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NewsDay

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Gweru, Byo residents stampede for subsidised roller meal

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BY Brenna Matendere Gweru and Bulawayo residents yesterday risked contracting the deadly coronavirus as they jostled to buy subsidised roller meal at DCK supermarkets.

BY Brenna Matendere

Gweru and Bulawayo residents yesterday risked contracting the deadly coronavirus as they jostled to buy subsidised roller meal at DCK supermarkets.

Police in riot gear and soldiers had a torrid time trying to control the swelling crowds at DCK Supermarket in Gweru where the roller meal was being sold at the gazetted price of $70 at a time some retail shops are charging as much as US$5 for the product.

Inside the DCK shop in Gweru, security staff struggled to ensure customers maintain order as they got closer to the tills.

Retail shop owner Douglas Kwande confirmed that his security personnel was overwhelmed.

“We had to call for reinforcements to manage the situation. The customers were trying to beat the 3pm closing time resulting in the stampede,” he said.

In Bulawayo, the businessman dispatched a truck which sold the roller meal in high-density suburbs.

Residents of Cowdray Park and Nkulamane also stampeded to buy the basic commodity without the hustle of going into the central business district of the second capital.

Kwande told Southern Eye that he would supply hospitals in Bulawayo, Harare, Kwekwe, Masvingo and Chitungwiza with the subsidised roller meal to ensure health workers and those in self-isolation got the staple at their door steps.