guest column:Wim Naudé

NARRATIVES are essential. Humans are, after all, “helpless story junkies”. Business and economic success depend, much more than is commonly acknowledged, on getting the narrative right. And if there is a narrative where getting it right or wrong matters hugely, it is the narrative about Africa’s industrial development.

Africa is the poorest continent. It is likely to be the most affected by climate change. It is the continent where terrorist groups are spreading fast.

Therefore, African industrialisation is essential. Unfortunately, the dominant narrative is that Africa has been de-industrialising, even prematurely. In this narrative, it is also questioned whether Africa can ever industrialise. African countries have even been advised not to try. The World Bank’s “Trouble in the Making” report concludes that manufacturing is becoming less relevant for low-income countries.

Fortunately, a very different narrative is possible. In a recent paper, I argue that Africa can industrialise because of three factors. These are “brilliant” new technologies enabling digitisation, smart materials and 3D-printing; a more vibrant entrepreneurship scene; and Africa’s growing middle class (as measured by the share of households that earn between US$11 and US$110 per person per day), which supports the continent’s first generation of indigenous tech-entrepreneurs.

Consider, therefore, the following narrative: More than 300 digital platforms, mostly indigenous, are operating across the continent. There are also more than 400 high-tech hubs, and more are being added. In addition, venture capital funding into African tech start-ups increased ten-fold between 2012 and 2018.

Moreover, manufacturing has more than doubled in size in real terms since 1980. And since 2000, manufacturing value addition has grown at more than 4% a year. That is double the average between 1980 and 2000 (numbers from the Expanded African Sector Database).

As a result, total employment in manufacturing in 18 of the largest African economies (for which there is data) grew from roughly nine million in 2004 to more than 17 million by 2014. That is an 83% increase in 10 years. The proportion of labour in manufacturing for Africa as a region grew from roughly 5% in the 1970s to almost 10% by 2008.

So, how will these trends shape the future? I argue that they will result in three varieties of industrialisation.

The first variety can be labelled “acquiring traditional manufacturing capabilities”. This variety is implied by Overseas Development Institute researchers Karishma Banga and Dirk Willem te Velde. It will be experienced by countries and sectors where technological change is too fast and complex to benefit immediately. These countries and sectors will need time to first put complementary investments in place, while at the same time continuing to promote traditional labour-intensive manufacturing.

The second variety, “fostering sectors with the characteristics of manufacturing”, is elaborated in a recent UNU-WIDER book. Here it is argued that service sectors can take up “the role held by manufacturing in the past”. In many countries, services such as ICT and telecoms, tourism and transport, financial and farming services can lead to productive development.

The third variety: “Resurgent entrepreneurship-led industrialisation” is based on my earlier work. I point to the growing list of achievements of African countries in terms of high-tech manufacturing. For example, South Africa leads in advanced manufacturing in having one of the world’s largest 3D-printers, used to manufacture parts for the aviation industry.

Different combinations of these varieties will dominate in different countries. For example, Kenya is already experiencing the simultaneous development of high-tech financial services alongside growth in traditional manufacturing, such as food processing and textiles, as well as clusters of advanced manufacturing. While every country’s pathway will be a unique combination of these varieties, what they will have in common is that progress will require that they deal with the impact of new technology, especially digitisation, on manufacturing.

To ensure momentum is maintained, the narrative about industrialisation has to change. As Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari pointed out, neither land – the core resource of feudalism – nor physical capital – the core resource of 20th-century capitalism – will be decisive for competitiveness in the future. Instead, data and data science, free information flows, ICT (data) skills, and decentralisation of decision-making will be the decisive factors.

What needs to be done

With an outdated story that gives up on manufacturing, Africa will fail to close the huge digital gap it still faces. The gap is reflected in the fact the continent contributes less than 1% of world’s digital knowledge production. To reduce this gap, African countries will have to start by expanding internet access and use. If internet use across the continent can be expanded to the same rate as in high-income countries, 140 million new jobs and US$2,2 trillion could be added to the gross domestic product.

What must be done to change the narrative? What do African governments need to do? The first is that its leaders need to start telling more stories about the future than about the past. Perhaps, like China’s leaders, they can even be inspired by science fiction. British best-selling author Neil Gaiman relates how China started to embrace science fiction after sending a delegation to “the US, to Apple, to Microsoft, to Google, and they asked the people there who were inventing the future about themselves. And they found that all of them had read science fiction when they were boys or girls.”

