Indiscipline — the plague of our time

AEONS ago, the Church laid down certain principles of fair trade that had to be religiously adhered to by merchants and customers. This was meant to defend the weak against the strong.

The Church then was largely considered a credible arbiter as it stood against profiteering and arbitrary price hikes that imposed a heavy burden on ordinary people, especially the most vulnerable.

The practice of buying goods and reselling them at an extortionate price was forbidden.

Usury — the most abhorrent of practices through which money is lent at extortionate interest rates — was also frowned upon.

These strictures only lasted until there was a clear separation between the Church and the State.

Over the years, unrestrained and unchecked capitalism is slowly breeding greed and avarice.

The primitive accumulation of wealth is now the in-thing.

In any market, particularly one that is constrained, greed and avarice often translates into rent-seeking, arbitrage and a thriving parallel market.

Ethics are the usually the first casualty in the blind pursuit for profit.

Regrettably, where these practices become pervasive, it is the most vulnerable members of society that bear the brunt.

And of late, this has been the situation in Zimbabwe. Post October 1, 2018, Zimbabwe experienced a massive jump in prices of goods and services, which, at times, were being sold five times above their normal price.

Suspiciously, some goods such as cooking oil disappeared from supermarket shop shelves only to resurface on the black market with incredibly steep price tags.

Shortages naturally resulted as shops, which were, and still are, pegging their goods at reasonable prices, were besieged by desperate consumers. The black market began to flourish. As was expected, as the parallel thrived, the more consumers suffered.

But malpractices can only become deep-seated if they are aided and abetted by influential actors and Government officials.

Powerful and influential cartels – which tend to operate outside Government parameters — have the ability to mutate into a national security threat.

Inexplicable exchange rate movements on the parallel markets had begun to cause serious challenges to businesses and consumers.

And in an economy that uses the US dollar as a unit of account, which makes it difficult to increase wages, this puts a strain on consumers as goods rise beyond what many can afford.

The general unease and economic pain causes disaffection and undermines social cohesion.

Suffice to say, the country needs to return to fair business and trading practices.

Distortions are likely to occur in the market, but they are worsened by indiscipline.

Government, therefore, needs to be merciless when dealing with corruption and indiscipline in the market.

While Government has no business being in business, as an arbiter it needs to act firmly and decisively to safeguard the integrity of the markets.

It is encouraging that the new Government has made fighting corruption one of its key result areas.

Unfortunately, according to Transparency International, people believe that corruption is synonymous with political parties, police, public officials, the legislature and the judiciary, but quite frankly, corruption is rampant in the informal and private sector as well.

Some independent estimates suggest that Government is prejudiced of more than $60 million per month as a result of black market activities.

Legislating against corruption is not always enough, but Government needs to actively promote integrity, honesty and responsibility as stated by the United Nations convention against corruption.

It is high time Government deals decisively with indiscipline and corruption.

A war against corruption cannot be complete if it doesn’t claim the so-called “secret cows”.