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Mbeki urged to save Zimbabwe deal

Zimbabwe’s official inflation rate has surged to 231million per cent as the opposition appealed to South Africa’s former President, Thabo Mbeki, to rescue the historic power-sharing deal he brokered last month with President Robert Mugabe.

Hyperinflation has contributed to widespread food shortages, prompting the World Food Programme (WFP) to launch an appeal on Thursday to feed 5 million Zimbabweans, some of whom it said are reduced to living on wild fruits. It said more than 80 per cent of the population was surviving on less than £1 a day, and nearly half of all Zimbabweans were chronically malnourished.

The latest official inflation rate, for July, is 20 times higher than a month earlier. But independent economists who have accurately estimated the true rate in the past say that inflation this month will run into the trillions. That has forced the government to allow shops this week to begin accepting U.S. dollars and the South African rand, because the Zimbabwe dollar is all but worthless.

Those shops still selling in local currency raise their prices two or three times a day. Some price in “units” and display an ever rising rate of Zimbabwe dollars per unit. But finding cash is almost impossible because the government cannot afford to print notes to keep pace with inflation, and the bank limit on daily withdrawals is far less than the cost of a loaf of bread.

Millions of Zimbabweans now bypass money altogether and barter what they can grow for other essentials. Others have almost no food, after another catastrophic crop failure largely attributed to the economic crisis and the seizure of white-owned farms.

The WFP has appealed for $140 million to feed 5 million Zimbabweans, half the population. “Millions of Zimbabweans have run out of food or are surviving on one meal a day and the crisis is going to get much worse,” said Mustapha Darboe, the WFP regional director.

The latest inflation figures and deepening food crisis will increase pressure on Mr. Mugabe to stop stalling over the composition of a new power-sharing government with Prime Minister designate Morgan Tsvangirai. The President has insisted on keeping control of all key Cabinet posts, including security ministries. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2008

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