Chief Madzimawe of the Ngoni speaking people in Eastern province says his chiefdom will experience famine this year because crops have failed to mature in three quarters of the fields following a dry speak in January.

And Chief Madzimawe says he has escalated the fight against child marriages because of the negative impact it has on development.

In an interview with News Diggers! Wednesday, Chief Madzimawe expressed concerned that some of his subjects had already started experiencing famine.

“I can’t say I’m okay when three quarters of my subjects are going to be in problems when it comes to food. Actually I think the whole country will be affected. So, when there was that drought spell, many people got affected. In my area those who had machinery such as tractors will realize something from their crops but the rest who are three quarters of the people will have no food a few months from now. But Quite a number of our people I think are going to have a problem in terms of food. The fields weren’t okay,” he said.

“So, government should be ready to fight hunger because there will be people without food. I’m sure if they do an assessment then they will probably start by assisting those that are in a critical condition. We are trying to prepare for this period because we are not the ‘boma iyang’anepo’ type that always waits for government to do something about challenges. So we also ensuring that we do something as a community instead of sitting and waiting.”

Gogo Madzimawe further observed that deforestation had contributed to climate change, thereby affecting the weather patterns.

“I have had a meeting with my induna’s on this issue because I think we have actually tempered with Nature (by cutting down trees). We have tempered, we have contributed to what is obtaining. We have started carrying out afforestation activities to try and plant as many trees as possible. So, world vision has come on board, to help us to maintain where trees are depleted. We need to preserve these areas to allow trees to grow.

And Gogo Madzimawe explained why he has escalated the fight against child marriages in his chiefdom.

“We have very much escalated the fight against child marriages because of the consequences that come thereafter. Usually the instructions that we get from stakeholders to fight child marriages are actually the things that we are doing here. We are doing so much. I’m happy that a lot of people here are sensitized to fight child marriages,” he said.