Daily digest for Adriana Stuijt's "journalism during apartheid "site

Adriana Stuijt's "journalism during apartheid " ^ | 09-06-02 | staff

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	Daily Digest of Messages on Adriana Stuijt's "journalism during apartheid "site

Today's New Messages

ZIMBABWE (1 new message) Land Issues - State- and privately-owned land giveaways (2 new messages) </FONT< TD>

Farm News from 8-2002 (2 new messages)

ZIMBABWE

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Message 91 in Discussion

From: AdrianaStuijt

Experts warn of mass starvation in Zimbabwe

 

Harare - May 20 -- A team of international food experts has concluded that Zimbabwe faces starvation on a massive scale because of serious disruptions in its farming activities.

The warning of mass starvation was contained in a study concluded last week by a team of food experts from the World Food Programme (WFP), the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) and the early warning unit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

 

The team was in Zimbabwe to establish the impact of the disruptions in farming activities by restive war veterans and supporters of the ruling Zanu-PF party.

 

The team confirmed estimates by Zimbabwe's own farming industry that the nation would face a 600,000 ton deficit of maize, the country's staple crop, this year. The country needs at least 1,8-million tons of maize annually to feed its population of 12-million.

 

This year farmers are expected to produce only 800,000 tons of maize in addition to the 500,000 tons that would be drawn from the strategic grain reserves, leaving a deficit of about 600 000 tons.

 

Most of the maize crop this year can only be drawn from subsistence peasant farmers scattered throughout the country. The large-scale commercial farmers who have always provided Zimbabwe's annual needs hardly engaged in maize production last season because Mugabe's storm troopers stopped commercial farmers from sowing new crops and refused access to their own farms and seed stocks.

 

The team also estimated a massive deficit exceeding 200 000 tons in wheat output. A possible wheat deficit has already been confirmed implicitly by the Zimbabwe government, which last month banned all wheat exports.

 

 Zimbabwe needs about 450 000 tons of wheat annually and might find itself having to import a substantial part of this.

 

The SADC, FAO and WFP team forecast deficits for other crops such as sorghum, peanuts, soya beans and an assortment of vegetables.

 

In rural areas, people are already complaining that they cannot buy basic foodstuffs because of rampant inflation.

 

The price of bread was raised by an average 12 percent this year, and even reports in state-controlled media warn that the new prices of basic foodstuffs had gone far beyond the reach of poor families.

 

The price of bread will rise again soon after Zimbabwe runs out of its wheat stocks and must start importing the grain. However, the country has no hard currency to pay for imports.

 

Mark Prior, the chairperson of the National Bakers' Association, said there was not much the bakers could do as they could no longer absorb the ever-escalating input costs.

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Message 91 in Discussion

From: Wotknott

Received from Adriana Stuijt (Censor Bugbear) - http://www.censorbugbear.com

 

Zimbabwean nightmare for food aid transports

-- as described by Eddie Cross:
http://africantears.netfirms.com/foodcrisis.htm

 

 

Eddie Cross, the writer of the following article published on Zimbabwean farmer Cathy Buckle's African Tears website, has previously held very senior positions in the agricultural industry in Zimbabwe. His in-depth knowledge gives full credence to what he has to say about the government-created staple food shortage. Cathy writes that "it is common knowledge that Zimbabwe was once known as the food basket of Southern Africa."
 
Eddie Cross writes:
"On the 23rd November 2001, the Grain Marketing Board had 93 000 tonnes of maize left in stock. Of this about 70 per cent (64 000 tonnes) was fit for human consumption. Sales from the GMB have been running at over 20 000 tonnes a week for the past two months. Technically therefore, today - the 19th of December, GMB stocks will be virtually exhausted.

 

In the past three weeks the standard product of the maize industry - roller meal as it is known, has been in very short supply in the south of the country with the shortages now manifest in the north. As commercial stocks run out, this shortage will become more and more serious and it can be expected that by mid January, the unthinkable will happen - Zimbabwe will run out of its staple food.

 

This has enormous implications - Zimbabwe needs a total supply of about 150 000 tonnes of maize a month. Two-thirds goes into production of roller meal and super refined meal and the balance goes as stock feed. Sight is often lost of the needs of the poultry, pig and dairy farmers who are very dependent on maize as a stock feed component. Failure to secure adequate supplies of raw maize will therefore threaten not only the basic welfare of 12 million people but also a very substantial proportion of the countries livestock industry.

 

Once a total stock out has occurred it is very difficult to get this essential product back into free supply throughout the country. Panic buying and hoarding as well as profiteering takes place and all of this serves to distort market forces and normal distribu

Land Issues - State- and privately-owned land giveaways

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Message 38 in Discussion

From: Frederick Malherbe

 Maleoskop Police Training Centre, Groblersdal to be closed -- land scheduled for handover to local Pedi tribe.

