News / National
'Zimbabweans are not starving,' claims Chinamasa
05 Jul 2016 at 18:50hrs | Views
There is no single Zimbabwean who can claim that he or she is facing starvation, Finance minister Patrick Chinamasa has said.
Making an appearance on BBC Hard Talk show in London, Chinamasa said government is parcelling out food handouts.
He said the programme is progressing "exceedingly well".
"There is no Zimbabwean who can claim that they are going hungry when we have systems of distribution of food" he said.
"Its not true that Zimbabweans are going hungry. We have gone out of our way to assure every Zimbabwean that they will not go hungry.
"We are importing food, we are distributing and the distribution has been going exceedingly well" he added.
Chinamasa said the agricultural output this year " has been much higher than we anticipated".
The BBC recently published a report where the UN is warned of the seriousness of the impending hunger in Zimbabwe.
The UN estimates that malnutrition rates are likely to spiral out of control if nothing is done to prevent the crisis.
It is now estimated that close to 4 million people need food aid with an estimated 33,000 children in serious risk of malnutrition as we speak.
UNICEF says that this is unprecedented in the last 15 years.
It estimates that it needs US$21 million to avert the child malnutrition disaster.
Zimbabwe has declared a national disaster and requested a whooping US$1, 6 billion in assistance.
Making an appearance on BBC Hard Talk show in London, Chinamasa said government is parcelling out food handouts.
He said the programme is progressing "exceedingly well".
"There is no Zimbabwean who can claim that they are going hungry when we have systems of distribution of food" he said.
"Its not true that Zimbabweans are going hungry. We have gone out of our way to assure every Zimbabwean that they will not go hungry.
"We are importing food, we are distributing and the distribution has been going exceedingly well" he added.
Chinamasa said the agricultural output this year " has been much higher than we anticipated".
The BBC recently published a report where the UN is warned of the seriousness of the impending hunger in Zimbabwe.
The UN estimates that malnutrition rates are likely to spiral out of control if nothing is done to prevent the crisis.
It is now estimated that close to 4 million people need food aid with an estimated 33,000 children in serious risk of malnutrition as we speak.
UNICEF says that this is unprecedented in the last 15 years.
It estimates that it needs US$21 million to avert the child malnutrition disaster.
Zimbabwe has declared a national disaster and requested a whooping US$1, 6 billion in assistance.
Source - Byo24News
