Plan to steal aid from flood victims
The uncovering of a scheme to steal millions of rands worth of humanitarian aid intended for 60000 Mozambique flood survivors has forced South African aid agency Gift of the Givers to withdraw from the country's biggest displaced people's camp.
Hours before nearly R2-million worth of aid was to be distributed yesterday in the camp outside Chokwe - near the centre of the area in which floods 10 days ago killed 80 people and displaced nearly 200000 - the organisation discovered that the camp's administrators had created fake lists of beneficiaries.
The needy victims of the floods, especially the thousands of women and children living in the camp, were the intended recipients of the aid.
The order for the withdrawal of the Gift of the Givers team was given when the charity's founder, Imtiaz Sooliman, discovered that at the top of the list of aid recipients were the camp's administrators and their families.
"Things went wrong because of the Mozambican government officials. I issued instructions for lists containing the names of women and children, and of the elderly and sick, to be given to me today. Instead we discovered these bogus and fictitious lists with the names of people not in need of anything.
"They were taking from the people we were meant to be helping."
Sooliman said Gift of the Givers had immediately withdrawn their aid and set up links with church groups operating in the village of Hokwe.
More than 3500 families - many of them with severely ill infants - who lived in Chokwe fled to Hokwe when the floods struck.
Within moments of the food trucks and ambulances, along with South African soldiers, arriving in Hokwe people ran to the village centre to beg for assistance.
Church elder Domingos Utui said the situation was desperate.
"We have many families camping in empty schools and buildings. They fled here because they had nowhere to go.
"The government has been slow to provide assistance and the people had no choice but to come to us.
"We have nothing to help them with ... our villages have run out of food. Your presence here is an answer to our prayers. Without South Africa's help many would have died," said Utui.
Sooliman said his organisation would stay in Hokwe for as long as needed.
"We are giving food straight to the people ... it is not going to any administrators or government officials. We are distributing special baby food, porridge, beans, rice, maize meal and water, along with clothing and sanitary wear."
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Plan to steal aid from flood victims
For Commenters Consideration | Please stick to the subject matterCOMMENTS [11]
Mike123
Posted 107 days agoMike123
Jakes_Mathews#
donorfatigued
Posted 107 days agoI flew relief goods into Moz in the last floods of 2000 and our group of 50 or so volunteer civilian pilots, using their own airplanes and with only fuel sponsored, experienced exactly the same attempted fraud and theft from Mozambican government officials.
After ourselves setting up alternative distribution channels with the help of a local Portuguese doctor in the town of Chibuto and by completely bypassing the official drop-off point at Maputo, we could then deliver the food etc and be certain it was not being stolen.
At Maputo Airport they had the gall to actually charge pilots delivering relief goods, landing and parking fees - and to the end of the emergency they continued to do this - utterly appalling!
After the corruption and venality I saw amongst Mozambican government officials, high and low, I was so disgusted I swore never again to be involved in any such effort - certainly not at my own great cost as in 2000, and many of the pilots felt the same.
RSA.MommaCyndi
Posted 107 days agoI have personally seen bags marked "UNICEF aid relief, not for resale" on shop shelves in various countries. It is one of the primary reasons that some of the governments insist on being the ones who deliver the aid supplies.
RedCoat
Posted 107 days agoBokfanSaffer
Posted 107 days agoThat aside I once heard a very wealthy Yugoslav immigrant describe how his family had made their money during and after WW2. At refugee camps run by the US they would deliver food from the local markets. By some nefarious method they would deliver the same load to different camps each time being paid for it. Obviously a very profitable scheme but not up to Oxfam standards.
I dunno but I think slavs are reckoned to be european. That bunch also claimed to be Christian.
BokfanSaffer
Sound familiar?
Remote
Posted 107 days agoWestern donors are so gullible.
proudmbongwa
Posted 107 days agoMalwanza
Posted 105 days ago