Army, Chinese form private military companies
http://www.theindependent.co.zw/
Friday, 15 July 2011 08:10
Faith Zaba
THE army is now running private joint-venture companies in the agricultural
and mining sectors with Chinese businesses which will be run on a commercial
basis.
In a recent interview with the Zimbabwe Independent, Commander of 3 Infantry
Brigade in Manicaland, Brigadier-General Douglas Nyikayaramba, who chairs
the agricultural production companies, said the Zimbabwe Defence Forces
would soon officially launch the private military companies.
“We can’t just be crybabies. We need to find innovative ways of overcoming
the challenges the country is facing,” he said.
Nyikayaramba added that: “Besides empowering our farmers, besides ensuring
that there is productivity and coming up with mitigatory measures that can
avert conflict in our country, we are also ensuring that the country is
liquid because there is a lot of money that is coming in to fund these
projects from our strategic partners. We are contributing in a very big
way.”
He, however, refused to delve into the mining companies, saying there is
another top general responsible for that operation.
Nyikayaramba said the agricultural production companies would be operating
on a commercial basis and would export their produce to the region.
“We are putting on the table in terms of the joint ventures our land and our
skills — that is human resources. Our friends are coming in with the money
and equipment. The joint venture is a 50% share ratio,” Nyikayaramba said.
He said they would then pay a dividend to the state, which is the main
shareholder.
“We decided that we were not just going to sit and watch from a distance. To
us it was just going to be a recipe for disaster in future. We wanted
sufficient food to be produced in the country and a solution to ensure that
we are able to feed the whole population,” Nyikayaramba said.
“As you are aware — a hungry nation is an angry nation — and that can become
a precursor for any potential conflict, be it intra conflict or whatever
conflict that you might have. The commanders sat down and decided that we
needed to put some intervention so that we can be able to assist our farmers
to increase their productivity on their farms and by so doing enhance
production and thereby avert possible conflicts.”
He said their objective in setting up the companies was to win a war without
having to fight one by making such economic interventions.
Nyikayaramba said they would target idle land which was given to farmers,
who due to lack of funding were unable to fully utilise their land. In turn,
the resettled families would have a stake in the joint ventures.
He said the farmers would provide labour and be given a share of the
profits, calculated on the basis of the value of their pieces of land.
Nyikayaramba said they were targeting areas which concentrated mainly on
maize production and turning them into cotton growing farms.
“The critical intervention that we had to come up with, seeing to it that
government had no capacity after forming the inclusive government, was to
look East by way of creating joint ventures, private companies that go into
the business of carrying out farming activities but using idle land which
our farmers have. Our farmers then become part owners of that joint
venture,” he said.
Nyikayaramba said currently there were several companies operating in
Midlands, Manicaland and Mashonaland West provinces.
He said one of the companies was running a pilot project in Mashonaland West
and another in Midlands.
Nyikayaramba said in the coming season, they were going to increase the
hectarage under cotton to 100 000 ha and then to 200 000 ha next year.
“We are also responsible for marketing that cotton and exporting it so that
we get revenue. We also want to ensure that we break that cotton monopoly,
to give our farmers the correct price for their quality of cotton,” said
Nyikayaramba.
He said the other agricultural production company is based at Arda Assisi
farm in Zvimba, which is a demonstration project, assisting farmers within a
radius of 150 kilometres.
“The idea is to retain the rural dimension of Arda, which is to assist rural
farmers with agricultural development. This is why we based it there as a
demonstration project in Mashonaland West.
“We are also operating another joint venture at Chinhoyi University. There
are 30 tractors, 10 combine harvesters which have just arrived from China
and several planters. People think it is government mechanisation programme,
but it is not. It is a private military company – a joint-venture project,”
said Nyikayaramba.
He said they were also looking at getting large farms of at least 3 000 ha,
which were allocated to A1 farmers. They would build modern houses around
the farms, leaving each household with one hectare each for personal use.
Again, the military would use the farmers as labourers and pay them a
certain profit-sharing ratio, according to the value of their
land.
He said they were also planning on setting up another company that would
focus on sugarcane production in the Zambezi valley and another to go into
fisheries and livestock production.