Social media has been abuzz with claims that Deputy Minister of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement, Vangelis Haritatos on Monday made sensational remarks that Zimbabweans are eating too much Sadza affecting the national grain reserves.

Haritatos is said to have been quoted by Star FM radio making the unfortunate remarks on Monday.

Renowned junior journalist Mlondolozi Ndlovu broke the matter on his social media page attracting heavy criticism on the deputy minister.

“Zimbabwean deputy Minister Peter Haritatos has urged the country’s citizens to STOP eating sadza/isitshwala THREE times a day saying the country facing acute maize shortages. What then should the poor eat given the high prices of basic commodities? I thought isitshwala was the last option! Sidleni?” wrote Ndlovu.

Haritatos reminded Zimbabweans of former President Robert Mugabe in 2003 when he told a foreign journalist interviewing him on the sidelines of a UN summit in New York that Zimbabweans were starving not because there is lack of food in the country but because they are too much of the staple food.

Mugabe like Haritotas said Zimbabweans were starving because they love their sadza so much that they do not want to eat other foods that are in abundance. Rice and potatoes for instance.

Now, those that are familiar with history, particularly history of the French revolution, will tell you that Mugabe and Haritatos remarks are tragically reminiscent of those of Queen Marie Antoinette, wife of Louis XIV, the king who was overthrown in a revolution.

She was told that the poor were demonstrating because they had no bread and she is said to have famously remarked: “If they can’t eat bread let them eat cake.”

Below are some of the responses on digital media in response to the Deputy Minister’s claims.