UZUMBA Maramba Pfungwe (UMP) boasts of a beautiful countryside landscape characterised by mountains, rolling hills, kopjes and valleys perfectly fitting into the terrain and blending well with the thick, untainted savanna forests and grasslands stretching towards the border with Mozambique.
BY TAPIWA ZIVIRA
With a 62 000-strong rural population, it is only when one gets deep into their daily lives that the contrasts between this countryside’s beauty on one hand, and the grinding poverty and politics of intimidation on the other are revealed.
For a region that receives medium to low rainfall and has a short rainy season, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, drought is nothing new for UMP folk, who have had to perennially rely on handouts or food aid.
In Chinhanga village, deep in the remote dry Pfungwe, a villager, who identified himself as 84-year-old Kareko, who retired from the civil service and spent most of his life in UMP, said he witnessed severe droughts, but this one was the worst.
“We have not had anything to eat. My sons in Harare, who used to send me some maize meal, are also saying they cannot offer any assistance to me,” he said, leaning on and tapping his crooked fingers on the wooden stick he uses as a walking aid.
At such an advanced age and struggling with various ailments, Kareko, who lives alone, is among those that have been sidelined from government food handouts, while several non-governmental organisations are under the spotlight amid allegations that food is being distributed along partisan lines.
Social Welfare minister Prisca Mupfumira has denied that food is being distributed on a partisan basis after relief agencies working with government in developmental programmes, including food aid, threatened to suspend funding, citing lack of transparency in the distribution of resources meant for vulnerable groups.
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Civic society organisations have insisted the ministry should act on the allegations.
One of the organisations, Heal Zimbabwe, said in a statement: “Such a denial by Mupfumira will not address the problem, but rather, show the lack of political will to address this anomaly. The minister should act responsibly and bring all accused officials and traditional leaders discriminating beneficiaries on political grounds to book.”
Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition official, Memory Kadau said: “Access to food is a basic right and should not be used to buy allegiance and discriminate against those that hold divergent political opinions.”
Ironically, as food was being handed out at Maramba business centre, some 10km away, Kareko sat on a stone wondering when he would get the next meal.
Water woes
NewsDay Weekender visited Chinhanga Dam, one of the few remaining water bodies that has become the source of relief for the surrounding villages.
Like an oasis in a desert, the dam is visited by hundreds of villagers, who ferry water in scotch carts, schoolchildren, who carry water buckets on their heads to the nearby Chinhanga Primary School, cattle, goats, sheep and donkeys.
Close to the dam is a well that provides drinking water and villagers could be seen streaming to it, with some saying they had travelled more than 10km.
Their hope, they say, is that the rains come soon.
Political intimidation
Far from their woes of accessing food aid, the UMP folk — who have endured decades of politically-motivated violence — appear to have been intimidated into silence, preferring to shy away from political discussions.
Known as a Zanu PF stronghold, UMP is a place where no other political party dares to scour for support.
“We do not talk about politics here because you do not know what will happen to you. We have seen people being killed or disappearing. So it is safer to keep quiet,” one shop owner at Katiyo business centre said.
With no healing process ever having taken place in Zimbabwe, and perpetrators of past violence walking scot free, the villagers remain traumatised.
Tayengwa Njenga (85) of Chigambe village near Maramba business centre bared his soul, saying he hoped to see a peaceful election in his lifetime.
“I do not know what gets into the heads of these young men to beat up their sisters, mothers and fathers on behalf of a politician, instead of doing things to develop the country,” he said.
“I hope to see peace and tolerance of other people’s views because I do not see why someone can be beaten for simply disagreeing with another.”
He may not be alone in this. At Maramba, three young men sit under a tree, as they engage in a muted conversation, while sharing opaque beer.
They occasionally look around, as if they are scared of some intruder.
This reporter joins them and after 15 minutes of convincing them, they finally talk about their politics.
One identifies himself as Takunda (19). He hopes not just for a job, but a peaceful election, where young men and women are not used as agents of violence.
His friends, Joe and Martin, (both aged 23), share similar ambitions and hopes.
Interestingly, the three say they support different political parties — Zanu PF, MDC-T and Zimbabwe People First (ZimPF).
With their access to mobile internet, they read the newspapers every day and like a ritual, they engage in conversations about football, politics and the economy, albeit in hushed tones.
“We cannot be heard talking about politics. This place is too dangerous,” Joe said.
Martin chips in: “As youths, we have aspirations and our future lies in the political decisions that we make. So the safest way is to talk about it among ourselves. We trust each other and despite our political differences, we are still friends and that is the spirit that we wish for.”
