A unison of indigenous churches, the Zimbabwe Amalgamated Churches Council (Zacc), have asseverated to pile pressure on President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government to put in place rigid measures that ensure that all millers who get grain under the government maize subsidy programme sell mealie-meal at subsidised and affordable prices.
The group’s patron, Jimayi Muduvuri, told the press on the heels of their national executive meeting held in Harare last Thursday that church denominations under his banner resolved to push the national administration to see through that subsidised commodities remain affordable.
“This year, as churches, through our branch of consumer power, we will work tirelessly to make sure that government acts to ensure that the prices of commodities from companies that are supported by government remain low. Right now, mealie-meal is in short supply and can only be found on the black market highly-priced yet some millers are getting subsidised maize. This should come to an end,” said the cleric as quoted by the Newsday.
A staunch lobbyist against the Western-imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe, Mr Muduvuri said the wave of price hikes, especially on the staple food was synonymous with exposing the population to a new wave of economic sanctions.
The churches action arrives at a time when Zimbabwe has been experiencing erratic supplies of grain such as maize and wheat since 2019 after two years of a severe El Nino-induced drought. The drought devastated crops, especially maize, which is used to make the staple food sadza.
Economic volatility and currency shortages limit poor households’ livelihood opportunities and is significantly worsening food insecurity conditions in the southern African country. Most of the maize grain is now found on the black market where the informal traders demand cash only, which many needing mealie-meal have to get from another set of informal traders, mobile money vendors, who gouge a premium of between 25 percent and 35 percent.
Christian Aid warned that the situation will get worse throughout the winter months when it estimated that 5.5 million people, largely in rural areas, will need aid.
World Food Programme (WFP) spokesperson Herve Verhoosel said the crisis was likely to last until September with a further deterioration in December that would widen the impact to over 4, 7 million people.
Last month, the government scrapped maize subsidies but reintroduced them after a public outcry over high prices. To control the prices, the government introduced a roller meal subsidy programme that required millers to be registered with the Industry and Commerce ministry.
However, the Grain Millers’ Association of Zimbabwe (GMAZ), a voluntary business organisation representing the interests of millers, raised the red flag after 60 of its members were denied registration, claiming the registration process was clandestinely done to favour big companies, leaving small-scale millers in the cold. This, GMAZ said, was creating an artificial shortage of the staple food.
Meanwhile, the government, working with other agencies like the Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers (CZR), has unleashed monitors to ensure the maize-meal is distributed fairly and that shops take precautions to stop the middlemen from grabbing bulk of deliveries as it has emerged that some retail shops, after receiving subsided mealie meal, will instead of selling it to the public, use it to cook sadza and sell to customers at their “restaurant” sections.
Sunday News discovered that some of the shops worked with informal traders who get first preference and “loot” the commodity and sell it on the streets and makeshift shops for cash.
Industry and Commerce Minister Dr Sekai Nzenza has assured consumers that supplies of the subsidised roller meal will soon improve.
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