Three hours of standing in a queue for maize meal looked like it was about to pay off when the line suddenly disintegrated amid despairing groans and some furious name calling. The supermarket had just run out of Zimbabwe’s staple food.
Shoppers in Bulawayo are rationed to 10kg of maize meal per person, but finding it — and, indeed, most other basic essentials — on the shelves is no easy matter.
To get anywhere near a bottle of cooking oil, a bag of rice, a tube of toothpaste, a carton of milk, a packet of sugar, a box of washing powder or even a bar of soap, you need a reliable rumour, an eye for a queue worth joining and, above all, patience.
An Irin reporter had heard that maize meal was on the shelves at a local supermarket and joined the queue. Seventy people were already waiting. Conversations inevitably revolved around the current hardships: water rationing in the city, the lack of basic items, the exorbitant prices when they did become available and President Robert Mugabe’s recent response to the crisis — that people had the option of eating potatoes.
“Nowadays, we eat just one meal a day,” one elderly man informed anybody in the queue who was willing to listen. “During the day, we have nothing at all and I have heard my two grandchildren joke that they had air pies for lunch. The only time we have managed at least two meals is when my son, who is in South Africa, sends us some groceries.”
Three hours later, tantalisingly close to the tiny storeroom from which the maize meal was being sold, supplies ran out. As incensed shoppers accused the supermarket staff of hoarding — “You want us to die, what kind of people are you?” — riot police, on the spot for just such an eventuality, stepped in and the trouble was over.
Plan B was a supermarket in the town centre, but this time only 30 people were waiting in line outside, suggesting that whatever was being sold could not be that important. It turned out to be bread rather than the maize meal, rice or macaroni Zimbabweans look to for filling their stomaches.
Not much was available but shop attendants were busy marking up shockingly high new prices. In the past few weeks, maize meal has shot up from US50c for 10 kg to $2,50, and rice from $3 for a 2kg bag to $7. The current food basket for a family of five costs $230 a month, yet an average worker takes home about $192, nowhere near enough to pay for rent, school fees and other essentials, and buy food.
September’s 130% fuel price hike — the second increase in three months — is set to further stoke inflation, as will a 17,5% value added tax on certain goods and services, the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe has warned.