This World Zimbabwe: The Food Fix Tx Date: 16th November 2004 This script was made from audio tape � any inaccuracies are due to voices being unclear or inaudible 10.00.00 Music 10.00.02 Farai Sevenzo It�s a heart warming moment; an African leader telling the world his people have more than enough to eat. 10.00.09 Robert Mugabe We have managed this year to realise a good harvest. Certainly one good enough to ensure that we meet our food requirements until the next season. I thank you. 10.00.22 Music 10.00.24 Farai Sevenzo But this is Zimbabwe, where nothing is what it seems. President Mugabe says food is plentiful; thanks to his policy of handing farmland to the people. And the charities who have been feeding millions have been asked to stop. 10.00.37 Farai Sevenzo In reality Zimbabwe is officially classified as a hunger emergency zone along with Ethiopia and Chad. And Zimbabwe�s rich wildlife is being left to the mercy of poachers. 10.00.51 Farai Sevenzo This is the side of Zimbabwe we are not supposed to see. 10.00.55 Woman Subtitle They�re all malnourished. 10.00.59 Title Page ZIMBABWE: THE FOOD FIX 10.01.04 Music 10.01.08 Farai Sevenzo My name is Farai Sevenzo; I am a Zimbabwean filmmaker. 10.01.12 Music 10.01.14 Farai Sevenzo To see if President Mugabe is right, that the world is lying about the food situation, I decided to return to my country to see for myself. There are parliamentary elections here next year and land reform; black Zimbabweans prospering on their own land is Mr Mugabe�s big sell. 10.01.29 Music 10.01.31 Farai Sevenzo I want to know if this reform has been the success it is being touted as, but to find out, I must do it secretly. Asking questions here, using cameras here, can land me in jail. 10.01.48 Farai Sevenzo The World Food Programme is the world�s biggest aid agency. It has been in Zimbabwe since two thousand and one and earlier this year was feeding as many as five and a half million people. 10.01.58 Farai Sevenzo The WFP were in Nyanga Province in January, treating children suffering from the effects of hunger. 10.02.05 Aston KATHERINE SMITH Aid Worker At the moment it really is a battle for survival. I believe that people are living from one day to the next. Look at these people, the last time they had food was a month ago. It was five kilos of maize meal and they�ve had to survive on that for a month. 10.02.19 Aston NESI ZUZE Voice over The rain refused to fall once before and we had nothing to live on. Those days we would survive on a five kilogram bag. But now there�s nothing. 10.02.34 Farai Sevenzo That was then. This is what I found eight months later; the WFP had been ordered to stop distributing food. Large stocks of grain lay in tents waiting for government direction. The agency�s future here is uncertain. 10.02.56 Farai Sevenzo It�s not just aid organisations who face interference, the Government has a grip on the media, on freedom of expression and is now targeting organisations working to promote good government and democracy. 10.03.09 Farai Sevenzo In Harare I�d heard there was to be a demonstration in protest. 10.03.15 Farai Sevenzo People were marching against the government�s new NGO Bill. This would ban non-government organisations like human rights and democracy groups from receiving foreign money and force all charities and groups to register with the government. Filming it would be dangerous. 10.03.32 Farai Sevenzo Police refused permission for the march by The National Constituent Assembly; a body campaigning for a new constitution. And the response is brutal. 10.03.42 Farai Sevenzo First the road is blocked. Then the riot police arrive. The crowd scatters. 10.03.55 Farai Sevenzo Truncheons rain down on the crowd who remain. 10.04.00 Farai Sevenzo Fifteen are later reported to be injured and eight arrested. 10.04.06 Farai Sevenzo This is what happens to public protests in Zimbabwe. 10.04.12 Farai Sevenzo Along with everybody else I decided to get away before injury became a certainty. And in any case, getting caught with cameras meant I would join the ranks of the arrested. 