Zimbabwe's Consumer Protection Bill

The Consumer Protection Act was gazetted on 10 December and became law. The Act’s objective is to eliminate unethical and improper business practices in Zimbabwe.

The Act seeks to give consumers more rights and protections, along with strengthening and broadening the ones they already had. The bill is necessitated by the fact that consumers usually have less bargaining power, economic resources, and education levels than what a company may have. 

The Consumer Protection Act provides for the enforcement of consumer rights and recourse in the courts of law, both civil and criminal. The Act also includes the provision for the creation of a Consumer Protection Commission, Consumer Protection Advocacy Groups, along with other consumer protection organizations and consumer protection officers. The Minister will make a lot of these bodies and appointments of Industry and Commerce. Considering the amount of work and time it will take to create these bodies and make these appointments, it is expected that there will be a delay before they become fully operational.

“It has been a long time coming, but we are happy that we now have a law that empowers our operations because, for a long time, we have been labeled as toothless bulldogs.” Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) executive director Ms. Rosemary Siyachitema.

Zimbabwean businesses are notorious for corrupt business practices like multi-tier pricing or selling substandard goods. Although these are generally corrupt business practices, they are a function of a deteriorating economy. For example; 

    • Multi-tier pricing is due to unrealistic legislation by the government that has created a monetary quandary. All Zimbabweans understand this and sympathize with businesses.

    • Zimbabwe is currently facing one of the world’s highest inflation rates, so it becomes a tedious exercise to change prices every time inflation goes up.

    • Workers’ salaries are being decimated by inflation, and so they have less purchasing power. This limits the ability to buy quality products, and so workers are open to buying cheaper substandard products like cheap electronics with no warranties.

Nonetheless, the legislation has support from both consumers and businesses.

“Consumers now have a shelter that can protect them from all malpractices that are in the sector. They now have a channel to air their grievances, and the Act is going to reactivate consumerism in the country.” said Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers president Mr. Denford Mutashu.

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