The humanitarian situation
8. The House's International Development Committee
produced a helpful Report on the Crisis in Southern Africa in
March. Observing that "the crisis is at its most acute in
Zimbabwe," they concluded that
In Zimbabwe poor government is the key factor behind
the humanitarian crisis. Zimbabwe's badly-planned land redistribution
programme has severely disrupted the rural economy—both
commercial farms and smallholders—and created a new class
of vulnerable people, the displaced farm workers and their families.
The politicisation of food aid, the exclusion of the private sector
from any role in importing food, and poor relationships between
the Government and donors have hindered responses to the crisis.
Zimbabwe would normally help to alleviate food shortages in southern
Africa. Instead, it is a major cause of the crisis, and an obstacle
to an effective humanitarian response.
Since our colleagues reported, the situation has
deteriorated still further. As the Minister told us:
The latest estimates are that 7.2 million Zimbabweans
will continue to require food aid. We have a current situation
where the World Food Programme is feeding some 4.5 million people,
and [the UK is] engaged in supplementary feeding programmes for
some 1.5 million people in Zimbabwe, mainly children, pregnant
mothers, the elderly and those who have been thrown off the farms,
the farm workers and their families.
9. That substantial part of the Zimbabwean population
not in receipt of foreign aid is at the mercy of ZANU-PF, which,
as the FCO reminded us, "has continued to manipulate the
distribution of food for political advantage." We were also
alarmed to hear from Georgina Godwin of SW Radio Africa that
It is an open secret in Harare that on the Save the
Children trucks you see people in ZANU-PF youth militia uniform.
That goes on every day. Who is talking about it? You ring up all
these aid agencies; they do not want to speak about it. It is
a terrible thing and I believe they must surely take on board
this responsibility. They are watching people starve whilst feeding
other people. They need to do something about the people they
cannot feed.
Ms Godwin continued:
The World Food Programme is distributing food but…
they have to distribute through various organisations. WFP chooses
to distribute through ORAP (the Organisation for Rural Associations
for Progress). The person who runs ORAP is Mrs Sithembiso Nyoni;
she is a ZANU-PF MP… I believe they may not be doing it deliberately,
but they are certainly aware of the ORAP link; it has been brought
to their attention several times.
10. We asked the Minister to respond to these allegations.
In relation to the first, she replied that
Save the Children in Zimbabwe strongly deny this
[allegation]. They have checked it thoroughly, and are satisfied
that there is no truth in it.
Save the Children also wrote to us, rebutting Ms
Godwin's evidence.
11. On the second allegation, the Minister told us
that
[The UK's] funding commitments through Christian
Aid pre-date [Mrs Nyoni's] appointment to Government, and our
monitoring indicates that assistance provided through ORAP is
reaching its intended beneficiaries and is not politicised. Nevertheless,
Christian Aid has raised with her the damaging effects of even
the appearance of political influence through her continued participation
in ORAP. A new Executive Director has now been appointed to manage
the day to day activities of the organisation.
12. We welcome the assurances given by the aid providers.
But we also appreciate that the Government and the aid agencies
face an appalling dilemma. If they refuse to co-operate with ZANU-PF,
they may find that they lose all control over the aid process.
They cannot simply hand over aid to a regime which is corrupt;
if they did, the aid would not reach the people who need it most.
However, if they were to withdraw their aid those same people
would suffer just as surely. In some cases it may be easier, therefore,
to tolerate a degree of involvement by ZANU-PF.
13. In considering this dilemma, our colleagues on
the International Development Committee concluded that the United
Kingdom and international aid agencies
must strive to maintain freedom from political interference
in their responses to humanitarian emergencies, while at the same
time ensuring that the humanitarian imperative remains the overarching
principle, irrespective of the nature of the regime or difficulties
in relationships between international actors and national governments.
We endorse this conclusion, which echoes one in our
previous Report.
14. We welcome the Report of the International Development
Committee on the Humanitarian Crisis in Southern Africa. We
recommend that the Government ensure that the policy which it
supports, of refusing to operate through Zimbabwean governmental
organisations or other official channels, is not subverted by
inappropriate relationships with organisations closely associated
with ZANU-PF.
