Govt Probes Food Politicisation

“The Cabinet has already set up a team of Ministers to investigate and deal with the issue of food politicisation.

“This food is for every Zimbabwean and we want to make sure that deserving people in rural areas benefit from it regardless of the parties which they support,” Tsvangirai told journalists in Tsholotsho after commissioning of a United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF)funded water sanitation and hygiene programme.

Early this year the government announced that it has extended the grain loan scheme to March next year to cushion villagers whose crops were wiped off by a dry spell during this cropping season.

Under the scheme, all households facing food deficits will get maize from state owned Grain Marketing Board. Provinces that are facing food shortages include parts of Manicaland, Masvingo, Matabeleland South and North and some parts of Midlands.

Recently human rights group Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) said hundreds of hungry Zimbabwean villagers are being denied food handouts and forced to denounce their own parties in return for assistance as marauding Zanu PF militants continue to wage war of attrition against perceived political enemies.

The MDC accuses Zanu PF of using local councilors, village heads, and traditional chiefs to sideline their supporters in rural areas from government food lists that are used when distributing food.

According to statistics from the World Food Program (WFP) indicated that more than one million Zimbabweans are currently in need of food aid following the continuous dry spell that has been affecting the national produce.