• STATEMENT BY C CLOETE - PRESIDENT CFU
• Zimbabwe looting 'costs farmers $3.8m'
• Maude calls for action against Mugabe
• Listening for the slow death of a life
• MESSAGE FROM ROY BENNET AND DAVID COLTART
• We have a moral responsibility for Zimbabwe
• Novelist Doris Lessing slams Zimbabwe's Mugabe
• crisis in Zimbabwe threatens the future of Africa
• The Farmer 6/8/01
  • Violence on farms to blame for low production - Henwood
  • Farmers, Minister in face-to-face debate
  • ZIMACE suspends operations, seeks legal advice
  • Kay wins court order on Chipesa Farm
  • Eco-tourism key to Southern Africa's economy
• Leadership, not PR - The Farmer
• Zimbabwe police help the looters, claim farmers
• Farmers driven off by 'orgy of banditry'
• Police vehicles used in farm looting spree
• Zimdollar continues to depreciate
• ZWnews 14/8/01
  • US attacks 'abuses' - BBC
  • Orgy of banditry - Times
  • Seeking a way out of chaos - FT
  • Mugabe at CHOGM 'problematic' - Times
  • Crisis threatens the future of Africa - Independent

Zimbabwe looting 'costs farmers $3.8m'
"This situation has been too organised, too well orchestrated to have been unplanned"		A week of looting in Zimbabwe has cost white farmers more than $3.8 million, claims the Commercial Farmers Union It estimates that over 210 million Zimbabwean dollars worth of property has been lost in a week of ransacking and looting by mobs who have also assaulted scores of farm workers in Doma and Mhangura. Looters have made away with tractors, vehicles, fertiliser and other farming equipment, in several cases leaving farms almost entirely stripped. State television reported that common thieves had joined in the fray, with some coming from as far afield as Kariba in the northern tip of the country to carry off refrigerators and other household goods from abandoned farms. On Saturday, Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe warned white farmers against attacking militants, a day after a court in Chinhoyi denied bail to 23 farmers who were charged with inciting public violence after clashes a week ago on an occupied farm in the area. And Provincial Governor Peter Chanetsa was adamant those farmers had no farms to go back to when they were released from jail. "We are taking these farms" he said. Over the last year supporters of President Robert Mugabe's ruling ZANU-PF party have invaded hundreds of white-owned farms, backing his drive to seize two thirds of the 30 million acres for redistribution to blacks. A CFU spokesman, who declined to be named for security reasons, said four farmers were briefly detained on Sunday before being released. Nine farmers have been killed in the violence that has accompanied the invasions since they started. Orchestrated unrest "This situation has been too organised, too well orchestrated to have been unplanned," Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) President Colin Cloete said. In a statement at the weekend, he said the chaos could only be stopped by political action. The chief police spokesman, Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena, said farmers were exaggerating the situation in Chinhoyi and that police were trying to stem the crisis despite accusations to the contrary. "Despite the CFU's position that we are not doing anything, by last night alone 12 people had been arrested in the Mhangura area and we have also recovered a substantial amount of property," Bvudzijena said. "The situation has been exaggerated. We are doing the best we can under the hostile environment the farmers themselves have created," he added.

From The Telegraph [UK]

Maude calls for action against Mugabe
(Filed: 14/08/2001)

SHADOW foreign secretary Francis Maude has called for targeted sanctions against President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.

Mr Maude called for Mr Mugabe to be excluded from the Commonwealth heads of government meeting in Australia and demanded an international travel ban against the leader and his "murderous henchmen".

He also expressed concern over the England's cricket team's proposed tour of Zimbabwe later this year.

"If things continue to deteriorate as they are, there will be a safety issue for them and I think they will need to think very carefully about that," he said.

Mr Maude said it was important that action should be taken against the regime rather than the people of Zimbabwe.

Violence on farms to blame for low production - Henwood
Farmers, Minister in face-to-face debate
ZIMACE suspends operations, seeks legal advice
Kay wins court order on Chipesa Farm
Eco-tourism key to Southern Africa's economy

Violence on farms to blame for low production - Henwood

ZIMBABWEAN farmers have this year been unable to realise their full potential despite ample rainfall and many sectors have produced well below capacity due to the prevailing political and economic climate, and as a result, the country now faces food shortages.

