CFU Calling (27 Nov 2009)

27 NOVEMBER 2009

EXECUTIVE NEWS

FROM THE PRESIDENTS DESK

The past few weeks have been hectic, and there are so many people I need to thank. I believe that what we achieved during this period will have a significant effect on the way forward.

Jeremy, Frank, Colin, Lewis, David, Willie, MP, Kallie, Johannes, Theo Hans, Glyn, John and the rest of your teams – you are special friends and we thank you for your support and what you have helped us achieve. To the whole team at CFU, thank you. Everyone carried their share of the weight, and then a special thank you to Charles, Louis and Hendrik. It has not been easy, yet not once did you falter or were any of you found wanting.

To all our farmers out there – there is real hope, but we still have a long, hard road ahead of us. In humility and recognising and acknowledging that the glory belongs to God, we will stand firm.

Please continue to spread the word about the 6th December.

Thank you for all the support and encouragement that we have received from so many people.

Deon Theron

We are very close to the deadline set by the SADC Troika in Maputo a month ago to resolve the current political impasse with, perhaps, no deadline in sight. Or is there? African politics works in different ways to Westminster style politics and we can only hope and pray that the deafening silence means that serious talks are underway.

While the negotiators were carrying out their delicate, yet crucial, discussions the diplomats were in Victoria Falls talking about the formation of a SADC Parliament in an effort to promote stability, development and progress in the region.

This is all very well and we encourage the success of both groups. However, while the politicians talk there appears to be no end in sight to find a resolution to the problems on the ground, particularly, in the farming sector, which remains precarious to say the least ‘business as usual’ but this is no doubt part of the divide and rule strategy being skilfully used against us.

There has been a bit of success in the courts recently in that we have had success in a fourth case in being granted a stay of eviction pending the outcome of the appeal against both sentence and conviction under the Gazetted Land (Consequential Provisions) Act. However, the prosecution against many other farmers and farm labour continues unabated. Have our constant appeals for a moratorium to be granted to enable us to continue production, or has it simply fallen on deaf ears?

Last week ended with attempted jambanjas by a small group of people in the Chegutu district which was fortunately stopped by the group being locked up for the weekend. However, this has now continued late this week with another 4 farms being targeted, yet there has been no satisfactory reaction from the same police.

What we are finding is that there are a few pseudo groups acting on their own who are trying to incite racial hatred and violence. They generally do not have the support of the local community.

At the beginning of this week the Gramara case was heard in the High Court during which application was made for the registration of the SADC Tribunal case under Zimbabwean law. Although there was an initial dispute about the registration of Advocate Jeremy Gauntlett which marred and delayed the start of the case Advocate Lewis Uriri took over and the proceedings went reasonably well. Although judgment was reserved, Minister Chinamasa’s version of the credibility and establishment of the SADC Tribunal as well as Zimbabwe’s participation in the Tribunal was covered. The lawyers felt that their main success was that the matter was heard even though the state’s intention appeared to be to do everything to prevent the case from being heard. Their intention was apparently to frustrate the constitutional rights (section 18) of the applicant. We look forward to the outcome.

All the above, especially the fact that no visible or tangible change to the situation on the ground has occurred since the signing of the GPA and the subsequent establishment of the Transitional Government has given rise to our slight change in strategy which culminated this week to hold a meeting in Pretoria of displaced South African investors in agriculture in Zimbabwe. At this meeting objections were noted about the fact that the Bilateral Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (BIPPA) between the South African and Zimbabwean Governments, which was due to be signed in Harare on 27 November 2009, had not been shown to any interested parties.

Furthermore, as far as the farmers were aware there was no reciprocation clause in the proposed document which would cover current investors in Zimbabwe who had lost their entire investments which had been violently and unlawfully seized during the Government fast track land acquisition programme without compensation. In the worst case scenario the proposed BIPPA agreement could in fact cover a new investor who could possibly take over a property of a previous South African investor who had lost everything.

The matter was therefore taken to the Pretoria Court to ensure that a reciprocal clause was inserted failing which an injunction should be issued preventing the signing of the document. The case was successful as can be seen in the below Press Release which was issued after the case was heard.

“South African Government accepts Zim land reform exercise is unlawful

and undertakes to honour SADC Tribunal judgments

The North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria made an order in terms of which the Government of South Africa undertakes to respect and honour the judgments by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Tribunal in favour of commercial farmers in Zimbabwe, and to uphold the rights and remedies of victims of Zimbabwe’s unlawful land expropriation exercise.

