Zimbabwe has ordered 120 000 tonnes of wheat from South Africa to ease food shortages, the country’s state security minister said on Wednesday.
The Southern African country, once a regional bread basket, is experiencing acute shortages blamed on President Robert Mugabe’s policies such as the seizure of white-held farms to resettle landless blacks.
Food shortages have worsened since June when Mugabe’s government imposed price controls on all goods and services, leaving shop shelves virtually empty of basic foodstuffs such as bread, milk and cooking oil.
Security Minister Didymus Mutasa, who heads a Cabinet taskforce on food procurement, told Parliament the government will continue to import wheat until the next harvest.
”We have ordered 120 000 tonnes of wheat from South Africa,” Mutasa said. ”We are ordering more wheat through appropriate producers so that we have sufficient wheat to take us to October next year, when we hope to have harvested a sufficient and bigger harvest.”
Officials say Zimbabwe expects a 145 000-tonne wheat yield after yet another poor season, against annual demand for the grain above 400 000 tonnes.
Earlier this month, Zimbabwe’s government failed to raise cash to pay for 36 000 tonnes of imported wheat although it announced on Tuesday it had since paid up for the grain, which had been held up in Mozambique.
Two United Nations agencies, the Food and Agriculture Organisation and the World Food Programme, have warned that more than four million Zimbabweans — one-third of the population — will need food aid early next year.
Food shortages mirror Zimbabwe’s severe economic crisis, along with the world’s highest inflation rate at about 6 600%, an 80% jobless rate and rising poverty.
Mugabe (83) has ruled the country since independence from Britain in 1980. He denies mismanaging the economy and accuses Western nations of sabotage as punishment for his farm seizures. — Reuters