27 Apr 2020

Senior assistant council secretary for Moshupa Sub-district has urged business owners not to price goods out of the market.

Mr Sebonego Mosinyi said in an interview that artificial pricing of goods by some potential suppliers made life difficult for his the sub district.

Mr Mosinyi explained that their objective was to purchase COVID-19 food relief supplies from small, local businesses as a way of empowerment.

He said some viewed the exercise as an opportunity to maximise profits.

He agreed that the lockdown had an inflationary effect on pricing, but said some prices had no market reality. He noted that one supplier had quoted P26 for a 175g bar of soap. He explained that they only accepted a 30 per cent mark-up as being reasonable.

However, he said some dealers were willing to reduce prices after feedback. He appealed to business owners to be patriotic.

He said other teething problems included shortage of supplies and that others requested time to look for finance to buy stock.

He said they appreciated that they had more people requesting for assisting than they had bargained for. He nonetheless maintained that they would only purchase from chain stores after exhausting all avenues.

However, he conceded that they were not moving as fast as they wished, and explained that they made up for lost time by responding promptly to emergency situations and provided immediate remedies.

“If we hear that someone awaiting assistance has absolutely nothing to eat, we help them urgently,” he said.

Mr Mosinyi further shared that they had also engaged 38 temporary social workers for two months.

He said the aim was to give food the same day someone qualified for assistance.

He said they were also looking to pull more social workers from other duties and have them focus on assessments and giving people food.

Meanwhile principal economist, Ms Maikano Madigele said they had a hard time trying to source some items from the market. She also noted that the short supply of some items and overpricing created a backlog for them. She said many people had lost their livelihoods as a result of the lockdown and said further delays could cause a crisis.

Out of 1 434 households recommended for help, only 905 have so far been assisted. Ends