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For almost half-a-year now, the country has witnessed unwarranted price hikes on commodities by business and the ordinary consumers are carrying the load.

It is fact not fiction that businesses in Zimbabwe are no longer making profit, but profiteering. Profit is making money. Profit is business. Profit is revenue and indeed profit is good yield. On the contrary, profiteering is fraudulent. It is evil. Profiteering is racketeering, exploitative and abusive.

What is happening in Zimbabwe is no longer good business, but massive profiteering by the business community that has lost its responsible goodwill and is abusing the consumer.

It takes just a simple walk into three shops looking at one commodity and one will be shocked by not only the price madness, but also the pricing distortions. These distortions speak to nothing, but brazen profiteering. Profiteering should stop.

Today’s businessman in Zimbabwe, big or small, has thrown business ethics through the window and is focusing on profiteering.

The majority of businesses in Zimbabwe would lie that the prices are being triggered by the fuel price hike. In the past few weeks fuel prices dropped from about $3,45 per litre to $3,35 per litre, average, but we did not witness any corresponding price reduction on commodities.

Instead the prices continue to shoot up. Well, this is very abnormal in any business. Business in Zimbabwe should start acting responsibly and be part of Vision 2030.

The Government had made it clear that it does not intent to control prices and business should therefore act responsibly. But as things continue going on an upward pricing regime, despite all efforts by Government, the Government might be forced to think otherwise.

One would think it is good business practice to differentiate between profiteering and profit. Each time profit margins go beyond 25 percent one should start thinking and believing it is not right. That is international standard practice.

The net effect of all this pricing madness has been eroding the salaries of all workers. It has been disenfranchising the consumers. It has been eroding family and national food security. It has been putting health services beyond the reach of many. It has been putting the nutritional status of families into disarray.

For once business should take a pause and be part of national building. Recent developments have seen Government talking tough about the business practice. It looks simple, but the Government has been forced to rethink and act on certain things it ordinarily should not be doing. That should send signals to business that soon there will be a big rift between them and Government.

The price of bread, for instance, has forced Government to change the modus operandi of the Grain Marketing Board. The Government is now moving to create bakeries at all GMB depots nationwide and private bakers might soon regret ever increasing the price of bread.

Time, they say, is a great teacher. Some bakeries who failed to heed Government calls to reduce bread prices will find themselves out of business.  Government would not want to venture into such business, but bad business practice is forcing Government to eat into some businesses.

In the next few months, Government might forced to eat into more business space and pit itself directly against private business because private business has shown no national interest in being part of the Transitional Stabilisation Programme (TSP). Business has made it too difficult for Government to ignore the brazen profiteering.

Business has refused, through its action, to be part of nation building.

The time for business to relook at its operations, review its pricing mentality and do the right thing is now. Business should surely know that it is attracting regulation to itself. Bad business practice attracts action. Do they not say that cow dung naturally attracts flies?

This is the time to stare each other in the face and say, this is wrong and that we certainly can do better as business. It cannot be too hard a chore for business to look at national interest and make profit, not profiteering.

Business in successful nations plays ball. It plays its part and, indeed, becomes part of nation building with long-term focus. Our business is focusing on the short term and not long term. The time to act is now not tomorrow.

Play ball.