BY PROBLEM MASAU PRESIDENT Emmerson Mnangagwa has unwittingly admitted that Zanu PF uses food aid as a political tool to drum up support in rural areas. He made the remarks while addressing congregants at Johane Masowe Vadzidzi VaJesu shrine in Madziva, Mashonaland Central province, on Thursday.
Mnangagwa revealed that the ruling party structures would play a leading role in distributing food aid and agricultural inputs as the country heads to the 2023 elections.
“I have been to many districts in the country and most households are facing hunger. The ruling party is in every village, so people who are starving should forward their names to Zanu PF village committees so that they can be assisted with food aid. We want everyone to be Zanu PF,” he said.
“I have been to Mangwe, Plumtree, where we donated solar-powered boreholes and helped people to start horticulture. When you go there and say Mnangagwa is bad, they will beat you up.”
According to the Constitution, central government is mandated to take a leading role in food aid distribution.
Mnangagwa’s utterances came at a time when government has confirmed that 38% of the rural population, about 3,8 million people, will face hunger next year.
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Speaking during a post-Cabinet media briefing this week, Information minister Monica Mutsvangwa said projections by the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee for Rural Livelihood Assessment Results (2022) on the country’s food security situation were true.
“Cabinet wishes to assure the nation that all the 3,8 million people projected to be food insecure will be targeted as beneficiaries,” Mutsvangwa said.
“The nation is assured that the country has 490 000 metric tonnes of grain in the strategic grain reserve. Thus, the 120 000 metric tonnes required to support the needy households will be sufficiently covered.”
She said government was pinning its hope on humanitarian agencies such as the World Food Programme to chip in with food aid.
However, Mnangagwa’s remarks showed that the ruling party plans to use parallel structures in food distribution to drum up support.
The ruling party has in the past been accused of using food as a vote-buying tool.
In December 2017, former Sport, Arts and Recreation minister and Member of Parliament for Mberengwa East, Makhosini Hlongwane, was found with several tonnes of sugar beans upon his arrest, and could not explain how he got such large quantities.
Independent election watchdogs such as the Zimbabwe Election Support Network and Election Resource Centre have often accused the ruling Zanu PF party of using food aid as a bait to woo voters during elections.
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