Politics of food aid

Zambia's deepening food shortages, along with mismanagement and corruption, are the key issues dominating the country's general election campaign, opposition leader Dipak Patel told IRIN on Tuesday. As Zambia prepares to go to the polls on 27 December, Vice-President Enock Kavindele acknowledged this week that most of the country had begun experiencing shortages of the staple maize meal, after floods hit crops early this year. "The distribution of relief maize has already started. We shall continue until the situation is addressed," news reports quoted Kavindele as saying. "It's a fact there is a food shortage in the country, but despite knowing almost 12 months ago, they started importing [maize] very late," Patel, a senior member of the opposition Forum for Democracy and Development (FDD) told IRIN. Last week, President Frederick Chiluba alleged that the food shortages were the fault of former ministers who quit the ruling Movement for Multiparty Democracy (MMD) to form the FDD. The FDD has hit back by accusing the government of using relief supplies to "buy" votes. According to the disaster management unit in the vice-president's office, the country is faced with a critical grain shortage that will require the importation of some 300,000 mt of commercial maize and around 50,000 mt more in emergency food aid. A senior government official has estimated that about two million people are in need of emergency food aid. The government has released four billion Kwacha (about $1 million) for relief maize supplies while the Italian government has pledged 2,500 mt of maize and the World Food programme has undertaken to mobilise 42,000 mt more from international donors. "The real problem is that inadequate attention has been paid to agriculture by the government," said Patel, a former MMD minister. "They have the resources but it has not been spent on the right things. Instead they wasted US $60 million on a two day OAU [Organisation of African Unity] summit earlier this year." In what is expected to be a tight race, Patel said the MMD would also be punished by the electorate for a series of high profile scandals linking the government to alleged corruption. "It's a question of whether the MMD has the capacity to manage," he added, pointing to the food shortages that have led to regular queues outside supermarkets in the capital, Lusaka, as an example of the government's alleged failings.