Pretoria - An interdepartmental task team that visited Zimbabwe over the past two weeks has found compliance in terms of the Southern African Development Community's (SADC) framework for targeted distribution of South Africa's R300 million agri-aid package to Zimbabwe.
Briefing the media on Wednesday, Government Spokesperson Themba Maseko said Cabinet was pleased to note that all reports indicated that the aid was distributed in full compliance of the SADC Zimbabwean Humanitarian Development Assistance Framework and that the aid was indeed received by the targeted ordinary Zimbabweans.
"We are satisfied that the South African aid was received by the targeted ordinary Zimbabweans," Mr Maseko said.
The SADC Zimbabwean Humanitarian Development Assistance Framework was put in place following an earlier visit to Zimbabwe by Director-General in the Presidency, Reverend Frank Chikane, and an interdepartmental task team.
"This framework provided for the establishment of multi-stakeholder structures to ensure that the aid was distributed in a non-partisan way."
As part of the SADC initiative, Compound D and top dressing fertilizers, as well as seeds of early maturing varieties of maize, sorghum, sugar beans, cow peas and groundnuts, were sourced from South Africa and given to targeted small scale farmers in Zimbabwe.
Mr Maseko explained that the SADC aid package should not be confused with two Zimbabwean-led agricultural initiatives namely the Champions Farmer Programme, and the Presidents Programme, he said.
Recent media reports have confused the aid given by SADC with aid that was given to Zimbabwean farmers by their own government, he said.
With regards to the recent launch of 2010 FIFA World Cup ticket sales, Mr Maseko said Cabinet had expressed concern that not enough South Africans were purchasing tickets. He said this could be attributed to a lack of local marketing.
"The meeting welcomes the positive news that the sale of tickets for the 2010 FIFA Word Cup was proceeding well. However, Cabinet shares the concern that South Africans are not purchasing the tickets.
"Extra measures will have to be put in place jointly with the Local Organising Committee (LOC) to ensure that the Confederations Cup and the World Cup finals are marketed to South Africans," he said.
A lack of spending on the part of the LOC and the International Marketing Council (IMC) could be responsible for the slow uptake in ticket purchases by South Africans, he said, adding, it was a challenge that government and the LOC would work on together.
Campaigns were needed to market the tournaments to South Africans, Mr Maseko said, adding that even the major sponsors for the events had not invested enough funds in marketing the tournaments.
"I do, however, know that one of the major sponsors, Coca-Cola, will be putting 2010 messages on their cans soon to promote the World Cup," Mr Maseko said.