10.04.24 Farai Sevenzo Brian Kagoro is helping co-ordinate opposition to the bill. He says the government wants to shut the doors on the outside world whatever the cost. 10.04.33 Aston BRIAN KAGORO NGO Coalition spokesman You have to demonstrate to the world that we do not need the west, we do not need anyone�s support or we are proud enough to survive on our own even if it means essentially that ordinary folk, ordinary citizens will starve, ordinary citizens will die. 10.04.50 Brian Kagoro What the government is doing through the NGO Bill is to criminalise dissent, to try and manufacture a type of citizen who is docile, you know, who is conformist, who does not question. It is to make, you know, it is to defeat the very objective for which the war of liberation was fought which is freedom. 10.05.08 Music 10.05.10 Farai Sevenzo Cracks were appearing in the President�s claim that there is enough food to go round. 10.05.13 Music 10.05.17 Farai Sevenzo I travelled to the south of the country when I heard the ruling Zanu PF Governor there had asked the Government for food aid. 10.05.23 Music 10.05.27 Farai Sevenzo I visited the local hospital with a hidden camera. I found that sporadic cases of malnutrition were arriving from deep within the countryside. 10.05.37 Farai Sevenzo The one in the corner? 10.05.39 Woman Subtitles All of them, if you look at them properly, they�re all malnourished. 10.05.44 Farai Sevenzo Subtitles So if you ask the parent�s what�s wrong with their child, what do they say? 10.05.47 Woman Subtitle They don�t know. 10.05.49 Farai Sevenzo Subtitle But it�s just a lack of food? 10.05.52 Woman Subtitle Yes. 10.05.57 Farai Sevenzo Medical staff can�t speak out about the situation but Pius Ncube, the Archbishop of Zimbabwe�s second city, Bulawayo, can and does. In the twelve months to August one hundred and sixty- one people died of malnutrition in his district alone. 10.06.14 Aston PIUS NCUBE Archbishop of Bulawayo Often these people are little children who die of malnutrition. I know even in the rural areas I have a hospital called St Luke�s, the doctors there have told me children come malnourished in such a way that they can�t save their life. They develop what is called an oedema and they die from it, yah. 10.06.36 Pius Ncube I know people who have committed suicide, pensioners because they can�t live anymore, some of them white. People are suffering. People are suffering and it�s impossible to live in Zimbabwe. Honestly. 10.06.51 Music 10.06.54 Farai Sevenzo I�d heard that the government was impounding maize from ordinary people as they travelled from the country into town to boost dwindling stocks and hide the fact that there are food shortages. 10.07.05 Music 10.07.11 Farai Sevenzo I decided to put it to the test. First I bought six bags of maize direct from a farmer, a hard enough task at the moment. 10.07.21 Farai Sevenzo I�m going to try and take this maize back into Harare because we hear rumours that several police road blocks are now manned by Grain Marketing Board officials who are confiscating grain if anyone has more than five bags. 10.07.49 Farai Sevenzo Soon I ran into a road block manned by officials of the Grain Marketing Board. Once it was a simple distribution agency, now it is now firmly in Government control. 10.08.02 Grain Marketing Board Official Subtitle You have too much. 10.08.09 Grain Marketing Board Official Subtitle Park by the tent. 10.08.15 Farai Sevenzo Subtitles So if you take my maize are you going to pay for it? 10.08.19 Grain Marketing Board Official Subtitle No, we no longer pay for it. 10.08.21 Farai Sevenzo Why not? 10.08.24 Grain Marketing Board Official Subtitles Well they say they have given you ample warning about carrying maize. 10.08.31 Grain Marketing Board Official Subtitles Do you know what your crime is? Your crime is. You are supposed to carry three bags not five bags. This is how it works� all five bags will be impounded and you�ve got to pay a fine. 25,000 for each bag. 10.08.47 Farai Sevenzo Twenty-five thousand for each bag. I see. 10.08.50 Farai Sevenzo The Grain Marketing Board official gives away the real reason for impounding my maize. 10.08.55 Grain Marketing Board Official Subtitles There are a lot of people carrying maize. There�s nothing in the villages. Even in the town there is hunger. 