The Food Weapon
Why is there hunger and near famine in Zimbabwe?

16th September 2002

With the politically induced food shortages in Zimbabwe we have the NGOs and other well-wishers clambering to distribute food to the needy. Whilst this is highly commendable (and expected) is it not just playing into the hands of the strategy of a desperate political party?

Those that have jobs have the money to buy food for themselves and their rural families, but the staple diet of maize is just not available to buy. Do they therefore also fall into the category of the starving people?

If the commercial farmers (and their bankers) could see a return to law and order and political stability they would have rallied to the call for urgent winter food production. How could this be achieved when there is no stability and massive looting and destruction of commercial farms?

The large commercial millers are no longer being supplied with adequate supplies of maize. Instead it is being distributed to small-scale millers, issued with ''special'' licences and who are under total control of the political machinery who in turn ensures that only the ''politically correct'' are receiving adequate supplies.

Party thugs and hoodlums strictly control deliveries done by small-scale millers. The quality control of these millers is deteriorating fast and sample weights of the bags marked 10kg and 20kg weighed at 7.8kg and 17.4kg respectively. On top of this they are not being sold at the ''controlled'' price. Whilst at source they are sold for only a few dollars more that the controlled price, on the street they are sold for up to six times the price! If a customer complains it is a case of ''take it or leave it'', and ''don't come back!''

With the large commercial millers being cut out of the market none of the by-products are available on the shelves of the supermarkets. This includes cooking oil and stockfeed ingredients, which now have to be imported at huge extra cost. This has caused a huge shortage of cooking oil, which is again being exploited by the privileged elite and being re-exported for ''real money'' which ends up being sold on the parallel market at exorbitant rates.

A recent example of this was seen in Zambia recently when six thirty ton rigs of Zimbabwean sugar was impounded. Yet in Zimbabwe people have to queue for days, or weeks, to obtain just 1kg of the precious commodity. This abuse by the political elite is part of the racial redistribution of wealth (or power, as it is perceived). The average men on the street (or ''masses'') are being starved whilst the political elite is being enabled to amass enormous fortunes. The profit from one 30-ton rig of sugar sold outside the country is said to be 35,000 Rand – or ZW$2,450,000!

Coming back to maize distribution, it was often wondered why A1, or intensive resettlement, has been carried out in the dry Region V. The settlers are being given 25 to 35ha of dry Mopani forest, where commercial farmers can only graze one livestock unit to 15ha on a sustainable basis. The grazing land and forest is being cleared by axe and fire so there is little to sustain settler's herds of between 15 and 50 head (plus goats and donkeys), which are now grazing there. And what do the wildlife survive on!

These arid areas used to be part of huge cattle ranches because they were both uninhabited and unsuitable for dryland. BSA Company used to own Nuanetsi Ranch, which was 3.25million acres! The present communal areas of Maranda, Mtetengwe, Matibi 1 and 2, and Sengwe were cut from this ranch and sold to the Government many years ago.

Because they were so sparse and uninhabitable one of the previous governments decided some of them were good dumping grounds to restrict their political opponents to at the time of African Nationalism. As the new restricted inhabitants could never hope to be self sufficient in agricultural production due to the erratic rainfall and droughts, they were always reliant on Government food handouts. This was the carrot and stick.

Is this not the same method being applied today?

Force the new settlers onto the farms in the arid areas and ensure their allegiance by reliance on Government for their food supplies? Is another part of the equation not to eliminate all the wildlife and other natural resources, firstly to force the farmer off, and secondly to destroy the natural value of the land, thus reducing the compensation values?

This is all a devious plot indeed, but what of the future of Zimbabwe if this is allowed to continue its perverse and destructive path?