Helping to imagine the future of African industrialisation, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa recently stressed the fact that Africa is one of the early adopters of mobile telephony and moreover that the continent needs to aspire to more.

We need to focus on the new technologies that are going to revolutionise the world, and we need to be ahead of the curve.
This is the right narrative. It is necessary, although not sufficient for African industrialisation. For this, words need to lead to actions. And some consistent actions, at least for a start, would be for African governments to refrain from creating stumbling blocks for their brave new tech-entrepreneurs, such as curbing access to the internet, restricting digital information flows, under-investing in science, technology, engineering and mathematics education, neglecting data-privacy legislation and restricting the rights of women to work in manufacturing. – The Conversation

BY Richard Muponde

PRESIDENTIAL Affairs minister Joram Gumbo was never arrested for criminal abuse of office, but he was just being interviewed on the goings on in parastatals which fell under his previous ministry and could be a State witness, his lawyer Selby Hwacha claimed yesterday.

The minister was “arrested” on Monday and brought to court on Tuesday, but did not appear before a magistrate after a call was reportedly made to Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) officers to bring him back to the police station.

Indications were that there was an intention to press more charges against him.

He was brought to court on allegations of corruptly acquiring US$1 million from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to renovate a property belonging to his relative, Mavis Gumbo on the pretext that it was meant for rent and other expenses for Zimbabwe Airways head office.

Hwacha yesterday said his client was never arrested and was astonished by the fuss about him appearing in court.

“Zacc officers went to his house on Friday and saw his wife who advised them that he was in Victoria Falls. They phoned him, advising him that they wanted to interview him and left their numbers,” Hwacha said.

“He came on Sunday earlier than his scheduled departure. After that he advised the officers that he was in town and asked if he could visit their office, but they told him to come on Monday around 9am. He went there and they interviewed him and told him to go back home. Is that arrest?”

Hwacha said the following day (Tuesday) he came from his home and was taken to court and when they appeared at the Harare Magistrates Courts they were told to go back home.

“Why then are people saying he was arrested? What’s the hype about him appearing in court than look on the other side that he could be cleared of any allegations?” queried Hwacha.

“There are a lot of things which happened in parastatals which fell under his previous ministry which they wanted to interview him on and also other things which have been said in the media. He could be a State witness, so he was never arrested. As his lawyer, I am waiting to hear that there are no charges against him.”

However, sources told NewsDay that Zacc was pressing two more charges against the minister with the anti-graft commission reportedly searching for more details in relation to the cases.

Charges against Gumbo emanated from a US$2,7 million fuel tender awarded to First Oil Company in 2013 and a US$1 million involving the Zimbabwe Airways deal.

He is also accused of corruptly facilitating the award of a US$333,3 million tender to Indrastemas and Homt Espana of South Africa for air control equipment without following procurement procedures.

news reporter

Al-AMIN YUSUPH is an information management professional with more than 20 years experience in knowledge and information management, media development and use of new media for development accumulated at national and international levels.

Yusuph has also been involved in several election support programmes through the media and rural communication for development programmes.

Some of his notable projects include the rolling out of automated library systems with the British Council; the establishment of the Seychelles Media Commission, Zanzibar Journalism Training Institute and the Unesco-Samsung Digital Village in the Serengeti.

Yusuph worked in the print media in 1997 before proceeding with his graduate education with the University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where he graduated in 2000.

He then proceeded to work with the British Council and thereafter joined Unesco.

He was one of the founding members of the Management Forum, which had chapters in several countries in East and West Africa, the Community Media Network in Tanzania and the East African Community Media Network as well as one of the founding advisory board members of the revamped Tanzania Media Foundation.

International organisations he worked for include the British Council, where he worked for eight years as knowledge and learning centre manager and a member of the East and West Africa regional leadership team.

As a member of the East and West African regional leadership team, Yusuph was involved in peer reviews of British Council operations in Sierra Leone and Ethiopia.

He also worked briefly with the Canadian International Development Aid Tanzania in 2004, where he consulted on information management.

Yusuph worked for Unesco from November 2006 up to 2012 covering Tanzania, Seychelles, Madagascar, Mauritius and Comoros.

From 2012 to 2015, he was the programme specialist for communication and information at the Unesco office in Dar es Salaam.

