For those of us old enough to remember, there were some annoying shows after the main news on ZTV. As a kid growing up, I couldn’t wait for the late shows to come on, but they always seemed to squeeze in some current affairs rubbish before the good stuff came on.
One such show was the Consumer Report, a monotonously informative stream of numbers and advice, stuff about indexes and baskets and such, stuff I couldn’t understand.
This show was presented by the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe, and was part of their mission to protect and advocate for the rights of consumers. They had since disappeared off the face of the earth.
Or so I thought, until I opened NewsDay this morning.
The Consumer Council of Zimbabwe (CCZ) has warned consumers from being enticed to take loans and overspending ahead of the Christmas and New Year holidays as this could lead them into a debt trap.
In a statement CCZ said consumers should spend their hard-earned money in a wise manner and not be gullible to every special consumer product on offer.
“Many consumers are enticed to get loans from loan sharks and chimbadzo only to get themselves stuck in a debt cycle and also finding themselves unable to pay January school fees,” said CCZ.
Besides the fact that the CCZ seems to be run by Captain Obvious, this seems a positive development. The CCZ lives, and is busy doing maths and stuff, making pronouncements and warnings and stuff, and caring about consumers. And stuff.
Here’s their website. Don’t ask me when it was last updated.
Just be glad they’re out there.
Somewhere.