Source: Buyers stampede for Mugabe property – The Standard May 12, 2019
BY NJABULO NCUBE AND JAMES THOMPSON
Mazowe — Bargain hunters yesterday morning thronged former president Robert Mugabe’s dairy farm to buy equipment and other farming implements at a private auction.
Gushungo Holdings’ dairy enterprise, trading as Alpha and Omega, is on a recapitalisation drive, according to its human resources manager Farai Jemwa.
“We are not shutting down, but simply clearing out old equipment such as tractors and other junk so that we are able to do our job properly. There is a lot of junk around here, hence this auction,” said Jemwa as he showed TimesLIVE new tractors parked outside a shed.
Buyers in their hundreds were looming outside the farm before the auction could go ahead. Bidding for the property was pegged at US$2 000 or RTGS $5 000 for entry cards.
An employee at the farm said selling the equipment was the best option since repairing it had become costly because most of it had become obsolete.
While Mugabe’s Gushungo Holdings is a private company, Ricky Mukonza, a political analyst, said there was a perception that the wealth owned by Mugabe and many other current and former Zanu PF politicians was ill-gotten.
Mukonza pointed out that during Mugabe’s era there was rampant abuse of public resources for private gain, which would justify the general perception that what may appear to be their private property in actual fact belonged to the public.
“This conflation between private assets of politicians in positions of power is a cause for concern. What could be a solution going forward is for public officials and politicians to declare their privately-owned assets for accountability purposes,” he said.
Maxwell Saungweme, a development analyst, said whatever operational problems were bedevilling Mugabe’s company proved that black empowerment anchored on abuse of political power, violation of property rights, theft and plunder was not sustainable, especially when entrepreneurship skills were not developed or imparted.
“It is a typical case of a business empire built on a mirage of political power fizzling out and fading when political power departs. It’s now clear who was sustaining and bankrolling that business venture — the taxpayer,” said Saungweme. — Timeslive
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COMMENTS
What a disgusting show of wastage. “Too expensive to repair the junk?”. It shows there is no respect for something that hasn’t been paid for. MAINTENANCE keeps equipment from becoming junk!
Pathetic really. No wonder the country is broke. Where is the economics of all this hardware owned by one person on one farm? Or did it come from many farms controlled by the one person? The extend of damage and accelerated wear shows no due care at all. Can the same person who does this be entrusted with running a whole country? This is the crux of why millions are suffering – no leadership, actually very bad leadership, and they always call themselves rulers who want to dominate the ruled, like the OT kings who Yahweh said will lord it over you. Very sad indeed. Again, rulers, not leaders. A whole life wasted. This is is the real legacy for all to see.
And who allowed all this to happen? It didn’t happen in the dark. Everyone knew the theft and abuse of power was going on… and it was only when the Generals saw that Mugabe could lose the next election that they acted to remove him… not because he was so corrupt. We all knew the JOC was the center of power.
Why are we surprised?
We all must have learned from experience that when something comes too easily it is never respected.
And when you steal something it is even less respected.
Stolen assets being re cycled – this is what happens when subsistence farmers try to become commercial farmers with zero experience
The state of Bobs tractors shows us his capacity to run a farm never mind an economy. What a pathetic show.