The Zimbabwe Peace Project (ZPP) has revealed how political discrimination in the distribution of government food aid has become a tool to manipulate vulnerable populations, perpetuating systemic human rights violations.
This finding was outlined in ZPP’s October 2024 monthly monitoring report, as the nation grapples with a severe El Niño-induced drought.
The crisis, which affected the 2023/2024 farming season, has left both urban and rural communities in desperate need of food assistance.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa declared the drought a national disaster, appealing for $2 billion in aid to feed millions of starving citizens.
While rural areas receive grain and urban populations cash assistance, ZPP documented 13 cases of politicised aid distribution, exposing the ruling party’s dominance over food allocation systems. The organisation noted that these cases represent just a fraction of the abuse on the ground.
“The ruling party’s control over food aid allows it to weaponise hunger, denying assistance to opposition supporters and targeting perceived dissenters,” said ZPP.
This practice contravenes international human rights laws protecting the right to food and freedom from discrimination.
Rural communities, already crippled by poverty and drought, face coercion to support the ruling party or risk being denied essential aid.
The report highlights incidents such as forced participation in ruling party slogans and the public renunciation of opposition affiliations to access food aid.
In one instance in Silobela’s Ward 23, a male victim was barred from receiving aid after questioning whether the meeting was political.
Traditional leaders are also implicated, with many pressured to align with the ruling party, eroding their impartiality as custodians of community welfare.
ZPP further documented cases in Manicaland, where traditional leaders and local politicians colluded to hoard food aid, diverting resources from the vulnerable.
In Buhera South’s Ward 24, a councillor allegedly diverted 40 bags of maize meant for the elderly, selling some under the cover of night and allocating the rest to undeserving relatives.
The politicisation of food aid, according to ZPP, exacerbates existing inequalities, undermines trust, and leaves marginalised groups—especially women, children, and persons with disabilities—at heightened risk.
The organisation urged government entities to address these violations urgently and ensure aid reaches those in need.
“This insidious manipulation of food aid perpetuates a culture of fear, repression, and impunity,” ZPP concluded. “It undermines Zimbabwe’s democratic foundations and the fundamental human rights of its citizens, perpetuating poverty and deepening inequality.”
