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Mugabe stops NGOs feeding the starving
October 19, 2008 Edition 2
Peta Thornycroft
Harare - Millions of Zimbabweans are close to starvation but the government has made it impossible for humanitarian agencies to feed people around the country.
The humanitarian agencies have enough food to feed the worst affected, in the most dire national crisis in living memory, until January, but they are unable to deliver to those in need because the government has frozen their Zimbabwean bank accounts.
The economic catastrophe created by President Robert Mugabe's chaotic and corrupt mismanagement of the economy, particularly since he began grabbing productive white-owned farms in 2000, has destroyed the ability of Zimbabweans to feed themselves.
According to the United Nations last week, a third of Zimbabwe's children under the age of five are malnourished, and that proportion is far higher in the south of the country.
"We can't get money from the banks to pay people to distribute the food, it's as simple as that," said the operations' manager of one of the top three distributing agencies, which has been working in Zimbabwe for 16 years.
"We can't pay our staff's hotel bills or buy food for our field workers, or even advertise for people to distribute the food," he said.
"We have enough food in the warehouse to ensure that no one starves, we have enough money in the bank to finance our operations, but the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe will not give us access to it."
The central bank stopped the use of Zimbabwe's inter-bank transactions system, known as the real-time gross settlement system, two weeks ago. Many ordinary people, businesses and NGOs settled bills by using the system to transfer money.
Gideon Gono, the central bank's governor, is the most powerful man in the country after Mugabe. He uses public funds to support Zanu-PF, is the largest black-market trader on the streets, and is Mugabe's personal banker.
He has bullied and impoverished the population, pillaged pension funds, printed money at a rate that has pushed inflation to at least 231 million percent, by far the highest in the world, and has usurped the powers of the finance ministry.
Two weeks ago, he closed down the inter-bank transactions system, claiming that speculators were using it to sell Zimbabwe dollars for foreign currency at a massive premium compared to the cash rate on the streets. The difference between the value of cash and money transferred over the inter-bank transactions system, and cheques, which take at least 10 days to clear, is in the millions, giving Zimbabwe two different currencies.
Gono has dealt with the shortage of cash by limiting withdrawals to Z$50 000 a day, about R18. When he stopped inter-bank transfers, he made no exception for humanitarian agencies, which are now, like the rest of the population, struggling to withdraw cash from their accounts in a country in which cash depreciates so fast that every supplier demands instant cash payment.
Most people do not have bank accounts and cannot accept cheques.
One NGO tried to advertise for staff in the state-controlled Herald newspaper on Friday and was quoted US$400 for the ad in the morning. Two hours later, the price was US$670 and by close of business it was US$4 200. Previously, the organisation would have paid the newspaper by bank transfer, but the Herald demanded foreign currency, which is held by the central bank and would take weeks to release. The advertisement was not placed.
"We used bank transfers to pay for everything. Now we can't do that, we can't operate. We have workers stuck in hotels that have no food because they have no cash with which to buy food."
"Every bit of foreign money we bring into the country has to go through the Reserve Bank.
"It didn't have to be this way. You would think the government or the welfare ministry would ease our way, be happy that we were feeding the people; instead, they make it impossible for us to work."
The NGOs have all written to the Reserve Bank to complain but have had no reply.
Last week, the UN in Zimbabwe took the case up with the bank, but so far there is no clarity on whether the situation will change.
"We don't want to believe that this is deliberate," said the chief executive of one of the largest donor organisations in Zimbabwe.
"The NGOs are doing magnificently in trying to overcome this and some are beginning to deliver some food, but nowhere near enough."
Mugabe banned NGOs from field work in June after he lost the parliamentary elections to Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC).
Mugabe, staggered at his and Zanu-PF's defeat, claimed NGOs had been handing out food and campaigning for Tsvangirai. He allowed them back in the field only in August.
Eric Matinenga, an advocate elected to parliament for the first time in March on an MDC ticket, said his rural constituency south of Harare was in a "desperate state".
He said he was shocked to find that the NGOs were unable to draw money from their banks to pay for the delivery of food.
"The people are in a very bad way. I was not aware of this. We have to go to parliament about this."
David Coltrat, an MDC senator from Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second city, said he has had a harrowing week in his urban constituency.
"The food shortage is catastrophic. There are HIV/Aids patients on antiretrovirals who have not had adequate food supplies for two months. I estimate that there are probably 25 000 people in my constituency alone who are at death's door. About 2 million people need food now, but it will be 5 million byJanuary. The situation is absolutely critical."
The stalled talks between Mugabe and Tsvangirai aimed at rescuing a power-sharing deal will resume tomorrow, Tsvangirai said. - Foreign Service
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