Bulawayo,(New Ziana)-The Zimbabwe government is working to strengthen the Consumer Protection Commission (CPC) to ensure it protects buyers of goods and services from exploitation by unscrupulous business people, a Cabinet Minister has said.
Minister of Industry and Commerce Mangaliso Ndlovu said this on Thursday during a stakeholders engagement meeting held in Bulawayo.
He decried the widespread practice where businesses force customers to accept water or sweets as a substitute for 50 cents change.
“We still have places where when you buy something, they tell you your change is 50 cents and ask, ‘Do you want water?’ That is not acceptable. Sometimes they say, ‘Can I give you sweets?’ Or they claim there is no change. But I believe most of these businesses have mechanisms, like mobile money or EcoCash. They should use those options, not make me buy something I did not come to purchase unless it is my own desire. These may seem like very small issues to some, but to a consumer, they make a huge difference. This is part of the work that we do,” he said.
Against that background, Ndlovu said, the government will be strengthening the CPC to protect consumers from unfair, deceptive, or fraudulent business practices.
“We will be strengthening our Commission. It is a new entity. We passed our first consumer protection law in this country in 2019 when I took it to Parliament. We are working to establish its significance, its role must be pronounced. I had a brief chat with my team using an example like when you go to South Africa and there are faulty vehicles, it is the consumer protection agency that recalls them from the market. This is because they are the agency that always looks after the interests of the consumer,” he said.
Ndlovu said they have not fully empowered the Commission and they were developing regulations that ensure the government protects consumers throughout the country.
“Three weeks ago, I attended an interview on National FM, a vernacular radio station. I was not fully aware of its extensive coverage. I was speaking in vernacular, directly engaging with buyers in the rural areas. I announced our hotline number during the show. Even before we finished, we had received more than 200 messages with complaints from people in rural areas about various products and companies. By 10 AM the following morning, I was told the number had reached a thousand,” he said.
He said the feedback was evidence that people need representation so they are not short-changed by industry.
“This tells you that our people need to have a voice. It is through this feedback that we will go all out to make sure they are heard. If there are any areas where they feel hard done by or where industry should change, we have to look into that,” he said.
Consumer protection in Zimbabwe is governed by the Consumer Protect Act (Chapter 14:44) and enforced by the Consumer Protection Commission (CPC), a Statutory body established in 2019 to protect consumers from unfair, deceptive, or fraudulent business practices.
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