This archive report was first published on 28 November 2019.
On November 28, 2019, Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa appeared to disown a key plank of Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube's budget for 2020, which removed subsidies on maize meal and rice.
Speaking at a rally of ruling party supporters, President Mnangagwa stated, 'I am restoring it so that the price of mealie-meal is reduced. They had not consulted the president.'
The budget, read earlier this month, aimed to free key sectors of the economy, including grain, energy, and finance, from government subsidies to market forces, in a bid to remove parallel markets that had become more divergent due to drought and currency shortages.
However, the move has fuelled inflation, with prices of staples such as maize meal and rice increasing sharply, sparking outrage in the country.
President Mnangagwa's intervention has offered temporary respite at the food table, but the country is projected to run out of maize within weeks, leading to further massive hikes in food prices.
According to Verity Johnson of the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD), 'At best there will be further massive hikes in food prices which have increased five-fold since the beginning of the year.'
