Eddie Cross
26 October 2008
opinion
Nairobi — The World Food Programme recently issued an alarming statement on the food crisis in Zimbabwe.
They appealed for an additional $140 million to cover the shortfall in basic food aid for the next six months. What they did not say was that this still leaves a shortfall in overall cereal and oilseed supplies of 800,000 tonnes for the next six months.
It also failed to highlight that we are now weeks away from the start of the rains and there is very little land preparation, virtually no seed and fertiliser.
It is too late to import supplies in any quantity and even if we did we would have to distribute by air, as local transport capacity is almost non-existent.
They also did not tell the world that the funds they had paid to the non-governmental organisations doing food distribution had been taken by the Reserve Bank and the organisations could not pay their transporters for transport services or buy fuel.
The gold producers have sold gold to the Reserve Bank over the past nine months and have not been paid -- they are now unable to operate and are closing their mines down, allowing them to flood -- in some cases they will not be able to reopen them.
It is not only the NGOs who have had their foreign currency accounts (FCAs) looted -- virtually every business that I know has had their FCA cleaned out and they have been unable to access them to pay suppliers.
These funds -- legally property of the account holders -- have been taken by the Bank and then sold to Zanu-PF leaders at the "official" exchange rate -- this is technically legal but is clearly theft.
The official rate is a small fraction of one cent per US dollar. In fact it is 0.000000003 local dollars per US dollar. This means that $10,000 would cost a Zanu-PF heavy Z$0.003 -- not even one cent in the new local currency.
The physical evidence of this theft of resources is everywhere.
Reports abound of people arriving at homes for sale and paying cash in foreign exchange -- without trying to negotiate the price.
New cars without number plates (we have run out of number plate materials) are all over Harare.
The are reports of the Governor handing out expensive vehicles as if they were his own -- one report said that the pastor who buried the governor's younger brother was given a new twin-cab as a thank you for a few hours' work and kind words.
I would hazard a guess that in the past few months, no less than $500 million has been pilfered from the state and private coffers in this way.
That is enough money to feed the entire population for six months. No wonder they do not want to wrap up the power sharing agreement and swear in a new government. They must be terrified of anyone getting into the vaults and records at the Reserve Bank.
While they fiddle and prevaricate, the country burns. Lawlessness is rampant; gangs of thugs are seizing private property on farms with no fear of intervention by the police.
This seems to be even encouraged by rogue elements in Zanu-PF who want the negotiated deal to fail and at the same time are lashing out at the defenceless in an orgy of thuggery and theft.
Since our priority is to feed people, the needs of our animals are being put on the back burner. I get reports of dairy cows dying of starvation.
The largest pig producer in the country is about to slaughter their entire commercial breeding stock of 33,000 pigs. Poultry producers have cut back their operations to the minimum. Once this is carried out, re-establishing this production capacity will be a long process.
The president of the MDC and now the new prime minister, Morgan Tsvangirai, held a press conference in Harare.
In that meeting he stated that no progress had been made in the 24 days since the SADC-brokered agreement was signed in September. He went on to say that he was suspending any further contact with Zanu-PF until the regional mediation team was present to arbitrate those discussions.
In addition to this he made the extraordinary disclosure that the agreement signed and subsequently published, did not include the full details that had been negotiated and signed during the process. He requested that the mediators remedy this by publishing a new version of the agreement in full.
He said that Zanu-PF -- in complete violation of the agreement -- was refusing to review the appointment of 10 governors to the provinces and to then reallocate these posts on the basis of the majority representation in each province.
The governors play an important role in local politics and the administration and Zanu-PF are insisting that the 10 people appointed -- in clear violation of the SADC process -- should remain.
If the reallocation of governors based on the party majorities in each province were carried out, MDC (T) would get five, Zanu-PF four, and MDC (M) one.
Clearly, the SADC process can only proceed if this impasse in the allocation of powerful political posts is resolved. Zanu-PF is reluctant to let go because of the consequences to themselves and the loss of privilege and protection.
But that is of little concern to the region and should not be a factor. They never sought or obtained an amnesty for what they have done in the past and must face the consequences of their actions.
The delay in the consummation of this deal is now having very critical consequences. Every day lost is a serious matter. Inflation at 14 trillion per cent in September is destroying all forms of economic activity.
The collapse in the economy and in all social services is driving tens of thousands of Zimbabweans, skilled and unskilled, out of the country. We are now into new territory in this saga -- one from where it will be very tough to claw back to normalcy.
The new President of South Africa, Kgalema Montlanthe, said that he would back Thabo Mbeki's mediation with the resources and the influence that was needed. If the SADC mediation team does not engage very shortly, they will put the country and the region into jeopardy.
The writer is based in Bulawayo
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Icho...why do you continue to lie ?
THERE ARE ABSOLUTELY NO SANCTIONS ON THE ORDINARY MAN IN ZIMBABWE. THERE ARE TARGETTED SANCTIONS AGAINST YOUR OPRESSIVE MASTERS, AND THE PEOPLE THAT CHOOSE TO DO BUSINESS WITH THEM.
The ordinary man is suffering because of the corruption and incompetence of Mugabe and ZANUPF.
