Zanu-PF escalates women's bakeries projects in Mangwe

Zanu-PF has escalated its bakery project throughout the rural areas in the country, with women in some districts, saying that they have started realising the benefits of the project.

The ruling party introduced the bakery project in 2019 in an effort to economically capacitate women.

However, at the inception of the bakery project, Zanu-PF was under fire for implementing Stone Age projects which use mud ovens powered by firewood.

Women interviewed by NewsDay in Mangwe district in Matabeleland South said their project at Vukuzenzele in Ward 1 had been successful.

But evidence on the ground shows that most of the bakery projects in urban areas around the country collapsed as the old-model ovens could not mass produce.

Women Affairs minister Sithembiso Nyoni said the bakery projects in rural areas had changed the lives of women.

She said the projects were using both old and modern baking methods to enable the women to make prompt returns.

"In Mangwe, the villagers used infrastructure that is made of metal, that is the old traditional way, but with improved technology, which is the modern way. They now use baking stoves," Nyoni said.

"In a day, women bake two to three dozen loaves of bread. Bakery projects are quick and efficient and they have created employment for the women, thus bringing them income," she said.