VULNERABLE households will start receiving cash grants pegged at a higher level than the price of roller meal to enable them to source the basic commodity from any place of their choice, President Mnangagwa has said.
Government recently stopped the subsidy on roller meal
after realisation that some top officials and those in positions of influence
were abusing the facility and benefiting at the expense of targeted groups.
Speaking during a briefing on the Cyclone Idai Recovery
programme in Mutare last night, the President said Cabinet this week approved
the new method of assisting vulnerable households with cash grants which will
be availed through the Department of Social Welfare.
The department is expected to compile a database of all
vulnerable households countrywide before the money is disbursed.
“On the roller meal issue raised by Minister (Ellen)
Gwaradzimba (Minister of State for Manicaland Provincial Affairs and
Devolution), initially this roller-meal programme was subsidised, but we
realised that there was no mechanism in place of identifying the persons which
we had in mind to benefit from it.
“It became apparent that even us in this room, especially
us on the top table, were also buying that roller-meal at subsidised prices and
yet we have the capacity to buy without the subsidy,” said President Mnangagwa.
He added: “Now we have decided to increase the money that
we will be giving to vulnerable groups. That money will be distributed by the
Department of Social Welfare. That amount from Social Welfare will be enough to
buy unsubsidised roller meal. That will exclude people like me who do not
qualify to be given that money, so that is the model we are taking now. Cabinet
yesterday (Tuesday) approved that households who need that assistance will be
registered countrywide and these are the people who will be given this money
which will be more than the cost of unsubsidised roller meal. This will assist
us to target the correct people.”
In an earlier presentation, Dr Gwaradzimba had said
Manicaland had registered 53 997 households as being food insecure to benefit
under the drought relief programme.
“Grain allocations to cater for a large number is
inadequate and the situation has been worsened by the non-availability of
subsidised roller meal and urban dwellers are having a torrid time in this
regard. People are hungry as they cannot afford the roller meal being sold in
big retail shops and in some cases, sold in hard currency ranging from US$4.20
to US$4.50 per 10kg.
“These food shortages have been worsened by the recent by
the imposition of Value Added Tax on rice which has astronomically driven up
the price of rice. Rice is not supposed to be considered a luxury, but an alternative
staple food taken instead of sadza. We recommend the scrapping of VAT on rice
or for it to be reinstated after the bumper harvest expected from the Pfumvudza
Programme,” said Dr Gwaradzimba.
Rice was exempted from paying VAT in 2017 by the then
Finance and Economic Development Minister, Patrick Chinamasa, but suppliers and
packers of 25kg or less recently received requests for VAT payment backdated to
2017.
President Mnangagwa and his entourage including
Vice-President Constantino Chiwenga and several Cabinet ministers will today
tour Chimanimani to commission infrastructure rehabilitated by the overnment
after the March 2019 Cyclone Idai disaster that left hundreds of people dead
and infrastructure worth millions of dollars destroyed or badly damaged.
Treasury has so far released $28,2 million towards the
infrastructure rehabilitation programme. Herald
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