Sources in the NGO community said the coalition known as C-Safe sought permission from the government to divert a consignment of food to Zambia after Harare’s refusal to allow the humanitarian groups to distribute the food locally.
Social Welfare Minister Nicholas Goche turned down the request. The food, imported from the United States under the food for peace programme, was initially meant for vulnerable Zimbabweans and included substantial quantities of cooking oil and wheat. It remains stockpiled in warehouses in Harare and aid officials are worried it might expire.
“We had requested that the food be moved to Zambia, where a similar programme is running unhindered but there was a big no from the government last week,” a C-Safe official said.
The National Association of Non-governmental Organisations (NANGO) expressed fear that the government might seize the stockpiled food and use it for political gain to induce them to back former President Robert Mugabe in the run-off later this month.
“Fears that the government could raid NGOs’ food stocks for political purposes are very real. On one hand they ban NGOs from assisting those in need, and on the other hand they stop the movement of that same food to another country in need. The motive is questionable,” NANGO spokesman Fambai Ngirande said.
Relief agencies deny interfering in Zimbabwe’s political affairs while the European Union, the United States, local church and human rights groups have criticised the ban and called for it to be lifted.
United Nations (UN) agencies in Zimbabwe earlier this week called the ban on humanitarian aid a violation of fundamental human rights principles and said it had created life threatening conditions for more than two million vulnerable people who survived on donor support.
Police on June 10 seized tones of food aid from a private warehouse in Harare.
The food allegedly belonged to the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development but this could not be immediately confirmed with the aid group. NGOS normally rent private warehouses to keep their stocks before it is distributed across the country.
The police claimed the food was intended to be given to Tsvangirai so he could use it to buy support from hungry votes.
 “The food was manufactured locally, yet the NGOs tell us they are importing it from outside. There is something fishy here because local manufactures that are starving the formal market are feeding the NGOs. The police are widening their net and they will continue seizing any basic commodities stocked in suspicious warehouses, Former Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu said, defending the raid. – ZimOnline
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