Bakeries close down

on for that too: “The state will take over any businesses that are closed. We will re-organise them with workers, and at last the socialism we (always) wanted can start again.” There is now growing unrest over the economy following executive threats that firms closing because of price controls would be nationalised.
The country’s three biggest bakeries said they would end production this week following the introduction of lower prices for commodities. The three bakeries, which supply nine tenths of the bread consumed by lower income groups, were asked by the government to produce about 10 per cent of their normal output to tide consumers over the weekend. Now, however, they say they cannot afford to continue to absorb losses of $20,000 per loaf.
“It will be cheaper to close than continue to produce bread at these losses,” said one baker. Another said: “We will be baking our last loaves tomorrow.”
Price controls were introduced with inflation at 4,500 per cent, and deepening poverty for nearly 70 per cent of the population. Many here see this as a vote-buying gimmick ahead of next march’s joint polls. As predicted by economists and industrialists, bread and cooking oil supplies has completely ran out. Meat and milk were the next to go, according to the Commercial Farmers’ Union.
At least 10,000 people work in the three bakeries, one of which is Zimbabwean-owned; the other two have substantial South African shareholdings. An economist at a major bank said the policy could not be easily reversed: “The damage has been done. The majority will not accept any increases in the price of bread now.”