Mugabe bureaucracy blocks vital church aid to destitute
-22/10/05
South African churches have had to give up trying to take a shipment of clothes to victims of President Mugabe’s slum clearance campaign, after weeks of battling with Zimbabwe’s import authorities. They are now giving the clothes to Zimbabwean migrants living in South Africa instead.
The Rev Gift Moerane, South African Council of Churches (SACC) provincial organising secretary, told ZimOnline this week about the bureaucratic hurdles which have overcome their humanitarian effort.
ìThe paperwork and all the procedures at the border were strenuous. In a meeting last week, we agreed that it was better to focus on Zimbabwean refugees who are based here because they are also living in dire straits,î declared Moerane, as he handed over the clothes to the migrants at Yeoville Recreational Centre in Johannesburg.
More than 300 Zimbabweans were at the centre to receive the clothes. Six thousand blankets and 37 tonnes of food raised by the ecumenical SACC for the slum clearance victims remained stuck at Beitbridge for several weeks.
Harare customs authorities first demanded duty for the goods, despite the fact that Zimbabwe theoretically does not charge duty on aid.
When the government finally agreed to waive duty, after heavy lobbying by Zimbabwean non-governmental organizations, it still would not allow the food into the country, saying it first wanted proof that it wasnít genetically-modified.
In August 2005, as reported on Ekklesia, the South African Council of Churches said it would launch a massive relief operation dubbed ‘Operation Restore Hope for Zimbabwe’.
The aim was to help some of the 700,000 people the UN declared destitute after President Robert Mugabe ordered police to demolish shanty town homes and informal businesses.
Meanwhile, Mugabe’s government is stalling on a request by the UN for the world body to raise 30 million US dollars worth of aid for the victims of the urban clean-up campaign.
Mugabe bureaucracy blocks vital church aid to destitute
-22/10/05
South African churches have had to give up trying to take a shipment of clothes to victims of President Mugabe’s slum clearance campaign, after weeks of battling with Zimbabwe’s import authorities. They are now giving the clothes to Zimbabwean migrants living in South Africa instead.
The Rev Gift Moerane, South African Council of Churches (SACC) provincial organising secretary, told ZimOnline this week about the bureaucratic hurdles which have overcome their humanitarian effort.
‘The paperwork and all the procedures at the border were strenuous. In a meeting last week, we agreed that it was better to focus on Zimbabwean refugees who are based here because they are also living in dire straits,’ declared Moerane, as he handed over the clothes to the migrants at Yeoville Recreational Centre in Johannesburg.
More than 300 Zimbabweans were at the centre to receive the clothes. Six thousand blankets and 37 tonnes of food raised by the ecumenical SACC for the slum clearance victims remained stuck at Beitbridge for several weeks.
Harare customs authorities first demanded duty for the goods, despite the fact that Zimbabwe theoretically does not charge duty on aid.
When the government finally agreed to waive duty, after heavy lobbying by Zimbabwean non-governmental organizations, it still would not allow the food into the country, saying it first wanted proof that it wasn’t genetically-modified.
In August 2005, as reported on Ekklesia, the South African Council of Churches said it would launch a massive relief operation dubbed ‘Operation Restore Hope for Zimbabwe’.
The aim was to help some of the 700,000 people the UN declared destitute after President Robert Mugabe ordered police to demolish shanty town homes and informal businesses.
Meanwhile, Mugabe’s government is stalling on a request by the UN for the world body to raise 30 million US dollars worth of aid for the victims of the urban clean-up campaign.