White Farmers to Be Vetted by Zimbabwe Government
October 13, 2015
From George Maponga in Masvingo
Zimbabwe Herald
Government has not yet issued offer letters to white farmers who were recommended by provinces to stay on their farms as they will first be subjected to strict vetting before receiving security of tenure documents. Lands and Rural Resettlement Minister Dr Douglas Mombeshora revealed that his ministry had received recommendations from some provinces to issue offer letters to white farmers considered to be strategic in those regions.
He, however, said his ministry was still to issue even a single offer letter to a white farmer as strict vetting needed to be carried out first. “We have not yet issued any offer letter to a white farmer although we have received recommendations from most provinces to issue certain white farmers with offer letters. It is not a one-day exercise, because there are a lot of things that need to be done before we issue them with offer letters,’’ he said.
“As Government, we need to look at each of the white farmers one by one to establish whose interests they represent because we have some instances where the white farmers will have been recommended to get an offer letter on the basis of being linked to a powerful person. We need to unravel things like that and get satisfied that the white farmer in question is really committed to Zimbabwe,’’ he said.
The Ministry of Lands and Rural Resettlement has received recommendations from provinces around the country to issue offer letter to scores of white farmers considered to run operations of strategic economic importance. Among the white farmers recommended were those specialising in areas such as dairy farming, poultry and hybrid bull production.
Dr Mombeshora said white farmers with loyalty to powerful individuals will not get offer letters as the most important qualification to get that document was loyalty to the interests of all Zimbabweans.
“We are still studying the recommendations from the provinces and we will act after carrying out thorough vetting of the white farmers. Provinces do not have the power to issue offer letters. They can only make recommendations and we (Ministry of Lands and Rural Resettlement) act on the advice of those recommendations,’’ he added.
In Masvingo, the provincial lands committee has recommended that six white farmers be issued with offer letters after their operations were classified as being of strategic economic importance to the province. The white farmers are involved in sugar cane farming in Chiredzi, dairy farming in Gutu and Masvingo districts, hybrid bull production in Mwenezi and poultry production.
Among those recommended is Ms Hellen Mitchell, who produces 100 000 day-old chicks a week at her Barquest Farm, about 20km east of Masvingo on the shores of Lake Mutirikwi. Part of Mrs Mitchell’s 367-hectare farm had been gazetted for acquisition under the land reform programme. Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Walter Mzembi had been given an offer letter to take over part of the farm.
However, the Masvingo provincial leadership, led by provincial affairs Minister Senator Shuvai Mahofa, blocked the move saying Ms Mitchell’s operations were of strategic importance to Masvingo province’s economy.
500 Jobs Lost As ZESA Holdings Turns Off Power to Nitrate Firm in Zimbabwe
October 13, 2015
Zvamaida Murwira Senior Reporter
Zimbabwe Herald
Zesa Holdings has switched off the country’s sole Ammonium Nitrate manufacturer, Sable Chemicals, rendering about 500 people jobless. This follows an announcement by Energy and Power Development Minister Samuel Undenge last week that 40 Megawatts that had been dedicated to the firm would be diverted to residential areas.
Sable Chemicals chief executive Mr Jack Murehwa confirmed the development yesterday. “We are off already. Zesa has switched us off. We have closed our plant. This has affected about 500 workers. “There is nothing we can do. We have been engaging Zesa, but it failed. We will, however, engage Government and see if we can reach common ground.”
Mr Murehwa said the withdrawal of electricity meant they would stop manufacturing fertiliser because they had no alternative source of power. He said he had been locked up in several meetings over the weekend trying to persuade Zesa, but failed. The decision to stop operations was likely to dent agricultural production as farmers would have to do with the available AN on the market.
Mr Murehwa, however, said the company, a joint venture between Chemplex Corporation and TA Holdings’ feasibility studies of adopting new technology, which would use Coal Bed Methane had been successfully completed. CBM is a method of extracting methane from a coal deposit through a process called steam reforming.
Methane absorbed into a solid coal matrix, will be released if the coal seam is depressurised and hydrogen will be extracted. CBM, which will generate electricity once commissioned and will be fed in the national grid unlike the current electrolysis plant, which was set up in 1972 that has become expensive to run due to antiquated machinery.
