HARARE – The government is temporarily lifting an import ban on some basic commodities in a bid to address shortages.
Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa told reporters after a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday that the measure was aimed at dealing with “persistent panic and speculative buying”.
Statutory Instrument 122 of 2017 will be amended to allow Zimbabweans to import specified products currently in short supply without quantity restrictions.
The products include cooking oil, sugar, water, shoe polish, cement, coffee creamers, body creams, baked beans, fertiliser, crude soya bean oil, finished steel roofing sheets, wheat flour, soap, stock-feeds, agro-chemicals, potato crisps, salad creams, yoghurts, jams, peanut butter, synthetic hair products, cereals and cheese among others.
Mutsvangwa said following a presentation by Industry and Commerce Minister Nqobizitha Mangaliso Ndlovu, “Cabinet noted with concern that the basic commodities continued to be in short supply despite continued production by suppliers, thereby reflecting persistent panic and speculative buying of the commodities by members of the public.”
She said the continuing increases in prices had pushed the commodities beyond the reach of many.
The minister told reporters that products that used to be sold over a month were not being sold “in just three hours’ time, a situation which is completely unsustainable.”
The lifting of the import duty restrictions would allow “both companies and individuals with offshore funds” to import the specified goods “pending the return to normalcy in buying patterns of the public and adequate restocking by manufacturers.”
