Politicisation of food handouts is corruption

Editorial Comment
YESTERDAY we carried a disturbing story concerning the politicisation of food handouts in Binga, Matabeleland North, in which the MDC-T legislator for the area revealed how his party supporters were being sidelined in the doling out of the presidential maize relief from the Grain Marketing Board (GMB).

YESTERDAY we carried a disturbing story concerning the politicisation of food handouts in Binga, Matabeleland North, in which the MDC-T legislator for the area revealed how his party supporters were being sidelined in the doling out of the presidential maize relief from the Grain Marketing Board (GMB).

MDC-T Binga North legislator Prince Sibanda claimed that Zanu PF political commissars in his constituency were working in cohorts with GMB officials to deny grain to perceived opposition supporters at Manjolo business centre.

The MP named and shamed the alleged culprits — known Zanu PF activists who have taken control of the distribution of the food. The revelations appear to authenticate two recently-released independent findings by civil society organisations on the scourge taking root in and around the country in which the Zanu PF card or membership guarantees one food.

Reports produced by the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition and the Zimbabwe Peace Project last week also highlighted the politicisation of food in Binga and elsewhere in southern parts of the country, which have been the hardest hit areas.

But be that as it may, the ongoing partisan distribution of grain raises renewed fears some villagers in the hardest hit remote areas of the country might soon die of hunger if Zanu PF zealots are given carte blanche in distributing the scarce commodity.

It is really sad for a party that claims to have won the July 31 elections freely and fairly to use politics of retribution on its opponents. The victor appears to be taking revenge on the vanquished using politics of the stomach.

In the run-up to the July 31 polls, President Robert Mugabe promised fair distribution of handouts, but reports point to the contrary — food is being distributed purely on a partisan basis.

Readers of this newspaper have been quick to point out that machinations surrounding the distribution of food shows Zanu PF is not confident with its political standing and image, hence the continued use of barbaric and uncivilised methods of denying citizens food in an effort to coerce them into supporting Zanu PF.

Food is a basic right and if one is denied that right on the basis of their political affiliation, the one politicising food distribution should be arrested and prosecuted.

These actions are not different from corruption.