Professor Johnathan Moyo has called Strive Masiyiwa a bond note billionaire before and he is at it again following a Tweet about the exorbitant pricing of phones at Econet Wireless shops.
A Twitter subscriber named Mhofu Tweeted about the outrageous prices displayed at an Econet shop in Avondale saying:
“Crazy pricing!!
Econet Shop – Avondale sells an iPhone 13 Pro 256GB for US$3975 – almost $4000.
Apple retails this phone for $1099.
Econet is selling it for nearly 4 times it’s retail price.
Apple retails the iPhone 12 for $599 while Econet sells it for $2197.”
The former minister of Higher & Tertiary Education, Science & Technology Development responded to the Tweet
“Only for some people to fall on each other to worship a bondnote billionaire, as if they don’t know how he makes his billions!”
Many people came to Strive Masiyiwa’s defence calling the Prof a bitter man and advising him to focus on other issues like fighting the government. The focus of the Tweet quickly turned from the ridiculous prices of the gadgets to the jealous tones in Prof Moyo’s words.
Strive Masiyiwa is dubbed the richest businessman in Zimbabwe with a net worth of 3 Billion USD. It’s not difficult to see why with the pricing of the gadgets at the Econet shop.
Although Prof Moyo may have thrown a blow by calling him a bond note billionaire, the second half of his tweet hints at the fact that Strive Masiyiwa makes most of his money from overpriced goods and services. Gadgets aside, Econet Wireless is also known for overpriced tariffs and data bundles.
Many people tried to justify the pricing by saying that the gap between the bank rates and parallel market rates is what causes companies to price unfairly. The US dollar has the same value everywhere so that does not justify a phone costing four times its recommended retail price. If anything the RTGS price should be the unstable one since it changes all the time.
Only for some people to fall on each other to worship a bondnote billionaire, as if they don't know how he makes his billions!
— Prof Jonathan Moyo (@ProfJNMoyo) March 31, 2022