BULAWAYO Provincial Affairs Minister Judith Ncube has
condemned the Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe (GMAZ) for running the
zonal mealie-meal distribution in the city without consulting locals.
The programme, which started in Bulawayo on Wednesday, is
aimed at averting corruption in the sale of subsidised roller meal. Some people
have been sourcing the product from the official market at the recommended
selling price of $70 a 10 kg bag and sell it for as much as $170 a bag on the
black market.
Minister Ncube said the zonal distribution was a noble idea
but said it was distasteful that millers wanted to run the show without
consulting locals. She said she felt ashamed when some businesspeople and
community members approached her for more details only to find her also
clueless.
“While we appreciate the gesture and the people are really
in need of this basic commodity, it is not proper for me to see it on social
media and hear that such is happening. It is a noble cause, but the locals
always know their challenges better and know what homegrown solutions work. We
have always had ozibuthe lamabhuku. It would have been noble to also hear of
this zonal distribution programme from the millers themselves not from social
media. Right now, even when people call my office and seek details about the
programme, I am also clueless and all I have is a chain message I saw on
WhatsApp. It is not the proper way of doing things,” she said.
The minister asked how a proposal went into implementation
stage, on behalf of Bulawayo while leaving the people of Bulawayo out of the
process.
“We must all sit at the table and add inputs on how it can
be rolled out in Bulawayo. I hear the mealie-meal has been coming to the city,
some are buying in numbers, some people are reselling the mealie-meal, we see
them on WhatsApp statuses and in the street selling roller meal at a premium,”
said the minister.
“These are some of the issues that we are very much
concerned with. Involve the people of Bulawayo so that we may also add input on
how we can address the issue of the black market. If people are abusing this
facility, now how do we protect the millers when we have not been involved from
the onset. It makes it very difficult.
“I read about this zoning in the papers. There are people
who want to run Bulawayo without us knowing.
“That will not work. If you have your dream or your idea,
you may approach the relevant office, and do not implement your own things, you
will mess things up for us in Bulawayo. Come up with your suggestions, our
offices are always open.
“We know what has worked and what has failed and we are
open to new ideas, just do not leave the locals out,” she said.
She urged corporates to respect and involve local people in
decision making and developmental projects so that the programmes implemented
would be crafted to be relevant to the needs of the people.
“This is how they operate. But this is how we operate.
People have approached me and said they don’t want the zonal distribution to go
via shops due to corruption and rejection of other payment options as they want
cash only. The people of Bulawayo find it nagging. I have actually been
approached by people who have made suggestions of better ways of doing this
thing, but I have no platform of suggesting them since we have been left out,”
she said.
GMAZ public relations manager Mr Garikai Chaunza could not
be reached for comment yesterday. Chronicle
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