MUTARE The rural folk in Chigodora under Chief Zimunya in Mutare South have turned to bartering, as foreign currency remains elusive. Small-scale business operators from the city of Mutare have taken advantage of the poverty-stricken villagers and flooded the area with basic commodities that they have been exchanging with maize grain and livestock.
A cow is worth two cartons of cooking oil and two cartons of laundry soap. A goat is worth eight litres of cooking oil or a carton of green bar laundry soap. A 90kg bag of maize can be exchanged for six litres of cooking oil or a dozen bars of laundry soap. Cross border traders from Mozambique have brought clothes and fish to exchange for maize, beans, sunflowers, and groundnuts.
Chief Zimunya told The Zimbabwean that his area was faced with a shortage of foreign currency since the government had adopted the multi-currency policy. We have no choice but to turn to bartering. Here in the village it is difficult to get the US dollar and the Rand. This predicament has forced the villagers to sell their farm products to the informal traders who have flooded this area, he said.
Chief Zimunya has pleaded with the government to implement mechanisms that would insure that the informal traders were licensed before they came to trade in the community. The government should gazette the prices. These unscrupulous informal traders are ripping villagers off. I would like the police to come and arrest them before the villagers lose out, said Chief Zimunya.
Post published in: News