Zimbabwe denies need for international food aid
Zimbabwe today said it did not need any international food aid, despite predictions of a humanitarian crisis with up to four million people at risk of famine.
Social Welfare Minister Nicholas Goche told state radio the country had bought 1.2 million tonnes of corn from South Africa, and needed no more though it would still welcome extra supplies.
James Morris, the head of the UN World Food Programme, met with President Robert Mugabe yesterday to discuss what he described as “an enormous humanitarian crisis.” He said between three million and four million Zimbabweans would need food aid in the next year, especially between December and March.
The government claims that current shortages of many staples, including cornmeal, sugar and fuel, are the result of speculation and hoarding by black-market traders.
Police have arrested more than 23,000 people, mostly street vendors, and have burned or demolished thousands of kiosks and shacks in shantytowns around the country in what it describes as a clean-up campaign in the city and a crackdown on economic saboteurs.
Goche told state radio the corn purchased from South Africa was enough to alleviate shortages caused by drought. He said Zimbabwe was not making any request for food aid, but welcomed any that comes.
Before recent elections, Mugabe forecast a bumper harvest of 2.5 million tonnes of corn and told relief agencies to direct their efforts elsewhere and not “choke” Zimbabweans with unneeded aid.
But Goche’s top civil servant, Sydney Mhishi, predicted last week that even by rushed and preliminary government estimates at least 2.8 million people would need food aid in the coming year.
Today’s state radio broadcast also carried a denial by police spokesman Oliver Mandipaka that officers involved in the arrest of street traders and the demolition of thousands of shacks had been involved in widespread looting.
Reports that police stole food and electrical goods were attempts to smear the reputation of the police, said Mandipaka.
Yesterday Amnesty International condemned the police crackdown and called on the government to halt the forced mass evictions that it said have left whole communities homeless and destroyed thousands of livelihoods.
It said the evictions had been carried out without notice and without court orders in a flagrant disregard for due process and the rule of law. Amnesty said security forces also had used excessive force, burning homes, destroying property and beating individuals.
“We have had reports of heart-wrenching scenes of ordinary Zimbabweans who have had their homes and livelihoods completely destroyed crying on the street in utter disbelief,” said Kolawole Olaniyan, director of Amnesty Internationals Africa Programme.
“We have even had reports of police forcing people to destroy their own homes.”
Housing Minister Ignatius Chombo announced today that 250,000 new housing plots would be made available to the urban poor, including 150,000 in Harare.
The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change party alleges the crackdown was aimed to punish the urban poor for voting against Mugabe’s ruling ZANU-PF party and to drive them back to rural areas where they can be controlled by denial of access to food.
