{"id":16062,"date":"2019-11-28T16:25:35","date_gmt":"2019-11-28T14:25:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/zimbabwe\/?p=16062"},"modified":"2019-11-28T16:25:35","modified_gmt":"2019-11-28T14:25:35","slug":"zimbabwes-mnangagwa-disowns-ministers-action-on-food-subsidies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/zimbabwes-mnangagwa-disowns-ministers-action-on-food-subsidies","title":{"rendered":"Zimbabwe’s Mnangagwa disowns minister\u2019s action on food subsidies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa<\/a> appeared to disown a key plank of Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube budget for 2020 that removed subsidies on maize meal and rice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am restoring it so that the price of mealie-meal is reduced. They had not consulted the president,\u201d President Mnangagwa told a rally of ruling party supporters.<\/p>\n

HIGH COST<\/p>\n

In the budget read earlier this month, Prof Ncube had made freeing key sectors of the economy \u2013 grain, energy and finance \u2013 to market forces a priority to remove parallel markets that had become more divergent as the economy reels from drought and currency shortages.<\/p>\n

This has fuelled inflation to just below 400 per cent officially and well above 500 per cent by independent counts. Foreign currency for imports which would address domestic shortfalls is in short supply.<\/p>\n

The freeing of the country\u2019s staples to market forces sparked a sharp increase in their prices as retailers responded to wholesalers selling a tonne of maize at $235, double the price before the subsidies were removed. The high cost sparked outrage in the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe issues of the mealie-meal price affect a lot of people and we cannot remove the subsidy,\u201d President Mnangagwa said on Thursday, exposing the fissures at the top policy organs as the government seeks a way out of a decade long economic crisis.<\/p>\n

Zimbabwe early this year stopped subsidising fuel in line with other austerity measures aimed at stemming inflation. This has seen prices go up almost every week as the re-introduced local currency rapidly loses.<\/p>\n

CRISIS<\/p>\n

President Mnangagwa\u2019s intervention, however, only offers temporary respite at the food table with the country projected to run out of maize, the staple food, within weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt best there will be further massive hikes in food prices which have increased five-fold since the beginning of the year,\u201d said Verity Johnson of the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD).<\/p>\n

In a new report, CAFOD said severe bread shortages had pushed up its prices 15 times from a year ago, forcing parents to forego meals for the sake of their children.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are already dying from poor malnutrition and disease as health provision fails, but this could substantially increase,\u201d Ms Johnson added.<\/p>\n

The United Nations estimates that 7.7 million, half of Zimbabwe\u2019s population, do not have enough to eat.<\/p>\n

Operations at public hospitals have been at a standstill since September after junior doctors went on strike demanding salaries pegged in United States dollars.<\/p>\n

Specialist doctors, who have been attending to emergencies, joined the strike this week after the government fired at least 450 of the striking junior doctors.<\/p>\n

The country has also been experiencing serious electricity shortages that have resulted in 18-hour daily power cuts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa appeared to disown a key plank of Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube budget for 2020 that removed subsidies on maize meal and rice. \u201cI am restoring it so that the price of mealie-meal is reduced. They had not consulted the president,\u201d President Mnangagwa told a rally of ruling party supporters. HIGH COST […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":13417,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,8,12],"tags":[34,1116,395],"class_list":{"0":"post-16062","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-head-lines","9":"category-policy","10":"tag-emmerson-mnangagwa","11":"tag-food-subsidies","12":"tag-presidency"},"yoast_head":"\nZimbabwe's Mnangagwa disowns minister\u2019s action on food subsidies - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa appeared to disown a key plank of Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube budget for 2020 that removed subsidies\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/zimbabwes-mnangagwa-disowns-ministers-action-on-food-subsidies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Zimbabwe's Mnangagwa disowns minister\u2019s action on food subsidies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa appeared to disown a key plank of Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube budget for 2020 that removed subsidies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/zimbabwes-mnangagwa-disowns-ministers-action-on-food-subsidies\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"zimbabwe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-11-28T14:25:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/2019\/09\/food-aid-3-300x200.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"300\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/zimbabwes-mnangagwa-disowns-ministers-action-on-food-subsidies\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/zimbabwes-mnangagwa-disowns-ministers-action-on-food-subsidies\",\"name\":\"Zimbabwe's Mnangagwa disowns minister\u2019s action on food subsidies - 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