Southern Africa's worst drought on record has created new opportunities for Pretoria to extend its economic stranglehold over the region. The efforts of the front line and neighbouring states to achieve self-sufficiency in food and energy production, in particular, have been singled out for apartheid attack.
Amidst the vast human tragedy of the drought, the South African state information services have made the most of the propaganda value of the country's role as a producer and exporter of food. Meanwhile, a variety of tactics, ranging from direct military attacks to commodity price manipulation, have been used to undermine the growing capacity of SADCC member states to co-operate among themselves in the management and control of food resources.
South Africa's strategy is well understood within the SADCC (Southern Africa Development Co-ordination Conference). The final communique of the fourth SADCC heads of state and government summit, held in Maputo on 11 July, noted that the apartheid regime had stepped up its attempts to destabilise member states. Its aggression, the communique suggested, was partly due to 'a fallacious belief' that the drought, combined with the world recession and the economic policies of various other countries, would 'undermine SADCC's commitment to political and economic liberation'.
HARVEST FAILURE
A report prepared by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in July 1983 appealed for an immediate rescue operation for at least 18 African countries facing famine through drought, pestilence and war. The drought is at its worst in Southern Africa, now facing its third successive year of bad harvests and where in some areas the rains have not fallen adequately since 1976. The 1983 harvest is expected to yield only 1/2 million tons of grain, half the normal total, and five million tons less than even 1982's severely reduced crop.
South Africa, the main producer and exporter of food in the region, was expected to harvest 4.4 million tons of maize in 1983, half the 1982 total (8.32 m tons) and one third the total for 1981 (14.6 m tons). In June, South Africa imported 600,000 tons of yellow maize, mostly to be used as animal fodder, from the USA and Argentina. It was expected that a further 900,000 tons or more would be imported in the course of the year. White maize for human consumption has continued to be exported to Botswana, Swaziland and Lesotho.
Zimbabwe is the only other country in the region normally able to export the staple food, maize, as well as feed itself. In July, the president of the Commercial Farmers Union of Zimbabwe warned that only two weeks supply of maize would be left in stock by the time of the next harvest in March 1984.
SOUTH AFRICAN SABOTAGE
In Mozambique, food shortages are the most acute in the region apart from South Africa's own bantustan areas. In appealing for international aid at the end of June, the Internal Trade Minister, Aranda da Silva, warned that the drought had caused 'nearly total failure of the summer crop in southern Mozambique, and severe reductions in the harvest in central Mozambique'. Relief operations, he reported had been hindered by 'bandit actions supported by South Africa', although 'the situation has improved in this respect in the last three months'.
South Africa's surrogate forces in Mozambique, the 'Mozambique National Resistance' (MINR), have made a particular point of attack in transport links and distribution networks as well as various productive enterprises.
Mozambique's Internal Trade Minister has said that 'under normal climatic conditions, and if the level of South African aggression diminishes, the country could achieve self-sufficiency in maize, rice and vegetables.
Lesotho, which normally expects to import over 40 per cent of its food, almost entirely from South Africa, has been facing intensified border controls, imposed by Pretoria in May on the pretext of clamping down on African National Congress guerillas. These have led to food shortages and petrol rationing in Maseru.
PRICE MANIPULATION
South Africa's economic strength often enables it to undercut efforts by SADCC members to develop trading relations among themselves in preference to dependence on apartheid.
In May, however, the Zambian government decided to import Zimbabwean maize at US $28 per 90 kg bag, in preference to accepting a South African offer of US $10 per bag less. The move was attacked in scathing terms by the South African external radio services, which dismissed Zambia's decision as 'ideological stupidity', 'illogical and impractical', and a 'politically motivated move' which harmed the 'Zambian man in the street'.
Mozambicans, on the other hand, have been charged up to R32 for a 70 kg bag of maize and up to R40 for mealie meal in the border area of Komatipoort, by South African middlemen apparently anxious to make the most of Mozambique's economic difficulties. These are more than double the normal prices. A Komatipoort resident, who asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal from South African dealers, described the maize trade with Mozambique as 'an industry of enormous proportions, and yet there are people who are apparently prepared to abuse it by charging these inflated prices for a basic commodity'.
SADCC RESPONSE
The drought was one of the main topics on the agenda of the SADCC July summit in Maputo. The final communique warned that production 'cannot possibly provide the basic food necessary for many people in the rural areas to subsist until the 1984 harvest. More terrifying still is the threat that even this harvest may be devastated by drought'.
Natural climatic problems had been exacerbated by South African armed action and economic sabotage, aimed at forcing member states to divert a large part of their human financial and material resources to defence 'With these actions', President Samora Machinga told the summit, 'apartheid wants to keep out the offensive in the bantustanisation of its own country and in turning the rest of the region into its satellites'.
Each SADCC member state coordinates one or more sectors of the organisation's programming for economic development. Zimbabwe has been given responsibility for food security and agriculture, and has been working on proposals for coordinated efforts to fight the drought. Nine regional food security studies have been carried out, and ten agricultural projects of regional significance have been approved. Seven are in Mozambique and include food storage facilities, the others are Lesotho, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
