THERE are fears that relief aid meant for cyclone victims
is being “looted” after eight branded Zanu PF vehicles yesterday drove off with
foodstuffs from Silver Stream distribution centre in Chimanimani as some
villagers are now resorting to cooking raw bananas to starve off hunger.
For the better part of yesterday afternoon, Zanu PF
councillors took command of the food distribution centre, making sure that
their wards were allocated foodstuffs.
When NewsDay visited some of the wards where villagers had been
assembled ostensibly to receive food aid from the distribution centre, some
ruling party activists were leading the chanting of slogans, while councillors
at the distribution centre were making sure their wards got priority.
Priscilla Chideme, a civil servant and head of logistics
for Silver Stream, yesterday refused to comment on the Zanu PF-branded trucks
that drove off with relief food.
“I can’t comment on that. They [Zanu PF officials] came and
dealt with the colonel. I am a civil servant, I need clearance to talk to the
media. I am sorry I cannot answer on that,” she said.
But Chideme said the delays in food distribution were due
to the impassable roads and that they were relying on South African helicopters
to reach inaccessible areas.
But Major Benedict Sibanda, responsible for the soldiers
deployed at Silver Stream, said he would not give much information, asking
NewsDay to seek comment from the Manicaland provincial command centre in
Mutare.
“This one is a logistical base, relief is coming from the
taskforce in Mutare. The roads are not yet accessible to needy areas,” Sibanda
said.
But NewsDay saw a fleet of Zanu PF branded vehicles coming
out of Silver Stream and some irate villagers disclosed that the trucks, from
some provinces outside Manicaland, drove off with the food.
“Eight (trucks) came here, (were) loaded with relief aid
and drove off,” one villager said.
“People grumbled, but had no one to tell. The councillors
are directing food distribution. It is now a Zanu PF thing.”
NewsDay witnessed some youths in Zanu PF regalia directing
the loading of food onto a military truck to be distributed to Tandavell in
ward 15, with ward councillor Tendai Nyabangu running up and down to ensure
that a truck was dispatched to people in her ward.
Some of them said they had travelled about 25km from Mary
Waters after the Zanu PF ward structures told them to go and queue for food
aid.
Nyabangu denied food was being distributed along political
party lines, claiming the Zanu PF trucks could have taken away food aid before
she arrived.
“I came late. That could have happened before I came.
Everything is above board. Everyone who deserves food aid will get it,” she
said.
Zanu PF spokesperson Simon Khaya Moyo referred questions to
Manicaland provincial chairperson Mike Madiro, who was not reachable.
“Why don’t you check with Madiro? He is closer to what is
happening,” he said.
But at Tandavell, Zanu PF officials were addressing
villagers, chanting slogans and assuring them that food aid would come because
the councillor had promised.
Later in the day, irate villagers were complaining over
delays in the allocation of the food aid, claiming they would have challenges
in travelling back to their villages.
“Since the disaster came, we have not received any aid. We
are now surviving on cooking raw bananas. We call them sodoma because it killed
some community members in 2007. We boil, peel them and eat. We don’t have food.
We lost everything, including our livestock,” one woman shouted.
“We have been here since morning. Zanu PF ward officials
told us to come here to receive food and we were here since morning. This is
now 4pm, we did not receive anything. We are starving. How are we going to walk
for 25km back home to Mary Waters?”
At Cathrine Dairies in ward 6B, many villagers returned
home without relief aid saying the food distribution was done along partisan
lines and spearheaded by the councillors and headmen.
“They give who they want to give. A lot of underserving
people were getting the aid, while the people who have a real need are turned
away,” one furious female villager said.
“The same way they had been distributing fertilizers. They
have a list of the people they want to give. Our names were not even on the
list.”
Another villager, Stephen Machiridza, who was given a 10kg
pack of mealie meal, said he had to seek the help of a soldier to get something
after his name was not included on the list of beneficiaries.
“Some of the people who got the aid are underserving. I
sleep under an avocado tree. My wife has taken our children to her relatives. A
neighbour prepares the food for her family, yet here they give me only 10kg
mealie meal,” Machiridza said.
Another villager, Simbarashe Simango, said he had to
besiege the councillor’s home to get “three cups of beans and 18 potatoes after
I was turned away when the food was being distributed”.
“My house was destroyed. I don’t have blankets. The people
getting aid are those who were least affected,” Simango said.
But others who received the relief packages at Cathrine
Dairies claimed the distribution of food was fair.
“The headman and councillors took down the names of people
affected and those were the people who got aid. It was fair,” one woman said
after receiving mealie meal, kapenta, porridge, blankets and cooking oil.
Some government health workers stationed at Skyline, who
declined to be named, said the problem was that because of drought, all people,
even those who were not affected, were now coming for food allocations.
“This place [near Skyline] was not affected as much as
Ngangu and Kopa, but all the people want to receive aid. Those people claiming
they are being denied food aid are not deserving beneficiaries,” the health
worker said.
Local Government minister July Moyo, however, said they had
introduced an efficient and strict way of co-ordinating the humanitarian aid by
establishing two centres at World Vision warehouses in Mutare and Harare.
“There are security systems monitoring the aid. At each
warehouse, we make sure there is also an official from the Ministry of Social
Welfare. All other agencies are there. We have a centre for receiving and
another one for dispatching the aid,” he said. Newsday
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