Two die in Zimbabwe stampedes

Two people died in stampedes at the exit gates of Zimbabwe’s annual agriculture show, which was packed with crowds lured by scarce snack foods and soft drinks and stalls selling cheap Chinese toys and consumer goods.

A woman and a child – one of scores of lost children separated from family members – died in two separate surges against the gates on Saturday, police spokesman James Sabau told state radio today.

Attendances at this year’s show at the Harare Exhibition Park were the highest for several years, with many people hoping to find produce which has disappeared from normal stores in Zimbabwe’s acute economic crisis. It was also the biggest in years as exhibitors said they were lured to the show in hopes of being allowed to sell their animals.

A cattle auction was banned on Thursday at the showground by price control authorities after it became clear bidders from butcheries, hotels and groups of private buyers were willing to pay up to 10 times the government’s fixed price for on-the-hoof beef in the meat-starved nation.

A government order to slash prices of all goods and services by about half in a bid to tame the world’s highest inflation in June has left shelves bare of meat, corn meal, bread, milk, eggs and other staples.

Officials at the six-day event said about 100,000 people entered the gates on Friday. No tally was immediately available for Saturday.

Crowds jostled at the exit gates at the closing on Saturday, hurrying to get into lines for public transport outside, witnesses said. Acute petrol shortages have crippled transportation services.

Commuters routinely wait more than three hours to board buses for a 30-minute trip to Harare’s satellite townships.

Official inflation is given as 7,634%, though independent estimates put real inflation closer to 25,000%. The International Monetary Fund has forecast it could reach 100,000% by the end of the year.

Earlier this month, two people died in a stampede in a sugar queue in the second city of Bulawayo. One woman also went into labour in a food line, assisted only by a passer-by after other shoppers intent on keeping their place in the line ignored her cries for help.

In southern Zimbabwe, another woman died of strangulation when her neck scarf caught in a petrol-fuelled generator during the nation’s daily power cuts.

Attorneys this week reported clients facing acute food shortages in prisons. Relatives asked to bring food often could not find enough in the shops or get rides to prisons.

A panel of lawmakers has reported acute shortages of basic foods in government youth training centres favoured for the training of ruling-party militants blamed for much of country’s political violence and intimidation.

The state Sunday Mail newspaper, meanwhile, reported 36,000 tons of wheat destined for Zimbabwe was being held at the Mozambique port of Beira awaiting payment.

With shortages of bread and bakery products worsening, Didymus Mutasa, the powerful security and lands minister, said the nation’s wheat was down to a week’s supply.

“We do not have wheat stocks at the moment. We are feeding from hand to mouth. As soon as we pay, a little amount is brought in ... this is usually a week’s supply,” he was quoted as saying by the paper.