Subsidies a relief to consumers
EVERYONE in Zimbabwe was happy when breaking news filtered through about the reduction of the price of the country’s basic commodities, especially mealie-meal whose price was now beyond the reach for all ordinary Zimbabweans.
Most people in Zimbabwe were now hopeless following the price of mealie-meal which went up from around $60 for a 10kg bag to an average of $112 for a 10kg bag. We heard that grain millers were now buying a tonne of maize for a massive $4 000 from the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) which forced them to also increase the wholesale price to the retailers.
This price increase came at a time when everything had its price increased, leaving the majority of Zimbabweans with nowhere to go since mealie-meal was their only hope. We thank the President for quickly coming to intervene and restore order in the milling industry because if that was not done many people were now expected to die of hunger. If we can take a look at other foods like flour, soap, cooking oil, salt, milk and margarine you will find out that their prices are also very high and should be looked into as well. Most families these days can no longer afford to buy bread after the merciless bakeries have also increased the price of bread saying the Government has removed the subsidy on flour. Now that the President has restored the subsidy on the importation of maize, we are expecting to see the same happening on other goods, especially bread and cooking oil because we can’t do without these. We also expect the shops to reduce the price of mealie-meal soon because when I carried my own survey almost all the big supermarkets and small shops were still selling the roller meal at very high prices of above $100 and it is our hope that officials from the Government will visit all shops to monitor these prices. We all know that there are some unscrupulous and greedy supermarkets which will pretend to be selling or clearing old stock when in fact they are selling new stock which they would have bought at subsidised prices.
We hope that the living standards of the people of Zimbabwe may improve following the reduction of maize meal prices and also the introduction of the cheaper Zupco buses in the urban areas. However, if nothing is done on the other sectors of our economy it means life will remain very difficult for all of us. Reports indicate that the Bulawayo City Council has submitted its proposal to Government to be allowed to increase its rates by about 700% starting next January. I also carried my own survey with my great friend co-writer Kingstone Kwebeya where we discovered that the council has also increased its primary school fees by more than 300% starting next term while some trust or private schools have shocked all parents by the margins they have raised their fees.
We hope that Government will put more basic foods under the subsidised products to rescue the suffering people of Zimbabwe. Eddious Masundire Shumba, Bulawayo.