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AT $300 monthly, the social grant is only enough to buy two litres of cooking oil. Yet on its own, cooking oil doesn’t constitute a meal. In addition, a family would need maize meal, salt and relish for food for a whole month.

About 197 000 vulnerable households across the country are getting the monthly stipend from the Government, a fund that was set up recently to assist people whose livelihoods have been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic. This is a very commendable initiative by the Government but the sum has been rendered worthless by rising inflation and the resulting increase in the prices of food. At the end of the day, the grant has effectively become of no use.

We reported yesterday that a basic food basket comprising a 10kg bag of mealie-meal, 2kg packet of sugar, 2kg of salt, 2 litre bottle of cooking oil, flour and a packet of beans costs about $1 800, six times the sum that the 197 000 families are getting in the form of the social grant.

“We appreciate what Government has done but we are saying the delays in the disbursement of the money coupled with inflation is now creating a bad perception about Government,” said Federation of Organisations of Disabled People in Zimbabwe (FODZ) national chairperson, Senator Watson Khupe.

“This money was promised three months ago and some people started receiving it four days ago and sadly some did not receive $300, but $180. . . . The $300 that we are now getting can only buy one meal per month. If you get it today, you can only spend it either on lunch or dinner and what then happens in the next 30 or 31 days?”

Sen Khupe graphically illustrated the extremely difficult life that most people on social grants are leading amid the incessant price increases and the economic instability that Covid-19 has caused. It is indeed tough for these people, the most vulnerable of the vulnerable, the poorest of the poor, the hungriest of the hungry.

Many of them now just eat once per day. Their supper is their everything for the day. There is a risk that many are going for days without any food. Some of the families have small children who need three square meals a day for them to grow properly. Some of them are chronically ill, people who must take life-saving medication but must only do so on a full tummy. Now with one bare meal a day, the young children will not get the nutrition they need. With one bare meal a day, the chronically ill may be forced to skip their medication. In the case of HIV positive people, they run the risk of developing resistance to their drugs with fatal consequences.

To hedge themselves against the galloping prices, they made what we see as a very important suggestion, that the Government introduces a monthly food hamper in addition to the monetary grant. This is a sensible suggestion that we think the Government is willing to consider.

Yes the Government is the primary provider, but non-governmental organisations must have heard Sen Khupe’s graphic appeal. We hope they will move in swiftly with food packets for the needy among us, complementing the Government’s best efforts which, sadly aren’t filling tummies.

The corporate sector must have heard Sen Khupe’s appeal too. Those that can assist are urged to do so.