The Zimbabwe Situation

Thank you all for the staggering response to my letter last week and sorry for so few letters back from me. A number of newspapers and radio stations have publicized that letter exposing this insanity which makes me both proud and humble. It has been a very fraught time for me this week as Wind and two of his helpers moved into my house on the farm. They had a comfortable few days, nice hot baths and listened to their radio at a very loud volume until Wednesday when they ran the borehole dry and burnt out the electric motor. They sent a message to me saying that as I was still the owner of the farm I should pay for the borehole motor to be repaired as they could not survive without water. My response to their demand was short, explosive and consisted of two words which I cannot repeat in this letter. The tenants have made repeated requests to the electricity company (ZESA) to have the supply to the farm disconnected but this has not yet been done for two reasons. One is that Wind and his helpers want the power left on and are threatening in the extreme and the other is that there have been so many farmers forcibly evicted recently that ZESA cannot cope with the backlog of disconnection requests. Towards the end of the week I finally managed to get in to see a senior local government official to advise him that three unknown men were now living in my house, had broken the borehole and that the situation was completely out of control. I explained politely that as the government had not served me with any acquisition papers at all I was extremely worried about assets which may now be being destroyed such as geysers, water fittings, fitted cupboards etc. The "official" got extremely angry with me and gave me a very long lecture about the history of Zimbabwe and said the reason the country was now in this state was due to "you people" who have made concerted efforts to "demonise Zimbabwe" and "tell lies to the world." Some of the things this "official" said to me were extremely offensive and absolutely shocking, particularly coming from a civil servant. The official told me that in order to have my property valued I must go to another government department, fill in forms and hand over the title deeds. When this has been done government valuers will go in and then compensation would be paid at some future date. Throughout the "interview" I was polite and courteous and did not raise my voice or lose my temper and had expected a similar response from a man whose salary is paid by my taxes. The entire encounter, which perhaps lasted fifteen minutes, left me feeling very uncomfortable about my personal safety but incredibly sad about the future of the country I was born in. When I left the man's office he and his Central Intelligence Officer stood watching me from their window and I tried to stand tall but it is becoming increasingly difficult as I am more and more often made to feel unwanted in Zimbabwe. In the car park I met other farmers in a similar position to mine including one man who had been visited by men like Wind and given 30 minutes to get out of his house. He did so under duress and that night his house and workshops were looted. There have been dozens of similar cases in the past fortnight. While this goes on the food supply situation is continuing to deteriorate. This week the government announced price increases on cooking oil, margarine, soap, bread and milk. Most of these products have been in very short supply for many months and now, with milk having increased by 73%, have become completely unaffordable to hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans. In the midst of this nightmare and with my last source of income from the farm rent now gone I again appealed to the publishers of African Tears to pay me any of the royalty or serialization payments now grossly overdue. They continue to say how sorry they are for my plight and the situation but that they are unable to pay me anything at all and have again asked me to be patient which is not so easy when the wolf is at the door and I can no longer afford lawyers. In the meantime I continue to work on the update to African Tears which I hope to submit to another publisher very soon. My week ended on a wonderful note when a parcel arrived from a complete stranger filled with little treats, thank you so much Ann. This coming week Parliament at last goes back into session and I should think it will be a very stormy one which will hopefully do something to rapidly address the massive starvation which is right at our doorsteps. Until next week, with love, cathy. http://africantears.netfirms.com

FoodCrisis Looms Over Zimbabwe: UN Agency

ROME A food crisis looms over Zimbabwe threatening more than one million people with hunger, the United Nations' food body said Thursday.

"The situation is precarious in Zimbabwe and continues to deteriorate," said Judith Lewis, the head of southern and east African operations for the World Food Program (WFP).

Last week Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe declared a state of disaster over the food shortages, blaming a severe drought for the emergency.

"Half a million people are at immediate risk but that number could triple in the next 60 days," Lewis told Reuters, speaking by telephone from Nairobi, adding: "In a few weeks we are going to have a serious situation."

Lewis said the lean season had come early and some 80,000 tons of food aid were needed to avert the immediate crisis.

She said the Rome-based WFP estimated that Zimbabwe's net maize deficit will be 1.4 million tons in the 2000-2003 period, while the surplus for the entire southern Africa region would be 30,000 tons.

Separately, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent societies in Geneva warned on Thursday of a looming food crisis in southern Africa because of erratic weather, Reuters reported.

Lewis agreed that bad weather had played a part in the crisis, but said other factors, such as the Harare government's seizure of white-owned farms, had exacerbated the situation.

"The drought has had a significant impact, but also the disruption caused by the seizure of commercial farms, the economic downturn and a lack of hard currency," she said.

The global response to earlier aid appeals has been slow due to Zimbabwe's international isolation over its human rights record and Mugabe's disputed victory in March presidential elections, Lewis added.

Last week Zimbabwe's state media reported the country had imported 28,000 tons of yellow maize, a grain used for both human and animal consumption, as part of the state grain marketing board's program to import 200,000 tons to cover the food deficit.

Maize rationing has been instituted in communal areas, with some households being limited to sharing a monthly 50kg (110.2 lb) bag of maize meal -- enough to feed a family of five for one month, according to the WFP.