In 2015, he joined the Unesco New Delhi, India office as regional adviser for communication and information for South Asia (covering Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka) before relocating to Harare in April 2019 as regional adviser for communication and information for Southern Africa.

BY CHARLES LAITON

THE Constitutional Court (ConCourt) yesterday deflated MDC-T leader Thokozani Khupe’s bid to wrest the MDC presidency from Nelson Chamisa, after dismissing her challenge for being expelled from Parliament, where she represented Makokoba constituency and was leader of the opposition party in the House.

Khupe was recalled by the MDC in April 2018, three months before elections, which ended her parliamentary term.

She then took Parliament and the MDC to the ConCourt, a move which led to her expulsion from the august House.

Through her lawyer Lovemore Madhuku, Khupe had submitted that the MDC violated its own constitution by recalling her, and as such, Parliament ought not to have expelled her in the manner it did.

But in its determination, the ConCourt bench, led by Chief Justice Luke Malaba, ruled that her matter had been overtaken by events and was, therefore, a moot case.

“The court holds that the question of whether or not Parliament failed to fulfil its constitutional obligation with regard to the circumstances in which the seat occupied by the first applicant became vacant has been rendered moot by the occurrence of events subsequent to the making of the court application,” the court ruled.

“The matter no longer presents a live dispute between the parties requiring the court to hear and determine it in accordance with the principle of justiciability. In the result, the application is dismissed with no order as to costs.”

Specifically, the court said Khupe’s term of office as an MP had expired a day before polling day on July 30, 2018 when it “became irrefutably vacant and lost to her”.

In recalling her, Chamisa wrote to National Assembly Speaker Advocate Jacob Mudenda, saying Khupe no longer represented the opposition party’s interests as she was no longer a member of the MDC.

Madhuku had submitted that Khupe had been prejudiced of her benefits when she was “unceremoniously” expelled, adding she was mulling suing for damages.

But Parliament’s lawyer Thabani Mpofu argued that: “There is no dispute to be resolved in this matter and, as such, the court cannot deal with it. If the first applicant (Khupe) claims she unlawfully lost her seat in Parliament, she can bring her claim for damages to the High Court and not to seek pronouncement of this court. As far as the first and second respondent (Parliament and Mudenda) is concerned, there is no dispute between the parties.”

The ConCourt ruling could have a bearing on a separate case at the Supreme Court, where Chamisa is fighting a ruling of the High Court which would restore the leadership of the MDC to the February 2018 settings when MDC founding leader Morgan Tsvangirai died.

Chamisa’s lawyers argue in the Supreme Court case that the matter is now moot, after Khupe and Chamisa separately contested the July 2018 elections — Chamisa leading the MDC Alliance and Khupe as leader of the MDC-T.

Judgment is pending in the Supreme Court case.

guest column:guest column

DICTATORS are not born, but created by “we the people” due to political, economic and social conditions obtaining in a country. In dire economic and political situations, “we the people” are desperate for quick solutions to our problems to the extent that we fail to see the writing on the wall. The French, Germans, Italians and Spaniards — the list is endless — did not see it coming because they were mired in debilitating political and economic crises. Dictators emerge from such environments as “we the people” expect a Messiah to usher us into a land flowing with milk and honey.

Robert Mugabe (RGM), the late former President of Zimbabwe was not born a dictator. Although some may argue that as he was growing up in Zvimba, Mugabe displayed a dictatorial disposition. Zanu PF, as a party, and “we the people” of Zimbabwe significantly contributed to shape and mold RGM into one of Africa’s notorious and infamous dictators. Slogans such as Pamberi navaMugabe; VaMugabe Chete; and VaMugabe ndibaba etc no doubt played a significant role in shaping Mugabe’s political character. As “we the people” focused our attention on ending white supremacy and the destruction of colonial structures and institutions, we blindly and uncritically eulogised Mugabe. Roads, airports, schools, children, etc were named after him.

The Mugabe dictatorship did show us that dictators love power (and do anything and everything to get it or preserve it); surround themselves with sycophants and homeboys and homegirls; are uncomfortable with criticism, and eliminate their opponents, etc. Nelson “Cobra” Chamisa (NC) took over the MDC-T presidency in controversial and dramatic circumstances. With the assistance of the MDC-T’s national executive council (NEC), he literally and forcefully grabbed the presidency of the party — the Zimbabwean version of Napoleon Bonaparte’s coup Brumaire.