Speaking at the official opening of the 58th Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU) congress, the out going CFU President, Mr Tim Henwood, told delegates that while several reasons have been given for the reduced output, the major factor has been the state of lawlessness prevailing in the commercial farming areas.

Farmers have been prevented from planning and carrying out their business operations in the face of violence, threats and abuse on their farms, which has resulted in uncertainty and loss of confidence, He said

"We have all the ingredients for success and yet, after several seasons of good rains when our, larders should be full, because of the current political climate we face food shortages and reduced production." Mr Henwood said

He said for farmers to pursue profitable and sustainable agricultural production and trade there was need for the creation of confidence to invest with the knowledge that the investment is secure and that the rule of the land will be upheld and that the decisions of an independent judiciary will respected.

There had to be confidence too that our daily labours will be rewarded in a manner governed by sound economic principles and confidence from financial institutions and their customers that the environment in which they are operating is stable.

Mr Henwood said the overall farm viability was seriously threatened with input costs rising weekly and many farmers having difficulty in negotiating seasonal support from the banks. He said the interminable government lists of farms to be acquired had eroded bankers' confidence in the industry to the extent that most finance houses withdrew support immediately upon publication of the property concerned. However, he said, other players had stepped into the breach and were borrowing money to on-lend to farmers.

"Never before, even in the darkest days of the war of independence, have farmers or their workers had to face what they have been through this year, in terms of the violence, beatings, threats and orchestrated work stoppages and extreme provocation, without any notable support from the forces of law and order," he said.

In view of all these, he said, farmers have showed resilience. He said even attempts to undermine the leadership of the CFU and its senior executives failed.

He expressed hope that the Zimbabwe Joint Resettlement Initiative, mooted out of the CFU special congress in March, would yield positive results in resolving the land issue.

He however said the initiative would enable the country to engage the international donor community once more, without whose support successful land reform would not be possible.

Farmers, Minister in face-to-face debate

MEMBERS of Zimbabwe's Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) and Minister of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement, Dr Joseph Made, squared off to a face-to-face debate on a variety of issues concerning agriculture but mostly on the thorny issue of the controversial land reform programme at the union's 58th annual congress this week.

The farmers challenged Dr Made to act on the rogue so called war veterans who have significantly contributed to the slump in production by disrupting farming activities through threats and violence. They told Dr Made that while this was happening police watched from the sidelines despite appeals for help from the farmers. Farmers said they wanted to know why the war veterans were being allowed to take the law into their own hands.

However, Dr Made stunned farmers when he defended the war veterans. Amid audible sighs of disbelief, he claimed those who were causing havoc were not genuine war veterans but impostors as genuine war veterans were a disciplined lot.

"Surely our war veterans with the discipline they got in the struggle can not do that," he said

Farmers said while they acknowledged the need for land reform the redress the land imbalances the fast track land reform was not sustainable and not transparent as it was not properly planned and funded. The country was now facing maize shortages despite the assertions by Dr Made earlier in the year that the there would be no food shortages because the newly resettled farmers would produce about 600 000 tonnes of maize.

Dr Made said Zimbabwe was not the only country in the region that was facing shortages and that maize was now being used by some elements for political reasons.

Dr Made also said with the $15 billion input scheme for communal and resettled farmers, production for 2001/2002 season was set to increase with a record maize crop of 4,8 million tonnes expected.

CFU director, Mr Hasluck said he did not think the $15 billion referred to by Dr Made was available at all considering that the country was even failing to pay its debts running into billions of dollars among other things that also needed money. He said at the moment Grain Marketing Board needed over $6 billion, which it does not have to purchase maize.

Mr David Hasluck said 4 593 farms covering over 8 million ha of land have so far been listed for acquisition and farmers were now uncertain on the future. Other farmers said they did not understand the reasons behind the listing of almost all the farms for resettlement.

