'Forfeit illegal forex dealers' money,' says Matemadanda

ZANU-PF's Secretary for war veterans, Victor Matemadanda, said money from forex dealers should be forfeited to the State and Government should come up with a law that empowers it to do so.

Matemadanda who is also the Secretary General of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans' Association (ZNLWVA) said illegal forex dealers popularly known as osiphatheleni were contributing to the price hike madness and the panic buying that is creating artificial shortages.

He said he would lobby Parliament and policy makers to come up with a law that empowers Government to forfeit money recovered from illegal forex dealers.

"These are tough times and they need tough measures. We cannot be suffering yet there is so much rot going on around us.

"These osiphatheleni are found with forex on a daily basis and are arrested and later released.

"The money found on them should be forfeited to the State as punishment for illegally dealing in forex," he said.

Matemadanda said the parallel market was fuelling the price madness across the country and there is therefore an urgent need to rid the cities and towns of the illegal forex dealers.

He said the black market was working against Government efforts to turn around the economy and as such it must be stopped.

"Government is working on measures to turn around the economy and those fuelling the black market such as illegal forex dealers were putting spanners in the works," said Matemadanda.

He said just rounding up forex dealers and releasing them later was not deterrent enough hence they return to the streets soon after release.

Matemadanda urged war veterans to take the lead in monitoring the market and reporting irregularities to the authorities so that corrective action can be taken.

He said retailers engaging in unfair business practices should be reported to the authorites in order to protect consumers.

He described business people that are unjustly increasing prices as enemies of the State who must be treated as such.

"Let us not interfere but monitor, get registration numbers of vehicles and report them to us and we will act on those that are making people suffer.

"Cooking oil producers and cement producers have come out in the open and told us that they have not increased prices so one wonders why retailers are taking advantage of the people. Let us expose them," said Matemadanda Police in Bulawayo have arrested more than 60 osiphatheleni in the last two weeks in an operation code named "Flush out illegal forex dealers."