Ncube hammars gov't

Two article on Archbishop Ncube's protests against the government ...he points out the danger of demonstrations, and blasts the government for not asking for food aid until the last minute.
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He was speaking as the South African-based Solidarity Peace Trust unveiled a film documenting claims by Zimbabweans that food was used as a political tool in the run-up to polls -- a charge made by rights groups which Mugabe's government denies.

Ncube said this practice had continued after the elections, which extended the 25-year rule of ZANU-PF.

"Now you find trucks of food going to those places where the government got support while people of (southern pro-opposition city) Bulawayo will not be given any sugar or mealie meal".

Now, if I remember my dialects correctly, Ncube is Matabele, not MaShona...Bulawayo is the capital of the Matabele tribe, a warlike offshoot of the Zulus who settled there at the time of Chaka Zulu.

Mugabe is a Mashona. There is little love between the tribes, so this denial of food aid has a double meaning: First, withholding from opposition. Two: Tribal warfare/genocide. Even before the present crisis, much aid was denies the Matabele...

But if there is an uprising, there is always the danger of civil war...

But the threat of withholding food aid is also to Mashona areas, nor is the opposition only by Matabale. My friend mentioned her brother hiding out because he is a member of a pro democracy movement...that was two years ago, and her letters are vaguer now...