[Mugabe spat in the face of the Whites who were productive and useful citizens. Now let them die. Jan]

From Zim Online (SA), 8 April

Harare – Crisis-ridden Zimbabwe will divert Z$5 trillion or 18.2 percent of the total capital expenditure budget to buy emergency food to avert mass starvation in the country. Ruling Zanu PF party information secretary Nathan Shamuyarira yesterday told ZimOnline that poor rains had forced the ruling party and the government to re-look programmes to resuscitate Zimbabwe™s collapsing economy and divert funds earmarked for infrastructural development to buying food instead. Shamuyarira said: “As the president has said no one will starve, we have decided to divert the funds earmarked for capital expenditure to feed the nation. The drought has been a major setback to our turn-around strategies and we are in a predicament where we are forced to use resources for infrastructure development to ensure food security. We will make sure no one will starve” But critics say erratic rains notwithstanding, President Robert Mugabe™s chaotic and often violent seizure of farm land and irrigation equipment from white farmers for redistribution to landless blacks is to blame for the about 60 percent drop in farm production in the last three years. Most of the former white-owned commercial farms that were able to produce some food through irrigation were now lying fallow either because Mugabe™s cronies who took them are not interested in growing crops or because black peasants resettled on the farms do not have skills or financial resources to maintain production, critics say.

Most shops in Harare and other major centres were this week without the staple mealie-meal (ground from maize), sugar, cooking oil and soap while bread was showing signs of running short with reports that millers were running out of wheat. An estimated 4 million Zimbabweans or about a quarter of the country™s 12.5 million people face starvation. Fuel, in perennial shortage since 2000, was also getting scarcer with several garages in the country™s southern regions reporting that they had no stock or were selling the little diesel and petrol they had left. Harare-based economic analyst John Robertson said diverting money from the capital expenditure account would compromise quality of government service but would still not help much in getting food or basic commodities into the country as what was need was hard cash to pay foreign suppliers. Robertson said: “It will result in the delay in completing capital projects that means we will wait longer for the improvement of services in governmentthey must deal with the scarcity of foreign currency which has been caused by the collapse of the tobacco industry, shrinkage in beef and timber exports.” Mugabe, in an interview with the South African Broadcasting Corporation soon after his Zanu PF party controversially won last Thursday™s parliamentary election, admitted Zimbabwe was facing food problems but said his government had the means to ensure the country was fed.

Source: WWW.ZwNews.Com