register for or get drought relief food from the government welfare department.
Most villagers were surviving on one light meal a day as famine and poverty continued to
bite. Although some organizations like Plan, World vision and the Social Welfare
Department supplied food relief to districts this was still inadequate and people were always
forced to forego some meals a day in order to stretch it for a few more days.
The coming of the late heavy rains in Binga, whilst a welcome development, filled the
Zambezi River with muddied water making it very difficult for villagers to catch fish. This
affected them greatly because fishing is a major source of livelihood.
Heightened campaigns and supporters recruitment drives by parties like ZimPF, PDP, MDC
formations and ZAPU were observed. No major incidents of disturbances by state agents
were reported. A number of new faces were seen in the province which made people believe
there was deployment of agents from the Central Intelligence Organisation.
Highlights:
Lazarus Dunga (not real name) a member of PDP based in Ward 10 at Mwemba
Village complained to other villagers that Zanu-PF youths were threatening him with
unspecified action for his campaigns of recruiting new members to PDP.
A non-governmental organization, Amalima, facilitated a developmental programme
where people would engage in food-for-work to sustain villagers of Ward 4 and Ward
5. In Tsholotsho Villagers in Ward 4 who are said to belong to the G40 faction of
Zanu-PF allegedly declared they would not allow Ward 5 to partake in the programme
as they do not belong to their faction.
Police and state intelligence services in Lupane were reportedly on high alert for all
suspected opposition party activities in the area.
On 12 March 2016, Denford Mangwaira (not real name), a known civic society
activist, was visiting at Ken Maur Shops, St Luke's when he was approached by two
policemen as he sat in a twin cab truck. The two asked him to whom the car belonged
and what his business was at St Luke's. When he refused to tell them they said they
suspected he had come to attend Mujuru’s rally as they had information she was
coming. They said they heard she was working with civic society and warned him not
to play with fire.
Matabeleland South
Many incidents of discrimination in food distribution and registration of needy villagers were
recorded in March (see details in food section below). Political parties, most notably Zanu-PF
had its members implicated in the majority of these violations.
ZimPF were noted going on full membership drive and seemingly getting many new
members who were defecting from Zanu-PF. Quite a few were also coming in from MDC-T
and MDC led by Welshman Ncube.
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