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Prompted by the ongoing political crisis in Zimbabwe, the government of South Africa announced that it will be withholding millions of dollars of agricultural aid to the country. In a statement released yesterday, South Africa’s cabinet strongly suggested that “no amount of political disagreement can ever justify the suffering that ordinary Zimbabweans are being subjected to at the moment.” After disputed elections earlier this year, a power sharing deal signed onto in September by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and his chief political rival Morgan Tsvangirai of the Movement for Democratic Change has nearly disintegrated. The agreement called for a twin cabinet structure, which quickly became a source of disagreement when Mugabe appointed a number of important ministries to members of his own Zanu-PF party. The recent outbreak of cholera, which has claimed 160 lives by some estimates, was cited in the strongly worded South African statement as a humanitarian consequence of a continuing political impasse over constitutional and cabinet positions within a unity government. While former South African President Thabo Mbeki has invited Mugabe and Tsvangirai to negotiate next week, a humanitarian mission headed by Former President Jimmy Carter, Kofi Annan and Graca Machel will be going to Zimbabwe this Saturday to assess the economic and humanitarian crisis.

GUEST: Briggs Bomba, is a Zimbabwean born Economist working for Africa Action in Washington DC. For more information, visit www.africaaction.org.