 

From: "JR LE ROUX" <jreh@mweb.co.za
Date: Thu, 13 Jun 2002 21:12:50 +0200
To: <KeithKnott@CrimeBustersZA.com
 
Thank you for this web page, as a police officer I do appreciate the work you are doing.
 As you are well aware that all police officers must do some kind of training at some stage in their lives, MALEOSKOP TRAINING CENTRE, situated near  Groblersdal, Mpumalanga is such an Institution where all members get trained in advanced tactics and where at this moment student recruits are being trained to fulfil their duties when the training is finished.
 
Due to a decision that was made ("can't say") this wonderful place with it's beauty and serenity will be closing down the end of December 2002. There is more than meets the eye and I am really sorry to see this place that was started in 1973 must close down with out so much as an blink of the eye or a sound of remorse.

 Thank you once again for lending me your ear. JR LE ROUX
insp.

---

From: "Web Master" <crimebustersza@email.com>
To: "JR LE ROUX" <jreh@mweb.co.za>
Date: Fri, 14 Jun 2002 16:40:23 +0200

Dear Inspector Le Roux,
Thank you for taking the time to write to us.

You are very welcome to make use of the message boards on our Crime Busters of South Africa web site, which we implemented to express ourappreciation for the good work, which our police officers undertake to safeguard us, often under very trying and dangerous circumstances.

Messages can be posted in any language. Where necessary, we will translate these messages into one, or more, of the 'lingua franca' of the world for the benefit of our world-wide visitors.

Ek persoonlik,

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Message 37 in Discussion

From: AdrianaStuijt

Land issue: "No human being can hold on another a claim demanding that he wipe himself out of existence..." (Rearden, in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged)

 

"Mbeki and Mugabe's new-style apartheid land thefts also a great sin against humanity" -- Verwoerd Freedom Campaign -  email: gertjkruger@msn.com

 

Sept. 2, 2002 -- Gert Kruger, chairman of the Verwoerd Freedom Offensive, writes on the anniversary of the assassination of apartheid's architect, Dr Hendrik F Verwoerd on 6 September 1966, that Mbeki and Mugabe's "new-style apartheid" and the violence-driven ethnic-cleansing landgrabbing campaigns of both countries are "a much greater sin against humanity than Verwoerd's apartheid ever had been."

 

He said "Dr Verwoerd's vision of apartheid was not to to take land away from the Africans in South Africa  -- as Mbeki's and Mugabe's governments now are doing to private land owners. Instead he writes, that "it had been Dr Verwoerd's policy to create vast autonomous territories and to give the Africans land in an orderly fashion, and with the long-term view of creating ten totally autonomous nation-states, including for the Afrikaner-Boer nation itself, inside the borders of present-day South Africa.

 

He said Verwoerd's ideas were never properly carried out after his assassination in South African parliament.

 

Kruger writes: "Under Verwoerd's apartheid, he didn't close down hospitals, clinics, universities, colleges and schools as the ANC regime is now doing now to the Afrikaner's , on the contrary -- it had been part of governmental budgeting policy to build as many new health- and educational institutions for Africans as could be afforded."

 

He said under the "cruel apartheid" system under Verwoerd , fully-autonomous self-governance had already been established for four African ethnic nations in which they would have eventually have become totally autonomous as well as co-ruling entities inside a federation of  nation-states in South Africa.

 

"If Dr Verwoerd's vision of seperate ethnic-nation development could have been carr

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Message 38 in Discussion

From: AdrianaStuijt

Apartheid-style race-based land distribution register to be set up by ANC-regime:

Sept 5, 2002 -- A database of racial groupings who benefited from South Africa's land redistribution programme was ordered set up by Mr N. H. Masithela, who chairs the parliamentary portfolio committee on agriculture and land affairs.

 

He said it was "unfortunate that the committee did not have the number of previously disadvantaged people who benefited from the land reform programme, " at the latest committee meeting on September 3.

 

Earth Summit raised race issue of land redistribution with him:
He asked how the  Registrar of Deeds office could provide information on land redistribution if "it did not know the racial groupings of the people who got land."

 

He was asking this because "almost all the people he met at the WSSD claimed not to have benefited from the land distribution programme, something he believed was not true."

 

However, since he did not have the exact statistics to substantiate his arguments, he was asking the department to draw up a register -- as it would also help the Department to know "how far have they gone in terms of land distribution in this country".

 

Race-based register takes SA back to apartheid - DP:

The Democratic Party's D Maluleke opposed the race-based land distribution register, saying it " would take South Africa back to the years of apartheid."

 

However the ANC's B Radebe argued that "the register would show how far the Department had gone in terms of addressing the imbalances of the past " and that "to move away from the past did not necessarily mean we should forget what happened."

 

ANC parliamentarians Schoeman and Mrs B Ntuli both felt it a reasonable request which should be carried out, with Ntuli pointing out that "several institutions required identifying in terms of race and that was not racism, this should not be debated."

Farm News from 8-2002

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Message 35 in Discussion

From: Top Cop

Maize thefts from SA farm fields up by 80%

July 30, 2002 -- As already reported by Censorbugbear yesterday, the Transvaal Agricultural Union has warned of an 80% increase in organised thefts of ripening maize crops from farmers' fields -- especially those bordering famine-struck Zimbabwe.

