With grain production falling from 2.04 million tons in 1999-2000 down to a mere 1.48 million tons in 2000-01, Zimbabwe is beginning to feel the effects of the grain shortage created by Robert Mugabe’s tyrannical policies.
Mugabe urged the seizure of white-owned farms despite warnings that this would create massive grain shortages. Then Mugabe pretended that there really was not going to be any grain shortage at all. As a result, Zimbabwe did not stock up on grain for the inevitable emergency.
Now, even if Zimbabwe could afford to buy grain from its neighbors — and it does not have the money to do so since Mugabe has driven the economy into the ground — most of the grain surplus in southern Africa has already been allocated.
So, Zimbabwe has now joined that exclusive group of nations to go begging for food from liberal democracies in the West to prevent it from falling into starvation thanks to the result of its illiberal policies. Robert Mugabe gets to hold on to power and the United States, Great Britain and France get to feed Zimbabwe’s hungry.
The World Food Program is asking for $60 million to feed 600,000 people in Zimbabwe’s countryside. And don’t worry, the World Food Program will almost certainly be back asking for a new round of money to prevent starvation in Zimbabwe next year.
Source:
Grain shortages bit in Zimbabwe. The BBC, January 22, 2002.