Zim blocking SA aid - churches
2005-08-10 18:37
Cape Town - Zimbabwean authorities are blocking truckloads of food and blankets gathered by South African churches for victims of shantytown demolitions in Harare and other cities, said a senior cleric on Wednesday.
"You will... be aware by now that the trucks carrying 37 tons of food and a few thousand blankets have not been able to leave South Africa yet," said Anglican Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane.
Trucks carrying blankets, maize, beans, and oil were meant to leave for Zimbabwe last week, but authorities there wanted certificates that the food was not genetically modified.
"This is due to the Zimbabweans insisting on certificates from the suppliers of the food as well as from the ministry of agriculture to certify that the food is not genetically modified," said Ndungane.
"We have been given the assurance that the department of agriculture will be issuing a certificate (that the food has not been genetically modified) this morning (Wednesday). So, we hope that our trucks will be on their way soon."
Four million will need food aid
About 700 000 Zimbabweans lost their homes and livelihoods in the middle of winter as a result of Operation Murambatsvina, a campaign to demolish shantytowns, and a further 2.4 million people have been affected, according to a United Nations report released last month.
According to the UN World Food programme, up to four million Zimbabweans will need food assistance between now and next year.
The country is also reeling under triple-digit inflation, spiralling unemployment and an acute scarcity of essential goods.
About 2 260 people who were formerly at a transit camp and at two other settlements destroyed in the ten-week demolitions campaign are living at Hopley Farm, on the southern outskirts of Harare, said Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights.
"For the past week or more, the families have gone without a decent meal, clean water or sanitary facilities or temporary shelter," ZLHR said in a statement.
"The authorities present at Hopley Farm must be condemned in the strongest terms for making it impossible for any form of humanitarian or legal assistance to be provided to the people," it said.
No response to plea for permission
Lawyer Otto Saki of the rights group said "We have been trying to help churches get food to our clients at the farm, but we have been denied access."
"An army officer in charge at Hopley said we needed to get permission from their headquarters to talk to the people in the camp or to give them anything," Saki said.
The lawyer said they applied last week for permission to visit the displaced families, but they had yet to receive a response.
ZLHR is preparing various lawsuits against the government on behalf of victims of the blitz.