In early June, ZANU-PFwelfare minister, Nicholas Goche, banned all field work in Zimbabwe byinternational aid agencies, accusing them of political meddling byproviding campaign support for the opposition party, the Movement forDemocratic Change in the March 29 elections.
Aid agencies deny they gave any support for the MDC, which won the parliamentary vote.
Devastating news for a country, where nearly four million people, or a third of the population, relies on food aid.
Nowlocal food distribution agencies are warning that the Western donatedfood - some of it stored in the South African port of Durban fordelivery to Zimbabwe - will have to be diverted to other countries ifthe ban is not lifted immediately.
A spokesman for one of thelargest distributing agencies in Zimbabwe said Friday the ban is stillfirmly in place despite warnings from humanitarian agencies. He saidthat when the ban was imposed, many organizations had to dismantletheir distribution networks.
As a result, he doubts theinfrastructure could be restored for emergency feeding programs beforeSeptember, even if the the ban was lifted immediately.
Accordingto several key distribution agencies, emergency feeding programs arenot usually necessary between April and October because of the summerharvest. But, the Famine Early Warning Systems Network recently issuedan emergency statement saying Zimbabwe had its worst ever crops.According to FEWSNET between a third and half the population will needfood aid before next year's harvest.
There is little foodavailable in the shops here and even on the black market there islittle of the staple food, corn meal, available.
People on thestreets in Harare and money traders said there was almost no cashavailable Friday since the central bank chopped off 10 zeros from itscurrency on Wednesday.
In addition to food, the reliefagencies provide clean water, medical care and other services. Ofparticular concern are people suffering from HIV/AIDS. Many are ontreatment programs and are no longer getting their anti retroviralsdrugs.