When the supermarkets do get some maize meal in they only accept cash money for it, with the Reserve Bank restrictions on withdrawal amounts most the populace go hungry. I as a business owner in Chiredzi have been unable to purchase food for my hungry staff for the last 2 weeks. I am now on a new system of payment and will soon be able to purchase this maize meal for them when it is available.

Hundreds of people in and around Chiredzi are surviving purely on stolen sugar cane, there are wads of chewed sugar cane every where, on the bush paths you see many people carrying large stacks of can and eating it at the same time, everybody is chewing sugar cane here.

There are many reports of starvation coming out of the communal areas; the worst to suffer are firstly children and then the women.

Local businesses and I am sure that this goes for the whole of Zimbabwe, are refusing to accept cheques as payment and are now demanding fuel or forex instead. This is firstly because of the withdrawal limit of $1o,ooo and $20,000 set by the Reserve bank on businesses and private accounts respectively. How do companies pay their staff or buy food for them when only allowed to withdraw such a little?

Secondly if businesses are paid by cheque, by the time that it has registered in the account usually 3 to 5 days, they have more than lost their profit because of the hyper inflation.

This will mean a lot less business for the banks.

If Zimbabweans had a real free and fair election now I doubt that Mugabe and his ZANU PF party would get more than 10% of the votes, most in his party have relatives who are in dire straights and starving in the communal areas.

Gerry Whitehead

(Source: by email)