Security guard kills colleague over 10kg maize bag

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By Staff Reporter

A PRIVATE security guard attacked and killed a colleague he accused of stealing his bag of cornmeal amid acute food shortages in Zimbabwe, the official media reported Saturday.

The arrest of Voice Tongotaya, 29, for alleged murder followed the deaths Wednesday of two people crushed in a stampede for sugar.

Tongotaya allegedly slashed a co-worker repeatedly with a machete after his 10-kilogram (20-pound) bag of maize meal - a staple in Zimbabwe - went missing at a security company depot in the eastern border town of Mutare, the state Herald newspaper reported.

A 20-pound bag of cornmeal cooked sparingly can last an average family about 10 days. Shortages of food and basic goods have heightened tensions in the southern African country where lengthy and unruly lines of shoppers waiting at stores and markets for food deliveries occur daily.

In Bulawayo on Wednesday, hundreds of people surged toward the gates of a yard where sugar was expected. The perimeter wall collapsed, killing a man and an infant. Police were called to one Harare supermarket Friday to quell mobs jostling for cornmeal.

A few blocks away, youths in lines for transportation hurled rocks at passing cars and the few minibus taxis still operating, witnesses said.

Gasoline shortages have crippled commuter transport since a June 26 government order to slash the prices of all goods and services in efforts to tame rampant inflation given officially as 4,500 percent, the highest in the world. The order has left shelves bare of cornmeal, bread, meat and other basics.

Independent estimates put real inflation closer to 20,000 percent on goods still available, often through illegal black market trading, and the International Monetary Fund has forecast inflation reaching 100,000 percent by the end of the year.

In other signs of rising tension, earlier this month, two soccer matches were abandoned before the final whistle after violent fans invaded the field to protest refereeing decisions, and music fans trashed the venue at a show by top local musician Alec Macheso. Such actions generally are rare in Zimbabwe.

At least 7,000 executives, business managers, traders and bus drivers have been arrested since June 26 for overcharging. Most have been briefly detained and fined, some have been sentenced to community service cleaning dilapidated government buildings and one, described in court as an unethical and unrepentant businesswoman, began an eight-month jail term this week.

No deaths have been officially linked to worsening food shortages though doctors have reported an increase in conditions related to poor nutrition, contaminated water in the nation's collapsing sanitation facilities, daily water and power outages and shortages of basic drugs. - AP

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