HARARE, 10 August 2007 (IRIN) - It's early morning and a small truck with fake number plates draws upto a shopping centre in St Mary's, a populous suburb in the dormitory town of Chitungwiza - about 30km from the capital Harare - and within minutes long queues form after the word spreads that there is beef for sale.

Beef has become a rare commodity in the country and being sold at a price of Z$100,000 (US$0.40 at the parallel market exchange rate of Z$250,000 for US$1) a kilogram from the back of the truck, those queuing cannot believe their luck. When beef was readily available it was sold for as much as Z$550,000 (US$2.2) a kilogram.

After 30 minutes the truck has sold its stock and hurriedly disappears, and then it dawns on the customers that they have been duped and have bought donkey meat, condsidered unedible by Zimbabweans.

In rural Dema, which lies on the southern border of Chitungwiza, Chrispen Mutongi, 53, awoke to discover that his two donkeys had been stolen and alerted the police, who later found the remains of his animals on a roadside in the dormitory town.

They had apparently been killed and skinned the evening before the truck appeared at St Mary's, making it possible that the meat sold as beef were his donkeys.

"If the thieves had stolen goats or cattle and sold the meat, it would be understandable but that they had the guts to sell donkey meat to unsuspecting people just shows how cruel these people can become in their quest to make fast money during these difficult days," Mutongi told IRIN.

Mutongi used the donkeys in tandem with his three cattle, but without them, Mutongi says he will not have sufficient draught power to adequately till his land next months when the rains are due and expects bad yields from his crops this season, which will only add to his households worsening hunger.

There has been a spate of livestock thefts in the Dema area and residents have now taken to keeping their goats and chickens in their homes as a security precaution, whereas before the livestock would be housed in pens away from the homesteads.

"Of course, we always experienced thefts particularly of poultry but the cases have sharply gone up in the villages in the last month. What we have gathered is that those who steal the goats and chicken sell them in Chitungwiza and Harare," said Mutongi, who is urging the police crackdown on the informal trade of meat products.

Price controls

It is just one more incident reflecting the increasing desperation among consumers, after President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF government introduced price controls six weeks ago in a bid to cap inflation levels that have surged beyond 4,000 percent, resulting in shop shelves becoming barren.

According to the police 7,660 people have been arrested for overpricing after they failed to reduce prices by 50 percent since the price controls were introduced and beef and other livestock products have all but disappeared from butcheries.

When butcheries were ordered by price control taskforce inspectors to price their beef between Z$90,000 (US$0.36) and Z$120,000 (US$0.48) a kilogram, abbattoirs stopped slaughtering arguing that they would be operating at a loss since they were still buying beasts at high price. The government revoked the abbattoirs' licences and brought the parastatal, the Cold Storage Company (CSC), out of mothballs, and gave them the sole right to slaughter and distribute meat.

But the CSC is struggling to meet demands, even though the parastatal increased the price of a head of cattle from Z$3 million (US$12) to Z$12 million (US$48), still far short of the Z$40 million (US$160) price that were obtainable before the price blitz.

"Now is the time for the government to take stock of Operation Reduce Prices and revisit the rationale behind it against the negative implications it has had on consumers," Innocent Makwiramiti, a Harare-based economist, businessman and past chief executive officer of the Zimbabwe National Chamber of Commerce (ZNCC) told IRIN.

"That consumers can become so desperate as to fail to distinguish between donkey meat and genuine beef reflects their vulnerability in an environment of extreme scarcity offset by bad policies. It is not only consumers but livestock owners as well who are affected as unscrupulous people take advantage of the situation," he said.

"Before the blitz, the CSC was not functioning and was hurriedly revived at a time private abattoirs were closed down. It is poorly capitalised and lacks the necessary infrastructure for a massive rollout of beef. That means, for as long as there is no change in policy, beef will remain scarce in this country," said Makwiramiti.

The CSC said recently it required least Z$700 billion (US$2.8 million)to function properly, but as yet has only received a first tranche of Z$80 billion (US$320,000) from the government.

Poachers and rustlers

At a time when drinking taverns are experiencing low patronage because of the unavailability of beer and meat, a butcher, who identified himself only as Nick to IRIN has managed to maintain a constant supply of meat.

"I did not cause the current shortage of beef and I will be the last to moralise about who brings me the stuff and where he or she gets it. I have managed to strike it with some 'connections' of mine who give me regular supplies of both game meat and beef.

"Of course, I know that some of the meat is poached or rustled from farmers and rural cattle owners and even game parks, but it is the work of the police to investigate that," Nick told IRIN.

Edward Mbewe, the Parks and Wildlife Management Authority spokesperson, told the state-run Herald newspaper recently that the government was "concerned that the continued demand for meat now with our animals that are edible roaming our parks, we could be seeing a worse poaching situation."

When meat is sourced, it has often been transported in unhygienic conditions, but consumers care little for that or the legality of the meat.

"When you have gone for a month without tasting beef, hygiene is the last thing that comes to your mind. There is a sense of victory when you manage to bring a morsel of meat to the table," John Mangirazi, a patron of one of Harare's taverns told IRIN.

Nick is not deterred that if caught selling the meat of stolen animals that he could face a jail sentence of 30 years under strict anti-rustling legislation.

He sells a kilogramme of game meat for Z$600,000 (US$2.4), arguing that "the price monitors cannot touch me since it is not controlled", but even the beef he sells at Z$450,000 (US$1.8) is above the gazetted price; although he does not expect to be arrested becasue he has "made friends" with the price control monitors.

Conservationists believe about 80 percent of Zimbabwe's wildlife population has been killed since 2000 when the government embarked on a controversial land redistribution programme that saw commercial farms owned by whites redistributed to landless blacks.

There have been reports of villagers hunting down elephants for food, particularly in areas close to nature conservancies, but smaller animals such as hares and kudu are prime targets in rural areas.

Beef has joined the ever growing list of shortages in Zimbabwe, which includes, fuel, electricty, potable water and staple foods. The Food and Agriculture Organisation and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) issued a joint report on Zimbabwe's food security in June, predicting that "people at risk (from severe food shortages) will peak at 4.1 million in the first three months of 2008 - more than a third of Zimbabwe's estimated population of 11.8 million."

The WFP made an urgent an US$118 million appeal on Wednesday to raise funds for the millions of Zimbabweans facing severe food shortages.

fm/go/he

© IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis: http://www.irinnews.org

IRIN news