07 MAY 2010  

 

EXECUTIVE NEWS

 

The month began with the terrible and shocking news of another vicious assault against a Centenary farmer and his wife, which took place in the midnight hours early Saturday 1 May. The two were apparently attacked by a single individual wielding a heavy iron bar which he used to immediately immobilise the farmer and rendered him unconscious. He remained in that state for several days and (when last heard) was still in an induced coma as part of the medical treatment for the injuries sustained to his skull in Milbank Hospital in South Africa.

 

The farmer’s wife initially tried to protect her head from the assault with her arms which were subsequently both broken by the ferocity of the vicious attack. She finally managed to stop the attack by offering money to the attacker, who apparently took it and then fled with an accomplice who had remained outside the house.

 

The couple are now under intensive care in Milbank Hospital. Our prayers for their swift and full recovery are constantly with them both and we urge our community to join us in these prayers.

 

The motive for the brutal attack is unclear at the moment and the rumour mill has certainly been very active.  One such report is that this was in retaliation of a failed meeting last week, allegedly held between CFU and the other unions. This has absolutely no substance because no such meeting was held and a meeting between CFU and the other unions was only held this week, which was reported as a resounding success. A worker who was recently laid off was picked up but there is apparently no link to the assault there.

 

However, there is a similarity in the method of entry and exit through the security fence used in a fairly recent robbery on a neighbouring property, which seems to link the two incidents. There is a US$10 000 reward out for information leading to an arrest and the police are continuing their investigations.

 

Another trend we are picking up at the moment is prospective robbers following farmers out of banks where they are suspected of drawing cash for wages and then hijacking them at their next stop and stealing the briefcase containing the wages. There are so far 5 known cases of such thefts which have been reported as occurring recently.

 

Whilst your Union continues with its discussions and lobbying about its compensation and recovery of agriculture proposal are having encouraging success, matters on the ground are still in turmoil.

 

The week before last we had picked up information that some farmers were being called in to a provincial centre to be formally advised that they were to be one of the ten farmers who were allegedly to remain and continue farming in each district of that particular province. This news was of course received some relief by some and with some scepticism by others, particularly as we are aiming towards a moratorium being declared on evictions and prosecutions as part of the land audit which will hopefully be taking place in the not too distant future.

 

There is also our application for the same which is currently with the Supreme Court.

 

Notwithstanding the above we express serious concern that there is still an undercurrent, or division within the party, which is reported as currently undertaking an exercise in which it is threatening black land owners who have genuine title to their property and who are leasing out their underutilised properties to young white Zimbabweans to farm on.

 

To us we consider such considerations by the genuine owners as being very encouraging indeed and a method for the next generation of commercial farmers to hone their skills and increase their capital base in the country of their birth. Besides, where else in this country are they able to practice their skills without the current racial prejudice against our fundamental rights taking place?

 

It is very disturbing therefore that we have had a number of very capable young farmers who now find themselves in a very difficult position and stand to lose their current investment and means of earning a living. Many of these promising young agriculturalists were previously dispossessed of their family investments and homes without any form of compensation and are now being subjected to the same or similar loss of their capital development and their right to simply exercise their chosen career and livelihood in the pursuance of their dreams.

 

The same situation is happening to a number of young farmers who have taken the risk of leasing from beneficiaries of farms in the land acquisition programme. We are led to believe that many of the beneficiaries who are leasing out their land to our next generation of young farmers are being intimidated and threatened that their offer letters will be withdrawn unless they evict the young white farmers. The reports state that new offer letters would be issued to other interested black beneficiaries should they fail to do so.

 

This new exercise is absolute proof to us that firstly the land acquisition exercise continues to be utilised primarily for political gain and secondly that there is no doubt left that the exercise is being continually carried out with a racial bias. These facts have already been shown in detail in our current application to the Supreme Court.

