Truckers hold back over payment
JAMES HALL
MASERU - Truckers resumed transporting emergency food shipments from the Port of Durban to Lesotho last Wednesday (February 4) after a two month delay due to non-payment from the World Food Programme.
The truckers have been sitting on shipments since December.
A source at WFP told FTW that payment problems began in November, when the United Nations humanitarian agency came up against a cash crunch. Original contracts with the trucking companies were drawn up in early 2003 in US dollars, when the dollar was 9 to a rand. The rand's appreciation caused a cash shortfall, as the agency scrambled to come up with funds to make up for the currency adjustment.
Because of drought and other factors, 600 000 people out of a national population of 2.2 million currently receive food aid. No known deaths resulted directly from the shipment delay, but HIV positive people who use food supplements to boost their nutritional levels were reportedly affected, with consequences to be measured in shortened lives later on.
Landlocked Lesotho has no rail system connected with South Africa's railway, and food supplies travel exclusively by road.
