The Deputy Prime Minister has urged coordinators overseeing regional drought relief warehouses to ensure food supplies are distributed without delay, rather than keeping them in storage for extended periods.

John Mutorwa made the call while speaking at a fish donation event by Fishcor in support of the drought relief program.

"I've undertaken trips to all the 14 regions already last year. If you visit a warehouse and people tell you, "Yes, our warehouse is full, we have cooking oil here, we have maize, we have everything, and these things are lying there for weeks and months," don't be impressed. Warehouses are transit camps to get to the affected people. So at this point, I must stress that so far we are relatively well, but when we were under the regional visits, we discovered in some regions that the coordination management was lacking, and the food wasn’t getting out of the warehouses. Yes, at times there are problems with transport or other issues, but it is not an impossible problem to solve. So it’s very easy to get this to the vulnerable people; even transport can be arranged. Private individuals may come forward where there is a shortage of vehicles. The idea is: don’t be proud of storing the food—the fish, in this particular case—in the storeroom when you have people who need it now. So, the organisational structures must just keep on rolling. And when the beneficiaries at the end are happy, then the programme is successful. But we can not be happy if those who were supposed to receive this food can not receive it because of bureaucratic delays."