Harare West Member of Parliament Joanna Mamombe has criticised Finance and Economic Development Minister Mthuli Ncube for his alleged failure to come up with a clear programme of identifying and assisting vulnerable people.
Mamombe said it is pointless for Ncube to talk of some “complicated algorithms” and using cellphone numbers to identify the vulnerable as this will overlook people without phones. Said Mamombe:
It’s unfortunate that at this critical time when we are having a crisis not only as Zimbabwe but the entire world that a Minister of Finance can talk of some complicated logarithms.
If you are going to use mobile phone numbers to identify the vulnerable, what about those without mobile phones? It is really unfair.
The government recently has announced it will be assisting one million vulnerable families with ZWL$180.00 a month using a database lifted from mobile phone service providers’ users.
Using current parallel market exchange rates, ZWL$180.00 is less than US$5.00 and is not enough to buy a bag of potatoes.