Mr Murehwa said the company was now looking for funding, believed to be around $600 million to construct a pipeline to transport gas from Lupane gas fields to Sable Chemicals plant near Kwekwe. When Sable Chemicals is operating at full capacity it requires 115 MW to produce 240 000 tonnes of Ammonium Nitrate Fertiliser per year.
This year, the company was geared towards producing 100 000 tonnes ahead of the summer cropping season. The firm was in September 2009, forced to suspend operations as it could not pay for the high electricity tariffs charged by ZESA. Government had to intervene by appointing a special Cabinet committee to map the way forward. Production resumed two months later after an internal arrangement between the Government and ZESA.
The country has, during the past few years, been forced to import fertiliser as the local companies were failing to meet demand. The low yields recorded by farmers over the same period were largely as a result of either shortage of the fertiliser or late delivery of the commodity to farmers. The decision to switch off Sable Chemicals was among a cocktail of drastic measures announced by Government last week.
Minister Undenge said major mining companies and other heavy power consumers such as Sable Chemicals, had to reduce consumption by up to 25 percent. The decision to withdraw power supplies to Sable Chemicals, which consumes 40 Mega watts of electricity saw the Midlands-based firm pressing the panic button saying it will result in the loss of 500 jobs.
Security cantonments have also been asked to load-shed non-essential areas as part of measures adopted by Government to reduce the impact of the massive power cuts being experienced across the country. This is expected to save about 25MW, said Minister Undenge.
Sable Chemicals, which consumes 40MW of electricity and owes $150 million in unpaid bills to the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC), would be weaned off the national grid and its supplies channelled to domestic consumption. He told Parliament last week that Government had engaged Mozambique to increase electricity supply.
“We usually import 50 megawatts of electricity from Mozambique but we are engaged in talks with them to increase the supply. Zambia is also experiencing worse challenges than us as a result of shortage of electricity. Not only Zambia but the whole Sadc region is being affected by electricity shortages,” said Minister Undenge while fielding questions in the National Assembly.
Kasukuwere Reads Riot Act
October 12, 2015
Felex Share Senior Reporter
ZANU-PF will descend heavily on corrupt and wayward members who allege factionalism and use the names of senior party leaders in a bid to hide criminal and disciplinary issues they will be facing, the party’s national political commissar Cde Saviour Kasukuwere said yesterday.
Cde Kasukuwere told The Herald yesterday that Zanu-PF was bigger than any individual and no one should claim “to be an ally of anybody”.
In an interview in Mt Darwin yesterday where he was officiating at a meeting for tobacco farmers, Cde Kasukuwere dismissed the alleged existence of a group going by the name “Generation 40” in Zanu-PF, saying it was an imaginary faction created by expelled members of the Dr Joice Mujuru-led putschist cabal and propagated by the private media in their bid to push the faction agenda.
Cde Kasukuwere spoke in the wake of claims by ousted Mashonaland Central youth league chairperson Cde Godfrey Tsenengamu, his secretary for administration Cde Paul Rwodzi and secretary for security Cde Batsirai Musani who were given votes of no confidence on Saturday.
Cde Tsenengamu was quoted in the private media claiming that he and his colleagues had been ousted for inviting Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa to officiate at a function organised by an apostolic sect in Mashonaland Central.
It, however, emerged yesterday that the trio faced numerous charges, among them embezzling party funds and holding secret meetings with other party leaders from other provinces without the knowledge of their provincial leadership.
Cde Tsenengamu, in particular, stands accused of stealing cattle donated towards President Mugabe’s birthday bash, which he allegedly used to pay lobola for his second wife.
Cde Kasukuwere said hiding behind the names of senior party leaders would not exonerate the trio.
“This business of people trying to pre-empt disciplinary proceedings by trying to drag in the leadership is unacceptable,” he said.
“Trying to bring themselves closer to individuals will not save them because the party is larger than an individual. Let us not run away from criminal issues and try to hoodwink the nation. If you have a criminal case, just go and answer it and stop dragging the leadership into those criminal matters.”
He added: “Theirs is a matter which is on its way to the national disciplinary body from the province and from what we were briefed, it has nothing to do with VP Mnangagwa’s recent visit. What surprises us is that they claim to be allies of someone.
“The party is full of members and we deal with membership, not allies.”