 

In last week’s CFU Calling bulletin we gave a few bullet points in order to express the basics requirements which we may impede or delay the final resolution of the land issue which would lead to compensation being paid. It goes without saying that the current policy on security of tenure would have to be overturned before any recovery programme could be initiated.

 

Although this was not specifically mentioned it was included in the bundle of other not specifically stated legislation included in the final bullet point, which would need to be either reintroduced or repealed, as the case may be.

 

At the height of our debilitating currency crisis and the events of the super-hyperinflation many of our farmers concentrated their efforts on producing commodities which were either exportable or which attracted payment in foreign exchange. Government, in turn also brought in many controls to both monitor and control the foreign exchange situation, which resulted in many of our farmers losing millions of United States dollars in capital, which had been seized by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

 

Your Union has been very aware of this untenable situation for some time now and feel that perhaps the only solution lies though the intervention of the courts.

 

We are therefore prepared to undertake a joint court action on behalf of all those members of the Commercial Farmers’ Union who are still owed money by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe.

 

If you are interested in joining the joint court action please ensure your membership is up to date first and then send the details to Marc Carrie-Wilson on email [email protected] or contact him directly at the Union.  This is an urgent matter which should be responded to as soon as possible.

 

With regard to our High Court application on compensation and Supreme Court application on the moratorium our lawyers have made our initial responses to the Government’s responding affidavits. Our more detailed response will be completed for filing soon.

 

There have been a number of queries this week with regard to the back payment of wages for farm workers as recently announced by NEC. Our main point on this instruction is that there were none of our representatives either on the NEC or at the meeting so the decision was made unilaterally. It is therefore necessary for us to make a common stand on objecting to this matter of such a lengthy period of back pay, which many of our farmers can obviously not afford.

 

We have approached both Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union (ZFU) and Zimbabwe Commercial farmers’ Union (ZCFU) and reached consensus that the purported collective bargaining agreement is unacceptable to all members collectively.

 

We encourage our members not to pay any back pay and to refer any NEC designated agents or workers’ union representatives to our offices where the issues will be addressed.

 

In the mean time, we are continuing to lobby the NEC and the Ministry of Labour on these issues. We will keep you informed accordingly.

 

Please remember the Open Farmers Meeting to be held at CFU on Tuesday 11 May at 2.30 pm for 3 pm.

 

ARAC INFORMATION

 

The first chill of winter seems to have put its nose around the corner and decided to wait a bit longer before it settles in these parts. For those of us no longer farming it is quite amazing how slight changes in the weather seem to trigger deep reactions tied to the farming calendar!

 

This week we have had meetings with FAO, ZFU and the EU office on food security and are actively exploring ways that we could collaborate to create value for our constituency. The Fast Track Land Reform Project (FTLRP) has disempowered most commercial farmers and has equally brought little benefit to smallholder farmers in the communal areas.  This collapse of services that formerly met the needs of the commercial sector has similarly had a negative impact on the small holder sector and for many the disappearance of local commercial farmers and the services and across the fence relationships that existed for many years have left considerable gaps.

 

Agriculture has been in a wilderness zone waiting for promised inputs which invariably come late and are difficult to access on an open and transparent basis. The impact of donor supported assistance in the provision of food security has in many instances left people dependent on food handout rather than on a sure self reliant course.

 

We believe that there is considerable change out there in the perception of the way forward and in this there is considerable scope for former commercial farmers to engage with a process of recovery in the communal areas. This is not for all but there are many for whom skills and experience gained as commercial farmers can be usefully channelled through appropriate training into expert extension services to smallholder farmers.

 

We hope that ongoing dialogue between the parties concerned will result in MOU’s for cooperation in pilot projects. If there are any of you out there who might be interested in this type of work please let us know.

 

For further information contact Shayne or Ben at [email protected] or phone +263 4 309800/19 ext 249 or +263 4 309867

Best regards, the ARAC Team.

 

MESSAGE FROM VICE PRESIDENT LOUIS FICK

 

Dear Farmer

 

Firstly thank you for your emails – our list now on 441 members.   Just a reminder to those of you who have not completed the “form” to please do so and return it to us.

