Villagers in Bhalula area in Matabeleland South province have accused the government of giving them rotten maize.
A villager told NewZimbabwe.com that the “smelly and brownish-coloured” maize was distributed by the State-run Grain Marketing Board (GMB). Thursday. He said:
I and my neighbour received a 50 Kg bag of maize which we were told to share. It was brownish in colour and a strange smell. The maize had also sand particles.
We did not have any choice, my brother. We took the maize out of desperation. Some people have tried to sieve the maize while others are consuming it as it is.
Zimbabwe is in the midst of one of the worst droughts in living memory, with international humanitarian organisations estimating that about half of the country’s estimated 16 million people are in need of food aid.
The sparsely-populated Matabeleland South province experiences frequent droughts and villagers depend on food aid from the international donor community and the government.