Some residents of Katima Mulilo have expressed their dismay at the sudden price hike of the MTC recharge vouchers they buy from street vendors.

They complain that the N$5 recharge voucher now sells for N$6, while N$10 recharge vouchers are now purchased at N$12.

These changes have been in effect since Tuesday in most quarters of the town.

Several callers to the Namibian Broadcasting Corporation’s popular indigenous Silozi language talk show on Tuesday expressed their dismay and demanded answers from telecommunications company MTC regarding these new developments.

“It is really unfair. I buy a commodity that is labelled N$10 for an amount of N$12... We are lost; we don’t know whether it’s MTC or the street vendors themselves who are robbing us. We need answers,” said one caller.

Nampa spoke to some vendors who defended the price hike, saying it is necessary because the bulk suppliers of these MTC recharge vouchers in town have also increased their prices.

“It is a struggle. I don’t even generate enough profit from the sale of these recharge vouchers. We used to buy 10 of them for N$90, and then eventually my profit would be N$10. Where I order them, they have also increased; that’s the nature of business—to generate profits,” said a 50-year-old vendor who asked to remain anonymous.

Contacted for comment, MTC’s Corporate Communications Manager John Ekongo advised the vendors to sell the recharge vouchers at the correct price, saying they also get it from MTC at an already discounted price.

“We don’t encourage them to do that. It is illegal and wrong,” Ekongo said.