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Robert Mugabe's food aid ban sees five million go hungry
Peta Thornycroft, Telegraph (UK)
August 20, 2008

View article on the Telegraph website

The ban was imposed by President Robert Mugabe's regime after aid agencies were accused of campaigning for the opposition Movement for Democratic Change - allegations they strongly deny.

Under the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding governing the talks between the political parties, it was supposed to be lifted, but with the talks deadlocked over power-sharing arrangements, the ruling Zanu-PF party has so far refused to do so.

"The government knows this is nonsense, we work around the world and stay out of politics," said the director of a humanitarian agency who did not want himself or his organization identified. Zimbabwe has had its worst summer harvest in living memory and five million people, almost half the population, are expected to need food before the next harvest in April.

"Reports are coming in of seriously malnourished children," said the official.

"We are desperate to get working but until the World Food Programme signs an agreement with the government we can't.

"Even some top Zanu-PF politicians are encouraging us to break the ban as there is pressure from traditional leaders for food aid."

The country director of one of the largest distribution agencies, who also did not want to be identified, said: "If the ban is lifted it will take us another month to set up. Food in warehouses in South Africa may be sent to other countries or else it will become stale."

The government has imported no maize, the staple food, for more than a month, and even within the government welfare department officials do not know if the ban will be lifted. "Honestly I don't know, and we know the situation is bad," said a senior staff member who asked not to be named.

Some essentials are available on the black market, but most Zimbabweans cannot afford to buy them, with unemployment at at least 80 per cent and prices four times higher than in neighbouring South Africa.

A teacher's monthly salary is less than the cost of a 10 kg bag of maize meal - which would last a small family about a week.

The worst hit are the elderly caring for grandchildren orphaned by the country's AIDS epidemic.

Loice Marowya, 68 and her husband Jonah 74, worked for the post office for 40 years, but their pension is so ravaged by hyperinflation that it is less than the bus fare he would have to pay to go to collect it.

They care for two grandchildren and Mrs Marowya said: "What is really happening? I can't even buy a meal for my grandchildren. Every time I look at them my heart bleeds and I cry.

"We don't even light a fire at night because there is nothing to cook."

In Zengeza township, east of Harare, Diana Chisesu Uta, 70, looks after four grandchildren aged 10 to 17. Her maize meal and sugar containers were empty, and all she had to share with them was a small piece of stale bread.

"These politicians are liars, the last time they came here they promised us food, and up to now, nothing has come," she said. "We hope Britain and America will send us food tomorrow."

Hundreds of millions of pounds of international aid and reconstruction assistance is in the pipeline to help rebuild Zimbabwe if and when a new government is formed that tackles the country's myriad problems, but with talks between Zanu-PF and the MDC paralysed, the aid is on hold.

Similarly, the deadlock means the economy continues to spiral downwards, hyperinflation rages on, and shop supplies are minimal to non-existent.

The ruling regime confirmed it would convene parliament next Tuesday, which the MDC condemned as a "clear repudiation" of the memorandum of understanding - it specifically states that parliament should only be called if all the parties agree.

It was "an indication beyond reasonable doubt of Zanu-PF's unwillingness to continue to be part of the talks," said the MDC secretary-general Tendai Biti.

"Convening Parliament decapitates the dialogue." But he added that the opposition remained "firmly committed to this dialogue for one reason and one reason alone - the suffering of Zimbabweans has to come to an end, and any opportunity of liberating them from the current madness has to be pursued to its logical conclusion."

In the meantime the people are becoming increasingly malnourished in what was once a regional breadbasket.

Renson Gasela, a former MDC MP turned agriculture commentator, said: "This ban is appalling and disgraceful and is a violation of the Memorandum of Understanding. No country in the world should be allowed to stop food from people in need."

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