Posted on 12/02/2002 9:35:12 AM PST by backhoe
From The Zimbabwe Standard, 1 December
We have failed, says Made
By Chengetai Zvauya
Lands and agriculture minister, Joseph Made, finally admitted last week that government has failed to ensure food security for the famine-stricken nation, more than a year after repeatedly dismissing warnings of a serious grain shortage. Made stunned members of the lands, agriculture and rural development committee on Monday, by painting a grim picture of the food situation in Zimbabwe. The Standard was the only newspaper to attend the committee meeting, a situation which troubled Made enough for him to say: "Mr Chairman, I would have preferred a balanced mix of reporters." The minister said apart from accumulating a serious maize deficit each week, government had not the slightest clue of the amount of grain farmers resettled under the controversial and chaotic land reform exercise would produce this current season. Said Made: "The country needs 35 000 tonnes of maize, but it is only able to import 22 000 tonnes, leaving a deficit of 13 000 tonnes every week. At one time, we ordered 400 000 tonnes, but only got 118 000 delivered. This is a big challenge for us as we will continue to need the stocks to feed the population. We don't know when we will be able to get these remaining stocks, but we are trying to make sure that they are in the country so we can distribute it."
Asked by Renson Gasela - the former Grain Marketing Board (GMB) head who is also the MDC shadow minister for lands and agriculture - why it was that government was failing to fulfil the simple task of buying grain in bulk, Made said: "I don't have the purse to buy the adequate maize supplies. Remember, it is allocated to us, so please bear with me." On his ministry's projected figures for the coming season, the minister said no such estimates were available. "At the moment, we don't have the projected figures of what we have planted this season and this is a big problem for us as government. We only hope that the new farmers will be able to produce enough grain to feed the country," said Made. Agricultural production was last season severely hampered by a combination of crippling drought and government-induced disturbances on commercial farms. The government went on to grab farms from about 3 000 commercial farmers, leaving the highly specialised sector with an estimated 1 000 farmers. Speaking after the meeting, also attended by Zanu PF MPs Kumbirai Kangai and Paul Mazikana, Gasela who was ordered by committee chairman Daniel Mackenzie Ncube not to ask too many questions, expressed disgust at the way government had up to this time failed to tell the nation the truth. "The nation will obviously be shocked by the minister's admission that the problem is far from over and that they are not even sure of what will come out of their much touted land reform exercise. We are in the middle of the rainy season, and Made chooses this time to expose his inability to plan. Surely this is a testimony of how the Mugabe regime is determined to drag our nation into further economic abyss," Gasela told The Standard.
Made, one of the ministers handpicked by Mugabe after the June 2000 parliamentary election, has in the past misled the nation about the food situation. Last year, he dismissed early warning signs of a serious maize deficit, saying, according to the knowledge he had gained from aerial flights across the country, Zimbabwe would have adequate grain supplies. However, several months later, Zimbabwe is facing a food crisis and over six million people are in need of food aid. Agricultural-based commodities such as bread, cooking oil and sugar are also in short supply. Long queues of people seeking bread and mealie meal have become the order of the day at shops throughout the country. The worst affected areas are the rural constituencies where the majority of the population are not gainfully employed. The Standard understands that the government is importing food from America, Argentina and Europe. Two years ago, government embarked on a land resettlement programme which saw white commercial farmers being displaced by indigenous farmers. The majority of these new farmers have not bothered to take up their pieces of land.
From Business Day (SA), 2 December
Forex dealers attacked in Zimbabwe
Harare - Youths in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, have attacked a group of illegal foreign currency dealers ahead of a government ban on exchange offices. Eleven youths attacked the women, street traders and members of a church sect on Friday one day ahead of the government's deadline for people to stop trading money on the black market. They made off with foreign currency worth more than Z$1-million ($18,00). It said the youths were "angered over the continued destruction of the economy by illegal forex dealers". Last month Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa announced that currency exchange offices would be abolished from the end of November. The government blames the exchange offices for the crippling lack of foreign currency on the official market. It is not yet clear how closely the ban will be followed.
From IOL (SA), 1 December
'Hold your horses - Mugabe's going nowhere'
Harare - Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe's successor will not be named until 2006, the state-run Sunday Mail said in an apparent bid to quash speculation the 78-year-old longtime leader could be replaced. Nathan Shamuyarira, information secretary in Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF, was quoted by the paper as saying the issue would be discussed at a party congress in 2006. The paper said the news had "scuppered frenzied speculation" in the private media that a Zanu PF conference due later this month would name a candidate to contest the next presidential election in 2008. The private press regularly speculates on possible successors to Mugabe, who has held power since 1980, first as prime minister and later as president. This year he won a new six-year term in a hard-fought election against Morgan Tsvangirai, 50, of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). Western observers said the poll was not free or fair.
