MPs donate bricks, cement to Idai victims

George Maponga in MASVINGO

THE Civil Protection Unit (CPU) has started distributing 30 tonnes of cement and 30 000 bricks that were donated by two Masvingo legislators to help families that were left homeless after Cyclone Idai hit the province.

Zanu-PF Chivi South National Assembly member Cde Killer Zivhu donated the 30 000 bricks that are now being distributed to homeless families in Zaka District.

His Gutu West counterpart, Cde John Paradza, donated cement that is being distributed across Gutu District.

CPU Masvingo provincial chair Mr Fungai Mbetsa, who is also the provincial administrator, paid tribute to the two legislators on Saturday for the timely intervention.

He said distribution of bricks donated by Cdes Zivhu and Paradza was already underway.

“We have started distributing cement and bricks that were donated to help cyclone victims in Gutu and Zaka and we are very grateful for the help we received,” he said. “Bricks donated by Cde Zivhu are being distributed to affected families in Zaka District while the cement donated by Cde Paradza is being given to victims in Gutu.”

Mr Mbetsa appealed to well-wishers and the corporate world to donate more building materials to help cyclone-hit families rebuild their homes.

“We continue to appeal for more donations of building materials such as cement and bricks because these will help affected families to rebuild strong, permanent structures,” he said. “Donations of building materials have been coming, but they are still not enough considering the magnitude of the disaster.”

He said the situation remained dire in Bikita which was the hardest hit by the tropical cyclone which affected more than 5 000 people across the province.

Donations of building materials have been trickling in across the four affected districts — Zaka, Bikita, Masvingo and Gutu.

Zanu-PF National Political Commissar Retired Lieutenant-General Dr Engelbert Rugeje was the first to make an impassionate public appeal for the donation of building materials to help cyclone-hit families.

Dr Rugeje said such a move would permanently solve the victims’ problems, saying the prohibitive costs of materials such as cement and standard bricks made it hard for affected families to find their feet.

Cyclone Idai left a trail of destruction in Masvingo where it ravaged schools, homes and bridges, leaving some areas inaccessible.

Government, through the Minister of State for Masvingo Provincial Affairs Cde Ezra Chadzamira, is working round the clock to make sure all the affected families get assistance.

Meanwhile, Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Minister Cde July Moyo thanked the government of Mozambique and Mozambican communities near Chimanimani, which recorded the highest death toll during the cyclone, for interring the remains of 82 Zimbabweans believed to have been swept by floods into that country.

Minister Moyo, who also chairs the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Civil Protection, said Government was intensifying efforts to retrieve bodies that were buried under huge rocks and earth in the Ngangu area of Chimanimani.

Speaking during a tour of cyclone-hit areas in Bikita yesterday, Minister Moyo said excavators would soon be moved to Ngangu to move the big rocks believed to be covering some bodies.

“The President has sent his condolences to bereaved families who lost their relatives during the just-ended cyclone disaster and as Government we will give each of the families $1 000 RTGS cash that will be sent from the Provincial Administrator’s Office and we are continuing the search for bodies in Chimanimani where quite a number of people remain missing,” he said.

“We, however, want to thank communities in Mozambique who are close to Chimanimani for the help they offered to bury the remains of our people. There is a place where 60 bodies were found and another 15 and also another seven and they buried them as they could not keep them anymore.”

Minister Moyo said Government would facilitate that locals who lost their loved ones visit some of these burial places in Mozambique.

“Right now we are not in a hurry for the interred bodies in Mozambique to be exhumed though that might be done later on when the situation normalises,” he said. “We also have a team of pathologists that will help in the identification of some of the deceased through DNA tests on the remains of recovered unidentified bodies.”

Minister Moyo said a Chinese firm was in the process of clearing a link to Ngangu in Chimanimani where sniffer dogs from South Africa had identified 16 places where human bodies are believed to be buried.

He thanked local government authorities in Mozambique for assisting in the recovery of some of the bodies swept away from Zimbabwe and called for increased cooperation between officials from the two countries.

“In actual fact, I would encourage the Ministers of State or governors in neighbouring Mozambique to work with their counterparts in Manicaland and Masvingo here in Zimbabwe. Very close links must be maintained between them,” said Minister Moyo.

Hundreds of people remain unaccounted for after Cyclone Idai swept through Manicaland and parts of Masvingo.

Government has since announced plans to conduct a census in cyclone-hit areas to ascertain the number of people who have been living communities affected by Cyclone Idai.