Zimbabwe said Thursday it didn’t ask for and doesn’t need the food aid the United Nations has promised, insisting it can provide for its own people amid a mounting humanitarian crisis rooted in politics.
Minister of Social Welfare Nicholas Goche told state radio that the country, once the region’s breadbasket, has bought 1,2 tonnes of corn from South Africa. He said that is enough to alleviate shortages caused by drought. He said Zimbabwe is not making any request for international aid, but welcomes any that comes.
A day earlier, the head of the UN World Food Programme (WFP) met with President Robert Mugabe to discuss what he described as ”an enormous humanitarian crisis”. James Morris added that between three and four million Zimbabweans will need food aid in the next year, with the peak time of need coming between December and March.
Zimbabwe’s economic decline is traced to a campaign Mugabe began in 2000 to seize farms from whites and redistribute them to blacks.
Agriculture, the mainstay of the economy, was devastated and Mugabe has faced international isolation for his attacks on blacks and whites who opposed him.
Food, fuel, medicine and other basic commodities all are scarce and inflation is skyrocketing. The government dramatically boosted staple food prices last month and devalued its currency by 45%.
The WFP’s Morris, speaking to reporters in neighbouring South Africa after his visit to Harare, said Mugabe agreed to accept UN food aid and made a ”strong commitment” to allow NGOs to distribute it. Mugabe’s government has been accused of using its control of aid to punish opponents by denying them food.
Campaign against vendors, shack dwellers
An ongoing campaign against street vendors and shack dwellers also has been seen as an attack by the government on its political opposition, which has wide support among the urban poor.
More than one million people in the capital alone could be left homeless by the crackdown the government calls a clean-up campaign.
Thousands of street vendors have been arrested and their wares seized since the government began the crackdown on May 19. Police using torches, sledgehammers and bulldozers have burned and demolished kiosks and homes of the urban poor in shantytowns around the country, leaving thousands homeless.
The government claims that current shortages of many staples, including cornmeal, sugar and gasoline, are the result of speculation and hoarding by black-market traders.
The state-owned Herald newspaper quoted police spokesperson Wayne Bvuzijena on Wednesday as saying that police have arrested more than 22 000 people since the crackdown began.
”We have so far arrested a total of 22 735 people and recovered 33,5kg of gold from 47 illegal gold-panners and 26 000 litres of fuel,” Bvuzijena was quoted as saying.
The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change has charged the crackdown is an attempt to drive the urban poor back to rural areas where they can be ”more easily controlled politically” through denial of access to food.
Before recent elections, Mugabe forecast a bumper harvest of 2,5-million tonnes of corn and told relief agencies to direct their efforts elsewhere and not ”choke” Zimbabweans with unneeded aid.
But Goche’s top civil servant, Sydney Mhishi, predicted last week that even by rushed and preliminary government estimates, at least 2,8-million people will need food aid in the coming year.
Police ‘not responsible’ for looting
The state radio broadcast on Thursday also carried a denial by police spokesperson Oliver Mandipaka that officers involved in the arrest of street traders and the demolition of thousands of shacks were responsible for widespread looting.
Reports that police stole food and electric goods are attempts to smear the reputation of the police, said Mandipaka.
Amnesty International on Wednesday called on the government to halt the forced mass evictions that it said have left whole communities homeless and destroyed thousands of livelihoods.
”We have had reports of heart-wrenching scenes of ordinary Zimbabweans who have had their homes and livelihoods completely destroyed, crying on the street in utter disbelief,” said Kolawole Olaniyan, director of Amnesty International’s Africa Programme.
”We have even had reports of police forcing people to destroy their own homes.”
Minister of Housing Ignatius Chombo announced on Thursday that 250 000 new housing plots will be made available to the urban poor, including 150 000 in Harare. — Sapa-AP