Zanu-PF teaches Bulawayo residents to make bread

MORE than 100 people in Bulawayo were on Tuesday trained on how to make bread using Dutch ovens as part of Zanu-PF's economic empowerment projects.

Zanu-PF last month launched empowerment projects which include bread-making, confectionery, petroleum jelly making, shoe polish making, floor polish making, building of Dutch ovens and the making of dust ovens.

The community bakery programme has seen various teams being dispatched across the country to train more community-based bread makers.

Bulawayo Provincial Affairs Minister Judith Ncube said the programme was targeting to ease bread shortages in the country and economically empower party members, especially women.

"This is a skills-training programme that is meant to improve food security in the country. More than 100 people came for the training at Davies Hall and they were trained how to bake bread using Dutch ovens and making shoe polish and candles.

"We expect them to train more people. We're promoting self-sufficiency to make sure that people don't spend time queueing for bread and other basic commodities in supermarkets," said Minister Ncube. She said the reason why people were being trained how to use the Dutch ovens is to enable them to operate even if they don't have electricity.

The Minister said the turnout was encouraging.

"We're happy with the positive turnout. This shows that people are embracing the programme.  These people have a task of imparting the acquired skills back in their wards. We want more people to acquire these skills," said Minister Ncube.

The country has been facing bread shortages attributed to the shortage of foreign currency to buy wheat and other ingredients. Wheat shortages have paralysed several bakeries, resulting in bread shortages and pushing the price of the commodity to $8.