Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister, Professor Paul Mavhima today said the government disbursed a total of ZW$3 870 089.25 to 21 431 urban Food Mitigatory beneficiary households in Bulawayo and Harare in the past two weeks when the lockdown measures were put in place.
The disbursement is under the Cash for Cereal inventions that have been done for urban citizens and the Food Deficit Mitigation for the rural dwellers to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 and drought.
“A further ZW$4 756 409.20 has been paid to 26 140 beneficiary households in Bindura, Kariba, Kwekwe, Gwanda, Plumtree, Shurugwi, Mvuma and Beitbridge,” Mavhima said.
“Cash payments have replaced grain allocation in urban areas. Registration of beneficiaries is ongoing and should be completed before the end of April 2020.”
In terms of the Food Deficit Mitigation, a total of 7 114.19 metric tons of grain was distributed to vulnerable communities in all the eight rural provinces during the month of April 2020 according to Mavhima.
“Cumulatively 80 000 metric tonnes of grain has been distributed to vulnerable households since January 2020,” he said.
“The Government programme is covering 760 000 households and World Food Programme (WFP) is covering 600 000 households.”
“In order to protect staff and beneficiaries during this period of COVID-19 additional ward distribution points have been established with the COVID-19 medical protocols being observed,” Mavhima went on.
As for the COVID-19 relief fund for affected professions, the Social Welfare Ministry submitted to Treasury a total of 201 631 beneficiaries whose livelihoods were also affected by the measures put in place to contain the spread of COVID-19.
“The Ministry received lists from the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprise Development; Ministry of Youth, Sport, Art, and Recreation, local authorities and informal traders associations,” Mavhima said.
“A further 800 000 beneficiaries were identified through an elaborate system of those who transact relatively low amounts on Econet’s Ecocash platform.”
“Payment will commence once Treasury authority is granted. ZW$200 million is earmarked for this program in April 2020.” he said.
The government has ZW$600 million aimed for a million urban citizens to survive the lockdown put in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
The lockdown that has been extended by two weeks is predicted to cause survival challenges for the SMEs in Zimbabwe.