Dr Made said these farms were listed because most of them were not being fully utilised. He said each farmer should now approach his ministry and show why his farm should be spared. He said each farmer should only have that part of the land that he is fully utilising and relinquish the rest to government for resettlement.

"Who among you here can tell me they are fully utilising all the land they have? Dr Made asked.

He told farmers it was only fair that land dispossessed and land hungry people, from moral and economic points of views, are given a fair opportunity of utilising the resource that they have been long denied.

"You know our process based on the land identification committee. Make your representations as to the reasons why you think yours should be delisted," said Dr Made.

He said the land issue raises a lot of challenges for each farmer whose property has been designated. He urged those affected not to take the law into their own hands but to consult with his ministry to minimise a "head-on collision."

In his presentation to congress, Mr Hasluck, said land reform should be done in accordance to the law and "stick by our principles with a realistic view of long-term prospects". He said farmers should take all legal defences available to them and compromises that are reached "outside the law de facto become political gestures."

Dr Made then warned farmers that going to court would not stop the government from continuing with what it had already started. He said, "If you so desire to take the government to court in this noble exercise the government is left with no option except to defend our noble cause in the courts."

Cattle producers Association chairman, Mr Tim Reynolds, appealed to Dr Made to help the cattle industry. He said at the moment the Veterinary Services Department officials were being harassed and prevented from carrying out their duties of regulating cattle movement and expressed concern over the deteriorating situation in Save Conservancy and the Gonarezhou where veterinary fences were being cut and cattle being moved in and out. Mr Reynolds said this was threatening the EURO beef export quota.

Dr Made said the communal cattle needed alternative grazing land. He said communal people had the largest herds of cattle compared to commercial but little grazing land and until that was addressed such problems were bound to continue.

ZIMACE suspends operations, seeks legal advice

THE Zimbabwe Agricultural Commodity Exchange, Zimace a private marketing agency for agricultural produce, has suspended operations and is investigating the possibility of challenging in court the government ruling declaring maize and wheat controlled commodities.

Government issued Statutory Instrument 235A of 2001 on 16 July which declared maize and maize products, wheat and wheat products to be controlled products within Zimbabwe in terms of the Grain Marketing Board Act. This effectively made it illegal to buy, sell or move maize or wheat and their respective products within Zimbabwe other than to or from GMB depots.

In a statement entitled ""Free trade in Zimbabwe abolished" this week, Zimace chairman, Alan Burl said ; " We are currently seeking legal council as to the legitimacy of the legislation and plan to take the matter further."

But in the interim, he said: " it is not sustainable to continue operations at the exchange and it has been proposed that trade be officially suspended until the matter is resolved."

Mr Burl said Zimace was still trying to establish the motive for the new legislation, as it was unlikely to ameliorate the impending maize shortage in the country. "We have failed to establish the positive effects," he said: "There is a shortage of maize in the country and the new legislation will not improve the situation, if anything, it will deteriorate," Mr Burl said.

He expressed concern that there was no consultation between the responsible Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement and the industry as a whole. "It is unclear what exactly the objectives of the new legislation may be," he said. "Furthermore, there still remain many gray areas that need to be clarified." For instance, he noted, the industry was initially informed that the legislation was not retrospective and existing contracts would remain intact yet there have now been many cases where deliveries on such contracts have been halted with no apparent recourse.

Zimace was set up to operate an open market where buyers and sellers of agricultural products, including maize and wheat, could meet, through their brokers, to trade at transparent market prices, after the government liberalized agricultural commodity trade in 1993. The exchange has grown steadily since then and accounts got $3 billion in trade per annum.

Kay wins court order on Chipesa Farm

IAIN Kay, the Ruzawi River farmer brutally assaulted and left for dead by illegal squatters last year, has been granted a provisional High Court order preventing further illegal activity on his Chipesa Farm. The order was granted by High Court judge Mrs Justice Sandra Mungwira, and issued against police commissioner Augustine Chihuri, Mashonaland East Governor David Karimanzira, local provincial and district administrators, the local police and the Central Intelligence Organisation.

