Manicaland Province in Zimbabwe has registered 53 997 households as being food insecure and set to benefit under the drought relief programme, Minister of State for Manicaland Provincial Affairs and Devolution Dr Ellen Gwaradzimba have said.

The Minister highlighted that the situation has been worsened by the non-availability of subsidised roller meal. Government recently stopped the subsidy after realisation that some top officials and those in positions of influence were abusing the facility and benefiting at the expense of targeted groups.

“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 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.