Food aid agencies reject Mugabe’s claims

Published: October 7, 2009

Harare(ZimEye)At least two million Zimbabweans will need food handouts from international donors until April 2010, contrary to claims by President Robert Mugabe that the country no longer requires help from outside, aid officials have said.

Acting United Nations humanitarian coordinator, Peter Salama, who is also the Unicef country representative told ZimEye in an interview that Zimbabweans still needed a lot of assistance from donors to get basic foodstuffs like mealie meal, sugar and cooking oil.

“There’s still a substantial proportion of the population that needs assistance. I don’t have exact numbers, but the figure at the top of my head is two million,” Salama said.

Mugabe recently told CNN in New York that the country no longer required foreign food supplies as it had harvested enough.

“People have grown enough food for themselves,” Mugabe claimed in an interview with CNN star Christiane Amanpour.

Mugabe has persistently denied reports of food shortages as he feels they would expose the disaster caused by the invasion of mostly white-owned farms carried out by militants aligned to him and his Zanu PF party. Farms occupied ostensibly for resettlement of landless blacks have largely been parcelled out to Mugabe cronies and relatives, including his wife Grace whoowns many farms. Mugabe and his cohorts are said to have ruined some of Zimbabwe ’s most productive farms.

Salama said, “The food aid needs this year are less than last year because of the better harvest but Zimbabwe still needs help.”

The aid official revealed that the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Assistance (OCHA) was in the process of drafting its ‘Consolidated (aid) Appeal’ for 2010. He said so far only half of the requirements had been pledged, but expressed hope that the rest of the amount required would be raised. Figures were not immediately available.

Zimbabwe gets most of its food aid from the United States and the European Union but Mugabe routinely condemns them claiming that they are after illegal regime change using food as a tool. However, the new administration under the transitional government in Harare has ignored the claims. Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai was quick to lift a ban on food-supplying non-governmental organizations as soon as he took office in February. He has repeatedly said getting food to the poor and the hungry is his top priority.

Salama said the appeal for 2010 was being finalized with the full cooperation of the government. He also said the UN was going to help farmers secure farming inputs like seed and fertilizer to boost next season’s production and end hunger which has stalked Zimbabwe for nearly a decade.

Mugabe blames droughts and sanctions for the failure to produce enough food which has resulted in the country having to import mostly from neighbouring South Africa .

The United States Agency for International Development said up to 2.8 million people, just under a quarter of the 14 million population, would require food handouts until the next harvest expected in April 2010. The agency said it was launching large-scale food assistance to Zimbabwe. The programme is now under way.

“Zimbabwe ’s April 2009 harvest, although considerably better than in previous seasons was still 680 000 tons short of the national requirement,” USAID said in a report published in its official newsletter, ‘Frontlines’ recently.

The report said only 600 000 people were receiving free food as of July but the agency expected to get massive food shipments into the country. (ZimEye, Zimbabwe)

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Food aid agencies reject Mugabe’s claims

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