Turning oranges into lemons: Zanu PF bigwigs’ how not to farm tales

Former Information deputy minister Bright Matonga might have grabbed the headlines for his demonstration of how not to farm after turning oranges into “lemons” in Chegutu’s Chigwell Estates, but he will never be short of company in that league.

news in depth BY BLESSED MHLANGA

After this paper exposed how the former minister destroyed a once thriving million-dollar business that produced citrus fruits for export to the Middle East, Europe and Russia, more evidence of how Zanu PF bigwigs who grabbed prime land during the chaotic land reform programme have contributed to the demise of Zimbabwe’s agriculture industry abound.

After amassing vast tracts of fertile land which used to be the home of export zones that earned the country millions of United States dollars, the connected in Zanu PF and government have turned the country’s commercial farming areas into wastelands.

Senate president Edna Madzongwe could easily win a competition on how to turn cheese into chalk, if her hand at Stockdale Citrus estate in Chegutu is anything to go by.

For a person in the cockpit of law-making processes in parliament, her high levels of competence in being incompetent at farming could be considered legendary.

Sitting in parliament, listening to finance minister Patrick Chinamasa talk of bond notes as export incentives, Madzongwe could be tempted to advise that revival of farms like the one she holds would be a better option.

On the strength of a Zanu PF slogan, the powerful member of the women’s league reduced Stockdale Estate from being an employer of nearly 500 workers, producer of $4 million worth of quality export oranges for the European market and for the production of Mazoe orange crush juice, into hectares of weeds and thorns.

The irony is in the campaign promise which got her into power, with Zanu PF pledging to create 2,2 million jobs, when the Senate president went on to destroy 490 employees’ lives.

An agronomist who spoke on condition he was not named, said the fruit at the farm was now closer to lemons than oranges after Madzongwe’s takeover.

“Orange trees are grafted from lemon trees; the stem is a lemon tree because its resistance to diseases is high, but if the tree is not pruned properly and fed with adequate fertilisers, the quality of fruit goes down, turning the taste to that of a lemon mixed with an orange,” he explained.

Madzongwe, through systematic neglect, has ensured the lemon stem becomes dominant  at the 55 000-tree citrus farm located in Chegutu which she wrestled from Richard Etheredge in 2007 during a violent farm seizure.

A worker who spoke on condition she was not named said Madzongwe used her influence as a Zanu PF supremo to forcefully grab what used to be productive land.

“She is a very powerful woman and has a very long history of grabbing productive farms and turning them into wasteland. She stole our lives and we are now watching our source of livelihood wilt in her hands,” she said.

Despite running down the farm to zero productivity, a full security complement of police officers armed with AK 47, guard the farm where Madzongwe rarely sets foot.

Another worker told us that she only passed through the farm on her way from Zanu PF rallies, when they are held in the area.

Many newly-resettled farmers are famed for cellphone farming.

There is no manager at the farm and homes which were once occupied by farm workers are now dilapidated. Expensive farm equipment is lying at the farm neglected and exposed to weather elements.

Madzongwe’s workers said her son Tendai lives in the main house at the farm. However, he was not at home when The Standard news crew visited Stockdale last week.

“When this farm was run by its former owners, we had a seven-tonne truck picking three loads of workers from Chegutu every morning, now only 10 work around here for no payment,” said Shelter Chimoyo, a former employee at the estate.

In what could be a race to run down citrus farms, another group of highly-connected Zanu PF supporters have outdone Madzongwe.

Down Chakari road, two other citrus estates have been obliterated and are now almost non-existent, save for stumps of what used to be money-making fruit-bearing trees.

Former ambassador to the United Nations, James Manzou represented the country at high level meetings justifying the land reform programme, but back home he was reducing Pambukani mango and citrus estates into what was known in the colonial era as “reserve areas” — a place where nothing can grow.

Under his watch, nearly 30 hectares of citrus estate was consumed by wild fires because he did not invest in a fireguard.

Having worked at the farm since 1983, Gogo Chivhanga saw it all, from the time the property was in the hands of a white farmer she identified as Cox.

She said Cox used to produce “succulent” oranges before the ambassador ruined the fruit trees.

“We used to have sweet oranges here. If we gave you just one, it would seduce you to the point that you would not want to go back home, just wanting some more,” she said.

Nearly 20 000 citrus trees, she estimates, were consumed by a wild fire because the new farmer did not invest in a fireguard and did not bother to clear the under growth in between the trees.

“Irrigation equipment and all the trees were burnt. When Cox was here, we used to clear all the land around the plantation to serve as a fireguard, but our new boss felt it was a waste of time and money,” she said.

Manzou also inherited a mango plantation where Gogo Chivhanga said nearly 200 workers used to pick fruits for both export and the local market.

“You would not see an adult milling around this complex as we would be in the plantation,” she said. “Mangoes were big business here, but now the plantation is attended to by just four to 10 people who load trucks that supply the Mbare musika market.”

Even the stubborn mango trees which can survive in the hot arid lands of Mutoko are beginning to show signs of neglect.

Despite irrigation water running less than 4km from the farm, watering the trees and feeding them with compound Z fertiliser has proved difficult for Manzou.

Full-time employees earn $70 per month, but even that meagre wage has proved difficult to pay.

Furthermore, the employer does not provide his workers with the tools to work the land.

Farm manager Webster Makovere refused to shed light on why the farm had become a disaster referring all questions to Manzou, now a senior foreign affairs ministry official.

Manzou was unreachable at the time of going to print.

Beauty Mafukidze, a mother of two narrated how they were required to bring their own hoes to till the land.

“If you don’t have your own hoe and other tools, you won’t work and with wages not being paid, buying the tools is not only difficult but next to impossible,” she said.

Some of the workers who have served both Cox and Manzou miss the time the farm was under the control of the white farmer.

Under Cox, they received protective clothing, meat provisions, mealie-meal and school fees for their children.

“We never went hungry or worked the land without shoes like we do now. I just don’t know what’s wrong with the black person,” she said.

Those who still doubt that there is absolutely no correlation between having knowledge and applying it can look no further than Dodhill farm owned by Noel Kunonga, a senior lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe.

Kunonga, who holds a MSc in Molecular Microbiology, managed to convert 40 hectares of citrus tree into firewood.

If one could put a sticker on his back, it would read “stay away from farming and farms please and return to class”.

Kunonga has since leased most of the farm to Talbec Investments, a company dedicated to turning derelict farms into jewels of production.

Farm manager Lovemore Rice who now works for Talbec was more candid about the problems at most farms that were seized by the Zanu PF government.

“They lie. workers are not paid and money which they get from harvesting the produce is not reinvested into the farms, it’s spent on hotels, luxury cars and women,” he said.

Rice said it was hard to understand how Kunonga had managed to bring the farm down to its knees.

“It’s difficult to understand how he managed to bring down this farm,” he said. “He probably thought the trees would continue giving him fruit despite the fact that he was not watering or taking good care of them.”

Apart from fertiliser and water,  the trees need to be regularly sprayed with summer oils, neem oils and compound Z to keep them disease-free.

Kunonga, who initially acknowledged owning the farm, later changed his story.

“I don’t own that property, it’s not mine,” he said. “If you want to misrepresent the facts, then go ahead. I don’t know why that farm manager said it’s mine.”

Mugabe justified the seizure of white-owned commercial farms without compensation, saying he was correcting colonial imbalances.

However, critics say the majority of the productive land was given to Zanu PF supporters who had no interest in farming.