More than 1,300 shop owners, managers and company executives have been arrested for defying a price cut ordered by the Zimbabwe government, police say.
On Monday, 33 executives appeared in court charged with a range of offences including failing to display prices and ignoring the government order.
Most of them pleaded guilty to violating price control regulations and were ordered to pay fines of three million Zimbabwe dollars - $23 at the black market exchange rate or $200 on the official market.
Hundreds of businesses have been fined since the controls were introduced on June 25.
Obert Mpofu, Zimbabwe's industry minister, ordered businesses to halve the prices of goods and services in a bid to curb inflation which is sprialling above 4,500 per cent, but the announcement has been widely ignored.
Production stopped
Many manufacturers say the government-set prices mean they cannot cover their costs and have stopped production, leading to wide-spread shortages of basic goods such as cooking oil, maize meal, sugar and salt.
Economic analysts have predicted that the items will resurface on the black market at even higher prices.
Oliver Mandipaka, police spokeman, told the official Herald newspaper on Monday that a wider crackdown on business people and black market vendors was planned.
"We will continue to arrest anyone who will defy the government imposed controls on basic food comodities. We will not stop until there is order in the business community," he said.
On Saturday, Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change opposition party, called the price controls and subsequent crackdown "crooked economics" and "an election gimmick" ahead polls due to be held next year.