“We had lost all hope that the rain would come, with speculations that a devastating drought was imminent. Most early crops have wilted, but with the heavy rain experienced recently, there is hope that the crops might come back to life. What we need now is for the rains to maintain a constant and reliable pattern until January,” said a recently resettled farmer, Tonderai Chirenje, of Macheke.
Seven weeks into the supposed rainy season, temperatures had shot to 45 degrees Celsius levels. The heat was so severe that health experts were issuing warnings through the media that people needed to drink more water in order to avoid dehydration.