MASVINGO - Zanu PF Masvingo provincial governor Titus Maluleke got a torrid time last Friday after mainstream MDC MPs accused him of masterminding the politicisation of food aid.

The MDC MPs said their party members were being snubbed in the distribution of government-subsidised food.
The legislators grilled Maluleke at a lodge at Ancient City during a meeting organised by the provincial Joint Monitoring and Implementation Committee (Jomic).

It emerged during the meeting that complains of partisan food distribution of the grain loan scheme had been overwhelming across the province.

MDC MP for Masvingo central, Jeferyson Chitando, attacked Maluleke accusing him of flouting government procedures on food distribution.

“The problem of partisan food distribution lies with governor Maluleke who is here. He is the one responsible for the challenges people are facing in getting food hand outs from government if they are not from Zanu PF. Why I am saying this is because he abuses his power to flout and twist government procedures that should be followed to distribute food to starving villagers,” said Chitando.

Chitando said the governor was instructing his subordinates to by-pass councillors and MPs from the MDC party during the distribution and was using losing Zanu PF councillors and traditional leaders to give food aid to the former ruling party supporters only.

Masvingo Urban legislator, Tongai Matutu said the partisan distribution of food hand-outs were initiated from Maluleke’s office and recommended Jomic to take over the distribution of food to bring sanity.

“The whole problem starts right in the governor’s office. He is supposed to see that the distribution is done on a non-partisan manner but we get reports that he is behind everything. In order for us to solve this problem I suggest that Jomic takes charge of distributing food so that other political party supporters are not treated unfairly,” Matutu said amid cheers from fellow legislators.

Maluleke, who was the guest of honour at the meeting, was left embarrassed after the MPs took turns to tell him in his face that he was the perpetrator of violence and politicisation of food aid.

Maluleke tried to defend himself but the MDC legislators would have none of it.

“The distribution of food aid is not done by politicians but by government through the Local Government ministry or Social Welfare and the help of traditional leaders and everything is going on well in Masvingo,” he said but was quickly rubbished by furious MDC legislators.