Zimbabwe: MPs call for ministerial statement on ‘unfair’ food aid distribution – deserving households starving

The MPs demanded fair distribution of food aid in their respective constituencies as some deserving households would be left out.

The hunger is due to a poor harvest in most parts of the country due to the drought caused by the El Niño phenomenon that hit the region, particularly Zimbabwe, where more than 9 million people need food aid to survive until the next season.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa has declared the drought situation a national disaster and appealed for help from well-wishers.

While appreciating the government’s efforts to find funds to purchase grains, Zvimba East MP Kudakwashe Decide Mananzva said not all households were benefiting from the current distribution exercise.

“We are grateful for the corn that is being distributed, but my question is: the corn is coming, but only a few people are benefiting from it.

“One family can take up to six bags, while another has none. What measures are you taking to ensure that everyone gets maize, because everyone is facing starvation?” Mananzva asked.

Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Protection Mercy Dinha said 6.1 million people in rural areas needed cereals.

“Currently, there are 6,100,000 grain beneficiaries in rural areas. People are receiving grain for three months at one time.

“A person gets 22.5 kg, which means father, mother and children, or 22.5 times six.

“That is why some receive a certain number of bags while others have not yet received any. This is a distribution of the chosen beneficiaries and the criterion is that they are the most needy at that time. They are considered to be in need of cereals at that time,” Dinha told Vice President Tsitsi Gezi.

However, Mananzva further questioned the distribution criteria used, saying they disadvantaged others, urging the government to distribute the grain in advance.

“The corn that is being distributed in six months, is it distributed in advance or is it retroactive? If it is retroactive, it means that people have survived, why don’t we give grain to the people in advance so that we all benefit,” the MP stressed.

Dinha explained that the criterion was the reduction of costs in terms of transport.

“We distribute grain for the months of May, June and July. These criteria reduce costs, especially transportation costs, as well as administrative costs, and avoid people having to travel back and forth to receive the corn.

“At the moment, the allocations were for the months of May, June and July. After that, we will start the distribution for the next three months; so it will be in batches of three months until March next year,” Dinha explained.

Lynnette Karenyi-Kore, a member of parliament for the Citizens’ Coalition for Change (CCC), said: “According to their assessment, this shows that in both rural and urban areas, people are dying of hunger.

“So this means that when one person leaves with six bags, the others get nothing. The honourable minister admitted that some people get up to six bags, but the fact is that everyone is starving.

“As a government, why don’t you distribute maize to everyone for the next three months? It is better to give one bag per household than to distribute six bags to one household,” Kore said.

The minister said that these criteria were used and generally published by the government. So if this has to be changed, it means that the government has to sit down and change the system and make sure that everyone benefits and every household gets a bag of maize.

MP Mananzva argued that Parliament is the government and that it never accepted the procedure allegedly followed.

“If you say that the government has established this procedure, we are the government and we say that in Mutoko, no one has received rain.

“So we want to know how you plan to distribute the corn quickly, because everyone is starving. The situation there is dire.”

Dinha promised to partner with the Ministry of Lands and Agriculture to act on the MPs’ suggestions.

Zanu PF Goromonzi West lawmaker Beatrice Karimatsenga-Nyamupinga has called for a ministerial statement on the issue.

“The two ministries concerned can bring a ministerial statement to this House because we cannot play around with a subject that relates to hunger.

“Hunger can drive people to do anything and hunger in the country is a security threat,” Karimatsenga-Nyamupinga said.