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Zimbabwe
left with three weeks' supply of food
ZimOnline
September 09,
2005
http://www.zimonline.co.za/headdetail.asp?ID=10561
NYANGA – Zimbabwe
is left with only three weeks supply of food, Ministry of Agriculture
permanent secretary Simon Pazvakavambwa disclosed on Thursday.
Addressing business
leaders at the ongoing Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries congress in
Nyanga town, 270 km north-east of Harare, Pazvakavambwa said many families
could be without food in the "coming few weeks" if more maize was not
imported. The country would be "finished" if it failed to bring in more
food urgently, he added.
"We have in our (grain)
silos three weeks’ supply of food and if for some reason imports stop,
we are finished," Pazvakavambwa told his stunned audience.
"And if we take long
(to import food), there may be no food in many people’s homes in the coming
few weeks," he added.
Harare, which initially
denied Zimbabwe faced food shortages, has refused to formally appeal for
help from the World Food Programme (WFP), although President Robert Mugabe
last June assured WFP boss James Morris that his government would accept
help from the United Nations food relief agency.
Mugabe’s cash-strapped
government has insisted it has enough resources to ensure none of the
estimated four million Zimbabweans or a third of the country’s total 12
million people in need of food aid starved.
WFP officials say
without a formal appeal for assistance by Harare, it is difficult to mobilise
adequate aid for Zimbabwe.
But Pazvakavambwa’s
startling revelations come barely two weeks after Harare paid US$120 million
to settle outstanding debts with the International Monetary Fund in a
bid to avoid expulsion from the institution for non-payment of debts.
The IMF board votes
in Washington today whether to expel Zimbabwe which still owes the Fund
US$175 million.
While it is critical
for Zimbabwe to remain a member of the IMF, observers say Mugabe should
have channeled the money paid to the Bretton Woods institution towards
the payment for fuel, food and essential medical drugs to avert a looming
humanitarian disaster in his country.
A US$500 million loan
offer by South Africa remains untapped because Mugabe is unhappy about
conditions attached to the loan, in particular demands that he revives
negotiations with the opposition to find a lasting solution to Zimbabwe’s
crisis.
The money offered
by South Africa is enough to clear all Zimbabwe’s IMF debt, buy fuel and
food and leave some change for crop seeds and other farm inputs to ensure
the next farming season less than two months away is successful.
Local agricultural
experts have warned that the 2005/2006 season could be a total flop even
if Zimbabwe received good rains because of shortages of crop seeds, fertilizers
and fuel.
Zimbabwe is in the
grip of a grinding economic crisis which began after the IMF withdrew
balance-of-payments support in 1999 and worsened after Mugabe launched
his controversial programme to seize land from white farmers the following
year.
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