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Zanu PF playing games with the people's suffering
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC)
October 30, 2008

The MDC is deeply disturbed by the utterances made this week by a senior Zanu PF official that non-governmental organisations were hoarding food aid in order to misrepresent the food situation in the country.

The MDC notes with concern that the statement made by Rugare Gumbo, purporting to be the Minister of Agriculture on Wednesday show that Zanu PF is still in denial that the food situation in the country has reached very critical levels.

Firstly, Gumbo cannot purport to be a minister. There is no government in Zimbabwe and Gumbo cannot use a fictitious position to mislead the nation that the hunger in Zimbabwe is being exaggerated. For the record this is a clear Zanu PF position with regards to the issue of hunger in the country.

The self-styled minister denies that Zimbabweans are eating wild fruits, adding that the people have been doing this since "time immemorial." Gumbo should tell the nation when he last had his supper of wild fruits and where Zanu PF members are enjoying their wild fruit meals.

This is a reckless statement, which confirms that the elite in Zanu PF have taken permanent resident status in cloud cuckoo land. Throughout the country, Zimbabweans are competing with wild animals to eat wild fruits as unprecedented starvation stalks the countryside.

It is just unheard of that a person who purports to be in charge of food distribution thinks that it is acceptable to eat wild fruits just because the practise has been in existence since time immemorial.

This is reducing the people to the primitive days of over 300 years ago. Because of Zanu PF, Zimbabwe has gone back 10 generations back to primitive communities of hunters and gatherers.

In recent months, we have had unbelievable reports even from the State media of people in the rural areas dying after consuming wild fruits and going for days without any food.

In some cases they have to fight with animals to get the scarce wild fruits yet Zanu PF says this is not true and instead blames the NGOs for putting the lives of the people at risk. The regime is responsible for this massive starvation. Even the State media has published reports of senior Zanu PF and government officials stealing grain from the Grain Marketing Board. In fact it these corrupt sharks and tigers in the GMB that are diverting grain that is meant for the people to the lucrative black market where it fetches high prices, which most of the rural and urban people cannot afford.

It is wishful thinking that these donor organisations can bring in food into the country then lock it up just to please the international media.

Gumbo's statements show how Zanu PF is out of touch with reality. Zanu PF is burying its head in the sand rather than declaring the situation a national disaster and forming an inclusive government

During President Morgan Tsvangirai's report back rallies people have been complaining about hunger and the partisan and corrupt way the GMB is distributing grain.

The MDC reiterates that hunger knows no politics therefore food distribution should not be politicised.

In a new Zimbabwe, food will be the government's first priority. No one will ever spend a single day hungry let alone an hour.

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