In the community

Amid power cuts in Zimbabwe, food preservation made easy by grannies

Published

3 weeks ago

May 10, 2023

Admin

BY IGNATIUS BANDA

Amid silent refrigerators spawned by crippling electricity cuts, township grannies are relying on their smarts and traditional preservation: roasting and smoking meat over fires as they attempt not to throw away food.

And this at a time more and more Zimbabweans are going hungry amid a combination of shrinking incomes and price increases.

For 79-year-old grandmother Tabeth Chisale, food and perishables, such as beef sourced by her children, fill the fridge, but she is increasingly frustrated by the unrelenting power outages.

“Recently, we went for seven days without electricity,” Chisale said

“We were informed it was not because of the regular power cuts but some thieves had vandalised the power supply,” she said, at a time there are increasing reports of the theft of copper cables and transformer oil from power base stations.

The country’s power utility has blamed erratic power supply on the vandalism of electricity infrastructure.

However, amid such a chaotic and erratic energy supply, grannies such as Chisale must find or have found ways of making the best out of a bad situation.

“Once I suspect the meat is going bad, I roast the meat over a fire, then hope that electricity will be restored in time.

“I then stew the roasted meat.

“You cannot watch the meat go bad in these trying times,” she said, her practice for many here a hard-to-understand culinary secret: first roasting meat, then boiling it

Smoking meat over a fire to preserve it has been around for centuries, but Zimbabwe’s energy crisis has reminded older generations of the practice at a time when large-scale enterprises such as butcheries are having to rethink how they do business.

Local food scientists have raised concerns about the consumption of bad or rotting food, noting that it reverses the small gains the country is making towards addressing nutrition deficits among children and the elderly.

In a country where supermarket shelves are stocked with expired food items, the practices of Chisale show the desperation of consumers, local analysts say.

For Desmond Mugadza, chair of the food science department at the Midlands State University, the answer is simple: “Avoid over-stocking perishables.”

“Food must be free from bio-hazards to ensure it is safe for consumers to eat as all food items have a shelf life,” Mugadza said.

“We should rely on science on whether food is safe to consume,” he added.

Yet the desperation of consumers such as Chisale has meant that they have sought ways to salvage their food without the support of science.

It has been a long practice here amid economic hardships that bargain hunters stock up on food and other basic commodities because of regular price increases, creating difficulties in how the food is stored in the absence of electricity.

However, the food preservation methods available to Chisale come with a downside: “The meat that I try to save doesn’t taste as it should, but it’s still meat,” she said.

In Zimbabwe, where the backyard poultry business has become the favoured source of income for the unemployed, power cuts have wreaked havoc for people such as Nelisiwe Mudimba.

“When you slaughter your birds, you pray that they will be sold before they go bad in the fridge,” Mudimba said, adding that on numerous occasions, she has had to throw away dozens of rotting chickens.

She says she has also tried smoking the chickens over a fire, feeding some to her dogs, but: “I cannot eat all these chickens.

“What’s the point, then, of operating such a business?”

These concerns come as global agencies lament the continued wastage of food when millions go hungry.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation, “One-third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted globally.

This amounts to about 1.3 billion tons per year, worth approximately US$1 trillion.”

While FAO says most food losses in developing countries are during post-harvest and processing levels, in countries such as Zimbabwe, power cuts have only added to the food waste crisis.

Local consumer rights groups say inflation has added to the challenges as those who already cannot afford basics face more headaches with trying to stock the little food available in their homes.

“Consumers are unable to buy basic commodities that they desperately need because of the increasing gaps between prices and incomes,” said Effie Ncube, spokesperson of a local consumer rights group.

“To prevent the unlawful sale of expired goods, two things are required. The first is to ensure thorough enforcement of the Consumer Protection Act.

Secondly, the government should address the root causes of the economic crisis that has led to runaway inflation, lack of incomes, and general price volatility,” Ncube said.

For now, Chisale and her peers continue to seek old ways to address new challenges and make their own local desperate efforts not to throw away food, albeit against their will. – IPS

In the community

VFWT partners with Mvuthu villagers to tackle human-wildlife conflicts

Published

2 weeks ago

May 17, 2023

Admin

BY NOKUTHABA DLAMINI

The Victoria Falls Wildlife Trust (VFWT) has announced that they have secured funding to work with the communities of the new scheme of herding cattle, amid growing concerns of human-wildlife conflicts in the Mvuthu’s jurisdiction.

This was announced by the VFWT Community Liaison officer Bongani Dlodlo on Tuesday at a village assembly meeting in the Mvuthu area.

He said the scheme aims to reduce the continuous attack of the domestic animals, mainly the cattle by predators such as the lions.

The organisation will actively involved in various environmental issues in the area, including the introduction of mobile bomas years ago, making of chill dung to deter elephants among other rehabilitation projects.

“This will be a programme to run for three years, where we are going to create mobile kraals where the whole village, those who are willing will bring their cattle there and we will hire some willing community members above 22 years of age to look after them during the day and night,” Dlodlo said.

“We are trying to reduce the problem of your livestock getting killed and while under this scheme, we shall ensure that they get treated whenever they present some symptoms of not being well and we will also vaccinate and feed them so that they can increase the value in the market whenever you want to dispose of some of them.”

Dlodlo also added that this will be done throughout the year.

“During the off-cropping season, we will be rotating them from one field to the other so that we also mitigate the issue of poor soils this community is faced with. By this, we hope that even your yield will improve for these coming years.”

Although some at the meeting met with skepticism, Dlodlo insisted that the villagers were not under duress to let go of their cattle and that the preparatory planning and strategies to be adopted were going to be done together with the communities.

