03 SEPTEMBER 2010
EXECUTIVE NEWS
In our line of business communication has always been the best tool at our disposal. It is therefore important that we all use it to our best advantage. For those members, and other farmers, who were able to attend Congress this year they were given a full rundown of exactly what your Union does for you. Their response at Congress was very encouraging and gratifying.
We thought that Congress was the best venue at which to put across a comprehensive package of (some) of the important behind the scenes work which your Union is doing for you.
Unfortunately, due to unforeseen and varied circumstances, many farmers were unable to attend Congress. We have therefore felt it very important that we as your leadership make a tour around the country, over the next few weeks, to spend time with as many farmers as possible to clear up, at least some, of the misconceptions, or lack of knowledge about the activities of your Union. A comprehensive schedule is currently being worked on which should be out in next week’s bulletin.
Please assist your Regional representatives in identifying suitable venues and passing on the information to others. We would like to speak to as many farmers, or other interested parties, as possible as there are (unfortunately) many subjects which we are unable to discuss in these bulletins in greater detail – for obvious reasons.
Of course a lot of the bad press and political propaganda which we are constantly subjected to does not just come from disgruntled or frustrated farmers and we are doing our best to address this matter urgently.
There have been many accusations against us that farmers, and in particular your Union, have failed to communicate satisfactorily with the power that be over land reform. Quite honestly, this could not be further from the truth and this is merely being used as an excuse.
As we see it at the moment the country finds itself in a difficult corner, both politically and economically, which is why your Union has developed a comprehensive proposal which has been presented to government, which would get the country out of the doldrums and forge an exciting way forward for the resuscitation of the agricultural industry which has always been the backbone of our economy.
Although some interest has been shown over the proposal by the Inclusive Government it does seem to be in conflict with some of their individual political agendas. We are constantly told that the Inclusive Government is not working therefore we would have to wait until after an election before the proposal could be either adopted or implemented. Unfortunately many of our farmers who have lost everything just cannot wait that long, and for that matter, neither can our nation as a whole.
Your Union has therefore appealed to the Supreme Court with an application for a moratorium on the continued punitive prosecutions and evictions of the few remaining productive farmers in Zimbabwe until such time as the whole exercise has been properly examined and addressed more transparantly. A hearing date has been set for 30 September 2010. A further crucial step will be taken next week in our Compensation Case which was filed several months ago in the High Court and which the Respondents did not oppose.
Unfortunately, being sub judice we cannot discuss too much detail on these cases. However, a comprehensive legal brief covering all your Union’s legal strategy is being prepared by our legal team which will be circulated to our membership in due course.
Your leadership spent the early part of the week in a closed brain storming session to map out a new strategy and restructuring arrangements for your Union. The outcome will be discussed with Council and implementation of some of the decisions has already begun.
At the meeting is was decided to bring in Rob Ward who will tour the country from 5th to 13th October 2010 to engage farmers, and interested parties, and collect their opinions and input to map out a way forward as well as restructuring the Union. Farmers would be further briefed on this during the tour of the country by your leadership later this month.
Subjects would also include restructuring, policy and our constitution, so we request that you start getting your thoughts together on these subjects. This would be followed by the results being presented to Council at a workshop in preparation for presentation at the proposed Special Congress which will be held in November this year.
Although the CFU Council meeting, which was due to be held on 14 September has been cancelled, because the country tour is due to commence on the week of 13 September, the Open Farmers’ Meeting is still set to be held at the Union offices at 3pm on Tuesday 14th September. All members and farmers either living in or visiting Harare are more than welcome to attend.
You are once again reminded to please continue to keep your Union completely updated on any incidents which occur on your farms as well as keeping us updated with court attendances and results. We are also appealing for either hard or soft copies of any incidents which occurred on farms right from the year 2000, which was the height of the violent evictions.
Photographs, videos audio tapes etc would also be most welcome and members should be aware that all this will be merely recorded into a comprehensive but strictly confidential database. No individual information will be either released or published without your personal consent. Please send information to [email protected]
We have also redesigned our membership application/renewal forms in a format designed to gather as much important details to allow us to keep our database updated. If the forms are filled out correctly this would save us constantly sending out questionnaires to update our records.
This last week has again been relatively quiet as far as farm disruptions are concerned. However many cases continue in the courts and we had our 26th person convicted and evicted from his property in terms of the Land Acquisition (Consequential Provisions) Act. However the farmer concerned has protection to remain on his farm due to the legal implications of his appeal. Needless to say though, the alleged beneficiary is a senior police officer.
NEW CFU HIRE PURCHASE AGREEMENT SCHEME FOR FARM MOTORBIKES
Your Union is proud to announce that we will be offering our paid up members the opportunity to purchase farm motor bikes on a hire purchase agreement. We have recently acquired a number of Jailing 125 farm bikes which are available for sale to our members.
The current price of the motorbikes is US$1 400 and we offer a hire purchase agreement covering a period of 6 months.
Interested members should contact either Neil Wright or Kuda Ndoro on emails [email protected] or [email protected] respectively.
