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| Feeding scheme:Chikomba Primary School.photo by World Vision |
The GNU should focus on food provisions rather than votes.An elderly ,Mrs Joice Chirwande of Charamba village in Chikomba says the coalition government should focus on food security in the country rather than votes while the ruling party is busy clamoring for the 2012 elections .
It looks like the rains are only pounding the Harare surrounding areas while most of the country are dry. As most of the crops wilt due to high temperatures and erratic rainfall ,villagers in this part of the Mashonaland East province think their plight will escalate if polls are held this year.
The fear that if elections are held under same conditions as those of 2008 , violence can erupt with torture camps re-assembled.
"2008 was a bad year .We suffered violent elections and hunger with no food ,we suffered a lot ",said Chirwande as she looked at her lifeless maize field.Previous elections held in 2008 left at least more than 200 people dead due to violence orchestrated by the ZANU PF supporters and the military ,according to Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai , who pulled out of the runoff citing the gross violence.
Mugabe,who had lost first round of the elections to Tsvangirai , claimed the violence was perpetrated by both the ZANU PF and the Tsvangirai MDC.
Hunger and starvation followed the elections with many people in the rural areas to survive on wild berries and tree roots.
Shops were empty as most investors had shunned the country due to chaos which was prevailing at that time.
Betty Tichaona , a 56 year old villager from Chikomba constituent said the situation could spell disaster if Mugabe gets his way and elections are held this year.
At the same time rains have not done justice to the crops .
"As you can see ,we had planted maize ,groundnuts but we are likely to harvest much because of the erratic rain fall ",said Tichaona.
The smaller MDC faction led by Welshman Ncube told the people who were at the rally in the same area that the current poverty people were facing was a direct failure by Mugabe's governance .
Ncube told the people that voting for him would be the end of the people's poverty.
You make very impotant observations. I do think that the plight of the people are afe far more important than votes. More efforts should be channelled towards the improvement of food security.
ReplyDeletel say we go for elections as soon as possible so as to improve food provisions .The GNU is useless with all principals wanting to pull out.
ReplyDeleteif people vote first, food will be brought on the table. Its no use to have plenty of food surrounding you while you don't have peace and a well defined country and its politics. The absence of food in shelves is caused by the fact that people use their stomachs rather than their brains in thinking
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