Harare, (New Ziana) – Technical challenges are affecting the Urban Cash for Cereals transfers with just under 30 000 people having received their payouts by October 28 this year out of the targeted 1.7 million, a Cabinet Minister has said.

Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister, July Moyo said disbursement of funds to beneficiaries with correct details has since commenced under the Urban Cash for Cereal Programme and reached 28 726 beneficiaries by October 28.

Zimbabwe is running a blitz to distribute food aid to about 6.2 million food insecure people out of 9.2 million in rural areas while 1.7 million in urban areas benefit from an Urban Cash Transfer Program after the country was hit by an El-Nino induced drought that badly affected the 2023/24 cropping season.

“When it comes to urban areas, we have been slow in registering the people who deserve to have food. Our target was 1.7 million people and all the urban areas have been working very hard to register people,” said Moyo.

“Once we have registered them, then we have to put them on cash transfers on electronic channels through their cell phones. And we have been giving them cell phone cards.

A lot of them did not have cell phones so that we could send the food through” Moyo said his Ministry has been allocated US$13.1 million which it is distributing and the 28 726 represents a very small number of what is being distributed.

Another delay, he said, was the recalibration of the local currency after it was devalued from about 13 ZiG to the dollar to about 25 ZiG towards the end of last month.

“At first we bench marked with US$8 per person and if there is a family of five, that will mean US$40 translated at 13.5 ZiG. That immediately changed so we had to rework. The benchmark is US$8 but calculated at 25 ZiG, but we have started distributing,” he said.

“It’s fast, every day, I can’t track the numbers because once somebody has the electronic channel well looked after and verified, they just transfer and we do this through Netone.”

In a report to Cabinet, Moyo said under the 2nd food distribution blitz, at least 94 527.64 metric tons had been moved across the country as of October 22, out of the expected 139 854.94mt, translating to 62.7 percent of grain distributed to vulnerable and food insecure people across the country’s rural provinces.

The allocations comprise Manicaland with 17 443. 58mt, Mashonaland Central 10 276.49mt, Mashonaland East 17 525.21mt, Mashonaland West 10 987.69 mt, Masvingo 12 380.14mt, Matabeleland North 8 605.99mt, Matabeleland South 6 460.64mt and Midlands with 10 847.90mt.

In addition, chiefs accross all the provinces have collected 4 362.51mt tons under the Zunde RaMambo/Isiphala Senkosi Strategic Grain Reserve Distribution Program while under the School Feeding Programme 17 250.80mt mealie-meal/maize grain had been collected as at October 25 this year.

On reports that people in some parts of the country such as Mutoko East were being discriminated from getting food aid on political grounds, Moyo said such reports need to be verified.

“There might be people who use this question of discrimination for good and bad reasons. The government has said no one and no place should be left without food,” he said.

That was the reason the government had excluded civil servants, Non-Governmental Organisations and local politicians from registering beneficiaries for the food assistance.

“They should be selected by the village heads, who know the people in their areas who are food insecure and I would be surprised if there is a village head, headman or chief who would want their people to be discriminated for food distribution,” said Moyo.

“However, problems can be there and if we get the actual place where it is happening, we have set in motion different aspects of people to do inspection.

For instance those in my Ministry who are in the Public Service Commission who are inspectors.

They also go and do inspections and I do receive every week, the inspectors reports about food distribution in all the districts in the country and one of the things that I look for is to see whether there are some people who have been left out when they deserve, and I have no details of that but we are willing to follow up if we get details of that Mutoko East, but government policy and action is everybody who needs food must have food.”

New Ziana