 

Paul van der Walt of the TLU  said it is widely believed by police and farmers alike that organised crime syndicates are stealing the maize from the SA fields and smuggling the staple food to famine-struck Zimbabwe, where huge profits are being made from black-market maize. Farmers demand that the regime increase security to help protect the South African maize crops. Farmers are reporting that organised, heavily-armed criminals pay farm workers to steal the crops from loaded harvesters at night.

 

Crop thefts lead to food insecurity:
If these crop thefts -- at the height of the maize harvest season in the countyr's only maize-producing regions -- are allowed to continue, South Africa could also be faced with an increasing food shortage, farmers are warning.

 

The TLU also slammed police for arresting victimised farmer Pieter Johannes Venter (27) of the farm Makoeispan at Biesiesvlei. Venter had allegedly injured one of four armed attackers -- who had been sent to kill him for R100 by a crime syndicate, the TLU claims.

 

The farm attackers had been sent to kill Venter in revenge for the arrests of organized maize robbers and the recovery of 11 tons of maize which had earlier been stolen from Venter's farm. The injured alleged maize robber -- now under police guard at Duff Scott hospital -- had laid a charge of attempted murder against the farmer. The TLU said it was disgraceful that the victim had been arrested and jailed after he had tried to defend himself from a gang of vicious, heavily-armed killers.

 

A Coligny farmer yesterday also reported the nighttime robbery of 14 tons of maize from his harvesters. Police have arrested eleven people whose arraignment is expected shortly.
 Reported by:  ldupree1@beeld.com http://www.news24.com/Beeld/Provinsiaal/0,4127,

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Message 34 in Discussion

From: AdrianaStuijt

Were these two very talented agricultural researchers targetted for attack or were they just plain unlucky?

Brutal mutilation and attack on two talented agricultural-forestry researchers - family and doctors denied they were raped -- and nine have been arrested
 vschoema@dieburger.com - Vera Schoeman

East London - Sept 5 2002 -- Nine  people have been arrested in connection with Wednesday's brutal attack and robberies leading up to the assaults against two academic agricultural researchers in the Peddie area -- an attack which was carried out with such ferocity that it resulted in one victim losing her unborn child, and another victim's face brutally slashed into shreds.

• Importantly -- an initial police statement said the academics had also been raped -- however the medical experts treating them and the family of the victims, are all denying this.

 

One victim is in very serious condition -- Dr Isla Grundy, a Zimbabwean citizen who is a forestryfaculty lecturer at at the University of Stellenbosch. Her  face was slashed into shreds  and her life still hangs in the balance. If Dr Grundy survives she would need extensive reconstructive facial surgery.

 

Third attack within several months on Dr Grundy - what a strange coincidence:

Grundy has dedicated her life to the upliftment of disadvantaged communities and had already been been attacked three times in the past few months. Dr. Grundy was the team leader of a joint rural forestry education project with Stellenbosch and Fort Cox Agricultural College in the Eastern Cape (sponsored by the United Kingdom&#8217;s Department of International Development) and frequently travelled in the Peddie area for her research.  (her e-mail: imgr@land.sun.ac.za, her colleague Prof Norman Rethman's email: norm@scientia.up.ac.za)

 

Read Dr Grundy's articles on:

 

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Message 35 in Discussion

From: AdrianaStuijt

Africa's soil fertility in serious decline...  study

• "Gendered Evidence of the Decline of Soil Fertility and Agricultural Productivity in Africa"
  

http://web.africa.ufl.edu/asq/v6/v6i1a1.htm

Sept 5 2002 --  Soil fertility is the number-one natural resource in Africa; yet its depletion on peasant-smallholder farms has led to stagnant or decreasing per capita food production all over Africa during the last two decades, this study found on

• http://web.africa.ufl.edu/asq/v6/v6i1a1.htm

There are very few studies on the relationship between subsistence farming, soil depletion and the suppression of African women -- except in this special edition on http://web.africa.ufl.edu/asq/v6/v6i1a1.htm &#8211; a University of Florida project called &#8220;Gender and Soil Fertility in Africa."

 

It describes in great detail how over the past thirty years, Africa's women peasant-farmers are raising less and less subsistance crops, and dramatically depleting the continent's farm soil -- and this study believes that this is caused mainly by the fact that  women usually produce the subsistence food crops,  while African men produce export and cash crops. It's an African tradition which is having a dramatic negative effect on the continent's ability to go on feeding itself.

 

This study explains in intricate detail eactly why Africa's food production is growing steadily worse -- also describing how these long-suffering armies of African women on small rainfed subsistence farms still manage to produce 70-80% of the food supply and 46% of the agricultural labour -- and are growing increasingly poor. This is called the "feminization of poverty".

 

Found was that African women's food-crop yields are generally very low -- certainly far too low when compared to the last three decades of the world's dramatic Green Revolution  -- and lower than the yields obtained by African male farmers. 

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