South African taxpayers' gift of R300-million to Zimbabwe was a waste of money and some of it is being misused for the benefit of President Robert Mugabe's cronies in Zanu-PF.
The donation - or aid - was announced late last year by Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, who pledged the gift would only be handed over after an internationally-recognised government of national unity was formed.
President Kgalema Motlanthe repeated this assurance.
An instant SADC foundation, the Zimbabwe Development Assistance Framework, was formed to channel agricultural inputs to Zimbabwean farmers.
This framework is still not yet fully operational and its impartiality has been questioned.
The aid began moving into the country before Christmas.
It is mostly seed, fertiliser and fuel from South African companies and was sent despite warnings from Zimbabwean agriculturalists that most of it was too late for this summer season, and unless distributed carefully would be abused.
Most of the seed arrived months too late to plant and is being eaten, and the wrong fertiliser was ordered for this time of year in the maturation cycle of annual crops like maize.
Before Christmas, 60 000 litres of diesel was also sent into Zimbabwe for distribution.
A senior civil servant, working in the depleted technical support network for farmers, Agritex, in the fertile Mashonaland West province, confirmed that South African aid was often only available to Zanu-PF supporters in parts of the country, particularly Mashonaland West, Mugabe's home province, and Mashonaland Central where Zanu-PF is also in control.
The SADC aid appears to have been well-intentioned but misguided.
The senior Agritex officer from Mashonaland West, who spoke on condition that he was not identified, said SADC had tried to provide for fair distribution by not using civil servants such as those from Agritex to disperse it.
"The South Africans don't know how the system works. Not all of us are Zanu-PF. There are still a few professionals left in Agritex and we could have stopped this. The chiefs have to obey Zanu-PF even if they don't want to."
In theory the monitoring of the South African-sponsored SADC aid was done by three church groups, seen by many Zimbabweans as aligned to Zanu-PF; the Evangelical Fellowship, the Zimbabwe Council of Churches and the Johannes Masowe Apostolic Church.
At the height of the distribution last month the Catholics, cited as monitors in the department of agriculture circular, were supposed to have joined but had not yet been invited.
Abdenico Bhebe, Movement for Democratic Change MP for Nkayi, one of the driest parts of Zimbabwe in the south west, said on Thursday his constituency had received no SADC aid packages.
"Nothing, nothing, and there is also not enough food aid coming in either because the government is not fulfilling its part of the memorandum of understanding it signed with the NGO sector by providing 40 percent of food.
"There is only Western food aid coming in, and people are hungry. We have received none of the SADC seeds and fertiliser but it would be too late now anyway."
A hostile Agritex official at its head office in Harare denied on Friday that it was possible to misuse the aid, because he said a SADC official, whom he called Mr Whale, attended many of the distributions.
But he conceded Whale couldn't be everywhere when the aid was handed out.
Each village head was given - to dole out to seven or eight farmers in his precinct - three packs of South African seeds, 25kg of maize, 20kg of beans and 5kg of Rapoko, ground nuts, sorghum and cowpeas, and 50kg of fertiliser.
Experienced seed growers for both commercial and communal farmers said the deadline for planting maize, sorghum and groundnuts passed in November, and that if seeds were sent to Zimbabwe after this, when so many people were hungry, they would all be "consumed as food".
According to the latest Ministry of Agriculture circular, distribution began on January 19, although maize seed had arrived in Zimbabwe a week earlier.
Most of the rest of the inputs arrived a week later.
The World Food Programme has upped its estimates of Zimbabweans needing food aid from 5.2 million to more than seven million and it says it does not have enough donations to buy food for those in need and so it cut rations again this month.
- Cape Argus
The donation - or aid - was announced late last year by Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, who pledged the gift would only be handed over after an internationally-recognised government of national unity was formed.
President Kgalema Motlanthe repeated this assurance.
An instant SADC foundation, the Zimbabwe Development Assistance Framework, was formed to channel agricultural inputs to Zimbabwean farmers.
This framework is still not yet fully operational and its impartiality has been questioned.
The aid began moving into the country before Christmas.
It is mostly seed, fertiliser and fuel from South African companies and was sent despite warnings from Zimbabwean agriculturalists that most of it was too late for this summer season, and unless distributed carefully would be abused.
Most of the seed arrived months too late to plant and is being eaten, and the wrong fertiliser was ordered for this time of year in the maturation cycle of annual crops like maize.
Before Christmas, 60 000 litres of diesel was also sent into Zimbabwe for distribution.
A senior civil servant, working in the depleted technical support network for farmers, Agritex, in the fertile Mashonaland West province, confirmed that South African aid was often only available to Zanu-PF supporters in parts of the country, particularly Mashonaland West, Mugabe's home province, and Mashonaland Central where Zanu-PF is also in control.
The SADC aid appears to have been well-intentioned but misguided.
The senior Agritex officer from Mashonaland West, who spoke on condition that he was not identified, said SADC had tried to provide for fair distribution by not using civil servants such as those from Agritex to disperse it.
"The South Africans don't know how the system works. Not all of us are Zanu-PF. There are still a few professionals left in Agritex and we could have stopped this. The chiefs have to obey Zanu-PF even if they don't want to."
In theory the monitoring of the South African-sponsored SADC aid was done by three church groups, seen by many Zimbabweans as aligned to Zanu-PF; the Evangelical Fellowship, the Zimbabwe Council of Churches and the Johannes Masowe Apostolic Church.
At the height of the distribution last month the Catholics, cited as monitors in the department of agriculture circular, were supposed to have joined but had not yet been invited.
Abdenico Bhebe, Movement for Democratic Change MP for Nkayi, one of the driest parts of Zimbabwe in the south west, said on Thursday his constituency had received no SADC aid packages.
"Nothing, nothing, and there is also not enough food aid coming in either because the government is not fulfilling its part of the memorandum of understanding it signed with the NGO sector by providing 40 percent of food.
"There is only Western food aid coming in, and people are hungry. We have received none of the SADC seeds and fertiliser but it would be too late now anyway."
A hostile Agritex official at its head office in Harare denied on Friday that it was possible to misuse the aid, because he said a SADC official, whom he called Mr Whale, attended many of the distributions.
But he conceded Whale couldn't be everywhere when the aid was handed out.
Each village head was given - to dole out to seven or eight farmers in his precinct - three packs of South African seeds, 25kg of maize, 20kg of beans and 5kg of Rapoko, ground nuts, sorghum and cowpeas, and 50kg of fertiliser.
Experienced seed growers for both commercial and communal farmers said the deadline for planting maize, sorghum and groundnuts passed in November, and that if seeds were sent to Zimbabwe after this, when so many people were hungry, they would all be "consumed as food".
According to the latest Ministry of Agriculture circular, distribution began on January 19, although maize seed had arrived in Zimbabwe a week earlier.
Most of the rest of the inputs arrived a week later.
The World Food Programme has upped its estimates of Zimbabweans needing food aid from 5.2 million to more than seven million and it says it does not have enough donations to buy food for those in need and so it cut rations again this month.
- Cape Argus
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