Zimbabwe -- British aid keeps children alive in Mugabe heartland

Daily Telegraph (UK) via ZWNews ^ | August 13, 2002 | Peta Thornycroft in Mwenezi

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Children in parts of southern Zimbabwe whose parents are fiercely loyal to President Robert Mugabe survive only because Britain provides them with a meal a day. "The children would die if it weren't for this food," said Besta Bubira, 53, a volunteer at a Christian Aid feeding scheme at Masogwe school in Masvingo province, 260 miles south of Harare. Mrs Bubira did not reply when told that it was paid for by Whitehall, which Mr Mugabe regularly accuses of every ill besetting his near-bankrupt country. "We are now feeding in the school holidays," said Ed Watkiss, a British official of Christian Aid, which is feeding about 160,000 children. "These children come from relatively well-off families. We got here in time to stop them starving. It is very much worse in areas north of the South African border."

The children, whose parents are peasant farmers, are hungry because this year's maize crop failed in an area where drought is endemic. Non- governmental agencies distributing food say Mr Mugabe's officials failed to store grain from previous harvests. The Grain Marketing Board has a monopoly in buying and selling maize. In districts not far from Mwezeni where there are no feeding schemes, people suspected of supporting the opposition Movement for Democratic Change are not allowed to buy it. David Chimombe, the chairman of the MDC, said people were already dying. "By November it will be terrible," he said. A farmer 30 miles north of Masvingo said maize was delivered to ruling party supporters squatting on his farm. But he could not buy it for his staff "because they work for a white man".

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[Cincinatus' Wife]

Zimbabwe's farmers get no reprieve - South Africa refuses to comment *** Zimbabwe used to be South Africa's top trading partner on the continent. Now, South African exports across the Limpopo River border have all but stopped. South Africa's currency, the rand, has lost more than 30 percent of its value since Zimbabwe's land crisis began in February 2000. Several factors have contributed to this slide, but Reserve Bank economists cite Zimbabwe's crisis first among them. Thousands of illegal Zimbabwean refugees, meanwhile, flee south each month into a country that already faces 40 percent unemployment. South African President Thabo Mbeki's spokesman, Bheki Khumalo, when asked yesterday about the deteriorating conditions in Zimbabwe, said, ''At this stage, it would be unwise for us to comment.''***