Cattle are a status symbol in rural communities and often are used as a dowry. It was unlikely villagers who have resettled on former white-owned land would heed Mandipaka's appeal.
Live goats were being sold in Harare but goat meat has not appeared in butcheries and supermarkets. Local women snapped up cabbages at one open air market.
"It's something to put on the table anyway," said one woman who only gave her name as Olivia.
Official inflation is running at 4,500 percent -- the highest in the world -- though independent financial institutions estimate real inflation is closer to 9,000 percent.
The government is accusing business leaders of being part of a political and economic campaign of "regime change" to bring down Mugabe.
It has admitted to printing extra money to pay its way -- seen as a main cause of inflation and an obstacle to reports that South Africa could shore up Zimbabwe's collapsing dollar by pegging it to the South African currency.
Regional proposals to admit Zimbabwe to the southern African Common Monetary Area of South Africa's neighbors would entail fundamental market-linked economic reforms that Mugabe has rejected.
"I think the government will finally unleash the impatience and the anger of our normally agreeable and passive population," Robertson said.
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