Cde Kasukuwere said there was no bad blood between VP Mnangagwa and the Mashonaland Central provincial leadership, hence the good reception he received when he visited Madzibaba Wimbo’s Shrine.
“You cannot just wake up and try to join two unrelated issues,” Cde Kasukuwere said.
“The VP’s visit was known by the party leadership and we asked the provincial chairman (Cde Dickson Mafios) and Members of Parliament to go and receive him.
“Cde Mnangagwa is the Vice President of this country and he is welcome in Mashonaland Central like any other place.”
He said before the recent visit, VP Mnangagwa had been in Mashonaland Central on two occasions this year—campaigning for the party in Mbire District ahead of last month’s by-elections and officiating at a Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services function in Bindura.
“We are 100 percent behind President Mugabe and his entire leadership including the VPs because this is the choice of our leader and we must support him,” said Cde Kasukuwere.
“We want to disabuse the notion that Mashonaland Central province has issues with one of our VPs, it is a big NO! We enjoy the company of our leadership, coming to give us direction. We disabuse philosophies by individuals that they own the VPs. No one owns them because they are our party leaders,” Cde Kasukuwere said.
Responding to reports that he snubbed VP Mnangagwa during the shrine visit, Cde Kasukuwere said as the acting Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare he had to attend First Lady Dr Grace Mugabe’s event at Danhiko in Harare.
He said it was detestable for anyone to talk about Presidential ambitions when President Mugabe was firmly in control of the party.
Cde Kasukuwere said the Zanu-PF leadership should ignore the “rantings on imagined factions” such as G40 being peddled by the private media.
“G40 was a creation of Rugare Gumbo and his clique and anyone who regurgitates that is in agreement with him,” he said.
“Where have you seen G40? Who can do that honestly? We must be guided much more by seriousness and the need to deliver to our people not to be diverted. What we are concerned with more is the recovery of the economy than giving people labels. Some of us are happy where we are and if you want to justify your faction, you should not create one.”
He warned Zanu-PF members feeding the private press with inaccurate information that the party would one day unmask them.
Said Cde Kasukuwere: “The moment you see somebody feeding the private press then you must suspect there is a motive behind it. If you are a genuine cadre stand up and be known, say this is what happened and this is where I stand.”
From George Maponga in Masvingo
Zimbabwe Herald
Government has not yet issued offer letters to white farmers who were recommended by provinces to stay on their farms as they will first be subjected to strict vetting before receiving security of tenure documents. Lands and Rural Resettlement Minister Dr Douglas Mombeshora revealed that his ministry had received recommendations from some provinces to issue offer letters to white farmers considered to be strategic in those regions.
He, however, said his ministry was still to issue even a single offer letter to a white farmer as strict vetting needed to be carried out first. “We have not yet issued any offer letter to a white farmer although we have received recommendations from most provinces to issue certain white farmers with offer letters. It is not a one-day exercise, because there are a lot of things that need to be done before we issue them with offer letters,’’ he said.
“As Government, we need to look at each of the white farmers one by one to establish whose interests they represent because we have some instances where the white farmers will have been recommended to get an offer letter on the basis of being linked to a powerful person. We need to unravel things like that and get satisfied that the white farmer in question is really committed to Zimbabwe,’’ he said.
The Ministry of Lands and Rural Resettlement has received recommendations from provinces around the country to issue offer letter to scores of white farmers considered to run operations of strategic economic importance. Among the white farmers recommended were those specialising in areas such as dairy farming, poultry and hybrid bull production.
Dr Mombeshora said white farmers with loyalty to powerful individuals will not get offer letters as the most important qualification to get that document was loyalty to the interests of all Zimbabweans.
“We are still studying the recommendations from the provinces and we will act after carrying out thorough vetting of the white farmers. Provinces do not have the power to issue offer letters. They can only make recommendations and we (Ministry of Lands and Rural Resettlement) act on the advice of those recommendations,’’ he added.
In Masvingo, the provincial lands committee has recommended that six white farmers be issued with offer letters after their operations were classified as being of strategic economic importance to the province. The white farmers are involved in sugar cane farming in Chiredzi, dairy farming in Gutu and Masvingo districts, hybrid bull production in Mwenezi and poultry production.
