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Traditional leaders say 'will not feed the enemy'
ZimOnline
January 31, 2007

http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID=15955

Masvingo - Zimbabwe’s Council of Chiefs has ordered traditional leaders in rural Chiredzi South constituency to deny state-supplied food aid to opposition supporters, council president Fortune Charumbira said on Monday. Chiredzi is due to hold a by-election on February 17 to replace former Zanu PF legislator Aaron Baloyi who died last year. Charumbira said in addition to denying food to opposition supporters - who he described as the enemy – chiefs had also been instructed to campaign for Zanu PF, adding that the traditional leaders should know "which side their bread is buttered". "We have advised all chiefs in Chiredzi south to campaign for the ruling party,’ said Charumbira. "We have also ordered them that they should consider only Zanu PF supporters on programmes initiated by the government (including food aid). We cannot afford to continue feeding the enemy because they are sellouts," he added, virtually confirming the use of food aid as a political weapon to coerce villagers to support the governing party.

Traditional leaders hold largely ceremonial powers but wield immense influence in rural areas where President Robert Mugabe and Zanu PF draw most of their support. The opposition, human rights and pro-democracy groups accuse chiefs of using their positions to intimidate their subjects to back Mugabe’s party, a charge they have until now denied. Zanu PF and the government deny refusing food to opposition supporters and insist it is their policies alone that have won them support in rural areas. A Zanu PF stalwart in Masvingo province, under which Chiredzi falls, Dzikamai Mavhaire, said anyone caught politicising food aid, should be arrested by the police. "It is not government policy and will never be our policy. All people in need of food aid should be given food despite their political affiliation. Anyone politicising food aid should be reported to the police and he should be arrested," said Mavhaire, who is also a Senator of the ruling party and a member of its inner politburo cabinet.

But villagers from Chiredzi and opposition officials said chiefs were ordering supporters of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and the United People’s Party (UPP) to denounce their parties first before they could get food aid. For example, Patrick Malaba, a villager from Sangwe area in Chiredzi, said his local chief had told him that he was not going to get food from a Zanu PF-led government because he supported the UPP. Malaba said: "I am a supporter of UPP and the chief has since advised me not to expect free food from a Zanu PF-led government. I was denied food on several times the reason being that I support an opposition political party." An MDC official in Masvingo, Elson Chauke said the by-election will not be free and fair because opposition supporters were being coerced to back Zanu PF in return for food. "This is electoral fraud. Why are they denying our supporters food aid? It is clear that the elections will never be free and fair" said Chauke. Immaculate Makondo and Nehemiah Zenamwe from the two MDC factions, Callisto Gwanetsa of Zanu PF and Savious Chauke will battle it out in the poll, whose result – which ever way it goes - will not alter much the balance of power in both Houses of Parliament where the ruling party has absolute majority.

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