SA Church aid to arive Monday?

By Violet Gonda
16 August 2005

The South African Council of Churches (SACC) has told the SABC that the clearance certificates for emergency relief aid to Zimbabwe should be ready by Monday. Ron Steele, a spokesperson for SACC, said the NGO distributing the aid, Christian Care, informed them Friday that its application for a maize import permit had been accepted.
According to the NGO, the next step was to get a document from the GMB, in order to get the duty free permit, from the ministry of agriculture. The 37 tons of white maize, sugar beans and cooking oil have been stranded in Johannesburg for nearly three weeks awaiting a duty-free permit.
Ron Steele said the 5 000 blankets were off-loaded in a bonded warehouse in Harare Friday morning. He said, "A Christian Care official says that the Zimbabwean Collector of Taxes has accepted an application for a rebate letter on the blankets. According to Christian Care this should be granted on Monday."
It was revealed this week that the food aid from South Africa that is being held up is not the only consignment waiting for clearance from Zimbabwe officials. Thousands of tonnes of other emergency aid is reported to be held up by Zimbabwean red tape.
Tony Hall, the United States food ambassador who visited Zimbabwe, told reporters last weekend that 10 000 tons of food were waiting for an import licence in Durban, while 15 000 tonnes, already inside Zimbabwe, needed permission before it could be distributed.
The United States food ambassador complained at the news conference in Harare that he had been banned from inspecting conditions at Hopley farm outside Harare, where old people were reported to be dying. Having experience in 115 countries, he said Zimbabwe was "one of the most difficult" countries in the world to work in and distribute aid.