The Chronicle

MASVINGO, Friday, November 13, 1992 — Starving villagers in the Sengwe area of Chiredzi are living on wild fruit and cattle hide because they have not received drought relief food for the past four months, the weekly provincial newspaper, the Masvingo Star reported yesterday.

The villagers boil wild fruit known as tungulu which they knead into thick porridge and take with boiled hide from cattle which would have died of starvation.

“We last received food handouts in August and up to now nothing has been received despite numerous appeals. If urgent action is not taken, some people living in the area may end up dying of hunger”, the paper quoted a 50-year-old widow, Mrs Tsatsawani Muhlava, as saying.

In the Malipati area, hundreds of children were scavenging for food at a nearby Government boarding school, with frequent fights breaking out over food among the pupils.

“It is only the stronger ones who can manage to get some food. The situation is just too pathetic”, the paper quoted a local headmaster, Mr Andrew Ndebele, as saying.

Health officials have warned of a possible outbreak of disease if children continued eating from rubbish bins.

Villagers said the Department of Social Welfare brought in large amounts of food into the area just before President Mugabe’s tour of the area, “most probably to impress the Head of State”.