Roman Catholic Priest and lawyer, Father Edward Ndete has
confronted Gutu North MP Yeukai Simbanegavi over the weaponisation of food aid
in the constituency which he says has reached alarming levels.
Addressing mourners gathered at a memorial service at Mashingaidze
Farm in Nyazvidzi on October 3, 2020, Father Ndete said he was shocked at the
level of politicisation of food aid in the constituency and the abuse of human
rights.
He said food is being distributed along political lines and
there was a lot of bullying and harassment of people. He also complained
against the distribution of aid at night which would result in women and girls
being abused while a lot of the aid is stolen by those in charge of the
process.
Father Ndete said he was baffled when he heard that the MP
recently took back maize brought to Mandeya Business Centre for distribution
when thousands of people were starving in Ward 4.
He said he has since sent a Police Officer involved in the
food distribution to tell the MP of his displeasure over the goings-on in the
social welfare activities.
“I hear some maize brought to Mandeya Business Center for
distribution was loaded back onto the truck as hungry farmers helplessly
watched. My question is where did the MP take those bags of maize to? This is
tax payers’ money. The tax is paid by the same people who are being refused
food,” said Father Ndete.
Asked for a comment Father Ndete said people were ignorant
about their rights and CCJP would soon carry out awareness campaigns in the
area. He said there was a lot of abuse and he would soon see the MP.
Father Ndete who was once the Church’s representative in
the Parliamentary Liaison Office is now based in Gutu North.On Thursday,
Simbanegavi ordered everyone including opposition party supporters gathered at
Mandeya to do Zanu PF slogans for them to get 5kg of mealie meal. She also
threatened violence against anyone who is not Zanu-PF in the area.
“Tichagura miswe yevanhu veMDC vari muno mu Constituency
(we are going to cut off tails of MDC supporters in Gutu North),” said
Simbanegavi.
Cowered men and women, afraid of being refused food
listened quietly as Simbanegavi made her threats.
A number of MDC supporters including Philip Mahachi,
Jemitias Masuka, and Lydia Mandudzi flatly refused to do the slogans and opted
to go home empty- handed. She later called them back to get their allocations.
However, Simbanegavi went on to order everyone who comes
for food aid in future to put on party regalia or there would be nothing for
them.
People turned in their hundreds for maize seed yesterday
and almost all of them were in party regalia, a lot of it borrowed from others.
MDC Alliance supporters who refused to do slogans were peculiar by their
absence.
Mahachi and Mandudzi said they could not stand the
humiliation by the MP hence they did not turn up. Masvingo Mirror
0 comments:
Post a Comment