From: mark@uctvax.uct.ac.za
Newsgroups: soc.culture.african
Subject: Man Made Hunder (was re: Rain (Pula Tata) in Southern Africa)
Date: 13 Nov 92 09:35:34 +0200
Organization: University of Cape Town

This article may interest those posting on the current
drought in (Southern) Africa.  It raises the question of the
South African government's incompetence in dealing with the
disaster and its consequences.  Accreditation, etc is at the
end.

THE MAN MADE DROUGHT

We're not in the Somalia stakes as far as the current
drought is concerned.  But it is not for lack of trying on
the part of the authorities, writes PETA THORNYCROFT of the
_Star's_ Insight Team.

The drought seems a long way from the hypermarket's lavish
cheese counter and from the city, any city's verdant golf
courses.  That is a truism of drought anywhere.

So too in South Africa, the great urban sprawl is fairly
undisturbed by this worst physical catastrophe (apartheid
aside) this century.  The fact is South Africa is not
Somalia.  Nor is Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Kenya, etc.
Mozambique may be and Malawi's 1,2 million refugees suggest
that country may well be moving that way.

By and large the region can pay or borrow to pay for its
imported costly American grain, has the infrastructure to
get it from Point A, the ports to Point B, the people.  By
and large, however, Mozambique is one of the most
underreported tragedies in Africa's history.

None of the countries in the sub-region (except Mozambique)
is wholly dependent on aid funds and related air-lifts to
feed its people.  And two years ago South Africa and
Zimbabwe could have, at a push, fed the entire region,
including Angola and Tanzania.

And the present drought is not completely to blame for the
immediate regional food shortages.  The harvest from last
year's failed food crop would only have been delivered and
redistributed for milling around now - and mielie meal ran
out in the Southern African region around March.

THE FACTS ARE THAT THE REGION, in particular Zimbabwe, has
been deliberately growing less and less food and more and
more foreign currency earning crops like flowers for several
years.

The structural adjustment program which led to this state of
affairs is subject for another story.  Suffice to say here
that the winners in the lack of regional food security are
the futures buyers in Chicago who control America's vast and
often not very salubrious grain surplus.

There are cynics in the region who believe the drought has
ensured one thing: that for ten years or so Southern and
Central Africa will be dependent on imported grain.

In South Africa about 250 000 people will have been
affected, either as employees or dependents from lost jobs
in the agricultural sector because of the drought, according
to the Reserve Bank.  At least another 20 000 jobs, i.e.
100 000 people will be affected by downstream job losses.

But by and large, South Africa's increasing poverty, unlike
that in Zimbabwe, is not directly related to agriculture.
Because agricultural land is overwhelmingly in the hands of
white commercial farmers, only about 8 percent of the black
population here depends on subsistence agriculture, as
opposed to the majority of populations in the subcontinent
who are almost entirely dependent on small-scale farming for
survival.

A point which needs to be made is that the feeding
programmes handled by, say, Operation Hunger are dealing at
least as much with the general poverty of South Africa as
with the effects of the drought.  And while this drought is
spectacularly worse than others, drought or dry years are
endemic to Southern Africa.

THERE IS, ACCORDING TO NGO's, a huge problem with the
harnessing of the water that is available particularly in
the so-called independent territories and the TBVC states
[Transkei, Bophutatswana, Venda, Ciskei - MR].

Much of the basic equipment to pump underground water in
wells and boreholes isn't working.  It hasn't been
maintained.  Amoung the trillions of rands splurged in the
blots and blobs of so-called countries was money for fresh
water supplies.  But in Venda, Lebowa and Ciskei in
particular, there are settlements without fresh water.  In
some cases because a bolt is missing from a borehole.

The government meanwhile has handed out another R180 million
to the homelands for immediate drought relief, i.e. water
solutions.

Some of those in the tribal administrations handled the
money as is their wont: that is in such a way as to suggest
that if they are not stealing the money themselves, they
will let others do it for them.  They called in
"consultants" to investigate the problem, make a
recommendation, etc, etc.  Hopefully by the time the
homelands bureaucrats assemble to discuss the plan, the
rains will have fallen.

Suffice it to say that very little of concrete benefit has
accrued from the R180 million handout.