The order concludes urgent court proceedings brought by AfriForum on behalf of a South African citizen farming in Zimbabwe, Mr Louis Fick.

The proceedings were instituted pursuant to revelations last Friday that the Government of South Africa intended to enter into a BIPPA with Zimbabwe on 27 November. The BIPPA was generally understood to have the effect to exclude the enforcement of the SADC Tribunal’s orders, and to exempt Zimbabwe from liability for past human rights violations.

This result would be contrary to South Africa’s legal obligations in terms of its Constitution and international law. AfriForum tried to engage in dialogue with the Minister of Trade and Industry regarding the terms of the proposed BIPPA. The request was not acceded to, however. This necessitated the urgent legal proceedings seeking to interdict the Government of South Africa from signing the BIPPA tomorrow.

As to the terms of the proposed BIPPA, the South African Government accepts in its court papers that the Zimbabwean land reform exercise is unlawful. It also acknowledges the binding nature of the SADC Tribunal’s rulings, and international obligations pursuant thereto.

The South African Government gave the assurance that the embargoed text of the BIPPA does not purport to attain the unlawful result of reducing existing legal and political rights and remedies. It stated emphatically that the BIPPA does not “purport to grant immunity to Zimbabwe for any human rights violations”.

Accordingly the Government of South Africa undertook in the settlement to respect and honour the SADC Tribunal’s rulings, as well as other obligations in terms of other sources of international law and the Constitutional to protect victims of the unlawful Zimbabwean land reform exercise.

AfriForum welcomes this undertaking and the court order stating that South Africans seeking to register and enforce the SADC Tribunal finding would now, in addition be armed with a formal undertaking of the South African Government endorsed by the High Court.

The court’s order opens the way for registering the SADC Tribunal’s judgments in South Africa and to pursue other remedies, which Afriforum and other interested parties will now consider.”

The possibilities and consequences of the above ruling could be huge but we must appeal to farmers not to take matters into their own hands and ‘jump the gun’ as the situation is bound to be very tense and emotive. We will advise you later of any steps or remedies which should be undertaken.

The below consent judgment has in effect opened the way for further litigation to claim for damages and already we are getting contacted from all over the world by South African citizens who were investors in Zimbabwe. We have only one stipulation being that those wishing to become part of any future action need to renew their CFU membership. They should contact Vice President Louis Fick on [email protected]

By agreement between parties it is recorded that:

1. The proposed Bilateral Agreement for the Promotion and Reciprocal Protection of Investments (BIPPA) between the government of Zimbabwe and that of South Africa, to be concluded on 27 November 2009 in Harare, aims to create legal and other remedies for South African citizens over and above existing remedies in terms of international law.

2. The First and Second respondent hereby give the Applicants (and other South African Citizens in the Applicants’ position) the assurance that BIPPA does not affect existing rights or remedies in terms of other sources of international law, in particular those in terms of the Treaty of the Southern African Development Community (SADC).

3. Thus the efficacy of the ruling and orders by the SADC Tribunal in Mike Campbell (Pvt) Ltd and Others v Republic of Zimbabwe [2008] SADC (T) 02/2007 (28 November 2008) and William Michael Campbell and Another v The Republic of Zimbabwe [2009] SADC (T) 03/2009 (05 June 2009) is not affected by entering into the proposed BIPPA, which rulings and orders the Government of the Republic of South Africa respects and undertakes to honour in terms of its own obligations in terms of the SADC Treaty.

4. The matter is removed from the roll, with no order as to costs.

The BIPPA signing ceremony is still on the cards for today, which will be followed by a workshop on investment in Zimbabwe. Marc Carrie-Wilson represented your Union and made the following noted of the proceedings:

“The Bilateral Promotion and Protection of Investment Agreement (BIPPA) between South Africa and Zimbabwe was signed today at Rainbow Towers in Harare. Signing on behalf of Zimbabwe was Minister Elton Mangoma (Minister of Economic Planning and Investment Promotion) and the South African Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr. R Davies, represented South Africa.

Minister Magoma addressed the delegates attending the signing ceremony first. He stated that investment and therefore investment confidence was the only sure way of economic recovery and development in Zimbabwe. With regard to the Land Question, he assured those present that Government would make strides to settling the Land question by the next Agricultural season. With regard to the impending indigenisation legislation, Minister Magoma appeared to suggest that the laws would be crafted by balancing the desire to include “our people” in economic development against the desire to instil investor confidence.

