Zimbabwe: Senior Zapu Official Says Zanu-PF Thrives On Famine, Ruling Party Unhappy With Current Good Rains

Zimbabwe

A SENIOR Zapu official says this season's predicted good harvest following good rains countrywide will deal Zanu PF's campaign strategy a major blow.

Zapu's national vice secretary for mobilization, John Dlamini said traditionally, Zanu PF's campaign strategy thrives mainly on the hungry electorate especially in the rural areas.

"Zanu PF loves to see people suffering because the party knows very well that it is very easy to manipulate desperate potential voters. While the current rains which farmers are receiving is good news, to Zanu PF the rains are a curse," claimed Dlamini.

He was distributing maize seed and clothes to villagers whose houses were demolished last year in December by heavy winds and rains at Cabatsha resettlement on the outskirts of Bulawayo.

Dlamini said Zapu's aid policy focuses on empowering the locals unlike Zanu PF which he says "captures" the electorate through state sourced donations.

"As Zapu, we do not believe in perennial food distribution. We believe in the empowering of people through construction of dams as well as giving famers adequate inputs so as to rescue them from the dependency syndrome which is one of the major causes of some of the problems which we have in the country," he said.

Dlamini also castigated the government for neglecting resettlement areas.

Heavy winds and rains demolished more than 15 houses in the area, reducing housing structures to rubble while destroying the settlers' properties.

Cabatsha residents were resettled on the farm after the farm's previous owner deserted the property.

According to Zapu officials, the donation was sourced from the party's supporters in the diaspora.