His supporters within the NEC used the MDC-T constitution to justify Chamisa’s ascendancy to the coveted MDC presidency. The opposition party’s NC could not have pulled this great feat without the support of “we the people”.

As an individual, Chamisa demonstrated his love for power in that he could not even wait to bury Morgan Richard Tsvangirai (MRT) the very same person who had handpicked him as one of the MDC-T vice-presidents after dismally losing the secretary-general contest to Douglas Mwonzora (DM).

Like Mugabe, Chamisa interfered in the MDC congress to make sure his surrogates were elected to key positions in the party. He has effectively surrounded himself with praise singers (whose political careers depend upon him eg Tendai Biti, Welshman Ncube; MaKhumalo, etc) and homeboys and homegirls from Masvingo. The outcry and rightly so from Mthwakazi is that NC has imposed a Shona leadership in the region.

Furthermore, like all other dictators, Chamisa is uncomfortable with criticism and dissenting voices. DM can testify to this. He has become a target of a vicious campaign to discredit and malign him and ultimately to push him out of the party. Chamisa has not forgotten his loss to DM at the 2014 congress and views him as the greatest threat to his presidency.
It reminds us of the Mugabe-Sithole leadership controversy in Zanu that emanated from the first Zanu congress in Gweru. The worrisome and troubling reality is that NC is an admirer of RGM as demonstrated by his statements after the demise of our former dear leader.

“We the people” have not learned anything from the Mugabe dictatorship. The same slogans we did for RGM are being chanted for Chamisa — Chamisa Chete Chete.
The youth and their leadership are the purveyors of the Chamisa Chete Chete mantra. In their desperation, the youth have become the running dogs of a promising NC dictatorship as MDC president. The youth are repeating the same mistake they did with RGM.

In the heydays of the Mugabe dictatorship the youth were its vociferous defenders. “We the people” need a strong opposition party, but cannot afford to create yet another dictator after 37 years of Mugabe iron fist rule. “We the people” should guard against the glorification of our leaders, but instead, force them to build strong institutions that prevent the emergence of dictators.

The locus of authority (the centre of power as the disgraced former professor in Mugabe’s Cabinet used to call it) cannot be vested in one man. Zimbabwe as a republic must generate virtuous men and women to lead our nation to greatness.

l Lovemore Sibanda PhD is assistant professor of History/Social Studies College of Education, Teacher Education and Administration Department at the University of North Texas, United States

BY STAFF REPORTER

ALPHA Media Holdings (AMH) journalists reigned supreme two weeks ago when they scooped seven awards at the 2019 National Journalism and Media Awards (Njama) in Harare.

AMH is the largest privately-owned media house in Zimbabwe and publishes NewsDay, Southern Eye, The Standard and Zimbabwe Independent, in addition to running an online radion station — HStv.

Early this year, AMH journalists also came out tops after scooping awards in various categories at the Mining Media Awards.

The group’s Mashonaland East reporter Jairos Saunyama and Bulawayo-based business reporter Mthandazo Nyoni were the toast of the day after each scooped two awards.

Saunyama won the Arts, Culture and Entertainment Reporter of the Year as well as the ICT Journalist of the Year awards, while Nyoni scooped the Business Journalist of the Year and the Financial Journalist of the Year awards.

Moses Mugugunyeki walked away with the Sustainable Development Goal (6) Journalist of the Year award, while the group’s Masvingo-based correspondent Tatenda Chitagu won the Convention on the Rights of the Child @ 30 Child Journalist of the Year award.

Saunyama, Nyoni and Mugugunyeki’s stories were published in The Standard.

Zimbabwe Independent’s Tinashe Kairiza scooped the News Journalist of the Year award.

Held under the theme Media, Communities and Climate Change, Njama is hosted by the Zimbabwe Union of Journalists (ZUJ) each year to honour journalists who would have excelled in covering issues that have great impact on society.

This year’s edition was graced by Chinese deputy ambassador Zhao Baogang and Unesco regional communications and information advisor Al Amin Yusuph.

Yusuph, who was the guest of honour, urged the media to be in the forefront in creating awareness about climate change.

ZUJ secretary-general Foster Dongozi said the ongoing reforms should allow for self-regulation of the media and do away with the criminalisation of the profession.

editorial comment

ONE of the greatest ancient Greek playwrights and poets, Euripides, famous for the many tragedies he wrote, including Medea and The Bacchae – which probed the darker side of human nature, once wrote: “Those whom God wishes to destroy, he first makes mad.” (c. 485-406 BC)
And for anyone who has bothered to follow Zimbabwe’s topsy turvy tragic political affairs from the days of racist Ian Douglas Smith till today, at varying stages in the life of this nation, events and behaviours of those in power have aptly proved Euripides’ prophetic assertion.

At the height of the bitter bush war between the Rhodesian Forces and guerrillas fighting for majority rule in the country, Smith declared in 1976: “Let me say it again. I don’t believe in black majority rule ever in Rhodesia—not in a thousand years.” Four years later, black majority rule visited the southern African country and Zimbabwe was born. Tragically, the country’s next ruler, the late former President Robert Mugabe fell into the very same trappings of power and ruled the country asserting, albeit through his proxies, that he would rule Zimbabwe till he dropped dead. What happened after 37 years of his rule is yet another tragic page of Zimbabwe’s troubled political history.

Today, the country has opened yet another tragic political page as President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s two-year-old government continues to behave in the most bizarre manner as it, among other crazy decisions, fires 77 doctors at government hospitals who have protested for the past two months for better pay and working conditions. It is utterly unbelievable that a whole Cabinet can make such a decision without batting an eyelid. Maybe, it is because they don’t care since none of them are treated by any of those doctors, let alone at the government hospitals. One of them, Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga has been in a hospital in the Far East for months. They are forgetting that nothing lasts forever and are currently so intoxicated with power that their ears can no longer hear the voices of reason.

Even as the number of dissenting voices grows by the day, Cabinet is becoming more obstinate and burying their heads in the sand refusing to come to terms with the tragedy unfolding around them.

While the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Harare Archbishop Robert Christopher Ndlovu — the latest high-profile individual to call out the powers-that-be — has placed the blame on the leaders of both the ruling party and the main opposition MDC, the buck — at the end of the day, stops with those who are in power. Ndlovu says: “If they are all for the people, as they claim to be, they must show that through humility and willingness to engage in meaningful discussions for the benefit of the people and country.”

Granted, but a very old Shona adage schools us thus: “Gudo guru peta muswe kuti vaduku vakutye.” Literally translated it means, an elderly baboon should not let loose its tail. So, in other words, those discussions can only happen only after Mnangagwa decides to fold his tail. Opposition leader Nelson Chamisa is being headstrong simply because Mnangagwa is not prepared to get down from his lofty chair and speak to the commoner, Chamisa. Such is the tragedy the country finds itself in.

BY MTHANDAZO NYONI

ZIMBABWEANS across the country love locally-produced goods, but issues to do with availability, affordability and quality, among others, have forced them to buy foreign products at the expense of local ones.

The southern African nation’s manufacturing sector is reeling under a plethora of challenges, chief among them shortage of raw material, scarce foreign currency, cheap imports, crippling power cuts, a brain drain and limited access to credit.

The sector’s capacity utilisation levels have been on a decline since 2012 and last year it stood at 48%.

This year, the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries projected that the figure would drop to about 30% due to negative macro-economic factors that affected the country since January.

Due to these challenges, the sector has struggled to produce affordable and competitive goods, forcing citizens to opt for cheaper foreign products.

“We have issues to do with quality and price. It’s not like people like foreign things, people have limited choices. People like locally-produced goods, but they are not readily available. Those that are available, we have seen people buying them,” economic analyst, Persistence Gwanyanya, said.

“The challenge that we are having in Zimbabwe is that there is no production. There are no industries. Industries are closed and as a result, there are no goods to buy. The solution is to increase production. Production is basic,” he said.

For instance, two litres of locally-produced cooking oil costs about $60, but the imported one from South Africa costs around $40.

Inflationary pressures have seen the cost of living rising beyond the reach of many, as prices of basic commodities have more than quadrupled, resulting in the poverty datum line for an average family of five skyrocketing to $2 191,62 in September 2019.

Before Finance minister Mthuli Ncube suspended the publication of annualised inflation figures until February 2020, the inflation figures stood at 176% as at the end of June 2019.

Buy Zimbabwe, whose mandate is to promote, deepen and broaden the utilisation of locally-sourced and produced resources, has conducted a number of national awareness programmes across the country, emphasising the need for consumption of locally-made products to boost industry’s production capacity and eventually bring down the country’s import bill.

Government has even placed some products on import restrictions as part of a strategy to narrow its trade deficit, and help revive local industries.

According to the industrialists, Zimbabwe needs over US$8 billion to replace old equipment in its factories and revive local industries.

But due to issues of affordability, quality and availability, these efforts have yielded very little.

Buy Zimbabwe admitted: “It’s of no doubt that local people perceive local products as of good quality than foreign ones, but in some instances they are forced to go for foreign products because of availability and affordability.”

Prices of basic goods such as mealie meal, sugar, milk, rice and cooking oil, among others, are skyrocketing daily beyond the reach of ordinary Zimbabweans.

Economic analyst, John Robertson, commended the quality of some of the Zimbabweans products compared to some foreign goods found on the market.

“I think that most Zimbabweans would rather have Zimbabwean clothing and shoes if the only option is Chinese. I know that some Chinese goods are of very high quality, but I suspect we always made better clothing than they did,” he said.

“For the hi-tech and technical items, like electrical appliances, I’m sorry to say that we’ve not kept up with production methods, the use of more modern materials and upgraded designs, so a Zimbabwean toaster or kettle won’t compare with a modern import,” Robertson said.

He said Zimbabwe used to be as up-to-date as any country and when it made Supersonic radios, they could be exported around the world in competition with the best from Japan, Holland or Germany.

“But, we couldn’t keep pace with technological changes and today’s radios consist of a few microchips that didn’t exist when Supersonic was a big, successful company,” he said.

“When Fashion Enterprises was running, Zimbabwe exported ladies’ dresses to France and Superior Footwear exported shoes to Italy and Dairibord exported cheese to Greece and the whole of Europe was keen to buy Zimbabwean beef.

“We invested in the training of designers and toolmakers and our skills kept us competitive. The real question is: ‘What did we do that made us slip down so badly? Confidence dropped, investment in skills stopped and the trained people left the country for better jobs elsewhere. We have a lot to do to rebuild and we have to start with confidence!”

In one of his writings, Maqhawe Dube, a marketing strategist, said Buy Zimbabwe needed to recruit genuine ambassadors of the Zimbabwe brand — people who would not wait until a Zimbabwean product is the best to love it, but who will love it until it is the best.

“And there is great need to be wise about it. Clearly, Zimbabwean politics is divisive and, therefore, a political figure from either side would alienate a portion of the population. We may need to appeal to respected professionals and those in the arts and culture space to take up this mantle,” he wrote.

To address issues of quality, affordability and availability, analysts said there was need to capacitate industry.

They also called upon government to create a conducive investment environment.

BY MISHMA CHAKANYUKA

TELECOMMUNICATIONS company, TelOne has increased its tariffs by 199,35% with effect from yesterday.

In a statement, TelOne said the new rates were approved by the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Potraz) and were necessitated by the group’s desire to provide world class services to its customers.

“Please, be advised that as per approvals granted by the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe, TelOne rates will be increased by 199,35% effective November 6, 2019,” the notice read.

“This increase has been necessitated by our continued desire to provide world class connectivity and digital solutions to you, our valued customer. Your respective account manager will engage you further on how the change will be effected to your account.”

This comes after Potraz, last month approved an upward voice, data and SMS tariff review of 95,39% for both mobile and fixed network operators, saying previous tariffs had been eroded by inflationary pressures.

Inflation figures have been escalating since the beginning of the year, reaching an all high year-on-year of 175,66% in June, before government banned the publication of the figures in August.

In September, month-on-month inflation decelerated by 0,35 percentage points to 17,72% from 18,07% in August.

The increase in tariffs comes at a time Zimbabwe is facing an economic crisis coupled by foreign currency, power shortages, fuel price hikes and inflation, which has rendered the operating environment difficult for business operators.

Both fuel and electricity are important in the operations of telecommunication companies, to power base stations.

Last week, fuel price went up by 12% to $16,75 per litre from $14,97 for petrol, while diesel was up by $1,83 to $17,47. Later in the week, there was a 4c downward price adjustment on the commodity.

The Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority last month allowed the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority to increase electricity tariffs by 320% to 162,16 cents per kilowatt hour (kWh) in a bid to improve the country’s power supply.