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Zanu PF bars NCA members from buying maize
Godfrey Mutimba, The Zimbabwe Standard
February 19, 2006

http://www.thestandard.co.zw/read.php?path=./news/2006/February/Sunday19/&st_id=867

MASVINGO - Members of the National Constitutional Assembly (NCA) in Masvingo have cried foul over the distribution of grain in rural areas. They allege that they are being barred from buying maize by Zanu PF officials who link them with the opposition MDC, The Standard has learnt. A massive grain shortage has hit the province as the Grain Marketing Board provincial depot has not been distributing grain to most districts in the province. Officials attribute this to erratic supplies of the much sought after commodity.

However, when the few deliveries that are made after long period arrive, NCA members say they are being turned away from various selling points by ruling party officials.

The NCA has been conducting workshops in the rural areas in a bid to sensitise the rural folk to the importance of drafting a new constitution.

However, ruling party officials are allegedly targeting people who attend these workshops.

NCA members who spoke to The Standard said they were facing difficulties in accessing maize meal as the ruling party instructed councillors and chiefs to exclude them from buying lists.

"We are being turned away by our councillors and Zanu PF officials whenever we go to the selling points to buy grain on the few occasions that it is delivered.

"They say we are linked to the MDC because the NCA is anti-government. Our families are starving because sometimes we go for weeks without eating sadza, '' said Shadreck Guruva from Zaka.

The most affected members are in Chivi, Zaka, Mwenezi and Chiredzi.

Mabel Sikhosana, NCA vice chairperson, confirmed to The Standard that their members from all the seven districts of the province were being denied the right to buy grain from GMB. "We have received reports from our members in different districts that they are not allowed to buy grain by ruling party officials who accuse them of links to the MDC.

"As NCA, we are going to take the matter up with the help of our legal advisers because it is not right to bar one from buying maize just because of joining our organisation. We are not a political party,'' Sikhosana said.

Sikosana said more than 1 000 people in the province were affected.

Last year Zanu PF barred all members of the opposition MDC from buying grain in a bid to fix them for supporting the opposition during the March parliamentary elections.

Zanu PF provincial chairperson, Samuel Mumbengegwi, was not immediately available for comment. His mobile phone was continuously not reachable.

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