Permission: Margaret Kriel, Bulawayo morning mirror Famine in Zimbabwe due to destruction of agricultural sector leads to empty supermarket shelves. Margaret Kriel runs a website called the Bulawayo Morning Mirror to collect cash with some local advertising on it for her charity : she also does a monthly run to South Africa to fetch food supplies for UK old-age pensioners in Bulawayo who would starve without her.

For those left behind, Mugabe's suppression of his people has left the vast majority of the population in desperate straits, unable to afford food, and trying to survive without any healthcare. Thousands of doctors and nurses have left the collapsing health care system, reports CNN here The Save the Children fund says they have only managed to reach 123,000 people with food aid this month. They have also managed to save 13,000 people from dying of cholera and anthrax infections. The vast majority of children can no longer afford school. The Save the Children's fund wants to urgently set up feeding stations for at least 100,000 people in the rural areas to try and at least save the mother-and-babies from starvation. Meanwhile Mugabe's regime in Zimbabwe continues to receive a stream of food-supplies and money from neighbouring South Africa - which food is however distributed only to Mugabe's own supporters, the military and the police.