HUMAN rights doctors have turned the screws on government as they press authorities to release information pertaining to the use of the sugar tax funds.
The doctors are demanding that government should supply them with information on what it used the revenue from the sugar tax for.
In a letter dated January 13, 2025, the Zimbabwe Association of Doctors for Human Rights through their lawyers Kantor & Immerman wrote to the Health and Child Care ministry information officer stating: “Reference is made to the above matter in which we filed our client’s request for information on December 16, 2024. We note that no acknowledgement of request let alone the requested information has been received by us.
“We wish to point out the provisions of section 7(2) of the Freedom of Information Act [Chapter 10:33], which enjoins an information officer to ‘. . . immediately provide a written acknowledgement of the request to the applicant’.
“It has been close to a month since you received the request. You have failed and/or neglected to provide an immediate acknowledgement of request as provided by the law.”
The doctors said they were requesting the information in terms of section 7 of the Freedom of Information Act [Chapter 10:33].
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They reminded the Health ministry officials of “the provisions of section 8(1) . . . which gives you not more than 21 days from the date of the request to provide your response”.
“By our calculations, you have until January 17, 2025 to provide your response.”
The doctors want to know “how much revenue has been received from the Ministry of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion for surtax on sugar content in beverages in terms os SI [Statutory Instrument] 16 of 2024 viz Customs and Excise Tariff (Amendment) Notice 2014.
They also want “an account of what cancer drugs and equipment have been procured from such surtax to date and to which hospitals these have been distributed”.
Last month, government said by the end of November, it had collected US$30,8 million from the special surtax on sugar content in beverages since the gazetting of the SI on February 9, 2024.
Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion permanent secretary George Guvamatanga publicised the figures after the human rights doctors in November wrote to government demanding to be furnished with information on how much money had been collected from the special surtax on sugar content in beverages and if it had been used for the intended purposes.
“Thirty million eight hundred thousand United States dollars (US$30,8 million) of special surtax on sugar content in beverages has been collected as of November 2024,” Guvamatanga responded.
“The procurement of drugs and medical equipment is under the purview of the Health and Child Care ministry. Hence, the Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion ministry is not the competent authority to give you information on your second request.”
In November 2023 while presenting the 2024 national budget, Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion minister Mthuli Ncube proposed tax on high sugar content beverages, saying the revenue generated would go towards the creation of a cancer fund.
He introduced the tax at US$0,02 per gramme of sugar in a refreshment beverage, which he later revised to US$0,002 after complaints by manufacturers and it was further slashed to US$0,0005 with effect from January 1 this year.