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Government should not politicize hunger in the face of famine
Committee of the Peoples Charter (CPC)
March 07, 2012

The Committee of the Peoples Charter (CPC) regards the recent statements by the Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation, Dr Joseph Made, on the 2011-2012 rainy season's drought situation in Zimbabwe as a serious cause for concern. Dr. Made is reported in the media as having sought to blame Finance Minister Tendai Biti for the current situation in which the inclusive government finds itself ill-prepared to tackle the food security crisis that is facing millions of Zimbabwe.

It is the CPC's view that such political blame games are distasteful attempts at the unnecessary politicizing of the serious national food crisis that a majority of Zimbabweans are facing. It is a sad development that too often government ministries or departments have sought to play such political blame games with each other while millions of Zimbabweans face the scourge of famine.

It is a well established fact that Zimbabwe is scientifically known to have a drought prone climate and therefore any failure to mitigate the same is indicative of the collective failure of the government of Zimbabwe to govern in the best interests of its own citizens.

It is therefore imperative that the entirety of the inclusive government act in unison to tackle the challenge that Zimbabwe faces as a result of the projected poor harvest of the 2011-2012 agricultural season. This would entail an immediate departure from politically partisan narratives about what could have caused greater parts of Zimbabwe to receive poor to inadequate rainfall.

The inclusive government must prioritize the urgent completion of the remainder of the crop assessment exercise in order to establish a comprehensive drought mitigation strategy in consultation with local civil society and international donors. This must be done in tandem with the rolling out of an urgent holistic and non-partisan food relief distribution programme aimed at protecting vulnerable rural, peri-urban and urban households from the negative socio-economic effects of famine.

All of these processes must be done with full public knowledge as to the state of progress in order to prevent illness and death due to negligence of the people of Zimbabwe by the inclusive government and relevant stakeholders.

The CPC also insists that all the three parties in the inclusive government are not only collectively responsible for the poor response to the pending famine, but will be found liable of betraying the interests of the people of Zimbabwe should they decide to politicise hunger in the face of famine.

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