Ray Bande Mutare Bureau
THE Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (ARDA) will soon move in to revive Kondozi Estates, which is lying in a derelict state, ARDA board chairman, Mr Basil Nyabadza has said.
Addressing a meeting held in Mutare on Friday, Mr Nyabadza revealed that although he was not yet free to disclose their detailed plan of action, the paperwork for the programme was already in progress in a move that would see the once lucrative bastion of horticultural production roaring back to life.
“I really cannot give more details about the plan to revive Kondozi Estates at the moment, but the proprietor, Minister Chris Mushohwe approached us for ways on how we can boost production at the farm and work is already in progress to see to it that we move in,” he said.
“It is one of our major targets. However, like I said, this is an issue between us and a client that we really cannot discuss with the Press.” The meeting was attended by Minister of State for Manicaland Provincial Affairs, Cde Monica Mutsvangwa, Agrillience investors and farmers. In an interview on the sidelines of the same meeting, Minister Mutsvangwa welcomed the plans to have production revived at Kondozi Estates.
“As we have heard from Mr Nyabadza, there are plans to revive Kondozi Estates and we are grateful for that,” she said. “He is already working with the tenant at the place.
“The truth of the matter is that the revival of Kondozi Estates will not only benefit the farmer at the place or the families surrounding it, but the nation at large. That is certainly good news to us.” Once a beacon of Zimbabwe’s horticultural export industry, employing in excess of 5 000 people at its peak, the farm had been reduced to an unproductive, derelict piece of land due to years of underutilisation.
Barclays-Fincor, together with Zimbank-Syfrets and the African Banking Corporation, were then the chief investors in Kondozi, which had established lucrative export markets in South Africa and Europe. Kondozi Estates is located in Odzi, 32 kilometres west of Mutare off the Harare-Mutare Highway. The farm specialised in horticulture and earned the country considerable foreign currency in the past.