The Sunday News
EVEN in the best of rainy seasons, life is rarely rosy in Mapate, a village in Matabeleland South’s Gwanda District. The district has largely been known for its livestock rearing more than cropping, with villagers being able to produce only what is enough to feed them and their families.
With the country going through probably one of its worst dry spells in nearly a decade and the drought inevitable, the situation in the district is sliding to desperate levels. Not only have the crops failed but villagers’ livestock are also dying due to shortage of water and grazing pastures. For 82-year-old Mapate village head Mr Kabelo Nyathi, this is a year which he said he would rather forget, although it’s still in its infancy.
When describing his family’s predicament, Mr Nyathi is almost in tears as his 78-year-old wife Ms Melitha Ndlovu sits a couple of metres away preparing their evening meal of imbuya in iSiNdebele or mbowa in Shona, stinging nettle (imbabazane in iSiNdebele or murosha in Shona) and what they call the munyagu plant in their Sotho local language.
Sunday News last week visited some villages in Gwanda and Beitbridge districts to assess the food situation and the news crew discovered that the situation has turned dire with an urgent need for Government intervention.
Some of the areas visited include Manama, Mapate, Halisupi, Zezane, Swereki, Nhwali, Sun-Yet-Sen and Mtshologwi.
In these villages, imbuya, imbabazane and munyagu is now more of a delicacy, while in some areas families have to endure one meal a day or even in two days just to spread their maize-meal supplies.
According to zimbabweflora.co.zw the poor man’s spinach (imbuya) is: “a weed in waste places, disturbed, cultivated or overgrazed areas, often near rivers or pans, usually in sandy or loamy soils.”
Imbabazane on the other hand is an erect annual or short-lived perennial herb whose leaves vary in shape and size, from entire to deeply lobed, often on the same plant, more or less broadly ovate in outline, it has a stinging sensation to the mouth.
Munyagu is a flowery plant that grows vertically, winding around trees and according to villagers in the rural parts of Gwanda and Beitbridge they consume the leaves of this flower mixing it with imbabazane and imbuya plus a small amount of milk to turn it into some sort of relish.
However, according to the Social Services Department, 20 345 households in the province have benefitted from the 2 161 tonnes of grain distributed between October and December last year. The number of people needing food aid is, however, expected to increase as not much is expected from the fields following a prolonged dry spell that has destroyed crops.
“Things are frankly not well here, as you can see for yourselves our fields have nothing at all and our livestock are dying due to hunger. As I speak, I am left with just a 20 kilogramme bag of maize-meal which I expect will last us for the next three months hence we eat just once a day — in the evening — that is our isitshwala and this relish which I doubt you can even taste.
“It is bad because with no crops at all, it is highly likely that come June this year we could be going for two or three days without a proper meal. Just a couple of weeks ago we had to endure four days of eating porridge only because we had to stretch the little maize-meal which we had,” said Mr Nyathi.
The village head said so desperate was the situation that they could not even slaughter their livestock for food as they were now thin due to drought.
“If you realise this is the second year running when we have had below average rainfalls hence the situation is dire. What makes it worse is we have never received any food aid in the past two years, even the non-governmental organisations that are said to be assisting other parts of the country have never been here at all. If someone can even come with a food-for-work scheme we will be very grateful because right now all we are crying for is food,” he said.
His wife, Ms Ndlovu said in the 78 years she had lived she had never come across such a drought situation as it was clear, so early in the planting season, that the situation would get worse.
“I feel sorry for our 13-year-old grandson as he wakes up as early as 5am, walks about 10 kilometres to Halisupi Secondary School on an empty stomach, and learns the whole day, only to eat with the rest of the family at 7pm. You can never expect someone learning in that condition to surely produce miracles and pass with flying colours,” said Ms Ndlovu.
Sunday News also managed to catch up with Manama village head Mr Nkosikhona Nyathi, who revealed that many-a-time they had to share the little they had as villagers so that those villagers without any access to food could get something.
“While we understand that the entire nation is facing a possible drought I implore that our leaders pay a visit to our villages and they will see that already the situation is desperate. We now have to share the little we have as villagers because if we say each one for himself then we are saying some of our fellow villagers should die of hunger. What we are now crying out for is that if Government or any well-wishers could come to our rescue, be it through the food-for-work or at least feed school children at their respective schools because they are the ones who are affected the most,” said Mr Nyathi.
Swereki village head Mrs Ellinah Moyo revealed that unscrupulous businesspeople from Gwanda town and Bulawayo were now taking advantage of the desperate situation of villagers by buying goats for as little as $15.
“Would you believe that a goat this side can hardly get you a 20 kilogramme bag of maize-meal, we have tried conscientising villagers but to no avail as they are desperate, that is what hunger does to you. What is funny is that someone can take advantage of the suffering of someone for their own benefit, this clearly defies the spirit of ubuntu. These businesspeople should be helping these villagers rather than enhancing their suffering,” said Mrs Moyo.
This news crew was fortunate to come across a “goat sale” at Swereki business centre. Although most of the goat buyers refused to comment, one of them who spoke on condition of anonymity said they did not set the prices but it was the villagers themselves.
“We cannot be blamed for the prices we buy these goats; they (villagers) and their leaders actually come to us and charge us, which is what we pay. If they say $15, then we buy for that much, it is not up to us but up to them,” said the businessman who said he operates restaurants in Bulawayo.
Contacted for comment, Matabeleland South provincial administrator Mr Midard Khumalo acknowledged that there was a serious food crisis hence an urgent need for the Government to enhance food relief programmes.
He said the major problem was that the Government had hinged their food relief programme on the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (ZimVAC) report as there were a number of districts that needed urgent attention.
“As you might have seen during your tour that the situation in the province is really dire, things are not well. Although I do not have the figures off hand I can tell you that the hardest hit areas are in Gwanda, Beitbridge, Matobo and Mangwe.
“We are, however, doing our best to assist the communities. Already we have a drought relief programme in place where we are giving households maize-meal on a monthly basis. Government is also working with its co-operating partners to see how they can contribute towards addressing this crisis, but one thing which I should acknowledge is that we are surely in a crisis period, both for people and livestock,” said Mr Khumalo.
He said they would now work outside the provisions of the ZimVAC report and give food aid assistance by observation, giving priority to the hardest hit areas. According to the report Matabeleland North province was rated as the most food insecure province in the country, with further assessment that 16 percent of rural households in the country are estimated to have insufficient means to meet their minimum food needs in the 2015/2016 consumption year.
