Zimbabwe’s silos ”are full”, and the country has enjoyed ”a wonderful harvest” in the last year and does not need food ”from anywhere”, says the country’s ambassador to South Africa, Simon Khaya Moyo.
Addressing the National Assembly’s foreign affairs portfolio committee on Wednesday, Moyo was emphatic that his country is self-sufficient in food, and rejected suggestions from an opposition parliamentarian that the country is facing a food crisis.
Official opposition Democratic Alliance MP Douglas Gibson suggested that the ruling Zanu-PF, led by President Robert Mugabe, is using food to punish people who do not support it and feed people who do.
He also said Amnesty International has reported that the country is facing a serious food crisis.
But Moyo dismissed his concerns, arguing that Amnesty International ”is not a government”.
Instead, the Zimbabwe government has a responsibility to ”look after our people”. It has to ensure that people are satisfied and ”got enough food”.
Arguing that the food needs from the international community had been spurred on by the previous drought — which had also affected other parts of the sub-continent, including Zambia, Mozambique and Malawi — the ambassador said incoming food will still be stored by his government.
”But people have made a good harvest … that is what the truth is,” he added.
No comment on Bennett jail sentence
Moyo also argued on Wednesday that it would be inappropriate for him to comment on the recent sentencing by the Zimbabwean Parliament of opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) MP Roy Bennett for attacking a minister.
The Zimbabwean Parliament voted in May to jail Bennett on recommendation of a parliamentary committee, dominated by the ruling Zanu-PF.
The ambassador said it would not be fair to question ”the integrity of any Parliament”, including that of Zimbabwe. The Zimbabwean Parliament sentenced Bennett to 15 months’ imprisonment — with three months suspended — with hard labour.
He was again responding to the DA’s Gibson.
Gibson said he has written to the secretary general of the United Nations and the president of the Pan African Parliament to elicit their support for Bennett.
”I would like to know whether you agree with me that the sentence was grossly disproportionate,” he said.
Gibson also suggested it was ”an abuse of power” on the part of the Zimbabwean Parliament. He asked how Bennett could be expected to campaign for re-election for office in the general election scheduled for March.
Moyo said merely that prisoners ”can’t campaign”, to which Gibson replied: ”Quite.”
Gibson noted that South Africa had experienced a similar case when the then National Party MP Manie Schoeman was engaged in fisticuffs with an African National Congress MP (now Deputy Minister of Justice) Johnny de Lange.
They had been told to apologise and were suspended for one day and five days respectively.
Schoeman had subsequently joined the ANC, Gibson quipped.
Gibson pointed out that Bennett had ”shoved” the Zimbabwean Justice Minister, Patrick Chinamasa, after being insulted by the minister. Chinamasa described Bennett’s ancestors and other white settlers as ”thieves and murderers”. He suggested that the seizure of Bennett’s farm was to punish him for the crimes of his ancestors.
Committee chairperson Job Sithole, an ANC MP, said the ambassador is at liberty to reflect on court judgements ”but I would not as a chair take offence if you decide not … but I don’t think it would be appropriate for us to do that”.
Gibson pointed out it was not a court judgement, but a ruling by the Zimbabwean Parliament.
Moyo said he agreed with the chairperson: ”I don’t think it is fair to start questioning the integrity of any Parliament. It is not right. These are people who are elected by the people of any given country. They are empowered by the Constitution to take the decision they did.”
Bennett, who represents Bulawayo, after apologising for the incident was quoted as saying in a recent address to the Zimbabwe Parliament that he was ”ready to go to jail”. — I-Net Bridge