April 28, 2005
The Australian
ZIMBABWE'S main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party said the country had run out of food, including the national staple maize, and demanded an apology from President Robert Mugabe's government for lying about abundant harvests.
"The country has now stocked out. This country has run out of maize, this a fact ... the country has no food," Renson Gasela, MDC's shadow minister of agriculture told a news conference.
"No country with a functional government, with no national catastrophe or disaster should ever stock out," he said.
Mr Gasela said the government, which last year claimed the country had produced a bumper harvest, should apologise for misleading Zimbabweans and start approaching international aid donors.
"Any honest government, having misled the nation that there was more than enough maize, even to the extent of stopping donors, would apologise to the nation for its omission or commission," Mr Gasela said.
Mr Mugabe admitted in the run up to parliamentary elections in March that Zimbabwe would have to import grain following drought and a poor harvest.
Mr Gasela, who claims he has been in constant contact with international humanitarian aid donors, said "donors have not been approached nor a signal been given that government would welcome assistance".
"We demand to be given an import programme," Mr Gasela said, adding that it took between two and three months for grain to be freighted into the country from the time an order is confirmed.
Mr Gasela said Zimbabwe would harvest about 500,000 tonnes of maize against a demand of 1.8 million tonnes.
Food is one of the key commodities running short following elections disputed by the opposition.
Zimbabwe's economy has been in the doldrums over the past five years, characterised by runaway inflation and perennial shortages of basic commodities.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/printpage/0,5942,15110960,00.html