Cars before people

From VOA News, 11 September

Sparing with food assistance, Harare splashes out on luxury cars for top officials

By Patience Rusere and Blessing Zulu

The government of Zimbabwe last week earmarked some US$11 million for food aid to an increasingly hungry population - but meanwhile it's splashing out more than US$20 million to buy luxury vehicles and SUVs for ministers and members of parliament. Harare’s allocation of Z$347 billion dollars for food aid in the supplementary budget it took to parliament last week will only pay for about 36,000 metric tonnes of grain out of the estimated 450,000 to 500,000 tonnes needed to feed the country for the next three months - in other words less than 10% of the fourth-quarter requirement. That Z$347 billion translates into some US$11million dollars at the official exchange rate of Z$30,000 for one U.S. dollar. Meanwhile, grain on the world market is running between US$300 and US$350 per metric tonne, agricultural experts said. The government said it’s targeting some 600,000 households, or some 3.6 million people, according to the experts, who figure six people per household.

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Finance Ministry sources said President Robert Mugabe’s top of the line Mercedes Benz S600 cost around US$250,000. His ministers are getting Mercedes Benz E240 sedans and Toyota Land Cruiser Prados. An official at the Zimbabwe Motor Company said Mercedes E240s cost some 53,000 euros each, or around US$73,000. Senators and house members must settle for vehicles costing less than US$30 000. Director Godfrey Kanyenze of the Labor and Economic Development Research Institute told reporter Blessing Zulu of VOA's Studio 7 for Zimbabwe that with an election on the horizon, and factionalism on the rise inside Zanu PF, President Mugabe will give priority to appeasing senior ruling party officials.