The Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs on Friday denied reports that a donation of money made by the South African government was being used to buy Zambian maize for food aid.
“The United Nations World Food Programme [WFP] has always used South African money to buy maize in South Africa. This has been confirmed in my telephonic conversation with the WFP,” said the Director General of Agriculture and Land Affairs, Masiphula Mbongwa, in a statement.
“The WFP has further agreed to meet me in two weeks’ time to check the documentary facts of the matter,” Mbongwa added.
“I promised to report back to Grain South Africa [GSA] after consulting with the WFP about the allegation that South African money is being used to buy Zambian maize. However, GSA did not wait for this report before speaking to the media,” he said.
In 2003, the South Africa government donated R100-million to six Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries — Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The donation of R100-million was split — 30% would go to maize purchases and 70% to the purchase of agricultural implements, including fertiliser and animal medicines. The WFP has administered the use of the food-aid donation.
“It was agreed that the WFP would procure all the necessary input and the maize itself from the region. The understanding has always been that this would be in South Africa,” Mbongwa said.
“Later the Zimbabwe government in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, informed a ministerial meeting on food security that it would no longer be accepting food aid from the WFP.
“Their minister of agriculture further informed our Minister of Agriculture [and Land Affairs], Thoko Didiza, during a personal meeting that they would not be requiring the maize part of the food aid,” he added.
The Zimbabwean government claims it has produced an excellent maize crop, which will meet the country’s domestic consumption need until the next harvest in 2005. However, aid agencies have called this claim nonsense.
“The South African government then authorised the WFP to reallocate the maize aid meant for Zimbabwe to Namibia, which had just suffered damage from a flood. Namibia is currently receiving the food aid previously destined for Zimbabwe,” Mbongwa said.
Zambia has produced a maize surplus, but the WFP has not bought any Zambian maize with South African money, he added.
Turning to the matter of a grain reserve, Mbongwa said for some time the South African government has wanted to discuss the issue of a grain reserve with GSA and other stakeholders.
“GSA has consistently opposed the involvement of government on grain reserves,” Mbongwa said.
“The SADC heads of state, the African Union, and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation support the grain reserve concept and have commissioned studies to design a framework for their implementation,” he added. — I-Net Bridge