Executive Summary
THE month of November was rife with reports of politically-biased irregularities in the
distribution of food relief and agricultural inputs. Recurring incidents across the country, but
mainly in the three Mashonaland provinces as well as Manicaland, showed that the general
populace which looks to the government for food relief and input assistance encounters a
tremendous amount of dilemmas in accessing the distributions with hunger being a very real
and ever-present threat. This results in the ordinary man on the street succumbing to fear –
fear of being discriminated against; fear of harassment; and above all fear of hunger.
And dilemmas abound for the people as they struggle with this fear and options available or
not available to them.
Battered by an unrelenting economic meltdown which has seen poverty levels in the country
rise to unprecedented levels, those desperate for the food and input distributions face
dilemmas which include having to make a choice of whether or not one joins the ruling ZanuPF just so they can access the assistance as members of the opposition are repeatedly not
listed for the donations. In cases, this past month, where people attended First Lady Grace
Mugabe rallies where she brought substantial tonnage of food stuffs and inputs, among other
“give-aways” and hoped to get a share of these goodies many of them found that they had
to contend with jostling and shoving in long queues as well as facing heavy-handed police
control, which often gave way to police brutality as the police attempted to maintain order
during the stampedes for the handouts. Reports of police beating up people to maintain order
as well as setting off their dogs on the masses have been noted in this report and elsewhere.
The dilemma presented here being if you want the donations badly enough you would have to
put up with the stampedes, police heavy handedness as well as the rambling hours since in a
majority of the instances donations by the First Lady would be distributed well into the night
or even the following day or days.
A fairly new phenomenon, which has seen unassuming and poverty-stricken villagers being
charged money in order to access food relief or input assistance is also something that many
of them have to face if they want the handouts. Reports in an increasing number of areas
across the country show that people are charged US$1 or US$1.50 by either party officials,
councillors, and of late agricultural extension workers have joined the fray, as transport or
registration fees in order for them to access the food and/or inputs. This is tantamount to
manipulating the desperate masses since the food and inputs are often meant as free handouts
from the Social Welfare Department, some non-governmental organisations and of late from
the First Lady at her rallies. Such unscrupulous charging of supposedly free items to
vulnerable masses is gross abuse and those considered politically incorrect for supporting
parties other than the ruling Zanu-PF suffer the most.
Another worrying trend which has reared an ugly head in the distribution of food and inputs
is the denial of such assistance to the elderly, people living with disabilities as well as
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