ARAC UPDATE No. 23
23 July 2010
Dear Farmwers , Farmers and Wudbees,
No disrespect is intended in the salutation…it is simply intended to be inclusive and let you all know that we at ARAC are there for you all; our focus should not be at the expense of each other. As evicted farmers we remain to an extent dependent on the commitment and support of those still farming to facilitate our efforts to secure compensation; for those still farming our own focus on the necessity for secure tenure underwrites the essential requirement for the continued ability to farm; for those who would like to farm, the fundamental right to an end to discrimination remains key. In this context we share much however our roles are different, as Humphrey Bogart said in Casablanca, “You’ll excuse me gentlemen. Your business is politics and mine is running a saloon.” Nonetheless, we all must recognise our interdependence and work together for the common good.
Our job in ARAC is to serve you in an inclusive way, we are not here to take over the Union, rather to complement and provide a specialized and essential service to a very real need. Some may indeed doubt our motives but we believe at the heart of our crisis the issues are bigger than individuals and to get there we need to work by consensus. We believe that, for all, a focus on where we are, and where we are going, and not so much on where we have been will assist in this process. Expectations vary, however I believe that all share the sentiment and fundamental principle that until full value of title has been paid there can be no transfer. Equally we believe that agricultural recovery and farmer success is dependent on sound and accountable access to credit facilitated by Title.
A casual glance from the back of the hall over the heads of our members at the monthly farmers’ meetings in Harare shows that indeed we are an ageing constituency for whom the imperative of a solution is very real; time has an amazing impact on perspective. We see many younger farmers also who see their productive years slipping away as opportunity to engage in an ethical way is challenged, we hear their call to find a way to break the log jam.
Last week I wrote that, “if we exclusively focus on the violations of rights that have occurred in the last ten years and then only on the losses that farmers have faced, we lose track of the context of our ongoing crisis.” Some have perhaps interpreted this as an attempt to condone criminal activity; not so, rather a call for us all to get real in our expectations and recognise that as farmers with a significant stake in the country’s well being we should not hold a battered citizenry hostage to our demands, we all need a positive improvement in our living circumstances and many groups have experienced horrendous violations but lack the critical ability to secure their rights to redress, our success in securing our rights must be a win for all of Zimbabwe.
Many are perhaps unaware that Bob Fernandes has recently undergone a quadruple bypass operation, something that Bob describes as having had a “decoke”! The good news is that within about a day he was back on the phone from his hospital bed making sure that pressure is kept up on the UK Government! We wish him a speedy recuperation.