Among those recommended is Ms Hellen Mitchell, who produces 100 000 day-old chicks a week at her Barquest Farm, about 20km east of Masvingo on the shores of Lake Mutirikwi. Part of Mrs Mitchell’s 367-hectare farm had been gazetted for acquisition under the land reform programme. Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Walter Mzembi had been given an offer letter to take over part of the farm.
However, the Masvingo provincial leadership, led by provincial affairs Minister Senator Shuvai Mahofa, blocked the move saying Ms Mitchell’s operations were of strategic importance to Masvingo province’s economy.
500 Jobs Lost As ZESA Holdings Turns Off Power to Nitrate Firm in Zimbabwe
October 13, 2015
Zvamaida Murwira Senior Reporter
Zimbabwe Herald
Zesa Holdings has switched off the country’s sole Ammonium Nitrate manufacturer, Sable Chemicals, rendering about 500 people jobless. This follows an announcement by Energy and Power Development Minister Samuel Undenge last week that 40 Megawatts that had been dedicated to the firm would be diverted to residential areas.
Sable Chemicals chief executive Mr Jack Murehwa confirmed the development yesterday. “We are off already. Zesa has switched us off. We have closed our plant. This has affected about 500 workers. “There is nothing we can do. We have been engaging Zesa, but it failed. We will, however, engage Government and see if we can reach common ground.”
Mr Murehwa said the withdrawal of electricity meant they would stop manufacturing fertiliser because they had no alternative source of power. He said he had been locked up in several meetings over the weekend trying to persuade Zesa, but failed. The decision to stop operations was likely to dent agricultural production as farmers would have to do with the available AN on the market.
Mr Murehwa, however, said the company, a joint venture between Chemplex Corporation and TA Holdings’ feasibility studies of adopting new technology, which would use Coal Bed Methane had been successfully completed. CBM is a method of extracting methane from a coal deposit through a process called steam reforming.
Methane absorbed into a solid coal matrix, will be released if the coal seam is depressurised and hydrogen will be extracted. CBM, which will generate electricity once commissioned and will be fed in the national grid unlike the current electrolysis plant, which was set up in 1972 that has become expensive to run due to antiquated machinery.
Mr Murehwa said the company was now looking for funding, believed to be around $600 million to construct a pipeline to transport gas from Lupane gas fields to Sable Chemicals plant near Kwekwe. When Sable Chemicals is operating at full capacity it requires 115 MW to produce 240 000 tonnes of Ammonium Nitrate Fertiliser per year.
This year, the company was geared towards producing 100 000 tonnes ahead of the summer cropping season. The firm was in September 2009, forced to suspend operations as it could not pay for the high electricity tariffs charged by ZESA. Government had to intervene by appointing a special Cabinet committee to map the way forward. Production resumed two months later after an internal arrangement between the Government and ZESA.
The country has, during the past few years, been forced to import fertiliser as the local companies were failing to meet demand. The low yields recorded by farmers over the same period were largely as a result of either shortage of the fertiliser or late delivery of the commodity to farmers. The decision to switch off Sable Chemicals was among a cocktail of drastic measures announced by Government last week.
Minister Undenge said major mining companies and other heavy power consumers such as Sable Chemicals, had to reduce consumption by up to 25 percent. The decision to withdraw power supplies to Sable Chemicals, which consumes 40 Mega watts of electricity saw the Midlands-based firm pressing the panic button saying it will result in the loss of 500 jobs.
Security cantonments have also been asked to load-shed non-essential areas as part of measures adopted by Government to reduce the impact of the massive power cuts being experienced across the country. This is expected to save about 25MW, said Minister Undenge.
Sable Chemicals, which consumes 40MW of electricity and owes $150 million in unpaid bills to the Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC), would be weaned off the national grid and its supplies channelled to domestic consumption. He told Parliament last week that Government had engaged Mozambique to increase electricity supply.
“We usually import 50 megawatts of electricity from Mozambique but we are engaged in talks with them to increase the supply. Zambia is also experiencing worse challenges than us as a result of shortage of electricity. Not only Zambia but the whole Sadc region is being affected by electricity shortages,” said Minister Undenge while fielding questions in the National Assembly.
Kasukuwere Reads Riot Act
October 12, 2015
Felex Share Senior Reporter
ZANU-PF will descend heavily on corrupt and wayward members who allege factionalism and use the names of senior party leaders in a bid to hide criminal and disciplinary issues they will be facing, the party’s national political commissar Cde Saviour Kasukuwere said yesterday.
