Prices of basic goods gallop every week as the value of the Zimbabwean dollar continues to tumble, pushing official annual inflation to 785.6 per cent in April.

A loaf of bread went up 36 percent last month and last week a 10-kilo (22-pound) sack of cornmeal jumped 30 percent.

Mnangagwa, who took power in 2017 following a military coup pledging to revive the moribund economy, now blames the economic malaise on unnamed "political detractors".

The Zimbabwean authorities have in recent weeks targeted opposition activists and lawyers in what is seen as a tactic to strike fear into the population.

University of Zimbabwe's political scientist Eldred Masunungure said the situation "points to volatility in the country, a comprehensively volatile situation both politically and in the economy where it's very visible as it affects the livelihoods of the vast majority of the people."