[Sometimes Mugabe admits there is a food shortage and at other times the old liar pretends he has enough. Note how the MDC has not solved any of Zimbabwe’s problems. That is because they refuse to see that armed conflict is the only way to rid the country of the evil man which most blacks voted for originally.

Black people create their own living hell all by themselves and then they are too weak and cowardly to solve a problem which they created. This is proof that they should never have been given this freedom to begin with and that Whites were right about them all along. Jan]

Harare – Dry and withered stalks of corn are encroaching on the graves at Granville Cemetery on the outskirts of Zimbabwe’s capital.

Even sacred space is being claimed for cultivation as hunger spreads in what was once a regional breadbasket.

“This is all illegal planting,” said a graveyard attendant at Granville, gesturing to the sea of corn in an empty corner of the cemetery. “It’s disgraceful because people should respect the dead. But things are not normal – people are hungry.”

Sweet potatoes are becoming a popular crop
He asked not to be identified, for fear of government retribution.

Faced with soaring prices and a scarcity of jobs, a growing number of city residents are resorting to growing their own food. They use any piece of land they can find – the side of a road, a back yard, even the cemetery.

Corn – which is ground and eaten as a stiff porridge known as sadza – is the national staple. But sweet potatoes are becoming a popular crop, because they are harder to steal.

“We are doing this because there is no food, no jobs,” said Tawaunda Matosi, 27, as he worked barefoot in his family’s field on the road to Granville. “I’d rather have a job.”

President Robert Mugabe’s sweeping win in last week’s parliamentary election – which many foreign observers said was deeply flawed – crushed Matosi’s hopes for change.

Rain still scarce and the commercial farming sector in disarray
The main opposition Movement for Democratic Change won most urban constituencies, but Mugabe’s Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front clinched 78 of Parliament’s 120 elected seats overall. Mugabe appoints an additional 30 seats.

Mugabe blames critical food shortages on four years of drought, which prompted the World Food Program to start feeding millions across southern Africa in 2002.

But UN officials and independent economists say chaotic land reform, coupled with government restrictions on the importation and movement of grain, have severely exacerbated the problem in Zimbabwe.

Thousands of white-owned commercial farms have been redistributed to black Zimbabweans in the often violent program that began in 2000, virtually destroying Zimbabwe’s agriculture-based economy. Much of the land now lies fallow, its new owners unable to afford the seeds, machinery and fuel they need for a successful crop.

In urban areas like Harare, there are regular shortages of staples like corn.

In August 2003, a 5kg bag of corn meal cost ZIM$2 060 (about R2), according to UN figures. Last month, it was running at ZIM$6 400 – a steep price in a country facing 70 percent unemployment.

“Even if there is food available, the majority of those who really need it are not able to buy it because they’ve already exhausted any means of raising capital,” said Mike Huggins, a spokesperson for the World Food Programme.

Last year, however, the government told WFP and other international organisations to stop large-scale feeding programmes, saying Zimbabwe can feed itself.

Only the government-run Grain Marketing Board is allowed to import corn from neighboring countries. At roadblocks running into the city, police even seize corn meal that is brought from its rural areas under a law that makes it illegal for anyone to transport more than 50kg of the grain.

Opposition leaders accused the government of taking control of food distributions so it could use them as a political weapon in last week’s election. Independent rights groups said residents in some rural areas were told they would not be allowed to buy government food if they voted for the opposition.

With rain still scarce and the commercial farming sector in disarray, Zimbabwe’s food shortages are likely to continue into next year. The government’s own statistics indicate this year’s harvest will be worse than in 2002, when wide-scale food relief programs began.

International organisations hope with the elections over they will be allowed to increase feeding. But most of the food they distribute is likely to be in rural areas, where people depend more heavily on what they can grow.

For cities like Harare, little relief is on the horizon. The price of corn doubled after the election, sugar and oil are in short supply, and much of the corn in urban gardens has already withered from drought.

Along the side of the road, Matosi shook a stalk with one tiny, inedible ear.

“No rain,” he sighed. – Sapa-AP

Source: Independent Online (IOL)
URL: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click…/p>