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Southern Region faces starvation
The
Independent (Zimbabwe)
October 03,
2008
http://www.thezimbabweindependent.com/local/21300-southern-region-faces-starvation.html
People in the
southern region of the country are facing starvation as food shortages
have reached critical levels with villagers exchanging their livestock
for maize and other basic foodstuffs.
Reports from Tsholotsho,
Binga, Hwange, Gokwe and Gwanda indicate that there was a food crisis
in these areas.
The southern region,
made up of the three Matabeleland provinces, Midlands and Masvingo,
are in the drought-prone parts of the country and are usually the
hardest hit by food shortages.
Signs of a looming hunger
are evident almost everywhere in Zimbabwe's countryside where
the majority of villagers are dependent on food aid from non-governmental
organisations.
An official from the
governor's office in Matabeleland North, who spoke on condition
that he was not named, said the food situation was critical in the
province as maize deliveries were very low.
The official said the
maize the state-controlled Grain Marketing Board (GMB) was receiving
was not enough to cater for villagers, adding that the food crisis
in the province was a disaster waiting to happen.
"Maize stocks are
inadequate and all the GMB depots in the province have not been
receiving maize frequently," the official said. "They
(maize deliveries) have been erratic except for the Bacossi packs
that were supplied to a selected number of villagers long ago."
However, Matabeleland
North governor Sithokozile Mathuthu said talk of food shortages
was false.
"The media is imagining
all the food shortage stories they are writing about," Mathuthu
said.
"We have maize coming
to the GMB on a daily basis and we have records to prove that there
is plenty of food for everyone. All the food shortage stories are
false."
She said the government
was importing food and in circumstances where there were shortages,
the deliveries would have been delayed.
In Matobo district of
Matabeleland South villagers are exchanging their livestock for
maize and other basic commodities.
Goods that are exchanged
for livestock include cooking oil, sugar, soap and salt.
Zimbabwe's food
situation has deteriorated to critical levels with maize, the staple
food for Zimbabweans, being unavailable in shops.
This week, Prime Minister-designate
Morgan Tsvangirai said the country was facing a "disastrous"
food crisis and called for the urgent formation of a new power-sharing
government.
"We need to respond
to this crisis with utmost urgency. It is therefore imperative that
a government be formed in the next few days and begins to implement
plans to ensure that our people have food and do not die of starvation,"
Tsvangirai told reporters in Harare.
Earlier this year, the
United Nations estimated that more than five million people out
of a population of 12 million would require food assistance in the
first quarter of 2009.
The United States-based
Famine Early Warning Systems Network warned last week that Zimbabwe
could run out of cereals by November
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