Minister Davies from South Africa then took the podium. He said that the South African Government position is that it is committed to seeing the full implementation of the Global Political Agreement (GPA) and success of the inclusive Government, which is seen as the only viable option for Zimbabwe at this time. He went on to touch on the statistics of reciprocal trade between the two countries over the last 2 years (for example in 2008 south African exports to Zimbabwe amounted to 16 billion Rand and imports amounted to 6.5 billion Rand). He also touched on the projected levels of South African investment (for example Private sector rehabilitation of mining would amount to approximately 10 million dollars).

With regard to the contentious issue surrounding the land reform programme where some farmers had approached the courts in South Africa to stop the signing of the BIPPA, he intimated that this small group of investors were acting in a way that would have prejudiced a larger group of potential investors. He stated that following an out of court settlement with these persons there was now no legal impediment to the signing of the agreement. He then read out the clause in the BIPPA which would have a direct bearing on those investors affected by Land Reform. It ran roughly as follows: “This agreement applies to investments whether made before or after the signing but excludes investments made before which were compulsorily acquired in either territory”. It would seem this might be at odds with the SADC Tribunal ruling. We will make a copy of the full BIPPA available when and if we receive it.

Deputy Prime Minister Mutambara made an unscheduled address where amongst other things he warned the Zimbabwean business community to “shape up or ship out” referring to the expected stiff competition from South African businesses who would invest in Zimbabwe.

At the conclusion of the ceremony South African Business, leaders were invited to introduce themselves and make brief remarks regarding the significance of the BIPPA as they viewed it. Louis Uys took the opportunity to express the concerns of South African Farmers who had lost their investments without any form of compensation and their rights now in light of the new BIPPA.

A copy of the BIPPA was not made available at the ceremony.”

Some of the farmers who have recently been violently evicted from their properties have encountered problems removing their equipment mainly due to disagreement over the interpretation of movable and immovable assets. Below is taken from section 2 (1) of the Acquisition of Farm Equipment and Materials Act – “Interpretation”:

“farm equipment or material” means movables used for agricultural purposes on any agricultural land acquired for resettlement purposes under the Land Reform programme, including irrigation equipment not embedded in the ground, tractors, ploughs, disc harrows, trailers, combine harvesters, pumps not permanently attached to the land, sprinklers, risers, movable storage facilities, Modrho tobacco curers, chemicals and fertilisers.

In other words, anything other than the above, like underground piping, buildings, dams, dips, fencing etc are considered fixed improvements (immoveable). Most of the disputes are over centre pivots, which are definitely not classed as immovable as they are on wheels.

Work continues on the compensation proposal document and several more presentations were made this week to influential groups and interested parties, which have raised a number of questions that have required further refinements to be made to the proposal.

The compensation committee has met with another company of valuers and after discussion subsequently decided to let the courts decide on the acceptability of their methods of valuation and then make a decision from there. Although it is not advisable to change horses so far down the road and especially after so much work has already been completed it would be easy enough to change the valuation formulae on the computers should their method be accepted. The last thing we want to do is to subject our farmers to go through the whole exercise again, unnecessarily, or to slow down the momentum which we have achieved in any way.

The weather has certainly been different around the country this last week with temperatures being far lower than the normal expected for this time of year. However, welcome rains fell for quite a long period and although initially very light heavier falls were recorded early this week. The highest rainfall totals for the week were in the Lowveld where up to 150mm were received over the period.

We once again appeal to everyone to let us have details of any ongoing or new incidents or court cases as we need to be in a position to follow trends and patterns to take the necessary steps and to warn our farmers out there. Although we initially heard that Matabeleland was experiencing an upsurge of incidents we have been unable to gather any factual information on this at all.

We continue to receive more applications for renewed or even new membership as we enter the new agricultural year. We cannot over emphasise the importance of getting everybody back on board to enable us to ensure good communication between us all, particularly at this vital time.

Although many may feel dejected or depressed at the apparent lack of a resolution to the current crisis we feel that the weeks ahead are full of promise and we are therefore quite excited.

We end this week on a note of congratulation and recognition for Jenni Williams and Magadonga Mahlangu who have just been awarded the Robert F Kennedy Human Rights Award by President Barack Obama. They are both with WOZA and have been very brave with their constant public demonstrations on behalf of the rights of all Zimbabweans and have had to endure many weeks of incarceration for their bravery. Jenni is an old friend of the Union who worked as our Public Relations Officer for some time.

