The Sunday Mail
Lincoln Towindo
President Mugabe personally monitors Government’s Food Deficit Mitigation programme and leaves no room for distribution of food aid along partisan lines, a Cabinet Minister has said.Labour, Public Service and Social Welfare Minister Priscah Mupfumira oversees the programme.
She told The Sunday Mail last week that the President receives weekly briefings on food distribution during Cabinet sittings.
In a show of his personal acquaintance with events on the ground, President Mugabe on Friday told the Zanu PF Central Committee indaba at the party’s headquarters in Harare that he is aware of the finer details concerning food aid distribution.
He said claims made by the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission chairperson, Mr Elasto Mugwadi, that Zanu PF members are denying opposition party supporters food aid, are “absolute falsehoods”.
Currently, Government is providing a monthly ration of 50kg of maize to over 600 000 households under the Vulnerable Food Assistance Programme.
The programme is meant to shield vulnerable communities from the El Nino-induced drought.
Said Minister Mupfumira: “The Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare has since last year been distributing grain to food insecure and labour constrained households under the Food Deficit Mitigation Programme.
“The criterion for selecting beneficiaries is very transparent as the distribution is guided by the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee and the social welfare registers.
“Those targeted by the programme also include the elderly, the chronically ill, people living with disabilities and orphans.
“Structured drought relief committees are in place both at district and provincial level and these include various stakeholders who are apolitical.
“The Government of Zimbabwe is committed to ensuring that transparency prevails in the distribution of grain and even the President is on record for saying no-one should go hungry, implying that as a Head of State, he is not being partisan but is concerned about the welfare of the citizens across the political divide.
“The statement by the ZHRC is disturbing as it denigrates a national programme that is monitored with keen interests by the President who is updated during every cabinet meeting.”
She said the ZHRC is causing unnecessary alarm and despondency through the media instead of engaging Government through the ministry concerned.
“Over the years, the ministry has proven beyond reasonable doubt that it is capable of executing its mandate of looking after vulnerable groups through various other programmes that are in place.
“Government prioritises the welfare of every Zimbabwean and to demonstrate this, the Food Deficit Mitigation programme has been extended to food insecure households in urban areas.”
Last month, Government began co-opting thousands of food-insecure Zimbabweans living in Harare and Bulawayo into the food-for-work programme.
Previously, only rural communities benefited from the programme.