10.09.01 Farai Sevenzo I should have been fined but they seem more understanding of my need to provide food for my relatives than the law they are forced to uphold. After some subtle negotiations they agree to burn the ticket they�d written out. Not everyone�s so lucky. 10.09.19 Farai Sevenzo There is food in the shops in Harare as I discovered. 10.09.24 Farai Sevenzo I couldn�t film openly but I could see that most of the products in the supermarkets were imported. 10.09.31 Farai Sevenzo Malawi rice, oriental rice�. 10.09.36 Farai Sevenzo And it�s priced beyond the reach of most pockets. Inflation here is running at three hundred and sixty percent. 10.09.43 Music 10.09.50 Farai Sevenzo Zimbabwe is one of the most fertile countries in Africa. It used to grow more food than it could consume and as recently as two thousand, the WFP was actually buying food here to feed other countries. But now the UN is predicting a big shortfall and the government�s boast of a bumper harvest looks wildly optimistic. 10.10.11 Farai Sevenzo One smallholder showed us the sort of difficulties Zimbabwe�s new farmers are facing in some areas. Many are short of seed, equipment and most of all water after two years of drought. 10.10.24 Paul Ivhu Subtitles You can see now, the type of the soil is not good for crops. 10.10.29 Aston PAUL IVHU Farmer If you put fertiliser on such type of soil you won�t get anything because this area�s too hot. Crop will burning. Or being burned? 10.10.48 Man Voice over This maize is not what it should be because of the lack of rain. 10.10.53 Paul Ivhu Subtitles They can feed more than 20 but there�s a shortage of rain, shortage of tractors to plough, shortage of seed maize. Seed maize costs a lot. 10.11.06 Man Voice over We have to look after ourselves. We have no access to loans. 10.11.13 Farai Sevenzo The settler farmers are willing but don�t yet have the investment or the backup to make the soil productive, particularly during a drought. 10.11.22 Farai Sevenzo President Mugabe�s land reform programme of two thousand, which saw black settlers occupy land previously owned by white farmers, is still in full swing. 10.11.32 Farai Sevenzo Every day new farms are listed in the papers for confiscation and resettlement. 10.11.40 Aston MARK PHILLIPS Former Farmer This is the entrance to my farm. That�s my house on the left there where the assistant DA is living. Put it down; let�s get out of here. 10.11.56 Farai Sevenzo Mark is typical of those who have lost their farms; bitter, wounded and not enthusiastic about the new farmer�s ability to farm. He showed us his old property, which used to produce sugar cane. 10.12.10 Mark Phillips The cane on the right here you can actually see it by the darkness of the stalks and that, this, this cane has never been cut. So this cane would be about three years old, it�s just been abandoned and not cut. 10.12.27 Mark Phillips Unbelievable. 10.12.39 Music 10.12.48 Farai Sevenzo There�s a new dimension to the food shortages in Zimbabwe. 10.12.50 Music 10.12.53 Farai Sevenzo The country�s rich wildlife, so prized by tourists and hunters, is under threat. 10.12.58 Music 10.13.03 Farai Sevenzo Conservation land had been exempt from the land programme but now new farmers have been settling here too and poachers have been killing animals for food. 10.13.11 Music 10.13.22 Farai Sevenzo This is the Buffalo Range Conservancy in Southern Zimbabwe, home to rare black rhino and rich in many other species. 10.13.34 Farai Sevenzo And this is the man who still owns it, just. 10.13.40 Farai Sevenzo Rob Styles is hanging on by his fingertips. 10.13.44 Aston ROB STYLES Owner, Buffalo Range Conservancy See this fire is new and this was only in the last week. They have burned all this out. Unfortunately not good for the game because they�re going to run out of grazing. This has even jumped the road, burnt both sides. Unfortunately it�s also not good for them because they�re supposed to be running their cattle here, the cattle are going to have nothing to eat either so it�s a lose-lose situation. 