The villagers are now blaming the inclusive government for failing to provide them with shelter and food after all their belongings, including food, were destroyed during the disaster. The death toll has since risen to three after police recovered two more bodies in the bush, believed to be of herd boys.
The villagers, most of them young children and the elderly, said they had nowhere to go and nothing to eat. “We are appealing to the government to give us at least blankets and temporary shelter because our homes were destroyed,” said Omen Gurupira of Mwenezi. “The damage was so severe that even those with properly built houses were also affected,” he added. It also emerged this week that at least 30 schools, most them satellite ones, were razed to the ground during the hailstorm – many reduced to piles of mud. Masvingo provincial administrator Felix Chikovo said the province has since asked the government to declare a national disaster in order to facilitate state funding for the rebuilding process – estimated at more than $500,000.
The Masvingo civil protection unit has failed to give any form of assistance to the victims arguing that it does not have funding. Mwenezi West MP Kudakwashe Bhasikiti said the affected people need urgent food aid in addition to blankets and clothing.