By Own Correspondent Recently appointed Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Information, Ndabaningi Nick Mangwana has attributed the empty shelves in most retails shops to failure by shop owners to repack the shelves fast enough adding that there are adequate stocks of basic commodities nationally.

Speaking to the national broadcaster, Mangwana urged Zimbabweans to be calm calling on retailers not to create artificial shortages which potentially leads to panic among consumers.

Said Mangwana:

“Right now when it comes to other supplies, there are good stocks. Obviously things are running off the shelves and people can’t pack the shelves fast enough…. that’s where the actual problem is.

There is no clear reason why people would close shops unless they are totally empty.

I understand the shops that have closed are not empty. If it’s a speculation that there will be shortages, let me take this opportunity to reassure the nation that there won’t be any shortages.

The government is on top of the situation. The forex supply is adequate. enough to meet our needs.

Yes we are in an expanding economy demanding a lot of forex. Just on fuel alone, our forex demand is on US$120 million monthly.

So if you compute those figures, you will probably come very close to US$1.5 billion which is going out of the country.

Yes we are exporting but we are importing more than we are exporting so the forex challenge is there.”