Staff reporter

Buhera South legislator, Cde Joseph Chinotimba told Parliament yesterday that prices of fuel and other basic commodities are relatively low if compared with regional prices of the same products.

“Mr Speaker sir, I was in South Africa last week where I discovered that the price of diesel is around R17. In USD terms, that translates to more than USD$1.20. The same product which now goes for $5.07 is actually $0.62 using the black market rate where most of the fuel dealers source the foreign currency from. So our fuel is far cheaper than South Africa’s.

“Even their bread costs almost R10, which is USD$0.71 and ours is just around 35 cents USD,” said Cde Chinotimba.

Cde Chinotimba said that he saw nothing wrong with the prices, adding that the problem is the salaries that need to be adjusted to match the prices.

Most of the goods are being priced basing on the ever increasing rate of the green pack at the parallel market. The workers have been demanding salaries in USD arguing that salaries denominated in RTGS have been eroded by inflation.

Government is set to adjust civil servants’ salaries this month. A number of safety net measures have been put in place to cushion workers against the wanton price increase.

Government launched the urban mass transportation programme through increasing ZUPCO fleet with heavily subsidised fares. More buses have been imported to ply rural routes. Plans are also underway to introduce people’s shops across the country.