Village Headman, people differ on looming hunger

BY WATIPASO MZUNGU JNR
People in the area of Group Village Headman Namasalima in Mulanje said last week they are likely to face a serious shortage of food this year because of the dry spell their area experienced.

They have since appealed to government and other well-wishers for relief food.

But GVH Namasalima has disputed the claim saying his villagers were lazy people who “are used to handouts”.

Speaking on the sidelines of the awareness campaign on the operations of the courts at Namasalima's headquarters last week, Focus Thomas reported that some families from the area have already started going without food as their crops wilted away due to the drought.

“As I'm talking to you now, I've no food in my house. I've to do some pieceworks for me to buy; otherwise there is nothing in my field that I'll yield,” complained Thomas.

Another villager, Jessie Francis, said although she had good crops this year, the effects of the dry spell were too devastating for the crops to stand.

Francis explained that she was expecting to have a bumber harvest this year after benefiting from the farm input subsidy programme.

“All my maize has wilted away. Currently, I'm surviving on the flour I buy from the market on daily basis (popularly known as walk-man),” she complained.

But in a separate interview, GVH Namasalima said it was not true that his area will experience food deficit resulting from dry spell.

He said there was no need to raise a false alarm because it would just end up tarnishing the image of the “good government that helped them with subsidized farm inputs”.

“Don't mind those lazy people. The problem is that in those years people here used to survive on handouts instead of working form themselves. Now they can't work to produce enough for themselves hence these calls for assistance,” said Namasalima.

When asked if their food crisis was a result of laziness as the Namasalima alleged, Thomas and Francis criticized their chief for being economical with truth while his subjects were suffering.

“Come to my field if you want to believe what I'm saying. It's unfortunate that he's taken pleasure in the suffering of his people,” said Francis.

END