Food crisis hits Harare as bread runs out

Bread ran out in the shops of Harare yesterday as the consequences of President Robert Mugabe's repressive rule hit his capital, intensifying the misery of residents already reeling from food shortages and hyper-inflation.

As food queues grew across the country, a retired doctor turned game rancher became the first American to die in the violence against whites at the heart of the political and economic crisis.

Dr Roy Raub, 79, who ran a game hunting ranch next to Zimbabwe's Hwange National Park, was found bludgeoned to death after being kidnapped from his townhouse in the city of Bulawayo. His body was found about 80 miles from Bulawayo. Another white farmer, on business in the city, was shot in the leg yesterday.

Police yesterday dismissed both attacks as "non-political" crimes, but the white population is increasingly fearful. Every day the government-controlled media publishes reports about whites - in particular farmers - being responsible for the chronic food shortages.

Zimbabwe's food crisis became all but inevitable after President Mugabe ordered his supporters to move on to commercial farms 28 months ago. Since then the economy has been disintegrating at breakneck speed.

Mesheck Sibanda, 34, a labourer, said he was shocked when he arrived to buy half a loaf of bread early yesterday at a supermarket in Harare's more affluent northern suburbs and found the shelves bare. "I will eat a banana today. That's all. I don't care any more because we are all going to die," he said.

Mr Sibanda and millions of other Zimbabweans have had to do without their staple food, maize meal since February, although occasional supplies are available on the black market, at up to five times its normal price.

Supermarket chains say demand for bread soared as maize meal disappeared, and that wheat, grown by white commercial farmers, will run out this month. The Grain Producers' Association says the next crop, a third of its normal size, will not be harvested until late October.

Thousands of shops in rural areas ran out of bread weeks ago as bakers made orders in the cities their priority.

A source in the industry said more bread would probably reappear on supermarket shelves later this week as the government has seized thousands of tons of salt from importers negotiating for an increase in the state-controlled price.

Dr John Makumbe, an independent political scientist, said that people would not take to the streets yet. "There is still a bit of a comfort zone, and they think it is better to preserve what they have than knock it down. Electricity is still here, so is water. The police are now outnumbered at food queues, but there is still a way to go."

He said the opposition Movement for Democratic Change was desperate not to be banned and lacked the leadership to head mass protests.

"Fear is pervasive. However it dissipates with the first blow, and when the first person throws a stone, the powder keg of peoples' frustrations will blow. Mugabe's regime is desperate, but are hoping this explosion will take place so they can teach the people a lesson."

Despite six million people, half the population, in need of food, Dr Makumbe believed that Mugabe was intent on forcing white farmers from their homesteads by August 8.

At least 60 per cent of the 3,000 white farmers still in Zimbabwe were supposed to stop farming last week. They have a further 45 days to pack up and leave their homes.

The winter weat crop is due to be harvested in October, yet 2,900 farmers are under orders, punishable by fine or imprisonment, to stop working the fields and to be off the land by August 8.

There will be no winter crop.

There will be no spring planting.

If this were a horror movie it would be called "Silence of the Left"

It's going to get really, really ugly there. Bulawayo was a nice little city- not much to recommend it but a decent enough place. It makes me sad to know it's come so far. Too much inertia now though for all this to stop. Even if everybody just stopped and made nice now, you can't make crops spring up out of the ground on command.

Every day the government-controlled media publishes reports about whites - in particular farmers - being responsible for the chronic food shortages.

Mugabe orders the whites to stop working or face fine or imprisonment. At the same time, the press whips people up to believe the whites are at fault. This is a prescription for wholesale murder of the remaining whites as the remaining food supplies are exhausted. I suspect many will be murdered well before they can attempt to meet the August 8th date to be off the land.

If the UN really wanted to do something useful, you would think they would do something about this horror.

Carolyn

Zimbabwe currency has lost 50% of its value in two months; the State Department has issued a travel advisory for the country, and they are beginning to die in the west. The search of the Yahoo site, with its paucity of reporting, is an indication of how the American media chooses to handle this subject. The media doesn't like pictures of starving people in Africa and reports on corruption there. It just reminds people of how much money has been thrown down a rathole and how much food aid has been sent to Africa over the last twenty years, without any result.

If we can approach the Palestine issue and the ineptitude of Yassir Arafat with some honesty, can't we do it for Africa?

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