“These days the Zimbabwean dollar cannot buy you anything. If you sell your beast in local currency, it then means that you have to use all the money within three days, or else you will be left with useless paper that cannot buy yanything,” said Bongani Dlomo, a villager at Zinaphi.
Most villagers revealed that they were charging around R200 or P160 for a medium-sized goat and around R800 or P700 for a medium-sized ox.
“After selling in foreign currency, one can easily keep the money because, unlike the Zimbabwean dollar that loses value, the Pula and the Rand will keep on gaining and thereby, earning more buying power. Most villagers here now keep the foreign currency and only change it when they go shopping in town,” said a herdman in Tsholotsho.
Matabeleland North is the country’s biggest livestock producer, but farmers here have of late refused to sell their cattle to the government-run Cold Storage Company (CSC).
Industry and International Trade Minister, Obert Mpofu, who sometime in August threatened to force cattle farmers to sell their livestock to the CSC, confirmed having heard about the villagers’ demands, and described the practise as illegal.
“That is profiteering at its worst … we will soon clamp down on them,” said Mpofu. – Bayethe Zitha
Post published in: News