10.14.13 Farai Sevenzo Animals caught in traps and snares are a common sight. This is a Kudu. There has always been some poaching here but an increased local population, driven by food shortages, has made the problem worse. 10.14.25 Rob Styles Here�s a double snare, that�s probably used for big animal like Eland and Zebra because they�ll just break this one here. That�s no good, that�s not going to hold a zebra. Normally just break it off so they�re setting double snares now. 10.14.42 Farai Sevenzo This dump contains over ten thousand recovered from Buffalo Range in the last four years. 10.14.47 Rob Styles We�ve lost leopard, wild dog, cheetah, all in snares, hyena, so even the predators are being hammered. 10.14.58 Music 10.15.03 Farai Sevenzo Every day they go out looking to see if any fresh traps have been laid. 10.15.06 Music 10.15.11 Brett Parker We saw the vultures here yesterday, circling around here somewhere yesterday. So let�s go, start searching over here. 10.15.21 Farai Sevenzo They find what the vultures were interested in. 10.15.37 Brett Parker This is a juvenile baboon which has been caught in a snare and trying to escape has somehow managed to fall out the tree and it�s actually hung itself, poor thing. 10.15.50 Aston BRETT PARKER Game ranger I can say that in the last five years we�ve probably lost ninety-five percent of our game on Buffalo Range, you know, it�s, we�ve lost most of our game and it�s because of this thing, the guys, there�s no, nobody�s managing this thing it�s like whatever comes along they�ll take it, you know, be it a juvenile, a female, a pregnant female, you know, a young ram. 10.16.16 Farai Sevenzo The conservancy workers make sure the snares they have collected can never be used again. 10.16.23 Farai Sevenzo Rob Styles is no longer in charge on Buffalo Range. He still lives there. 10.16.28 Farai Sevenzo But the man who now wields the real influence is Mr Chipfuwa and his family. He�s a veteran of the war of independence and the local Zanu PF base commander. That means he is responsible for allocating plots of land to settlers. Mr Chipfuwa is determined to succeed here; he was happy to speak openly. 10.16.46 Aston Mr CHIPFUWA Farmer and local Zanu PF commander I�m very rich, these are my cattle. The value of this cattle is many, a lot of money. 10.16.59 Farai Sevenzo Mr Chipfuwa owns a car and a motorbike and has cattle to his name. For a new farmer he is rich, but a tractor and a proper irrigation system are still beyond his pockets. 10.17.11 Mr Chipfuwa This is a small one. This is a small one but he has got a lot of power. 10.17.25 Mr Chipfuwa Subtitles This is maize. We sell the maize to the GMB, Grain Marketing Board. 10.17.38 Mr Chipfuwa Subtitles We use these for meat. They are very small but they are meat. They are good for meat. 10.17.52 Farai Sevenzo The relationship between Mr Chipfuwa and Rob Styles, the owner of Buffalo Range, is influenced by what each one can get out of this situation. 10.18.00 Rob Styles I don�t think any of us really have been opposed to, to land reform. The big problem we have understanding here is why settle people on dry land which is not really suitable for cultivation if they want to cultivate crops. 10.18.18 Rob Styles With the poverty that is going on people have got nothing to loose, they�re going to come and sit on the land and, and make the most of it. Even though you have seen here there�s no maize to speak of being produced because you can�t grow maize here without irrigation. 10.18.36 Farai Sevenzo But Mr Chipfuwa is determined to prove the old landowner wrong. He�s investing some of the money from this year�s crop in irrigation pipes. 10.18.49 Mr Chipfuwa Subtitles Most of the people who are now crying for� such and such things which they need� they will start to have those things� because they are given the land. And now they are starting using that land� so next year I don�t think there�ll be� someone crying for food in this area� because everyone started to know� in the soil there is money. When the people know� that in the soil there is money� they are starting to work hard. 10.19.42 Farai Sevenzo Even Mr Chipfuwa admits things are still tough and it will be a while before he is producing serious amounts of food. 10.19.52 Farai Sevenzo Though he probably has a brighter future than the man whose land he now controls. 