Zimbabwe officials break ranks over food crisis

Zimbabwe officials break ranks over food crisis

• Mutasa's lie rant at radio journalist

• Zimbabwe price controls spark food shortages

• Parliament shoots down bumber harvest claims

• Moyo says harvest enough for season

• Zimbabweans await proof of 'bumper harvest'

• Famine claims 152 in Bulawayo

• UN warns 2,4 million pople need food aid

• Zim still expects 'bumper harvest'

• Mudenge denies Zim snubbed UN envoy

• Mugabe too busy to meet UN envoy

• Zim rejects food aid

• UN aid agencies pull out

• Bread prices up 50 percent

• Fears Mugabe may use food for campaign

• Zimbabwe turns back food aid

• Nyambuya's workers desert farm

By Staff Reporter

ZIMBABWE'S new security minister's claims that there were no food shortages in Zimbabwe have been contradicted by government officials.

Didymus Mutasa whose ministry has taken over food distribution across the country dismissed as "lies" reports of critical food shortages, especially in parts of Matabeleland South province.

But confirmation of a cover-up came from an unlikely source on Tuesday when the state-run Chronicle newspaper nailed Mutasa's lie in a headline story announcing: Food shortages hit communities.

"The food shortage is reported to be more serious in the drought prone Matabeleland South Province which has been experiencing perennial droughts in recent years. The hardest hit area are Beitbridge and Gwanda where there are reports of people sleeping in queues for several days at Grain Marketing Board deports hoping to buy maize in vain," the Chronicle reported.

The paper quoted Matabeleland North governor Thokozile Mathuthu who also blamed the food crisis on "a long dry spell".

"The grain situation in the province has been made more critical because most farmers planted maize, which does not do well in the region. The smaller grains perform better but very few people planted these,” said Mathuthu told the paper.

Midlands Governor Cephas Msipa also admitted to a food deficit in the province.

He said: "There is not much grain to talk about; we are relying on maize from the Grain Marketing Board, to a large extent."

In an interview with SW Radio Africa last week, Mutasa accused Archbishop Pius Ncube, journalists and aid agencies of lying about food shortages.

"It's a war against the people's minds, playing football with people's brains"

WELLINGTON CHIBEBE

"If there were people starving some of them would be dead and you would have actually seen the number of people dying in Bulawayo increasing," a defiant Mutasa said.

Zimbabweans are reeling under a serious shortage of basic commodities, compounded by erratic power supplies. Experts are partially blaming this on dwindling foreign exchange reserves and a poor harvest.

Long power outages have become the order of the day in the capital Harare, affecting business operations, while for those at home, candles have disappeared from shop shelves as demand outstrips supply.

Zimbabwe imports electricity from South Africa and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and this week, the power utility blamed the shortages on transmission faults.

The national staple cornmeal is snapped up within hours if available, while margarine and even toothpaste have run out in shops. Milk and butter supplies are erratic.

Queues for fuel are common as some gas stations run dry for days in the post-election period. The shortage of fuel has partly been blamed for non-collection of refuse in Harare.

Water cuts running for days in parts of the country are becoming normal. Captains of industry and trade union leaders say the shortages were anticipated.

The country's main labour movement blames government for the economic woes.

"We have been harping on the fact that the idea by government to pretend that the situation was normal, was actually treacherous. It's a war against the people's minds, playing football with people's brains," said Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) secretary general Wellington Chibebe.

Observers say shortages have partly been due to controlled prices of basic commodities which producers say are not viable. Some goods are however available on the black market where they fetch much more.

The government has meanwhile promised to review state-imposed price controls on essential goods.

"In the next two weeks, the shortage of goods will be behind us," said colonel Christian Katsande, secretary in the trade ministry in the state-owned Sunday Mail.

The government, aiming at a two digit inflation rate by year end from the current 123.7%, is battling to keep a lid on the prices of basic commodities.
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