WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.
Original Post Date: 2002-10-03 Posted By: Jan
From the News Archives of: WWW.AfricanCrisis.Org
Date & Time Posted: 10/3/2002 3:27:07 PM
Zim Govt blocks food aid of US$85 million
Critics say the government fears that allowing too many players to bring food into the country could dilute the political mileage it is getting from food distribution, particularly in rural areas
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The Zimbabwe government has blocked efforts by international donors to set up a US$85 million basket fund that would have allowed the private sector to import 400 000 tonnes of food into the famine-hit country, the Financial Gazette established yesterday. International aid agency sources yesterday said discussions on setting up the fund between the government and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), which had dragged on for more than four months, had all but broken down. The UNDP was going to coordinate the basket fund that was also going to be used to finance other humanitarian imports such as essential medicines. “As we speak, there are no more discussions taking place on the setting up of the fund,” a senior officer with one food aid agency told the Financial Gazette. Social Welfare Minister July Moyo could not be reached for comment on why there had been no agreement with donors on a fund seen as vital in a country that has seven million people, or half the population, facing starvation because of drought and policy failures. United Nations coordinator and UNDP resident representative in Zimbabwe Victor Angelo refused to discuss the issue, saying only: “The offer is still on the table.”
International donors, most of them reluctant to release money directly to the Harare authorities, had been on standby for the launch of the fund, the sources said. More funds were expected to be released in addition to the US$85 million that was expected to kick-start the fund, with local private companies without foreign currency allowed to borrow cheaply from the fund to pay for food imports. But the government, which has banned companies other than its Grain Marketing Board (GMB) from trading in the two staples maize and wheat, is said to have objected to the fund saying private sector involvement in food importation would push up prices. The prices of milled maize and bread – as indeed those of virtually all other basic food commodities – are controlled by the government. But critics say the government fears that allowing too many players to bring food into the country could dilute the political mileage it is getting from food distribution, particularly in rural areas where in some cases its GMB is the only source of food.
While no deaths from hunger have been officially reported so far, the UN says Zimbabwe’s food crisis is deteriorating fast, with 600,000 children – or 30 percent of under fives out of two million – already vulnerable to nutritional problems. Poor rains last season have caused food shortages across southern Africa, but in Zimbabwe – the epicentre of the food crisis – the government’s chaotic and often violent drive to seize land from large-scale producers has destabilised the key agricultural sector.
[Note: I have heard from sources close to the Zimbabwean farming community that last season in Zimbabwe actually had ABOVE AVERAGE RAINFALL. The problem in Zim is the land redistribution of course. Jan]
Source:Financial Gazette (Zimb)
Published:Thu 3-Oct-2002
URL: http://www.zwnews.com/issuefull.cfm?ArticleID…br>