Luckily however, there are some who have had the foresight
to handle the situation with this phrase ringing in their
ears: "floods are and act of God, droughts are an act of
neglect".

The multi-faceted NGO-based Water Task Force has gone to the
grassroots of drought, water, and is presently transporting
water into affected communities while ensuring that when the
next rainy season doesn't happen, there will be water.

Experienced water engineers, used to the Somalia scenario,
were brought in from Britain.  The cost has been borne by
foreign governments and NGO's.

As a result the extent of the failures of the homelands n
their water developmental policy has been fairly quickly
assessed.  And remedial action is being taken.  Pumps are
being fixed and drilling rigs are drilling.  And in the
meantime water is being transported to people without.

Only recently has the Department of Water Affairs made its
personnel and equipment available - though it has
consistently neglected to support he efforts with funds or
other resources.  That was only after the minister
responsible, former Defence Minster Magnus Malan, abandoned
his initial solution to the water problem: to send in the
army.

Operation Hunger needs about R5 million a month now to feed
about 2,5 million people.  Director Hunger, Ina Perlman says
the effects of a disastrous season are seen in increased
demand for food from sacked farmworkers in the Transvaal and
Orange Free State and subsistence farmers in Natal without
any crops.  However, once again, this is not Somalia.  But
an investigation into the season's regional drought is going
to provide future panners with the equipment and data for
the next time around.  Communities in need of food aid and
water resources are being identified.

And presumably, food security, on a regional basis including
South Africa, will be taken seriously, even by the
International Monetary Fund, though the government, eyes
firmly fixed on elections continues to be ambivalent.

The statistic which tells the tale is that a mere R100
million has been put aside for the people affected by
hunger; the almost exclusively white farmers are getting
R3,8 billion.

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THE ABOVE IS AN EXTRACT FROM:

The Vrye Weekblad - Sowetan Quarterly State of the Nation
Report.  A view from the precipice, Spring 1992

Editorial address: PO Box 177, Newtown, 2113
Tel (011)486-2151  Fax (011)838-5901

CONTENTS OF SPRING ISSUE:

-    Foreign commentators assess the South African Situation
-    The parlous state of the South African Economy, by
     Ronnie Bettleheim
-    The roller coaster ride of negotiations, by Esther
     Waugh
-    International involvement in South African affairs, by
     Raymond Louw
-    David Niddrie on FW de Klerk's alliances
-    Behind the homelands crisis, by Ivor Powell
-    The SACP's Jeremy Cronin on mass action
-    The crisis in FW de Klerk's constituency, by Hennie
     Serfontein
-    Dries van Heerden on the newlook right wing
-    Harry Gwala and Mangosuthu Buthelezi interviewed by
     Hennie Serfontein
-    David Everatt on the history and nature of violence
-    Policing the new South Africa, by Nicholas Haysom
-    Kadar Ismail on why there should not be a blanket
     amnesty
-    Ivor Powell interview Brian Currin on human rights and
     the new constitution
-    The NECC's James Maseko interviewed by Esma Anderson on
     black education
-    The new conciliation of labour and business, by Dirk
     Hartford
-    Peta Thornycroft on the man-made drought
-    A users guide to the homelands by Ivor Powell
-    The 26 September record of understanding

WHAT THE EDITORS SAID:

"The Quarterly State of the Nation Report is published by
Sowetan, South Africa's largest daily newspaper, and Vrye
Weekblad, the independent weekly news magazine.  We find the
symbolism of a joint venture between these two publications
with their widely differing constituencies exciting and
meaningful.  At the same time, the two publications have a
lot in common: a complete independence from party-political
restraints; a commitment to peace and a negotiated
settlement, and a strong belief in democracy, human dignity
and stability.
"We believe there is a real need for reliable, non-partisan
and in-depth information on the affairs of our nation amoung
decision makers and opinion formers.  That is the aim of
this Report, which goes to some 12 000 members of our
nation's senior leadership: political, community, business
and administrative leaders as well as the security
establishment, academicians, professionals and the locally
based diplomatic corps.  It also goes to research and policy
institutes, universities, libraries and parliaments in
Africa and the rest of the world."

- Aggrey Klaaste - Editor, Sowetan
- Max du Preez - Editor, Vrye Weekblad
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