HARARE — Barely a month after launching what was meant to strike the world as a programme aimed at helping people out of its self-created humanitarian crisis, the Zanu (PF) regime has already hit a brick wall with its Basic Commodities Supply Side Intervention (BACOSSI) programme, Zimdaily can exclusively reveal.

 

Clearly a cheap populist antic right from the beginning, the programme received much pomp and fanfare by the regime as it tried to appear to be the messiah of the people it has dragged into starvation and serious poverty.

 

 

But Zimdaily reveals that not only has it been largely insignificant in trying to alleviate the suffering of Zimbabweans, the ill-fated gimmick is already as good as collapsed.

 

Confidential information obtained from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), which has been funding and administering BACOSSI, shows that the central bank-grappling with a long list of requirements by the regime has been forced to suspend imports of basic commodities from mainly South Africa and that means the death of Bacossi.

 

The major development during the past three weeks, investigations revealed, has been warnings issued to Zimbabwe by South Africa’s Eskom and another power supplier whose name was not immediately available that they were about to switch off supplies to Zimbabwe unless huge debts, reportedly amounting to US$100 million were cleared. (see separate story on power here on Zimdaily).

 

We have established that RBZ Governor, Gideon Gono has been saving every bit of forex for paying the power suppliers and even went onto the black market like a whirlwind with huge amounts of local currency to massively buy forex, thereby recently triggering a huge rise in the prices of forex on the market.

 

Gono is also staring on his desk demands of huge amounts on forex to import vital water treatment chemicals, drugs and fuel.

 

This situation has forced the regime to put on hold importations of goods for Bacossi and we established that distributions, which were being done in rural areas, have in the past week been grinding to a halt.

 

“Bacossi has been put on wait because there have not been imports recently and it is likely to be abandoned as more pressing issues require attention,” a senior RBZ official said on condition of anonymity.

 

Zimdaily on Friday visited two depots in Harare which have been used to receive and store Bacossi goods and confirmed that at one of them it has been two weeks since there were last deliveries from SA whilst the other has not received anything since the initial deliveries were spent up just after Robert Mugabe, leader of the Zanu (PF) regime launched the programme in Harare.

 

“We have not received any new deliveries since the launch but I am not aware of why,” an official at one of the depots said.

 

 

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