Government ask for more certificates before releasing South African food Aid

By Violet Gonda
25 August 2005

The Zimbabwe government is unashamedly still using stalling tactics to delay humanitarian aid to victims of Operation Murambatsvina from the South African Council of Churches (SACC). 37 tonnes of food aid is on two trucks near Beitbridge and the blankets are reported to be in storage in a bonded warehouse in Harare.

First, it was certificates to show that the maize was not genetically modified. The SACC provided this and now the authorities are asking for certificates for soya beans. The blankets are also still not available because the Zimbabwe authorities are demanding that they pay a surcharge in order to release them.

Pastor Ron Steele of the Rhema Church in South Africa who has been working closely with the aid mission says the value of the new blankets which were purchased in South Africa was 200 000 rand, but the Zimbabwe government is asking for an amount which is more than they are worth. "The figure has not been specified but at one stage it was 700 000 rand, but they then changed to slightly less than that," he said.

The SACC donation is supposed to feed about 4 000 victims of operation Murambatsvina for at least a month but the shipment is being deliberately stalled by red tape. The Zimbabwe government simply has to provide a rubber stamp on a piece of paper to clear the consignment which has been held up for almost a month.

From the beginning, the delay has been seen as a continued form of punishment for the displaced people whose homes were destroyed because they voted for the opposition. While the displaced families go hungry and sleep in the cold, 37 tonnes of white maize, soya beans, cooking oil and blankets have spent almost a month in limbo, waiting for an unnamed authority to sign papers.