 

Foreign Affairs S.A. invited Willie Spies and myself to a meeting in Pretoria to find a way forward on our issues.  This meeting took place with the Chief Director Consular Mr Naidoo, his team and two Advocates representing Foreign Affairs. The meeting started with only the legal teams meeting and I only joined at a later stage.

 

From our side Willie gave them a brief background re our court cases, SADC, BIPPA and registration of SADC ruling in the High Court S.A., I gave them stats on our members and our current position.

 

We basically asked/stated the following:

 

1)      Members- 441 S.A. Nationals 53% over the age of 60 – pension, medical and housing.

2)      Compensation – 10 years down the line we want this to be addressed, we want official engagements – S.A. farmers, Zimbabwe government, S.A. government to start the negotiations for compensation for S.A. Nationals.

3)      Some of our members are still farming and want to enjoy the protection offered by the BIPPA

4)      We want a delegation from S.A. to come to Zimbabwe to meet with our members to get firsthand information on our situation.

 

I felt this meeting was very positive and on all of the above points we were given commitments and action to be taken on them.  A delegation will fly to Zimbabwe soon to meet with us.

 

Willie Spies lost his mother in this week but insisted to continue with this meeting, our prayers go out to him and his family. Thank you once again to Willie and Afriforum.

 

COMMODITY UPDATE

 

ZIMBABWE CROP PRODUCERS ASSOCIATION (from the desk of Richard Taylor)

 

Local as at 7 May 2010 US$

Commodity	GMB	Agrifoods	Intergrain	Staywell	Croplink
White Maize	265	279	360	265-270	280
Yellow Maize	265	279	250	250	260
Maize Bran	150	150		130	130
Soyabeans	280-350	380	350	375	380
Soyabean Meal		500			450
Sorghum	110-150
Wheat	400		350 350 (imported	360 360 (imported)	420 (imported)
Wheat Bran		115			130
Sunflowers	110
Groundnuts	450 (unshelled)			950-1000 (shelled)	650 (shelled)

 

South African Foreign Exchange (SAFEX) as at 7 May 2010

Commodity	Rand/Tonne	US$/Tonne	Import Parity Rand/Tonne	Import Parity US$/Tonne
White Maize	1110
Yellow Maize	1169
Wheat	2211
Soyabeans	2529
Sunflowers	3305

 

International Gulf

Commodity	US$/Tonne			Import Parity US$/Tonne
Wheat	197
Maize	166
Soyabeans	381

Source: South African Grain Information Service (SAGIS)

 

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF DAIRY FARMERS (from the desk of Rob Van Vuuren)

 

Please be reminded that the Commodities Forum AGM 2010 meeting at Troutbeck, Nyanga is taking place from 5^th to 7^th July.  A circular letter with details about this meeting has been sent out via e-mail a few times to the NADF group mailing list.  Should you not have received this, please e-mail [email protected] and Debbie will gladly forward this to you.

 

STABEX PROGRAMMES

 

The Stabex Vaccine programme is ongoing until December 2010.  Vaccine orders seem to have slowed down somewhat.  Please be advised that you are now able to begin drawing this year’s vaccines.  Should you wish to apply again, please

e-mail Debbie at [email protected] and she will forward you the application form.

 

The seventh draw down of vaccines has been received by Fivet Animal Health from Onderstepoort Biological Products last week.  Unfortunately, due to the outbreak of Rift Valley Fever in South Africa, our supplies of Rift Valley Fever have not arrived.  It has been reported that 10 people have died from this disease – mainly farmers and farm workers – in South Africa.  PLEASE TREAT THIS DISEASE VERY SERIOUSLY.  It is a killer.

 

CATTLE PRODUCERS’ ASSOCIATION

 

WEEKLY CATTLE PRICES

 

 

 

COMMENTS AND VIEWS

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