Tsholotsho flood victims still living in tents

MATABELELAND NORTH - Tsholotsho villagers have accused government of failing to fulfill its promises of coming to the rescue of Gariya villagers who were affected by floods early this year.

The villagers are still living in tents with no proper structures eight months after their homesteads were destroyed due to lack of funds to rebuild their homes.

Last year the government sent a high powered delegation to Tsholotsho after it was criticized by civil society for neglecting the victims. The cash-strapped government has been failing to come to the rescue of flood victims countrywide including the Tokwe-Mukosi victims forcing it to rely on donor aid.

However, recently donor agencies that have been providing aid for the affected families bid fare well leaving victims stranded with government watching helplessly.

"We are still living in the open. When the government officials came here, they promised to give us building material so that we could build brick and mortar structures. They have now forgotten about us because they don't care about us," one of the affected villagers told a Bulawayo daily paper.

They decried the situation as a community saying government officials had promised them land away from the flood basin so they could build new homesteads, but they never heard from them again.

Villagers accused Matabeleland North Provincial Affairs minister Cain Mathema of neglecting them saying he had not visited again after government visit.

Mathema told media back then that he had engaged a local construction company to build durable houses for Tsholotsho villagers to reduce damages caused by floods but his promise has not materialized to date.

Villagers also accused the central government of using the community's resources such as timber in Tsholotsho to develop Harare at their expense yet they abandon them when they are in a crisis such as floods.