Supporters of opposition political parties in Zimbabwe are reportedly being removed from the lists of beneficiaries for food aid and farming inputs distribution in rural areas.
According to the Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) Monthly Monitoring Report for September 2024, the distribution of food aid is occurring along partisan lines.
The report highlights nine separate incidents in which a total of 85 individuals were denied aid due to their political affiliations. Reads part of the report:
In one of the 19 villages in Ward 8 in Vungu district, only 14 families have been benefiting from government-sponsored food aid in a village of about 65 families.
The narration from some of the victims indicates that when a decision to increase the number of beneficiary households was made, instead of adding from the rest of the families in the village, additional beneficiaries from the ruling party were added from other villages because the rest of the families were deemed unfit due to their political affiliations.
One of the victims narrated: “We are not getting the food rations because they say go and feed from your Father’s plate. We are not even told about the distribution but sometimes we are told by people that our names were on the list and were called out but we do not get the food, meaning someone is benefitting on our behalf”.
In Mwenezi North’s Ward 4, Kraal Head Chitemere is accused of only issuing the Pfumbvudza inputs solely to ruling party supporters, further marginalizing those who do not align with the political elite.
In Mwenezi North, Ward 4 Kraal Head Chitemere of Village 2, discriminately excluded two families from potential beneficiaries of fertiliser under the Pfumvudza supporting scheme stating that they never attend ZANU PF meetings and were not participating in the party activities. He declared the seedling program was for ruling party supporters only.
The families, facing a hostile environment, requested a letter from Chitemere to relocate to other villages but were denied, labelling them CCC members and claiming their movement to other villages would negatively impact others.
Traditional leaders are reportedly forcing villagers to participate in labour-intensive infrastructure projects, presenting these initiatives as part of a “food for work” program. Reads the report:
These have been noted in Vungu district in Midlands, Masvingo North, Bikita East, Gutu Central and Mutare North among others. In Ward 10, Mutare North in Manicaland, kraalhead Phanuel Hama Marange is leading the villagers who benefit from the social welfare distributed food aid in making damaged roads.
The villagers work with bare hands and use their own tools such as shovels, wheelbarrows and hoes.
Reports also state that villagers are fined US$1 should they absent themselves. In a similar incident in Bikita South in Masvingo, villagers who wanted to benefit from food aid were assigned duties under the food for work program and worked for two months but have not received the promised aid.
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