Good afternoon. Last week, this newsletter noted that it might only be a matter of time before protesters who have previously vandalised shops in and around the city of Maputo turned their attention to markets and informal traders. This came to pass at the weekend, when traders at the Zimpeto market in Maputo were told to lower their prices and to close early (see below). Demonstrators perceive that the traders have been raising their prices, taking advantage of the closure of many shops in the area due to vandalism or inability to sell goods at a profit when they are being coerced to lower their prices. That does indeed seem to be the case: the price difference between groceries bought on the South African and the Mozambican side of the border has increased since anti-government demonstrations started last year. On the other hand, it is true that traders, mostly women and poor, lost money when business was disrupted by the demonstrations.
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Up to now, the protests have mostly been carried out by poor people against people with more wealth and power: business owners, politicians, and the state. But now quite poor people are being dragged in, and some of the protesters took advantage of the situation to steal from market stalls.