The order instructs all respondents to allow Mr Kay to continue with his normal farming operations and to prevent all further pegging and laying out of household plots on the property.

Last month, Iain Kay faced another harrowing invasion when self-styled war veterans forced their way into his home, driving about 120 farm workers ahead of them. Kay spent a nightmare weekend barricaded in one side of his home while war veterans chanted racist slogans from his dining room. Police stood by impassively throughout the invasion while the Mr Kay heard that he had 30 days to leave the property.

In the home with Kay were his son David and neighbours Kim Nielson and Trevor Steel who withstood the terror siege while so-called war veterans vandalised Kay's tobacco seedbeds, causing an estimated $600 000 worth of damage. Alongside the property senselessly damaged were experimental seedbeds for Kutsaga Research Station where top researchers were growing methyl bromide - free seedlings. The experimental seedbeds were destroyed completely, together with hundreds of metres of plastic tunnels and irrigation pipes.

The respondents were given 10 days from 30 July to respond to the order. If they fail to do so, the case will be heard unopposed by the High Court in Harare. Augustine Chihuri, who is named as the first respondent, has in the past openly declared his support for Zimbabwe's ruling ZANU-PF party.

Despite repeated threats and a brutal beating, Kay has said he will not leave the farm he was born on.

Eco-tourism key to Southern Africa's economy

THE Southern African region is unlikely to compete effectively in international markets without subsidies and will have to diversify to other alternatives where it has an unparalleled advantage, which is wildlife-based tourism.

Guest speaker at the 58th annual congress of the Commercial Farmers' Union, Dr David Cumming said there is enormous wealth in attractive landscapes, charismatic wild animals and plants. Although these were under pressure from expanding rural populations and settlement, these resources were still intact but presently disappearing in many parts of Zimbabwe.

A renowned environmentalist, Dr Cumming said, "A major opportunity exists for the region to diversify land use practices in marginal areas and encompass eco-tourism as a viable and sustainable primary land use."

He said Zimbabwe was one of the first countries to devolve resource access rights over wildlife to landowners and CAMPFIRE, played a significant role in stimulating similar development in the region. He said, "There were strong linkages between communal and commercials farm Safari hunting operations that saw safari hunting earn more foreign currency in the 1990s than the beef."

He said major initiatives in conquering poverty and conserving natural resources in Southern Africa will have to come from farmers and the agricultural industry and they will almost certainly have to become the springboard for industrialisation.

However, he said, the Southern African Region has yet to appreciate, let alone acknowledge that its development is constrained by rather weak natural resource base that is greatly in need of careful nurturing.

He said Southern Africa was a predominantly arid or semi arid region with uncertain rainfall averaging less than 750mm with recurrent but unpredictable droughts.

"It is clear that we have a variable and unpredictable climate in which low input and subsistence farming can not be relied upon to regularly produce adequate staple food," he said.

He said the soils of Southern Africa were geologically some of the oldest hence key nutrients had long since been depleted and the soils are mostly infertile. He said 66% of Southern Africa's soils have low or no agricultural potential.

Dr Cumming said there is a mismatch between the distribution of human populations and of land suitable for cultivation and the production of staple foods was not keeping pace with human population growth and there is the prevalence of human and animal diseases.

06 August 2001

Leadership, not PR

ZIMBABWE'S commercial farmers have chosen a new leader. It was a smooth transition, which is good, but it was also a sensible one. Colin Cloete, who was vice president, is now the union's president. William Hughes will remain as vice president, with Doug Taylor-Freeme joining the trio as the other vice president. The transition will ensure continuity while bringing in fresh blood in the form of Mr Taylor-Freeme, who showed considerable mettle as chairman of the oilseeds association.

Still, it's not enough for farmers to welcome the new without acknowledging the old. Tim Henwood will return to his farm in Banket after two bruising years as president. No leader in the history of organised agriculture in Zimbabwe endured the sustained pressure he suffered, though he did his job with honesty and integrity. Mr Henwood's critics say that he offered no solutions, no answers to the terrible plight farmers find themselves in. Of he course he didn't. Because there are no answers, still less solutions.

