Nathi Masuku
HUNDREDS of villagers in some parts of Tsholotsho and Binga will have to brace the coming rain season living in tents as they are still to find decent shelter after being marooned by floods last season.
Both districts of Matabeleland North were affected by Cyclone Dineo. Long dry spells coupled with high temperatures have made farming impossible in the past years.
It’s been more than a year when villagers at Sipepa, Tshino and adjacent villages of the low lying plains of Tsholotsho were forced to live in tents.
Houses that government had promised to build for them are not complete. A few are lucky to have moved in to the new brick and mortar houses.
At Binga’s Nsungwale area, villagers want to go back to their land. They don’t want to live in the tents anymore.
The Zambezi Times has it on record that about 200 families who were affected by floods early February have plans to cultivate the land they vacated.
The families were displaced when the Nemakondi, Sikanda and Sibwambwa Rivers flooded.
In separate interviews this week some of the affected villagers said they want to go back and till their land.
“The rains are coming soon,I have to prepare and farm,” said Mcupheni Ncube of Sipepa an area that has felt the brunt of cyclones in the last 20 years.
For other, life in the camps is unbearable.
” It is better I move my family out of here. The tents are hot. At night we battle mosquito bites, we fear getting malaria. As for food, there is nothing to say,” said Raphael Nkomo who has lived with his wife and two children in a tent.
Elias Muleya, a flood victim, has since relocated to Binga centre, saying the government promise was a fluke.
“Where is the higher land they said we will move to? I have found a house to rent, so I wonder what will happens to others when it rains,” he said.
Binga politician and recently recalled legislator Prince Dubeko Sibanda said it is within the villagers’ right to relocate.
“I feel that this is a important story if we are to take the welfare of folks victims seriously,” said Sibanda.
He said government neglected the victims in Binga.
“It is more like the people were dumped and forgetten. Now it’s planting season and they have to farm and get food.”
