08/26/2002
EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-10091

FOOD CRISIS IN SOUTHERN AFRICA

Southern Africa is facing a food crisis. Drought conditions there are the worst since 1992, when some twenty-three million people were threatened with famine. To meet the emergency, the United States has already contributed more than three-hundred thousand tons of food. Another one-hundred ninety thousand tons are on the way. This will bring the U.S. contribution to fifty percent of the food needed this calendar year.

"We have made this commitment," said U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Andrew Natsios, "but we have to have the cooperation of governments. . . . If I had to list five things that a government could do to turn a drought into a famine, the [Robert] Mugabe government [in Zimbabwe] is doing all of them exponentially," Mr. Natsios said.

Mr. Natsios warned that, "the bulk of all food in a famine response or a drought response comes from commercial sources on the private market. . . . The problem is that Mugabe's policies are confiscating all the commercial farms, which is the insurance policy for the people of southern Africa, not just Zimbabwe, but the whole region. . . . Those farms are all shut down now. Either they have been confiscated or people are being arrested now."

Some of these farms have been turned over to members of Mugabe's family, cabinet ministers, and senior members of the Zimbabwe military. Mugabe's wife turned up to take over a farm north of Harare, the capital. The seventy-eight-year-old white owner was arrested. A black farm worker asked Mrs. Mugabe what would happen to her and her fellow workers. "Go and live by the river," replied Mrs. Mugabe.

Another disastrous decision was the Mugabe government's re-imposition of price controls, which has reduced imports of maize and created a black market. Equally serious is massive overvaluation of Zimbabwe's currency. This has dramatically reduced trade at a time when it is desperately needed.

To make matters worse, the Mugabe government is politicizing the distribution of Zimbabwe government food aid. "We have confirmed reports," said Mr. Natsios, "that food is being distributed to people who are members of Mugabe's political party and [is] not being distributed based on need." U.S. food aid is distributed by non-governmental organizations, not the Mugabe regime.

There is still time to avert a famine. But to do that, the Mugabe government must reverse course and begin to act responsibly. Zimbabwe's ruler should change his policies before it is too late.