Zanu-PF starving everyone to death

While the good rains, the country is receiving hold the of promise a bumper harvest that would save millions of Zimbabwe's poor who are surviving from hand to mouth, the Mugabe regime is more than determined to ensure that the poor should continue to starve and lack basic nutritious food.

The recent surge in the cost of the consumer basket to US$590.52, at a time when 83% of the people live on less than US$1.35 a day, because of statutory instrument 20 of 2017 and the fluctuating cost of fuels betray the heartless nature of the ZANU PF regime.

SI 20 of 2017 introduced a 15% tax on meats, rice and cereals which constitute the critical consumables of the family food basket. This tax which has no logic both as a mechanism for raising funds and for promoting business is a shock and undisputed proof of Mugabe's failure to manage basic economics.

As for fuel, the People's Democratic Party (PDP) has consistently argued that the nation's fuel supply is controlled by a cartel which is linked to Mnangagwa's faction which overprices fuel and avoids taxes as evidenced by the recent fraudulent activities of a company linked to ZANU PF legislator Terence Mukupe. It is this criminal cartel that is holding the nation to ransom by offering fuel prices that are outrageous and makes fuel in Zimbabwe the most expensive in the entire world.

The net effect of this sad development is that millions of families will once again face starvation amid plenty and malnutrition will thrive among the growing kids as meats and fish are the most popular and accessible sources of protein in the country. A 15% increase in the price of these means that families, who are living below the poverty datum line, must find substitutes and these will be of low nutritional value, substandard and unhealthy.

What the ZANU PF government has effectively done is therefore to condemn over 90% of the population to an artificial food crisis in a year when they must be abundant food. The fruitful agricultural season of 2017 was promising to bring down the prices of cereals and meats as farmers and manufactures alike would have cheaper inputs and raw materials for production.

The action by the indifferent and clueless regime further betray its lack of understanding basic economics. Instead of lowering taxes on basic consumables and thus push aggregate demand which would create fiscal space in the economy, they are determined to milk the poor dry with devastating consequences at personal and economic level. In the end the poor will be poorer and the economy will suffer more.

From an economic view, it is hogwash, politically it is criminal and morally it is a disaster and is proof that Mugabe and Chinamasa are economic ignoramuses who have no place in the all-important task of managing the national economy.

But there is a sadist logic to the madness by Mugabe and his cronies. SI20 of 2017 will bring in major returns to their investments, what with one of the vice presidents Phelekezela Mphoko running a grocery retail chain. Thus, it is out of greed that ZANU PF seeks to starve everyone while they crisscross the globe eating exotic meals in luxurious hotels at the expense of the whole country.

The PDP's position is that of putting people before profits and pushing for equity in economic access. In this light, the right to healthy and nutritious food is fundamental and therefore policy frameworks must progressively promote this.

It is apparent that taxes on basic food staffs like grain, cereals, meats, milk, fish, oils, vegetables and fruits must in fact be lowered to ensure accessibility and affordability. For foods like maize meal, rice, beef, pork, fish and beans, the state must subsidize to make them basically affordable for all. This is the thrust of our social democratic fundamentals which will ensure that there is a plate of food on everyone's table at least 3 times a day.

Everyone has the right to eat and the delinquency by ZANU PF of wanting to make access to a meal a privilege is the most insolent of all tyrannies and must not be given a place in our society for any other day longer.