You are living in the past man, and perpetuating a lie that nobody (including you) believes.
Rhodesia is gone man....28 years ago. Ordinary Zimbabweans are not stupid, and do not blame the west or the white man. They do not buy into your propaganda. They are eating berries, while you are getting fat on sadza and nyama.
You don't really believe that you will be able to exploit Zimababweans forever do you ?
Mancam_28, Icho is not lying, it is you who is in denial. Elsewhere on this forum your friend says that he has watched the YouTube interview (not interviews) and from just that one interview he says Tsvangirai did not call for sanctions. But everybody saw the idiot live on TV arguing South Africa and the whole world to cut electricity supplies to Zimbabwe, cut trade and transport links with the country.
Now here you are telling us that corruption has caused the suffering of the Zimbabwean people when in actual fact you should be saying that the sanction you called for are biting the ordinary man. Sanctions and sanctions alone are the primary cause of all the suffering in Zimbabwe today and these were called for by Tsvangirai and MDC.
If only you knew that history moulds the present and the present build the future you would not accuse ICHO of "living in the past". You can never do anything without reference to history. When the Jews talk of the holocust they are taping into the past and with this they are able to avoid what they went through. When the Americans talk about the "Great American dream" they are simply talking about their history (where they are coming from), where they are and where they are going. We in Zimbabwe are very conscious of our past and have to learn from that inorder to built a Zimbabwe that will never allow itself to be subjected to slavery again - in whatever form.
Rhodesia, in name, may have gone some 28 years ago but Rhodesia's grip on the country is still with us today. No wonder why we talk about total independence and 100% empowerment. All our resources are in the hands of absentee land lords who are sitting pretty somewhere in London, America, Australia while we suffer and they have the audicity to impose sanctions on us just because we dare take what rightfully belongs to us.
The west is totally to blame for our predicament because they have dissurded their companies from producing for the people of Zimbabwe simply to make them turn against the govt. The west is totally to blame for our suffering because they have threatened countries which wanted to trade with us not to do so. The west can never be exonerated from the suffering of Zimbabweans because both Blair and Brown have said it openly that they are going to make Zimbabweans suffer.
The American ZDERA is in place today to make people suffer and it says clearly that only when we give land back to whites will the sanctions be removed. Just recently McGee was celebrating (with Tsvangirai as they were swinging) the suffering of ordinary Zimbabweans.
The AU, SADC, and all other progressive organisations have called for the removal of the illegal sanctions and hence it is these sanctions that have caused the suffering of the Zimbabwean people.
takunya_ndebvu, you telling the same lies as Icho does not make them true.
I have read your entire post above, and it is filled with lies.
The question is, do you actually believe them ? probably not.
I've seen the pictures of Mugabe's palace that he and his disgusting wife live in.
If you're looking for the source of Zimbabwe's suffering, look no further than that.
The treasury has been raided, and Mugabe is living high, while the people starve.
Land reform should have been properly and honestly organised. Training programs on how to farm, and small pieces of farmland given to the people of Zimbabwe, so that they could farm, and be able to feed the country.
Instead Tsotsi butchers with a taste for blood, were used as pawns to murder, rape and steal. They called themselves war veterans, but they were just lowlife criminals. And who got the farms ? Fat stupid corrupt cronies of Mugabe, who had no intention of farming. Now with no one farming, the country starves.
You always blame the white man and the west, but we all know the truth.
I recognize that you and Icho work for Mugabe, and therefore you can not speak the truth and gain credibility.
We all know the truth, and you should be ashamed of what you do for a living.
Just remember, there will be consequences for your actions.
How is wanting half the key ministries, as decided in the GNU agreement, messing around with the SADC leadership? Surely allocating all of them to yourself, as Mugabe did, is really messing around. The facts speak for themselves.
Here is the latest - ZANU-PF/Mugabe is apparrently not only stealing from Zimbabwe, but also from NGO's providing food aid to starving Zimbabweans!
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/03/africa/zim.php
takunya, what you are saying is that Mr Tsvangirai has so much power that he claps his hand and South Africa turns off electricity to Zimbabwe, claps his hands and all world leaders do as he says including according to you, telling them to put sanctions on Zimbabwe. What power!
It does not surprise me to have such a statement from Rhodesian Front now (MDC)"s Eddie Cross. Eddie is just an Ian Smith remnant who cannot for obvious reasons not forgive anything that is Zanu PF.They are the ones who called for sanctions, so why are they pretending to sympathise with the people"s plight when what they wanted is now happening ie suffering of the ordinary man. Cross himself, Tsvangirai and others in the hierachy of the British backed MDC are not suffering because they are always in South Africa from where they buy whatever they want, besides those groceries given to him by the white community. Cross, you were a member of the Rhodesian security forces and you think we do not know what you did and where. I heard Tsvangirai and Mutambara"s intermideary what quizzed in Swaziland by a South African who is close to the talks, why they are just too thick headed. The South African pointed out to Maphosa they do so because they are enjoying South African tax payer"s money on these endless conferences they just call for but not producing any positive results. Anyway its now a known fact that USA and Britain told Tsvangirai not to agree to anything, so is just playing around with SADC leadershing, what a fool.