An agricultural watchdog organisation, Afri Compliance, on Thursday said
a recent routine investigation revealed that large quantities of maize
seed were being imported from Zimbabwe to South Africa, through the
Beitbridge border post.Â
Joe Hanekom, managing director of Afri Compliance, said the maize was
being brought into South Africa at ‘ridiculously low values’ of an
estimated R2.70 per kilogram. Hanekom said: "This makes one wonder
about the legitimacy of these transactions."Â
It’s understood the possibility that the imported maize seed came from
a neighbouring country such as Zambia has been ruled out, because it
was determined through internal investigations that the country of
origin was Zimbabwe. Hanekom said the situation has been reported to
the South African authorities and the company would help the
investigating team to solve the problem.Â
The imports have been taking place in the midst of the crippling food
shortage that has left millions of Zimbabweans facing starvation. The
critical lack of food has seen those with access to foreign currency
head into their neighbouring countries to buy food – a situation that
recently prompted a call from a Botswana MP to deport Zimbabweans found
bulk buying maize there. At the same time Zimbabwe’s Minister of
Agriculture, Rugare Gumbo, recently said that the government was still
battling to secure sufficient maize seed for the 2008 planting season.Â
Afri Compliance’s Hanekom also said on Thursday that as far as he was
aware, there was still a ‘moratorium on exports of maize seed from
Zimbabwe’, further raising suspicions about the legality and legitimacy
of the maize imports.
SWRadio Africa
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