Suspended ZANU-PF Mazowe District Coordinating Committee (DCC) chairman Tafadzwa Musarara has launched a court challenge against Government's grain import levy framework while threatening to mobilise grain millers to trigger bread price hikes, in a move critics say amounts to economic blackmail.
Musarara, who is also chairman of the Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe (GMAZ), fronted legal proceedings seeking to stop the implementation of Statutory Instrument 87 of 2025. The High Court struck the matter off the urgent roll, allowing Government to continue implementing the measures.
In court papers, GMAZ warned that the levies would increase production costs. Musarara argued that the measures "could push the price of bread above the US$1 mark" and increase the cost of other staple foods.
He has also threatened to mobilise grain millers against the policy, arguing that the additional costs imposed by the import levy regime "would inevitably be passed on to consumers through higher bread, mealie meal and other basic food prices."
Critics have interpreted the remarks as pressure tactics aimed at forcing Government to abandon a policy designed to support local farmers and irrigation development.
Agricultural stakeholders backing the policy accused some millers of resisting localisation measures because imported grain "often offers higher profit margins than investing in domestic production systems, contract farming and irrigation development."
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They argued that continued dependence on imported grain "undermines local producers and weakens Zimbabwe's long-term food sovereignty objectives."
Government maintains that SI 87 of 2025 forms part of a broader import substitution strategy aimed at rebuilding domestic agricultural capacity.
Treasury has since reaffirmed support for revised grain marketing arrangements that retain import levies, directing that revenues collected be channelled towards farmer payments and irrigation development projects. Authorities say approximately US$5.7 million has already been raised through the framework.
The Indigenous Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe (IGMAZ) welcomed the High Court ruling and described the levy framework as essential for protecting the gains of the Land Reform Programme. IGMAZ warned that excessive reliance on imports risks turning Zimbabwe into "a supermarket economy" dependent on foreign producers.
The levy framework has also received backing from farmer unions, legal experts and senior Government officials, who argue that the Agricultural Marketing Authority Act empowers authorities to impose such levies in pursuit of agricultural development.