COMMODITY UPDATE

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

NADF held an Executive Meeting on 17 November 2009 which was well supported by stakeholders and regional chairmen with only two apologies. Updates on the major inputs were discussed and key issues raised include:

Eviction of Dairy Farmers particularly in the Midlands area
Resuscitation of the C A accreditation scheme
The need to encourage producers to revert back to the formal marketing of their milk
Encourage processors who very kindly collect NADF levies to pay these dues timeously and provide schedules of producer’s deductions for verification

NADF is negotiating the sale of a motorbike for the Estate of the Late Ezra Ndlovu, our late Matabeleland Chairman to assist with the winding up of his Estate. The motorbike is a Honda CG 125 petrol model. It is registered as being a 2006 model and has never been used. Please contact Rob Van Vuuren at [email protected] if you are interested in purchasing this bike. The current price is US$1200 or nearest cash offer.

If you have reasonably priced, hardy stock for sale, including dairy crosses please contact Sue Bell at [email protected] with details of animals on offer and prices required. If you are either in the vicinity of one of the dairies or could transport the animals to the dairies this would be a benefit.

STABEX ’95 MARKETING SUPPORT PROGRAMME

This European Commission sponsored program, being administered by NADF is focusing on the re-establishment of seven small scale Milk Collection Centres around Zimbabwe, which for various reasons, largely the failure of the Zimbabwe dollar economy, became unviable.

The intention is to double the milk production from these Centres so that they can contribute meaningfully to the national requirement of milk, and also to improve the living standards of the communities.

On 30^th October 2009, representatives from the European Commission, Ministry of Finance and NAO paid a progress and evaluation visit to one of these Milk Collection Centres at Sangano, just outside Rusape town.

Sangano had not received milk since November 2008. Since the inception of this program, they have been assisted with training, stockfeed, procurement of water (borehole) purchase of consumables such as sachets and some refurbishment and repair of the Centre equipment. On 9^th October 2009, Sangano opened its doors to receive milk again and by the end of October has processed, packaged and sold 6 029 litres of milk. They still have viability challenges, such as power outages and transport for milk marketing, but these are being addressed.

In conjunction with Aglabs, we are also conducting two plot trials of maize silage and the European Commission delegation was shown these plots and the demonstrations explained and discussed.

While Sangano still has a way to go before becoming sustainably self-sufficient, great progress has been made and we look forward to seeing this Milk Collection Centre becoming a meaningful contributor to the national milk requirement.

STABEX ’95 ESSENTIAL VACCINE PROGRAMME

Distribution of vaccines to communal and commercial livestock producers started on the 18^th August 2009, and has steadily increased in momentum. With the onset of the rainy season it is anticipated that distribution of particular vaccines will slow down in December 2009 and January 2010. To date over 230 000 bovine doses have been distributed, as well as 2 700 for sheep and 3 150 for pigs.

Ondersteport Biological Products, (South Africa) in conjunction with the NADF ran several training courses/seminars around the country reaching a cross section of livestock producers, vets, vaccinators and producers. The training programme included the etiology of the major livestock diseases, the role vaccines play in disease prevention and most importantly, the storage, handling and administration of vaccines. Approximately 125 commercial livestock producers and several hundred, possibly a thousand or more communal famers have benefited from this programme to date.

Many livestock producers in Zimbabwe were no longer implementing vaccination programmes because of the non-availability of vaccines, the prohibitive cost and the questionable source of vaccines. In addition, vaccines were not always available when needed as several vaccines need to be administered within critical time periods of the year.

The STABEX ’95 Essential Vaccine Programme, apart from disease prevention is stimulating other important issues such as re-creating an accurate data base of livestock producers and generating accurate livestock numbers to establish a national livestock census.

The NADF commends the staff of the Department of Veterinary Services (D.V.S.) for their enthusiasm and commitment to the programme as their role is vital for vaccinating in communal areas which is where the majority of Zimbabwe Farmers’ Union (ZFU) members operate.

The NADF also commends its team who often have to operate long hours beyond the normal call of duty.

FORAGE SEED – COOPERS

Petrus Erasmus MD of Coopers has informed us that the delay in getting forage seed into Zimbabwe is because of delays in getting the requisite documents from the suppliers in South Africa. These documents are required by the local authorities for the issuing of permits. Petrus is still hopeful that these documents will be available shortly.

Apologies to producers who are patiently waiting for their orders to arrive in Zimbabwe.

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

Richard Taylor has been out of the office for the best part of this week visiting farmers.

Local as at 27 November 2009 (US$)