Severe shortages put the country on the brink of chaos

By Tichaona Sibanda
18 August 2006

An ‘SOS’ for humanitarian assistance worth US$250 million to ‘save lives’ in the country has been made by NGO’s. Severe shortages of fuel and grain are plunging the country into a desperate situation. The appeal to donors comes as maize stocks have run out in the country, while the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s deadline for the currency changeover is creating turmoil on the market amid fears that many institutions will not meet it. But that’s not all.

Filling stations hiked the price of fuel by 1300 percent selling at Z$600 to Z$800 a litre. The government responded by imposing a price reduction to Z$320 per litre for diesel while petrol was set at Z$335 a litre for all users in the country. Our correspondent in Bulawayo Themba Nkosi said the crises has got to a stage were ‘a spark’ can wreak havoc in the country. ‘People have gone for days without the staple food. There is no fuel right now in the country and worse still if you were to find both in store there is no cash as the country as already run out of the new currency,’ Nkosi said.

There are also shortages of wheat following grim projections that the current output could only meet half the country’s requirements. In its July food security report the Famine Early Warning Systems Network reported that though wheat production is forecast to be higher than last year’s crop it will still fall short of national consumption requirements.

The Zimbabwe Independent reported Friday that the central bank was under immense pressure to extend an arbitrary August 21 deadline for banks and shops to get rid of all old bearer cheques. The central bank is in a mad rush to mop up the old bearer cheques amid revelations that there are still many people, especially in the remote parts of the country, holding on to large sums of old money.