With regards to the fertiliser deal offered by your Union we are pleased to say that the entire allocation has been taken up. Should there be any more fertiliser made available we will keep our members informed accordingly.
We are also pleased to note that, following our negotiations with the banks, that money has been made available at a 10% interest rate. For more details contact either Kuda Ndoro or Charles Taffs.
LABOUR SITUATION from Tongai Marodza
STRIKES
Of late we have experience strikes on farms due to workers demanding back-payments. Some of these cases end-up at NEC for conciliation. My defence on the back-payment is guided by the Labour Act section 78. Section 77 of the Act also addresses the issue of representation of the parties at negotiations it went further to say the powers of such committees, delegates or agents shall be specified in writing and certified by the parties they represent and copies of such documents shall be served by each party on the other party or parties prior to the commencement of negotiations and that was never done to the best of our knowledge. Section 82 stipulates that, once registered, the collective bargaining agreement will be binding on all employers and employees in the full sector or industry.
NEC designated agents can only enforce collective bargaining agreements wants there are registered as a statutory instrument section79 sub-section (1) ( c ) clearly states unreasonable or unfair, having regard to the respective rights of the parties the Minister may direct the registrar not to register such collective bargaining agreement until it has been suitably amended by the parties. Sub-section (3) also addresses where a collective agreement is not registered or approved in terms of sub-section (2) until it has been amended, it shall be the duty of the parties concerned to negotiate for such amendment in absolute good faith and to duly participate in proceedings necessary therefore, and failure to do so shall constitute an unfair labour practice NEC is refusing to call for meeting to address the issue of 7 months back-payment. Section 80 of the Act covers the publication of collective bargaining agreement and farmers are hereby advised to ask NEC to produce a statutory instrument with regards to the general agriculture sector wage agreement.
AGRO & HORTICULTURE
The above two sectors went to court over the purported wage agreements and the matter was heard before the honourable judge. The case was postponed indefinite which means NEC cannot force employers to implement the agreement. The only reasonable and logical thing to do is to wait for the judge’s decision over the matter. Farmers should not allow themselves to be intimidated by NEC over the issue and they should refer NEC to us. The above issues to do with legality and binding and representation also apply to these two sectors as well.
NEC
Due to unreasonableness of the NEC employers has anonymously agreed not to pay NEC dues until there are natural and stop behaving like a trade union. Most of the current problems are caused by NEC interpretation.
The following advice has been sent to us with regard to the new Sales Tax regulations:
FISCALISED ELECTRONIC REGISTERS AND FISCAL MEMORY DEVICES
The Zimbabwe Revenue Authority hereby notifies all Value Added Tax registered operators in category “C” and whose annual value of taxable supplies exceeds US $240,000.00 of the new requirements relating to fiscalised devices. Statutory Instrument 104 of 2010 stipulates that with effect from 1st October 2010 they are required to use the prescribed fiscalised devices.
1. What is a Fiscalised Device?
These are electronic devices which contain a “fiscal memory”. A “fiscal memory” is a special read only memory which is permanently built into a fiscalised device to store tax information at the time of the sale.
There are three broad categories of the prescribed fiscalised devices and these are Fiscalised Electronic Registers also referred to as an ETR (Electronic Tax Register), Fiscalised Printers and Electronic Signature Devices (ESD).
2. How do I know the type of device I am required to use?
The Statutory Instrument referred to stipulates the devices that a registered operator can use. VAT registered retail operators who meet the threshold stipulated are required for the purposes of recording their taxable transactions to use: —
(a) a fiscalised electronic register; or
(b) a non-fiscalised electronic register together with a fiscal memory device.
All other operators who are required to use such devices who are not retail operators are required to use: —
(a) an electronic signature device; or
(b) a fiscalised electronic register; or
(c) a non-fiscalised electronic register together with a fiscal memory device.
3. Where do I purchase the Fiscalised Devices?
The legislation stipulates that the manufacture, sale or distribution of the devices can only be done with the approval of the Commissioner General in conjunction with the Minister of Finance. This means that you are required to acquire the devices from the approved suppliers.
To date the following suppliers have been approved for purposes of selling and distributing the fiscalised devices:
Supplier
Contact Details
First Computers (Pvt) Ltd
Physical Address: 4 Hay Close, Avonlea, Harare
Telephone: +263 4 334 156
Mobile No.: +263 4 912 363 474
Fax: +263 4 333 085
E – Mail: [email protected] This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Axis Solutions (Pvt) Ltd
Physical Address: 6 Normandy Road, Alexandra Park, Harare
Telephone: +263 4 744 238, +263 4 745 650
Mobile No.:: +263 912 263 619, +263 712 668 079
Fax: +263 4 745 650
E – Mail: [email protected] This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it , [email protected] This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
Website: www.axissol.com
4. Is there any assistance ZIMRA is giving in acquiring the devices?
Measures have been put in place to mitigate the cost of acquisition of the devices. This includes a rebate of duty on the importation of approved fiscalised devices. In addition there are proposals to allow the operators to claim fifty percent (50%) of the cost of acquisition of the fiscalised devices against output tax.