Cde Kasukuwere told The Herald yesterday that Zanu-PF was bigger than any individual and no one should claim “to be an ally of anybody”.
In an interview in Mt Darwin yesterday where he was officiating at a meeting for tobacco farmers, Cde Kasukuwere dismissed the alleged existence of a group going by the name “Generation 40” in Zanu-PF, saying it was an imaginary faction created by expelled members of the Dr Joice Mujuru-led putschist cabal and propagated by the private media in their bid to push the faction agenda.
Cde Kasukuwere spoke in the wake of claims by ousted Mashonaland Central youth league chairperson Cde Godfrey Tsenengamu, his secretary for administration Cde Paul Rwodzi and secretary for security Cde Batsirai Musani who were given votes of no confidence on Saturday.
Cde Tsenengamu was quoted in the private media claiming that he and his colleagues had been ousted for inviting Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa to officiate at a function organised by an apostolic sect in Mashonaland Central.
It, however, emerged yesterday that the trio faced numerous charges, among them embezzling party funds and holding secret meetings with other party leaders from other provinces without the knowledge of their provincial leadership.
Cde Tsenengamu, in particular, stands accused of stealing cattle donated towards President Mugabe’s birthday bash, which he allegedly used to pay lobola for his second wife.
Cde Kasukuwere said hiding behind the names of senior party leaders would not exonerate the trio.
“This business of people trying to pre-empt disciplinary proceedings by trying to drag in the leadership is unacceptable,” he said.
“Trying to bring themselves closer to individuals will not save them because the party is larger than an individual. Let us not run away from criminal issues and try to hoodwink the nation. If you have a criminal case, just go and answer it and stop dragging the leadership into those criminal matters.”
He added: “Theirs is a matter which is on its way to the national disciplinary body from the province and from what we were briefed, it has nothing to do with VP Mnangagwa’s recent visit. What surprises us is that they claim to be allies of someone.
“The party is full of members and we deal with membership, not allies.”
Cde Kasukuwere said there was no bad blood between VP Mnangagwa and the Mashonaland Central provincial leadership, hence the good reception he received when he visited Madzibaba Wimbo’s Shrine.
“You cannot just wake up and try to join two unrelated issues,” Cde Kasukuwere said.
“The VP’s visit was known by the party leadership and we asked the provincial chairman (Cde Dickson Mafios) and Members of Parliament to go and receive him.
“Cde Mnangagwa is the Vice President of this country and he is welcome in Mashonaland Central like any other place.”
He said before the recent visit, VP Mnangagwa had been in Mashonaland Central on two occasions this year—campaigning for the party in Mbire District ahead of last month’s by-elections and officiating at a Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services function in Bindura.
“We are 100 percent behind President Mugabe and his entire leadership including the VPs because this is the choice of our leader and we must support him,” said Cde Kasukuwere.
“We want to disabuse the notion that Mashonaland Central province has issues with one of our VPs, it is a big NO! We enjoy the company of our leadership, coming to give us direction. We disabuse philosophies by individuals that they own the VPs. No one owns them because they are our party leaders,” Cde Kasukuwere said.
Responding to reports that he snubbed VP Mnangagwa during the shrine visit, Cde Kasukuwere said as the acting Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare he had to attend First Lady Dr Grace Mugabe’s event at Danhiko in Harare.
He said it was detestable for anyone to talk about Presidential ambitions when President Mugabe was firmly in control of the party.
Cde Kasukuwere said the Zanu-PF leadership should ignore the “rantings on imagined factions” such as G40 being peddled by the private media.
“G40 was a creation of Rugare Gumbo and his clique and anyone who regurgitates that is in agreement with him,” he said.
“Where have you seen G40? Who can do that honestly? We must be guided much more by seriousness and the need to deliver to our people not to be diverted. What we are concerned with more is the recovery of the economy than giving people labels. Some of us are happy where we are and if you want to justify your faction, you should not create one.”
He warned Zanu-PF members feeding the private press with inaccurate information that the party would one day unmask them.
Said Cde Kasukuwere: “The moment you see somebody feeding the private press then you must suspect there is a motive behind it. If you are a genuine cadre stand up and be known, say this is what happened and this is where I stand.”
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