THE CSC, as we know it today, is a successor entity of a pre-colonial institution that was created in 1938 mainly to serve the interests of small-scale cattle farmers and promote the country’s beef industry.

[Extracts from a paper by AS Mlambo (Department of Economic History, Universiry of Zimbabwe) titled “The Cold Sorage Commission: A Colonial Parastatal 1938-1963”]

It is one of the first parastatals to be established, growing into a multi-million dollar enterprise.

By 1987, the CSC had a permanent staff complement of more than 4 700 people in its livestock section.

A conscious decision to invest in a company that safeguarded the interests of small-scale cattle farmers was made in the wake of the depressed prices that plagued the market — not that there was any organised cattle market — during the Great Depression of the 1930s.

It was envisaged that a public utility company would help stabilise cattle prices, provide a guaranteed market for cattle, develop both the domestic and export beef markets and generally promote the beef industry in the country.

As a result, the settler colonial Government entered into negotiations with South African-based Imperial Cold Storage and Supply Company Ltd, which resulted in the formation of a subsidiary company that was expected to develop a chilled and frozen beef industry on the basis of an Agreement that later became Act Number 34 of 1924.

In essence, the agreement provided that the company would have a monopoly to export chilled and frozen meat for a period of ten years. It was also guaranteed against losses.

Crucially, it provided for Government, at any time after the agreement, to expropriate the meat works as at a price to be mutually agreed.

As a result, the Rhodesian Export and Cold Storage Company Ltd (Recsco) came into being. In fact Recsco began operating in May 1928.

But the Rhodesian government decided to expropriate Recsco.

On October 15, 1937, Cabinet resolved that a Bill should be drafted for the establishment of a commission on the lines of the Electricity Commission to take over this business. The proposed Bill subsequently became the Cold Storage Commission Act 37 of 1937, which provided for the establishment of a Commission for the purpose of acquiring, establishing and operating abattoirs and refrigerating works for the purpose of chilling, freezing and storing beef, mutton, pork, poultry and other meat foods for export or for consumption.

The Commission subsequently took control of the works, which included a Cold Storage Area grant of 50 morgen, plant and machinery and Strathmore Ranch, on the Gwanda Road south of Mbalabala (then Balla Balla) on May 1, 1938.

Investments that followed were the expansion and modernisation the Bulawayo factory that it had inherited from Recsco and the established new abattoirs in Harare (Salisbury) 1943, Mutare (Umtali) 1946 and Masvingo (Fort Victoria) 1951. It also built cold stores in Kwekwe (Que Que) 1946 and Gweru (Gwelo) 1947.

Foreign markets were cultivated in Zambia, South Africa, Congo and the United Kingdom, with most exports going to the UK.

The Second World War disrupted trade. By 1960, the total national herd increased from under 3,6 million head in 1948 to about 4,75 million head.

CSC, however, became a real behemoth after the formation of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.

By 1960 it now controlled and operated four meat works in Zimbabwe — Bulawayo, Harare, Mutare and Masvingo — and three works in Zambia at Livingstone, Lusaka and Kitwe.

There was one unit in Blantyre, Malawi. At the time the Commission handled about 60 percent of the total slaughter production of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.

As cattle supply dwindled due to rising demand, the colonial government embarked on a de-stocking exercise, especially for indigenes.

In 1941, government formalised its de-stocking policy by passing the Natural Resources Act No. 9 of 1941, Section 36 of which provided for the limitation of the numbers of livestock in African areas on the grounds that overstocking in those areas was causing environmental degradation. It became on a live weight and grade basis.

Ten years later the Native Land Husbandry Act was passed, and it provided for further limitation of stock owners in the so-called African reserves.

It was one of the saddest chapters in the history of the parastatal as it resulted in the systematic dispossession of African farmers.

Diversification

CSC also had a short stint in the pig industry, where it became actively involved in 1948 following the establishment of the Rhodesia National Pig Breeders’ Co-op Ltd by Matabeleland pig farmers in 1947.

Subsequently, the Commission acquired Neill’s Bacon Factory in Bulawayo as a going concern. The Harare factory of the same business was also acquired. The Commission processed and marketed all the Co-op’s slaughter pigs at prices fixed by the Rhodesian Pig Industry Board

In 1957, the Commission divested from the business and handed it over to Colcom, then a privately controlled producers’ organisation.

Similarly, in 1948, the Commission also started processing and marketing the poultry products of the recently-established Rhodesian Poultry Co-op.

Poultry producers were guaranteed a market as it took all eggs offered by members of the Co-op at a fixed price. The Commission withdrew from the venture in 1964.

In addition to the above, the Commission also produced for sale a large variety of by-products such as hides, neats foot oil, ox gall, edible offals, bloodmeal, meat and bone meal, tallow and dripping, canned meats,ham, and pork sausages among others.

After Independence, the Zimbabwean Government took over the business.