5. Is ZIMRA providing training on use of fiscalised devices?
The approved suppliers will assist you in identifying appropriate devices, install the devices as well as provide training on appropriate usage.
6. What is the due date for implementation?
The effective date is 1st October 2010. This means that from this date, all the operators affected are required to commence recording of transactions using the fiscalised devices. As the suppliers need to import the devices and install before the commencement date, you are encouraged to ensure you acquire the devices in advance to avoid a possible rush just before the commencement date.
7. What happens if I fail to meet the deadline?
The legislation states that failure to comply constitutes an offence and renders the operator liable to a fine or to imprisonment or to both the fine and imprisonment.
Commissioner General Public Notice No. 13 of 2010
The following email was received with regards to the LoveZim International Day of Prayer, which we encourage you all to pass on and participate in:
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is at a crossroads! A beautiful nation with great potential and many God-given promises, yet a nation still struggling for justice and peace and where the poor continue to suffer.
The call is ringing out to return to God, unite and help the rural poor by training them to farm in a profitable and sustainable way.
The Church in Zimbabwe is awakening and is on the verge of being used by God to transform this awesome nation, creating godly discipleship models in all sectors of the national economy, beginning with faithful stewardship of the land that God has given.
Join us to Pray
Please consider joining the *LoveZim International Prayer Day – we are inviting people all around the world to support Christians in Zimbabwe by standing with them in prayer on 26th September 2010.
The LoveZim International Prayer Day is supported by: African Enterprise, CZCLUK, Evangelical Alliance UK, Global Connections, Global Day of Prayer, Newfrontiers, Samaritan’s Purse, The Peace Alliance, Tearfund, The Global Native, and many others.
Share the News
Our goal is to reach every Zimbabwean not currently living in Zimbabwe as well as thousands of other believers around the world who we hope will be willing to join us in prayer.
Please forward this email to at least 20 friends or contacts who you think might be willing to join you in praying.
What else can you do?
You can show your support and find out more by signing up at www.lovezim.org
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With love
The LoveZim International Prayer Day Team
*In signing up to the LoveZim International Prayer Day, you will be supporting Trumpet Call for Transformation, a partnership between The Evangelical Fellowship of Zimbabwe and Foundations for Farming, which aims to equip the Church with agricultural skills in order to feed Zimbabwe and set her on her feet for recovery.
ARAC UPDATE (from the desk of Ben Purcell-Gilpin)
The response from a number of readers clearly indicates that the task of reconnecting CFU with some farmers still has a way to go.
The hurts are evident all over the globe and sadly the baggage that we all have is hard to deal with. I was one of those who walked away and it took a lot of heart searching before I came back to CFU to look at how to start a process of rebuilding bridges; working for and with farmers can be both difficult and rewarding! We all need to engage in a process that will bring about a more inclusive approach to finding a just solution. Many of us have a very traumatized set of memories and these are sometimes an obstacle to serious reflection and a balanced perspective.
Forgiveness is giving up the right to resentment towards past hurt and taking steps to forge a different relationship with both the hurt and the persons responsible. A Ugandan Judge appointed to the South African TRC commented that reconciliation was about restoring relationship between friends after a breakdown but observed, “What is it called when there was no relationship prior to the break down?” Here I don’t know, however I believe amongst us as a constituency of farmers, “Reconciliation” is both desirable and achievable. The reality is that both the leadership of the CFU and the organisation they are driving has changed. Perhaps for those who are out of the country this movement is not apparent. The current close look at the structure, policy and strategy will in the next couple of months deliver real assurance that we as farmers have an organisation that is transparent and accountable to its members. We believe that a clear policy will ensure the issues that affect us will be dealt with in a principled and determined way. I am sure that the concerns that people have over recovery and compensation will find the right balance.
At congress a year ago the Union agreed to push compensation as a significant part of its agenda, it has done this and made enormous headway. The difficulty in achieving this is clearly a reluctance and denial of Government to take responsibility and an associated disinclination by donors to pick up the tab, after all, why should they pay when a neighbour burns down his own house? At the same time I believe there is a danger that we confuse recovery with opportunism. Clearly when we speak of recovery we are concerned with the restoration of property rights and an end to discrimination, it is in this context that the Union through ARAC seek to drive recovery and achieve compensation. Our task is clear… we must recover in many ways; our losses are not confined to property but also extend to human rights and the need for an end to discrimination. We have been treated as lesser subjects and demand to be treated as citizens and investors of value.
We need a strong and united body to define and bring about these goals. “Jambanja” caused untold havoc with our personal lives as well as with the structures of commercial farmer representation. There were once over 70 Commercial FAs and all these had sufficient membership to sustain and provide representation. We now have around 250 actively or partially farming members and for sure there is ample evidence to suggest that the vast majority of FAs have actually collapsed. I would encourage all farmers to engage as we try and find a way forward.
COMMENTS AND VIEWS
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