From The Australian, 2 December
Mugabe flexes his muscles
From Michael Hartnack in Harare
Zimbabwean troops who recently returned home after four years at war in Congo are now ready to use their combat experience against the Government's enemies, President Robert Mugabe said. Addressing lavish celebrations to mark the final withdrawal from Congo of a Zimbabwean troop contingent that numbered 14,000 at its peak, Mr Mugabe promised land formerly owned by whites to the war's veterans. Government-backed militants began seizing white-owned land in February 2000, plunging the country into economic turmoil. "You needn't worry, there is still a lot of land to parcel out (and) we will parcel it out to our people, those committed because they have roots in our country," Mr Mugabe told a parade at the Chinese-built National Sports Stadium. Zimbabwe backed Congolese President Joseph Kabila's Government in a war against Ugandan and Rwandan-backed rebels. A cease-fire was brokered earlier this year. Mr Mugabe reiterated claims that the British Government was behind mounting opposition to his 22-year rule, because it sympathised with white Zimbabweans. "We cannot have little England or little Europe in either Zimbabwe or Africa," he said. "This is our land and it shall remain our land, not just for us who live today but all of us who live here for ever and ever and ever." Aid agencies say 6.7 million Zimbabweans are at risk of starvation before the harvests in March. The food shortages have been blamed on the farm seizures and drought. Mr Mugabe warned Western governments against intervening in his country. "Our participation in this (Congolese) operation strengthened our combat capability," he said. "Our forces have gone that extra mile in terms of combat readiness and would be more than prepared to use their experience and skill in dealing with aggression either at home or elsewhere if duty should call." He declined to say how much the intervention in Congo had cost or how many soldiers died. Recently-acquired secondhand military hardware, including helicopter gunships and armoured personnel carriers, were displayed at yesterday's parade. Meanwhile slogans calling for a "holy war" against Zimbabwe's 30,000 whites were daubed on the walls of Harare's main cricket ground, ahead of a visit by International Cricket Council officials. Zimbabwe is due to host six games during the cricket world cup in February.
Comment from The Zimbabwe Standard, 1 December
Get on yer bike
Over the top by Brian Latham
It has been announced that the fuel crisis gripping a troubled central African country is about to become a fuel catastrophe. Just a few weeks ago, the most equal of all comrades announced petrol woes would end because oil companies would import their own fuel. Though most troubled motorists thought this would mean a sharp rise in the cost of petrol, they viewed the prospect as better than having no fuel at all. Still, this week the most equal of all comrades had his decree quashed by the troubled central African nation's minister for fuel queues. The minister said a new company would be formed to procure fuel for the troubled central African country. The new company will be a joint venture between the company that failed to supply the troubled central African nation's fuel for the last two years and another company that refuses to supply fuel on the unreasonable grounds that it would rather like to be paid. Petroleum industry analysts pointed out that while the joint venture was a courageous new initiative, it was hardly encouraging news for motorists or consumers. "If the state-owned No Oil Company hasn't been able to pay its debts and this other company from up north won't sell, we have to predict the likelihood of success is more than a little remote," said one analyst who added that the whole business was rather gloomy and depressing.
Not to be discouraged, the minister for fuel queues said he was confident the new plan would work. He said it would encourage competition in a marketplace so regulated by government that retailers can buy from only one supplier and sell only at a price set by the state. Moreover, he said (because ministers like the word), there would now be serious competition among the imperialist capitalist oil magnates because the state supplier would supply only to its own filling stations. Meanwhile, a spokesman for the More Diesel Coming Party (you'll be lucky) said the plan was madness but he looked forward to the day when the masses rose and set fire to the state-owned fuel stations. "Not that it'll be that spectacular," he said, "there won't be any explosions or anything like that because we can confidently say that all of them will be empty."
Still, while it's bad news for motorists, it's good news for bicycle merchants. Retailers around the troubled central African nation were reported to be doing a brisk trade in bicycles as troubled citizens prepared to make themselves look ludicrous on the two wheeled contraptions. Even in remote areas of the troubled central African country elderly bicycle mechanics are reported to be coming out of retirement to repair and rebuild the foolish looking machines in an effort to keep the people mobile. It has even been suggested that the cavalcade of the most equal of all comrades will in future be a multi-million dollar German limousine pulled by several dozen oxen confiscated from an colonialist farmer. "Under those circumstances a siren will probably be unnecessary," said a police spokesman. The rumour of a prototype Mercedes Scotch Cart has been scotched by both the heirs to the Nazi car manufacturer and the troubled central African nation's spin doctors. "There's no point in making a bullet proof limousine if you can shoot the cattle and render it immobile," said a pragmatic German - while a spin doctor for the most equal of all comrades dismissed the claim as undignified. "Next you'll be suggesting he queues for petrol like the rest of you ungrateful peasants," he said.
US aid oughtta be rolling in to Zimbabwe any day now to prop up a madman dictator at the UN's behest -- after which we'll have to listen to another sermon from our Euro pals about how America deserved 9-11 by 'propping up dictators all over the world'.
I say we shouldn't give them a single packet of non-dairy creamer.
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