Zimbabwe faces food shortages

Press, 9 April 1980, Page 9

Zimbabwe faces food shortages

NZPA-Reuter Salisbury The new State of Zimbabwe will be born this month facing acute shortages of home-grown maize and increasing fears for future food supplies, senior agricultural officials have said.

They said white maize had already been imported from South Africa last month .— for the first time since 1965 — to counter a serious shortfall mainly caused by declining plantings and a severe drought. “Our own maize will have run out completely by the tenth or eleventh of- April,” said David Spain, chairman of the Commercial Farmers’ Union. Local maize from this year’s crop would only start to be available in late May. The Farmers’ Union represents the country’s 5200 registered white farmers who provided the bulk of the supplies. The challenge of providing adequate and cheap food to the three million Zimbabweans in the new independent State is one which is

expected to tax the political and economic skills of the socialist government of Robert Mugabe.

Whit e-ruled Rhodesia, which becomes black-led Zimbabwe on April 18, has been seen as a model ■ for other African States because of its food self-sufficiency while black neighbours relied heavily on imports. Meanwhile, informed sources have said that the incoming Information Minister in Zimbabwe has ordered the' national radio and television station to stop using the word terrorist in reference to African nationalist movements.

They said that Dr Nathan Shamuyarira had issued a directive at the week-end saying the word "terrorist” was banned.

“It may only be used to refer to the I.R.A. (Irish Republican Army) and the (Italian) Red Brigades and other persons committing violence against civilians,” the sources said.

“It may not be used to describe groups fighting for independence in Africa,” they added.- , •. rh