The honest thing to say is that between now and next year's presidential elections, precious little progress will be made. There will be talk, there may even be promises made (and quickly broken) and there will be reassurances. While all that is happening, Mr Mugabe will ensure, whatever the cost, that his Machiavellian plans to remain ensconced are implemented. Farmers will continue to endure threats and intimidation until the election.

This is a low level war, fought at one level on a public relations battleground. Farmers, for some reason, set great store by public relations, though public relations is little more than the art of lying and prevaricating, of putting an acceptable gloss on the unacceptable. Government is using every public relations trick in a special book used by pariah regimes from Baghdad to Bujumbura. To counter this, farmers need leadership, not PR. And leadership with the courage to admit that the immediate future looks bleak, but that in a year's time they will be able to resolve the crisis facing agriculture. It is a waiting game, a time to sit tight and accept that nothing much will change right now.

Mr Mugabe has a plan. Whatever the cost to Zimbabwe, he wants to win next year's presidential election and to that end he has brought anarchy to his country. To counter the negative effects of the anarchy, he has hired very expensive, if unprincipled, PR consultants in the USA. He uses deluded has-beens like Mr Andrew Young to promulgate the insane assertion that the Zimbabwean Crisis is a figment of the west's imagination, that there is nothing wrong with wholesale terror, intimidation, rape and murder to achieve one's goals.

Farmers need to understand that. But they also need to understand that having a plan is one thing, making it succeed quite another. Mr Mugabe's plan is a desperate one, and like many desperate plans, it's more likely to fail than succeed. That is where organised agriculture's hope lies - and no where else.

It is obvious that Mr Henwood understood all this, but that those who thought themselves "bigger and better" (to use his words) attempted to undermine his leadership, with near disastrous consequences for farmers. The fact of the matter is that Tim Henwood did his best, and in doing his best he maintained unity among farmers under impossible conditions. He also averted disaster, for it was always ZANU-PF's intention to topple the CFU leadership and divide farmers. "There are two ways of destroying a people. Either condemn them en bloc or force them to repudiate the leaders they adopted. The second is the worst." The words are Sartre's, who also fittingly said, "I hate victims who respect their executioners." Both are entirely apposite in today's context.

It will take strength to match Mr Henwood's to take farmers through to the election. And honesty, too. It'll also take brains, because Mr Mugabe is intelligent if nothing else and this isn't (nor ever was) a war that's going to be won in the sergeants' mess. Bravado and bombast won't achieve anything, nor will fulminating at a problem that won't go away until it's supposed to go away.

But there are many problems. While farmers are generally united, they are perhaps not quite united enough. There are still those who believe the problem can be talked through - and sadly some who believe it can be bought. There is no problem with talk, provided it costs nothing, but there are huge problems with buying oneself out of the crisis - not least the fact that it can only be a temporary measure. A resolution requires integrity, not the obfuscation of a PR merchant, and the strength of character to admit that, as of this moment, there will be no letting up of pressure on farmers. For almost two years, ordinary farmers have been begging for answers. It's time they were told there are none, though there will be in the future. The problem is that leadership is about politics, and politicians don't much like being bearers of bad news, or no news at all. Now that those farmers and businessmen who've been trotting around the country promising that agriculture's salvation lies in the arms of the ruling party have been discredited (though perhaps not sufficiently discredited), it's time for those who know that salvation lies only in surviving the next nine months to come out and say so.

