The Disaster Management and Mitigation Unit (DMMU) is disappointed with the increase in false reports concerning the hunger situation in the country. This is in reference to reports that five people have died of hunger in Shangombo district of Western province.
DMMU National Coordinator Chanda Kabwe said neither his office nor the Provincial Administration in Western have received such reports and that they are merely a scheme to cause panic in the country.
He has emphasized that the government is aware of the increasing needs in the Shangombo district and has since doubled the relief allocation to the district to meet the growing needs.
Meanwhile, Mr. Kabwe has refuted allegations that the government is distributing relief based on partisan lines.
He said DMMU has always engaged partners who are Non-Governmental Organizations and Faith-Based Organizations to carry out the distribution of the relief to identified affected households. These organizations include Caritas Zambia and World Vision among others, who are neutral institutions.
Mr. Kabwe has since urged all Members of Parliament, who are also members of the District Disaster Management Committees, in the affected districts to engage his office in finding better ways of responding to the needs in their Constituencies.
If Zambian Contractors hasn’t been paid for more than a year by the Government, is that not hunger? and who created it?. Anyway, we are armed with our voters cards and counting days is daily routine.Mind you, 2021 is not in heaven.
Has this guy heard of kwashiorko ? There are thousands of kids with kwashiorko in hospitals and that is a disaster in itself. What is wrong with these guys?
The dramatics are because you have refused to accept the fact that there is hunger in the country but in the breath you claim to be distributing food insisting to sit in conferences, collect sitting allowances move to politically favoured arears and be paid per deiums.
You have stopped those that have extra food to spare to donate it to their neighbours if they are wearing the wrong party T shirt.
The colonial DC in charge of Lusaka who was a foreigner knew the villages in the Lusaka hinterland better than Chanda Kabwe ever will although he drove in a slower Land Rover 90, had no mobile phone.
I start to dislike Chana Kabwe.
He is still holding to the job because he works under respectable woman Inonge.
But the day will decide to remove from that job, I will. I tell you I will remove Chanda Kabwe, like many others.
HOW I WISH OUR CURRENT LEADERS TO JUST KEEP QUITE TO AVOID EMBARRASSMENT.
ITS A NAKED TRUTH THAT HUNGER IS IN OUR MIDST, HENCE DISTRIBUTION OF RELIEF FOOD.
DEATH SHOULD NOT DEFINE THE STATUS.
HUNGER IS HUNGER,
THE DEAD DONT FEEL IT.
Mr Chanda, don’t get too excited and stop being academic with the issue of food deficit in the country! Surely, using death due to hunger as a measure for calling for a Food SOS is rather callus and myopic thinking! Before death due to starvation you have malnutrition and this is best seen in the most vulnerable groups in society like children! We health workers thought we had won the battle against malnutrition a long time ago but it’s back with vengeance! The number of underweight and malnourished children we are seeing in clinics and hospitals is alarming and this is the indicator DMMU should be looking at and not waiting to hear who has died of hunger! If anything, it is DMMU and PF politicizing hunger while children are dying of malnutrition! If we had wise leaders like we did…
If we had wise leaders like we did before, they would have declared an SOS and we would by now be giving HEPS to all under five children to avert malnutrition! It is only blind pride that is blinding our leaders to a growing problem and by the time they wake up, it will be too late! Do the right thing now and advise the powers that be correctly! No use in playing smart with hunger!
The fact that you are seeing pot bellies and obese people in Lusaka does not mean it’s the same picture in rural areas! When you get 50% of your country in food deficit, what do you call that? Is it only starch those people need? By providing just the tuma 12kg of starch, are you solving the problem holistically? Where is the protein? Does DMMU have Nutritionists to guide our blind guides? Where is the Minister of Health also in these matters affecting the health of our people? How is this food deficit affecting the HIV program for example? Can one take ARVs while starving? A food deficit situation requires a lot of level headedness among all stakeholders! We need to get political lenses out of the situation and for once tackle the issue collectively!
Aba na beve awe mwe.
Food security is much more than corpses of starved people lying along the streets or in their homes. Food security is about quantity and quality food across regional and class boundaries. To that extent, it is denial to state that records of death induced by famine are missing. Take time to deliver proper food assistance to families that need it in a timely manner. Take time to create imaginary enemies.
Chanda Kabwe should avoid politics in this important national portfolio. It is true that the hunger situation in some parts of Zambia is now beyond the capacity of his DMMU. He nevertheless wants to pretend that the DMMU is successfully managing the situation for PF political reasons and is in a self inflicted denial over an important national matter. In what form does Chanda want deaths from hunger to manifest themselves when many forms of physical vulnerabilities precede actual deaths in situations of widespread and critical scarcity of food such as we have now in Shangombo and other areas ?Present PF government efforts to combat hunger in Shongombo and Southern Province are categorically not enough and I am personally puzzled why DMMU and the PF Government are refusing to admit…
Did he conduct a survey to conclude that no one has died of hunger??? And does he need to see someone dead to conclude that people are starving out there. The thinking of our leaders leaves much to be desired.