辛巴威官商勾結搶糧 人道組織救援百萬饑民遭禁

Matabeleland South receives less than 450 millimeters of rainfall per year. At best, it produces just enough food for its people to survive. The southern provinces, while good for livestock rearing, are not suitable for agriculture.

At dawn each day, the villagers of this dry and dusty region comb the hinterlands in search of any wildlife or edible wild fruits, in a desperate attempt to put food on the table.

The giant baobab trees that dot the terrain have become about the only source of sustenance. The villagers go first for the fruit, the seeds of which are coated in a white powder which separates from the pips when pounded in a mortar. Mixed with fresh milk, the powder produces a kind of cream of tartar. People here have this for dinner, although most mix the powder with water instead. But as the baobab fruit is finished quickly, villagers then go for the roots, which are pounded into a porridge-like paste - known in local languages as amagontsi or umtopi - which serves as their main meal.

As Zimbabwe's economic and political crisis continues, rural areas of the country have been worst hit by severe food shortages and escalating prices.

According to recent statistics from the United Nations World Food Programme, about 5.1 million Zimbabweans will be queuing up for food handouts by October this year.

In Gwanda town, hungry residents who have not been given an opportunity to buy maize from the Grain Marketing Board are also resorting to eating porridge prepared from baobab fruits or ground roots. They say that officials from President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party quickly snap up the little grain that is delivered to the GMB's main depot from South Africa and channel it into the thriving black market.
Just outside the Grain Marketing Board depot, vendors could be seen selling a 20 kg bag of maize meal for 40 Zimbabwe dollars. This is out of the reach of most residents, very few of whom earn more than 20 ZWD a month. Most locals are employed at surrounding small-scale gold mines, which are currently in limbo because of the country's ongoing economic crisis.

In rural parts, councillors are allowed to collect grain from the Grain Marketing Board, which is then sold to villagers in their respective wards. But according to reports, ZANU-PF former councillors who lost their seats are still allowed to take advantage of this arrangement, collecting grain from the Grain Marketing Board and selling it on.

"Last week, a former ZANU-PF councillor from Enyandeni collected 200 bags from the Grain Marketing Board and gave 10 bags to each [ZANU-PF] official in the area for their own consumption," said Petros Mukwena, the provincial secretary for the Arthur Mutambara-led faction of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, MDC.

According to Gasela, there is no good reason for the ongoing food shortages.

Leader of the main MDC faction Morgan Tsvangirai said the situation in rural areas throughout the country is a cause of great concern for him and his party. While Tsvangirai has been in negotiations with Mugabe to reach a power-sharing deal, there is little sign that the men are close to an agreement.

The MDC leader appealed to the mediator in the talks, South African president Thabo Mbeki, to persuade Mugabe to allow humanitarian agencies to resume their work, as millions of Zimbabweans face starvation. The agencies were banned from distributing food in June this year.

{This article originally appeared in Zimbabwe Crisis Reports, produced by the Institute for War and Peace Reporting. }