HARARE- President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Wednesday performed a spectacular volte-face after claiming he was not consulted on a key policy shift in the 2020 budget: the removal of government subsidies on maize meal and wheat.

The removal of the subsidy is not due to take effect until January 1 next year, but millers have already almost doubled prices of the staple mealie-meal, and some Zimbabweans have been hoarding mealie-meal creating shortages in the market.

The opposition MDC said this week that the removal of the subsidy was “cruel and degrading,” and warned of potential civil strife in the country.

Ministers tried to mitigate the crisis following a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday by announcing that all import restrictions on maize meal, mealie-meal and flour had been lifted. No questions would be asked about the source of foreign currency used to buy the maize, acting information minister Mangaliso Ndlovu said.

Mnangagwa told a meeting of the Zanu PF Youth League in Kadoma on Wednesday that he had only heard “two days ago” that the subsidy on maize had been removed.

“We must create safety nets to help the poor among us. Two days ago, I heard that the subsidy on mealie-meal and rice had been removed. No! I’m telling you now, maize-meal affects a lot of people, we can’t remove the subsidy,” Mnangagwa said.

“So, I’m restoring it so that the price of mealie-meal is also reduced. They’re going to publish tomorrow that ‘what we had done, we had not consulted the President’.”

Finance minister Mthuli Ncube removed the subsidy while delivering the 2020 budget statement in front of Mnangagwa in Parliament on November 14.

“The current subsidy policy whereby the government funds the procurement of grain at market prices and sells this to registered grain millers at subsidised prices, has been open to abuse and placed a huge burden on the fiscus,” Ncube said.

“At times the intended beneficiaries do not enjoy the benefits of the subsidy from the government… To address these distortions, the government, will, with effect from January 2020 remove the existing subsidies for maize and wheat, that were being provided to grain millers through the Grain Marketing Board.

“The intervention will see GMB selling wheat and maize at market prices, with grain millers having an option to either import or purchase grain from GMB. This means the prices of basic commodities such as bread and mealie meal may adjust.”

Mnangagwa has this year moved to remove subsidies on fuel and electricity and introduced a new currency, unpopular reforms that have unleashed inflation.

Critics say Mnangagwa has failed to keep promises he made in last year’s election campaign to revive the economy by pushing through reforms, attracting foreign investment and rebuilding collapsing infrastructure.

More than half of Zimbabwe’s population requires food aid following an El Nino-induced drought that also reduced water levels in the biggest hydro dam, leading to rolling power cuts.

Mnangagwa says the reforms are painful in the short term but will eventually put Zimbabwe on a sound economic footing.

The government has said the country needs more than 800,000 tonnes of maize to plug its grain deficit.