Four-month prison terms handed to two Harare bakery managers for exceeding official prices for bread have shocked business confidence, observers said.
Lobels Bakery Chief Executive Burombo Mudumo and the company's operations chief, Lemmy Chikomo, were sentenced Thursday by a Harare magistrate for selling bread in September for Z$300 instead of the officially set Z$180 dollars, or US$1.20.
Mudumo is chairman of the Bakers Association and a past winner of the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce's businessman of the year award.
Economist Dennis Nikisi, director of the University of Zimbabwe's Graduate School of Management, said the “unprecedented” sentences would discourage the production of goods, and questioned the legality of arresting managers in such circumstance.
More reports from VOA's Studio Seven For Zimbabwe...