10.20.04 Farai Sevenzo Rob Styles� best source of income is running a hunting party. 10.20.10 Gunshots 10.20.12 Farai Sevenzo An American family have come to shoot Zebra and Eland despite their dwindling numbers. 10.20.18 Farai Sevenzo It�s a trophy for the Americans but it�s meat to others. It�s a hard argument to make to hungry people that they can�t poach when wealthy foreigners are shooting for fun. 10.20.30 Farai Sevenzo A point Mr Chipfuwa has made to Mr Styles as the balance of power here shifts a little further. 10.20.37 Mr Chipfuwa Subtitles We must share, a little bit share, from him. When he kills the animals� he does not give us even a share. He says �your soil is yours but the animal is mine.� 10.21.01 Mr Chipfuwa Subtitles Mr Styles is gaining animals only alone. We don�t want that system. 10.21.10 Farai Sevenzo I wondered if the two men hated each other. 10.21.13 Rob Styles No, I think hate�s quite a strong word but we have big differences in opinion. I�m here trying to protect our wildlife and he�s here trying to grow crops. Now the two can�t go hand in hand because sooner or later wildlife are going to eat his crops. 10.21.30 Farai Sevenzo And if he had to share the land, would he? 10.21.35 Rob Styles Yeah obviously and if we want to continue living here and the Government calls the shots and whatever Government policy dictates to us, is, is what we�ve got to follow, you know, we�re law abiding citizens and if we want to continue to live here we�ve got to live by the law. 10.21.59 Farai Sevenzo I found some happy farmers with success stories of sorts. 10.22.04 Farai Sevenzo Away from the conservancy I dropped in on a bar. 10.22.10 Farai Sevenzo It�s part of a farm that used to belong to one white farmer. Now forty-three black settlers share this land. Their crops of choice are cash crops; tobacco, cotton but not maize. 10.22.28 Farai Sevenzo Subtitle Did you farm anything this year? 10.22.30 Farmer Subtitles Yeah. I�m a poor farmer. I planted cotton. 10.22.36 Farai Sevenzo Subtitle That�s good, how much did you make? 10.22.37 Farmer Subtitle I made about ten bales. 10.22.40 Farai Sevenzo Subtitle Ten bales? That�s a lot of money. 10.22.43 Farmer Subtitle Ah, not that much. 10.22.44 Farai Sevenzo How much is that? 10.22.45 Farmer Subtitle Around five million (�500). 10.22.55 Farai Sevenzo Next march there will be elections in Zimbabwe. That will bring the food question in to sharp focus. 10.23.01 Farai Sevenzo So before I left I paid a visit to the Grain Marketing Board; the organisation which had tried to take my sacks of maize. Zanu PF�s opponents fear food is being stockpiled in order to influence the result. If so the evidence will be here. 10.23.17 Farai Sevenzo On the right here is the national railway of Zimbabwe. It�s quite clear that people are unloading bags of maize. If they came by train it�s almost certain that they came from South Africa. 10.23.31 Farai Sevenzo The revolution is making rich men out of importers of grain. As well as imports from South Africa I saw rice labelled; �from the friendly people of India to the friendly people of Zimbabwe�. There may be food shortages in the country but there�s plenty of food here. 10.23.50 Farai Sevenzo During the last election in two thousand and two Zanu PF was condemned by Human Rights Watch and other organisations for using food as a political weapon. Opposition supporters maintain they were denied access to supplies once it was known who they supported. 10.24.12 Farai Sevenzo Opposition Member of Parliament, Renson Gasela agreed to meet me. He�s a former manager from the Grain Marketing Board who has recently completed his own investigations into the food shortages. 10.24.27 Renson Gasela If the donors in this area had not come forward over the past three years to assist the people we would have had massive, massive deaths. 