Shop owners in Bulawayo have been accused of abusing the mealie meal subsidy by forcing shoppers to buy other goods for them to be able to buy the subsided maize meal, Newsday reports.
Residents that spoke to the Southern eye reportedly said they were forced to buy good worth over $20 to qualify to buy a 10kg mealie meal bag.
ZNCC Matabeleland chairperson Brighton Ncube confirmed the reports and said:
A complaint we have received so far is that customers are being asked to buy other goods by wholesalers before proceeding to buy mealie-meal.
From an economic point of view, this actually makes sense because the whole point of a wholesale is to sell goods in bulk as they derive their profit from there.
However, for the retail shops, it is not proper. Customers should not be compelled because these retailers buy from wholesalers and their role is to sell single goods to customers.
The government introduced the maize meal subsidy that is seeing consumers buying a 10kg bag of maize meal for $49.50.
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