adminNqobile Tshili Chronicle Correspondent
THE Government’s has started distributing food aid in Bulawayo with over 3 000 vulnerable people benefiting since Wednesday last week. Since the launch of the programme last year, Bulawayo and Harare were not receiving the food aid. However, ministers in charge of the provinces requested the Government to extend the programme to the metropolitan provinces after discovering that disadvantaged groups like orphans, the elderly, widows and people living with disabilities faced starvation.
In Bulawayo, beneficiaries from the first batch included residents from Luveve, Cowdray Park, Makokoba, Mzilikazi, Njube and Iminyela suburbs.
Bulawayo Metropolitan Province social welfare officer Mr Chriswell Nyakudya said: “We’ve managed to do the distributions for July as anticipated. We distributed according to the Government’s directives by distributing to the harmonised cash transfers and public assistance members,” said Mr Nyakudya.
“We distributed grain to 3 115 vulnerable people. Out of 156,75 tonnes we distributed 155,75 tonnes giving us a balance of one tonne. One tonne was left because beneficiaries did not turn up to claim their share,” said Mr Nyakudya.
He said in some wards distributors were forced to give the food aid to deserving people who were not on their lists as the targeted members were not available. “We ended up giving the left overs to the disabled, elderly, chronically ill, widows and widowers and orphans. The ward screening team decided to come up with the lists,” he said.
Mr Nyakudya said he was happy with the level of cooperation from the steering committee comprising other government departments saying it made the distribution move swiftly. He said although over 3 000 were assisted with food aid more people may still be in need of it.
“We need an urban poverty assessment committee. We need Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (ZimVAC) to do a scientific investigation to determine the poverty levels in the cities. At the moment we don’t have any science evidence based figure,” he said.
He challenged the private sector join the Government in assisting those in need of food aid.
“We could be covering more ground if other stakeholders could come on board. The registration committee has registered beneficiaries so that we give the figures to the Minister of State for Provincial Affairs Nomthandazo Eunice Moyo so that she can brief the President that in Bulawayo we still have more people in need of food aid,” he said.
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