10.24.37 Aston RENSON GASELA Shadow Minister of Agriculture There is an election next year so the government wants to be the only one with food. They are secretly importing some maize to beef up the stocks. When they have those stocks plus the, the, the, the amount that they are going to buy from the local production which they hoped was going to be much higher than what is coming in. Now they haven�t rejected any food aid from the donors, the government will be the only organisation with food. 10.25.04 Farai Sevenzo Zanu PF is already preparing for the elections, holding primaries to select candidates to fight the opposition MDC party. 10.25.11 Crowd shouting 10.25.14 Farai Sevenzo Edison Zvobgo, on the left, is part of Zanu�s new breed. He wants to fight a seat in Mashingo Province. 10.25.25 Supporter Subtitles May everyone support him� with the grace of God�Amen. 10.25.33 Farai Sevenzo A nice introduction to your people as a prospective MP for this area. 10.25.38 Edison Zvobgo Thank you, thank you very much. 10.25.40 Farai Sevenzo Ok, so Edison Zvobgo will now become member of Parliament for Zanu PF�s Mashingo Central? 10.25.46 Edison Zvobgo Oh yes, if that�s the people�s will. 10.25.48 Farai Sevenzo As the people wish, hey. When the world looks at Zimbabwe at the moment and the party you�re about to enter, they see various negative things that are happening, there�s, there�s no food for people they say, they say that the president says claims there�s enough food but the people are starving, lots of aid food still coming through, there is a lot of human rights abuses. What would you say in defence of the party you are about to represent? 10.26.11 Aston EDISON ZVOBGO Zanu PF candidate I would say that circumstances are always changing and what is useless to do is to talk about the past ad nauseam. We need to talk about what�s happening, issues today which are facing the people. So Zanu PF has brought independence to this country, it has now trying to move towards economic development and I think it is important for young people instead of just standing aside and when they see mistakes and say �no, I will not appear in politics until things are perfect�. Well things will never be perfect. 10.26.47 Farai Sevenzo We seem to still need more food assistance. How do we get to a stage where our agricultural output, our agricultural production is big enough to stop us importing food from other areas, stop us begging for food to feed people here? 10.27.02 Edison Zvobgo The government is making very good first moves, they are lending large amounts of money to the agricultural sector, there�s very cheap seed and meal for planting. There�s very cheap petrol for farmers, the government is actually taking that into account. Yes, there will be a period of instability but that is what happens when there is a revolution isn�t it? 10.27.27 Renson Gasela Food is so important that people must be told the truth. The truth will come. It�s like a pregnancy, you can hide the pregnancy but the baby will grow and eventually everybody will see that oh this girl is pregnant and, and it�s a question of time. Now, unfortunately we cannot play with people�s lives in terms of United Nations� charter, which this government is also a signatory to; food is a right for the people. 10.27.56 Music 10.27.59 Farai Sevenzo As I left, it seemed to me that Zimbabweans would survive; they always do. But the new restrictive laws, a new farming class in its infancy and the government�s insistence on keeping observers out continue to make life difficult. In the mean time ordinary folk seem to be pawns in President Mugabe�s constant political games; poor, desperate and finding food where they can. 10.28.23 End Music 10.28.25 bbc.co.uk/thisworld Credits 10.28.26 Reporter FARAI SEVENZO Camera NICK CHEVALLIER Dubbing Mixer RADA DANILOVIC VT Editor ROD HUTSON Production Team JULIA DANNENBERG LADONNA HALL SARAH HANKS Production Manager JANE WILLEY Unit Manager SUSAN CRIGHTON Film Research NICK DODD Research IAN MICHLER OLIVER PAGE Thanks to LUCY FLEMING JOAO van DUNEM PAUL MUSHUMANI Picture Editor MARK COLLINS BERNARD LYALL Producer, Buffalo Range ANTHONY MAKIN Executive Producer KAREN O�CONNOR 10.28.42 Produced by FARAI SEVENKO 10.28.45 thisworld Series Producer SANDY SMITH bbc.co.uk/thisworld BBC � BBC MMIV 10.28.47 End BBC This World: Zimbabwe: The Food Fix 1