Food riots in two towns in Zimbabwe could be the start of a
showdown between President Robert Mugabe’s government and a restive population facing shortages of most basic goods, commentators warned on Monday.
Rioting broke out on Friday outside a government-run grain depot in Zimbabwe’s second largest city, Bulawayo, and some 34 people were arrested.
On Sunday, four police officers manning a food queue were
injured in clashes with youths who besieged a shop which had received scarce supplies of the national staple, maize meal, in Chitungwiza, 23 kilometres south of Harare.
”I think it’s a symptom of food availability and distribution problems and that could be the beginning of many more riots,” says Brian Raftopolouos, chairman of a civic group called Crisis in Zimbabwe.
”What happened in Bulawayo and Chitungwiza is just a tip of the iceberg of what has been happening elsewhere. These are just spontaneous reactions to a crisis,” said Lovemore Matombo, president of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU).
While some commentators predict full-fledged riots soon, others are of the opinion that there could be sporadic unrest which will eventually fizzle out.
John Makumbe, a political scientist and anti-government
activist, said ”worst trouble” may be expected around March or April when the current farming season ends and it will be clear whether there is enough food in Zimbabwe.
”Then we will see sustained civil strife across the country,” he forecast.
”I think the food riots could very easily result in the
government being kicked out of office. I think this regime is ready to run away if things get out of hand. I think we could have a full-fledged riot,” Makumbe said.
Labour leader Matombo said after the clashes in Bulawayo and Chitungwiza that ”anything can happen anytime now”.
”The time is coming when there will be no food and we will see people rising to the occasion,” Matombo said.
But Raftopolouos believed there ”could be sporadic riots, but nothing on a mass scale, unless the opposition and civic groups organise”.
Zimbabwe is in the throes of crippling food shortages which
threaten more than two-thirds of the population of 11,6 million.
The shortages are mainly attributed to a drought which has
ravaged southern Africa but critics also blame Mugabe’s
controversial land reforms, which have seen white-owned commercial farms seized for redistribution, for worsening the food crisis.
Zimbabwe needs to import more than 300 000 tons of maize by March to alleviate the crisis, but supplies are only trickling in at 22 000 tons a week, according to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
The government has refuted accusations that food in some rural areas is being distributed along political party lines, especially where people rely on food handouts.
In some areas, relief food takes weeks or months to arrive and people rely on eating wild fruits and roots of trees. A weekly documentary programme made by the Roman Catholic church for state television has shown families relating their moving plight.
Many have hardly one meal every day.
Food security agencies in southern Africa have warned that
Zimbabwe and other countries are likely to experience another drought as normal to below normal rainfall is forecast by meteorologists.
Basic goods such as sugar, salt, cooking oil, maize meal and bread, whose prices are controlled by government are hardly available in shops but can be found on the black market usually at 10 times or more of the controlled price.
Inflation runs at more than 175% and the United Nations last year said three quarters of the population is living in abject poverty.
Zimbabwe is not only facing a crippling shortage of food, but other basics like petroleum-based fuels. – Sapa-AFP