local
currency. Life is much harder now and this September, things became much worse for
me as a vendor because if I sell my tomatoes in the local currency, I do not feel secure
anymore to keep it in case it will be eroded overnight.”
“Our government owes us a great deal of honesty. They continue to just blame
everyone else when anything goes wrong. They are the ones who make the parallel
market and they blame the same parallel market when they cannot control it.
Corruption, looting and misgovernance are the reason why we continue to have
inflation and currency problems. I hope the government owns up for what it has
caused us in this country.”
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Transparency
We strongly urge government and the Finance and Economic Development ministry to be
more transparent on the state of the economy. This is because while the government’s
position is that the economy is improving, it sadly is not reflected on the ordinary person
and as ZPP has noted, life has become more difficult in the communities.
Priorities
Transparency allows the citizen to understand government’s priorities in income and
expenditure. For a government that has not done enough in covering the critical social
sectors such as health, education and social welfare, it is important for citizens to know
where the often -mentioned mineral resource and other revenues are being channeled to.
This is because the social inequalities between the poor and hardworking and rich and
connected. ZPP urges government to set its priorities right and ensure that the social sector
is prioritized, because it is when people have adequate social services that their quality of
life improves and genuine development takes place.