Brian Latham
Editor- The Farmer

A Daily News team witnessed the looting of Mhungwe Farm in Mhangura yesterday afternoon. At Palm Tree Farm, eight people tried to stab Ronnie Strathers, 71, before other farmers came to his rescue. Another farmer who refused to be named said Kelvin Nel, of Temperly Farm in the same area, yesterday spotted a group of about 60 looters loading stolen bags of fertiliser onto a truck belonging to the farm. They fled when they realised they had been caught red-handed. The looters got away with $3 million worth of agricultural chemicals and 5 000 litres of diesel from the farm. One farmer said the main house at Kalami Farm in the Doma area was torched on Saturday and most of the farmers were forced to evacuate their wives and children to safety as the farm violence escalated. At least 60 families were evacuated from the Makonde District. The police spokesman, Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena, yesterday confirmed the lawlessness on the farms and said 12 people have been arrested in connection with the looting. Speaking on ZBC-TV, Bvudzijena said the police had increased the number of mobile support units in the area and he appealed “to the nation” to desist from looting. A spokesman for the Commercial Farmers’ Union (CFU) on Saturday said: “There was an evacuation of women and children. Some flew out, others drove out. They were all accounted for.” The CFU said by Saturday, $167 million worth of buildings and property had been destroyed on nine farms by the rampaging mobs. On ZBC-TV on Sunday, John Nkomo, the Zanu PF national chairman and Minister of Home Affairs, said there was a criminal element among the war veterans and Zanu PF supporters spearheading the violence and looting on the farms. Yesterday, a farmer in the Mhangura area, who refused to be identified, said: “They are stealing maize and carrying away fertiliser. We hear that there are busloads that have been brought in. The situation is terrible.” “Some of them are driving around in police vehicles. They are taking furniture, television sets and video cassette recorders and throwing them into swimming pools.” On Saturday, a mob besieged Jeremy Brown in his house at Piringani Farm for about six hours, threatening to shoot him. He was rescued by colleagues after the police failed to respond to calls for help. At Chifundi Farm, the invaders broke into the house of the farm owner’s mother a widow in her 70s and looted nearly all the household property, before they were disturbed by other farmers. The current wave of attacks started last week as 21 farmers appeared in the Chinhoyi magistrates’ court charged with public violence after a clash with illegal settlers at Listonshields Farm in the Chinhoyi area. The farmers were remanded in custody to 24 August by senior magistrate Godfrey Gwaka last Friday. Lawyers representing the farmers failed to file an urgent bail application with the High Court because there was no one to receive their papers at the Attorney-General’s Office on Saturday.

A stockbroker said last week: “The United States dollar is actually chasing the new $500 note that is to be released shortly by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ). The situation has actually got out of hand.”
The new $500 note is to be introduced on 31 August. A $5 coin will also hit the streets on the same day, replacing the $5 note.
The Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, in conjunction with the RBZ, continues to peg the Zimbabwe dollar at $55 against the US currency, even though all companies, government-influenced business organisations, such as parastatals, as well as commercial banks, are using parallel market rates.
The National Oil Company of Zimbabwe (Noczim), the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa) and the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) are all facing billion-dollar debts because they have to source their money from the parallel market.
Sagit Stockbrokers (Pvt) Ltd, in its commentary last week, said: “All macroeconomic indicators point to a troubled economy, if the present
monetary policy stance is pursued. The official exchange rate market has completely dried up as the government maintains the exchange rate at $55:1, while the parallel rate is now more than $220:1. Sometime this year we pointed out that unless the government periodically adjusted the official exchange rate in line with macroeconomic developments the dollar would continue to depreciate on the parallel market.”
Stockbrokers said speculation on the currency had continued, reflecting the underlying shortage of foreign currency in the economy.
They said all importers were facing the parallel market exchange, which had been factored into prices of products with an import content.
“This has fuelled inflation as Zimbabwe imports much of her raw materials and manufactured commodities,” Sagit said.
The Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries (CZI) has already expressed its concern and dismay with the measures announced by the RBZ on
25 June regarding the sharing of foreign currency earned by exporters.
Exporters were forced to give Noczim and Zesa 25 percent of their earnings.
Zed Rusike, the outgoing CZI president, said: “It seems the authorities are concentrating on the sharing of the dwindling foreign exchange pie instead of taking measures to increase it, which is our only real way of reviving the economy.”
Stockbrokers said it was saddening to note that it now seemed there was “no workable solution in sight to the foreign currency crisis and the balance of payments position continues to worsen”.

• US attacks 'abuses' - BBC
• Orgy of banditry - Times
• Seeking a way out of chaos - FT
• Mugabe at CHOGM 'problematic' - Times
• Crisis threatens the future of Africa - Independent

The writer is Professor of Political Studies at the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa.