ZANU PF MP Simbaneuta Mudarikwa has called on the government to urgently intervene and regulate the price of bottled mineral water which he said was overpriced.
Report by Veneranda Langa, Senior Parliamentary Reporter
Mudarikwa made the remarks in the House of Assembly on Tuesday. Mineral water in Zimbabwe costs 50 cents per 500 ml bottle and $1 for a litre.
“How can you have a country where mineral water costs more than diesel or petrol and yet water is readily available?” asked Mudarikwa.
“In some cases, mineral water costs $1,00 per 500 ml and so it is $2 per litre, while diesel costs $1,48 per litre, yet it comes all the way from Iraq, has to be transported through Beira and pumped in Harare,” he said. Mudarikwa said the country should seriously look at such situations as water was a basic need.
“The reason for all this is because for one to start a business in Zimbabwe, there are many licences required.
“For instance, to start a hotel, one requires 40 licences and these are factors that are destroying industry in Zimbabwe. In the end, Zimbabwe becomes a northern province of South Africa and we are now a supermarket economy of South Africa,” he said.
Mudarikwa also castigated the importation of vegetables from South Africa, which he described as squeezing out local farmers.
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“We have a situation, Mr Speaker, where the august House recommended there should not be any more importation of vegetables like tomatoes, carrots, sweet potatoes and others from South Africa.
“The mapositori (a religious sect) from Dewedzo in Marange used to produce sweet potatoes, but now they cannot do that because they are competing with genetically- modified sweet potatoes from South Africa.”
