Govt to mobilise $30m for Beam

In a telephone interview from Harare yesterday, Minister Mpariwa said the money would be enough to cater for both primary and secondary pupils under the Beam programme for this year.
“We are in process of mobilising at least $30 million with the assistance of our partners, Unicef to cover basic educational needs for the under-privileged children under Beam. Currently we are still making payments for last year,” she said.
Minister Mpariwa said they have reached an agreement with the Ministry of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture so that children attending school under Beam should not be excluded from class over non-payment of school fees.
Initially Beam only targeted under-privileged primary school pupils before the Government last year decided to extend the facility to those at secondary schools.
She said her ministry has also applied for money from the Treasury to cater for beneficiaries from the social grants scheme under the Public Assistance Funding Programme.
Under the scheme, the elderly people, vulnerable and disabled and orphans are given a monthly pay-out of $20.
The beneficiaries last received the grants last year in June after the ministry had exhausted its allocation from the previous National Budget.
“The Government is aware of the plight of our people and it is our obligation to improve the lives of the vulnerable and elderly persons in our society. Although we have inadequate resources we are working flat out to address these challenges and we have since applied to the Treasury for funds,” said Minister Mpariwa.
She said the Government owed the beneficiaries money for the months of July to December.
“We are getting the money in batches due to the liquidity crisis hence we have temporarily stopped the issuing of social grants and we will resume once we get the money,” Minister Mpariwa said.
The Government stopped issuing social grants at the height of the economic crisis in 2008 before later reviving the facility in 2009 following the introduction of the multi-currency system.
The Department of Social Welfare has, however, since July last year been unable to pay out social grants after having exhausted the money it had been allocated from the budget. Minister Mpariwa said the Government has also introduced the drought mitigation scheme through which the vulnerable access grain using coupons.