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President of the chiefs’ council Chief Fortune Charumbira speaks to the chairperson of Chingwizi village committee Mr Mike Mudyanembwa during the traditional chiefs’ tour of Chingwizi holding camp last Friday. — Picture by George Maponga

From George Maponga at Chingwizi Camp, Mwenezi
Chiefs have implored Government to extensively consult Tokwe-Mukosi flood victims at Chingwizi holding camp.
Twenty chiefs led by Zimbabwe Chiefs’ Council president Chief Fortune Charumbira on Friday toured Chingwizi to familiarise themselves with the challenges facing over 3 000 flood victims here.

The people have been resisting attempts to move to permanent plots for various reasons.

Addressing camp residents after they aired their grievances to the ZCC delegation, Chief Charumbira said: “They (residents) have to determine what happens to them in future and judging from what they have said to us, it is very clear that they want to be consulted whenever key decisions that affect them are made.

“We could see a lot of anger in the flood victims and that anger is understandable after what they have gone through and if Government can listen to their concerns then we are quite sure they will even start moving to their permanent plots,” said Chief Charumbira.

He said it was important for senior Government officials to regularly visit the holding camp so that people do not feel abandoned.

Chief Charumbira said living conditions in Chingwizi were deplorable because of shortages of water, accommodation and toilets.

“In our culture it is unacceptable for parents to share the same bedroom with their children, such a thing is very common at Chingwizi because of the living conditions and that makes life very much unbearable for the families,” said Chief Charumbira.

He assured residents that chiefs would submit their grievances to President Mugabe next week and also approach relevant ministers.
Chief Charumbira thanked the flood victims for keeping faith in President Mugabe’s Government despite the challenges they faced.

The chiefs also said it was wrong for authorities to use food and tents as weapons to force flood victims to move out of the camp.

This was after residents, through chair of the Chingwizi village heads committee, Mr Mike Mudyanembwa, said families refusing to leave the holding camp were being denied food and tents.

Mr Mudyanembwa said they wanted Government to fulfil its promise of allocating each family four hectares of arable land and not one hectare as was presently being done.

The flood victims are also against being forced to grow sugar cane in Chingwizi, adding that Government should offer alternative land to those who want to move to other parts of the country.