"I feel so much embarrassed. It's very, very hard," he said. "If you see the sorry state of the people, sometimes you want to cry."
But critics say the head men and chiefs -- eyes and ears of ZANU-PF in the rural areas -- have benefited from the system for years. The government handed out cars and tractors to chiefs before the elections in March and June.
"It was fine when it worked in their favor," the diplomat said. "The council of chiefs could have stood up at any time and opposed the system but they didn't."
Mugabe's international food aid ban was also politically motivated, some villagers think. During the presidential campaign before the first round of voting in late March, Mugabe wanted to put pressure on areas that favored the opposition Movement for Democratic Change, said a 52-year-old villager named Edward.
Most people in his village, traditionally a strong ZANU-PF area, voted for opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, but switched back in the runoff election June 27 after the ruling party conducted a violent campaign for votes.
"We suspect that he [Mugabe] wanted people to feel the pinch so that they would vote for ZANU-PF," Edward said.
He and his four children live on boiled greens.
"I feel bad. I feel that I should be able to do more for my family," he said. "I should be able to feed them, because I can't let my family die."
Zimbabwe used to export grain, but after Mugabe's forced eviction of white farmers, which began in 2000, agriculture collapsed, leaving the country reliant on imported food and humanitarian aid.
The grain board official blamed corruption and poor farm production. Even with Mugabe now forced to share power with the MDC, hungry Zimbabweans face a long wait, he said.
"The coffers are empty," the official said. Tsvangirai, now the prime minister-designate, "is starting from nothing."
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robyn.dixon@latimes.com