Fears were around the issue of religious beliefs around the rearing of livestock.

Other concerns were around the issue of having to walk long distances to milk cows and even having them to perform some day to day chores such as the fetching of firewood.

According to the Zimbabwe Environmental Lawyers, cases of human-wildlife conflicts have been increasing since 2016 by over 216 percent and Mvuthu villagers have often paid the price without compensation.

Others also queried about what will happen if their livestock gets attacked while with the hired herders and Dlodlo responded: “We will not be paying for any compensation because ours to try and help this community, but because the herders and the place of herding will be chosen by you, we hope that this will be a holistic community project where you can always check on what is happening as we work together.”

In the community

Victoria Falls woman gored by buffalo, ranger shot by poachers

Published

2 months ago

March 30, 2023

Admin

BY ISAAC NTULI

A 61-year-old Victoria Falls woman is battling for her life after she was gored by a charging buffalo that she was trying to chase away from her goats kraal on Wednesday.

The victim, Elizabeth Ndlovu of Mpumelelo village in BH 10 under Chief Mvuthu was attempting to scare the buffalo away as it had been hiding in her kraal after straying from Forestry Commission sanctuary.

She was rushed to the Victoria Falls hospital and had to be whisked to Mpilo Central Hospital in Bulawayo due to her critical condition.

According to one eye witness identified as Mbonisi Ngwenya, Ndlovu was gored from her stomach, leaving her intentines protruding.

“This is really bad, imagine this is the type of danger we have to live with because they are not being controlled, ” Ngwenya said.

The buffalo was immediately put down by Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources (Campfire) ranger Manuel Nkomo who had to fire seven times in order to put it down.

Mpumelelo village head Maxwell Butshe Ndlovu said villagers’ lives were under dangerous conditions due to stray animals.

“We are living in acute danger because of these animals and we would tonurge the government to take urgent action to these escalating human and wildlife conflicts,” Ndlovu urged.

Campfire committee member Nceku Ncube added :”This is now beyond our control,and sincerely hope the proposed compensation would be made law. “

The Councillor of Katchetchete ward three Givemeagain Moyo lamented government’s response to human wildlife conflicts.

Meanwhile ,a ranger from Bayana in Chidobe is reported to have been stabbed to death at the Breakfast resettlement scheme after an altercation with poachers whom he had earlier confronted about their illegal activities.

Currently, the suspected poachers are assisting the police with investigations.

In Mabale village in Dete, another villager was trampled by an elephant a few days ago while in Mvuthu’s jurisdiction, a teen herd boy survived a lion attack which left him with body injuries.

In the community

Bulawayo woman survives crocodile attack by punching its nose

Published

3 months ago

February 16, 2023

Admin

BY EZRA TSHISA SIBANDA

A 53-year-old Bulawayo woman says she escaped from the jaws of a crocodile in Kana River, Matabeleland North, by punching its nose while appealing for divine intervention.

Tholiwe Moyo, who was in company of her sister and two other villagers, were attempting to cross the flooded river recently when she was bitten by the crocodile, which tried to drown her.

The mother of five children fought the reptile off after recalling some childhood advice from village elders that one has to hit it on the nose to scare it. That saved her life.

Moyo, currently in a stable condition at Mpilo General Hospital in Bulawayo is nursing serious injuries on her hands, legs and other parts of the body.

“The crocodile attacked me when I was crossing the river with some villagers, who included my 72-year-old sister,” she said.

At first we all thought that someone was throwing stones at us but realized within a minute or so that something had a tight grip on my body.

“ I then realized that it was a crocodile trying to pull me to the deepest part of that section of the river. I screamed for divine intervention.

“While the crocodile was trying to drag me, I recalled what elders related to us when I was growing up.

“We were told that if you punch the crocodile on its nose, it will let you go. I did exactly that while it tried to drown me. I punched it several times on its nose.”

She says the crocodile tried to kill her. “It broke my arm, bit my legs and buttocks and other parts of my body.

“I was also determined to live. So, I punched it hard while screaming for help. It finally let me off.

“ I then crawled towards the banks of the river and my sister and others pulled me to safety.

“By that time, they were carrying sticks and other objects they could lay their hands on in order to push it off.”

The crocodile was not done yet as it attacked, killed and ate the family’s dog, which was trying to swim to safety too.

“It’s sad that our dog is gone but I’m happy that I survived.”

Moyo is in serious pain. “The crocodile wanted to bite my hand off. The left hand is not functioning well as of now.

“My left leg is also seriously injured and the right leg up to my buttocks it’s in bad shape.

“I’m happy that my councillors, Member of Parliament, women’s groups and others have visited me here to show their sympathy and support. I appreciate it a lot. They gave me a lot of fruits.”

Zimbabwe is currently experiencing heavy rains and conservation groups are warning that the rains and flooded rivers have resulted in crocodiles turning up in places where they are least expected.

Late last year, Majaha Ndlovu of Silobela was attacked and eaten by a crocodile while he was fishing with his son, Siphatho Ndlovu.

Siphatho will never forget this day. “We were fishing along Gwelu River when my father dropped his hat and tried to retrieve it from the river.

“All of a sudden a crocodile attacked him and drowned him. The only thing I saw thereafter were pools of blood on the water surface,

“That was the last time I saw my father alive. He was attacked and eaten by that reptile.

“I tried to cry for help while it was attacking him but there was nobody in sight to assist him.

“That pains me a lot and it haunts me. I remember him screaming for help but I could not save him. He died a very painful death.”

National Parks and Wildlife Management authorities say crocodiles are killing people more than any animal, including elephants. – VOA