Zimbabwe's government on Monday threatened to close businesses defying its order to halve prices, accusing them of working to topple President Robert Mugabe. Mugabe's government last week ordered a 50 percent cut in the prices of basic goods and services after prices shot up by as much as 300 percent in a week, However, retailers have largely resisted the order while some products have disappeared from shop shelves.
The government - which has deployed a special unit to ensure compliance with the order - has arrested more than 20 business executives, including a senator belonging to the ruling party, for not implementing the price-cut.
Acting President Joseph Msika told a gathering at the burial of a former top military officer on Monday that shops and businesses not complying with the decree were "sell-outs" working with outside forces to destabilise the economy and topple Mugabe.
"We will not brook any attempts to thwart our efforts to correct this undesirable state of affairs. Some unscrupulous manufacturers have remained defiant and are creating artificial shortages of goods," Msika said.
Mugabe, in Ghana this week for a summit of the African Union, is facing the worst economic crisis since Zimbabwe's independence in 1980 with inflation at an annual 4,000 percent and dire shortages of food, fuel and foreign exchange.
"We will not allow sell-outs, renegades and money mongers to interfere with our good way of life. You are warned to stop what you are doing... do not distort our prices. Stop it or we will force you to close shop, or we take over your factory," Msika added.
Last Wednesday Mugabe threatened to seize and nationalise foreign companies, including mines, that have raised prices and cut output in what he says is a campaign to oust him from power. Analysts say Mugabe's tough response to the worsening economic situation was aimed at pacifying an increasingly restive population grappling with the world's highest inflation rate, but could further hurt the economy in 2008.
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