Corrections: I have to Keep Going back to that Dreadful Year, 1997.

Thunderstorms roll down our local Rabacal Valley. It could be Africa.

This week, like many I am sure, I was gratified to receive the concise and clear statement by the official Compensation Steering Committee (CSC) on the true status of the Global Compensation Deed (GCD) and Farm Compensation Agreement (FCA). I thank their team for preparing this, and as it is from the official CSC, it must meet the approval of those that mandated it, that being the Commercial Farmers Union (CFU), SAAI and SAFCA. I am sure quite a lot of work went into getting consensus on the statement's content. Well done.

“It is never too late to put a right to a wrong. If left uncorrected long enough, wrongs can transform into rights as I have recently felt was happening with our compensation.” - Peter McSporran

Every month, I read Cathy Buckle’s letter from Zimbabwe. I should admit to not contributing to her; perhaps I should, as I am sure things are tough for her in Zimbabwe despite her talent. She is very eloquent, and her writing is so descriptive you can clearly imagine the subject matter, location or people. I have noted she rarely exceeds one thousand words in her letter, while I have been known to exceed three thousand, although lately it is closer to two thousand. Further, she only writes about once a month while I write once a week and more probable than not, my content could better be described as dross. I am therefore going from today to try and keep it to less than fifteen hundred words, but preferably one thousand. Let's see.

I had to make a couple of corrections to last week's blog; the one most significant and pertinent was the place and cause of Frank Hamp-Adams’s death. My old friend Charlie Hand, who was in the Special Branch during the war, corrected me, and I have subsequently changed it in that blog. For those interested, Frank died in a landmine incident in Inyanga, not in Victoria Falls, as I had recorded. As much of what I have written to date was before the internet, dates have been my main challenge. Some dates and events, often for the strangest reasons, remain significant, and therefore, in my reflections, I think, “Was such and such an event before or after that particular date?” I often get mixed up between the before and after.

“All of us have strong memories of events; remembering the date or even the year of that event can be a challenge. The older you get, the more difficult it is as the year's concertina.” - Peter McSporran

My first home in Rhodesia.

In our exchange of texts, Charlie reminded me how small the world is, especially regarding Zimbabwe. As I said, Charlie had been Special Branch in the war, and in 1979 towards the end of the war, his station happened to be at Lilfordia based in the farm cottage at the top section of Umzururu Farm close to Lilfordia School. That was the cottage I lived in when I started working for the Smiths as a farm assistant on the princely salary of Rh$70 per month in 1972. At least I still remember the year I arrived in the then Rhodesia.

“Rhodesia was virtually self-sufficient in the 1970s; the only thing I missed was imported chocolate and whisky at a decent price. The former I got used to not having, the latter not so.” - Peter McSporran

Charlie sent me some photos of that cottage, and he tells me his daughter is marrying Jono,  the son of Alistair Campbell; his grandparents Iain Campbell, Letitia Campbell were my one-time neighbours way back in the day. I will post a picture of my humble abode from way back then supplied by Charlie.

I keep trying to escape that dreadful year 1997, but in my research, I have found I missed a couple of important events, one to me and the other affecting many Zimbabwean farmers. I have not previously mentioned it, but another organisation I was on the board of was Meatmart. It was explicitly created under the auspices of the Cattle Producers Association (CPA), with Les Mallet as the then chairman, to facilitate funding for rebuilding the national cattle herd. This was planned to be done by lending ranchers or at least cattle farmers' finances to secure young female breeding stock. I was nominated as chairman, and we set about raising the money to try and get the national herd back to what it was in Rhodesia when as much as seventy thousand tonnes of beef was exported annually, much to Europe. The challenges of the beef industry were much more significant by 1997. The Cold Storage Commission was collapsing due to corruption, and the veterinary services, although funded by the European Union (EU), were severely under-resourced in terms of qualified personnel and finances. Stuart Hargreaves, the Director of the Department of Livestock Services, whose salary was also supported by the EU, was trying his hardest to maintain some control to enable exports but with little support from the Government nor its law enforcement agencies, such as the police. Theft of foot and mouth containment fences and cattle movement was on the increase, making the control of foot and mouth disease extremely difficult. The idea of finding cattle finance had long been a vision of the CPA and had been pushed to the fore by Selby Chance, Bob Swift and finally Les. We spent many hours over the years while I was at the CFU trying to raise this finance, having sat in rooms with many disinterested parties and chancers. Still, finally, Standard Bank agreed to come to the party with Rinus Grau as their lead. Once we had identified funds we could then employ a CEO which we did in the form of an old Cold Storage Commision(CSC) general manager, Ebrahim Essof.These funds would be lent to ranchers like the old CSC lending scheme for young breeding cows or heifers, branding them, and retaining ownership for the duration of the loan while accepting offspring for repayment. By offering a premium for breeding heifers, we hoped this would further save many from slaughter. Unlike the CSC, in some instances, we asked for some added security, just as well. Despite funding many thousand of young breeding stock, we only had one defaulter. Luckily for us, we had some security on commercial land he owned in Norton township. Mind you, we sweated for a while. Following the success of our scheme CC Sales and Barclays Bank copied us. I thank Les Mallet for providing the detail of what I have written here.

The ideal type of cross-bred heifers ideal for Zimbabwean conditions

"They say a bull is 50% of a herd, but without adequate female numbers it would be a very expensive half."- Peter McSporran

In setting up Meatmark, we came to the attention of the Botswana Meat Commission (BMC), with Ove Nielsen, their then-long-time CEO, interested in marketing Zimbabwe beef in Europe. Ove was the man who turned the fortunes of BMC around and built it into a vast beef slaughtering, processing and marketing organisation working profitably. To this effect, at our expense, we were invited to visit their facilities in the UK so Les Mallet, Richard Tumner, and I set off for London. Needless to say, we were very impressed with BMC’s facilities (cold stores) and distribution network. We were also very impressed by Ove’s lifestyle in Europe, which was well above our means. But in saying that, he had made the BMC into one of Africa’s most successful meat processors and marketers. Perhaps in the old days, the CSC had been similar, but not in my era, I have come across nothing similar to the BMC in Africa. 

I especially remembered Meatmart in 1997 because, as chairman, I was expected to report to the CPA’s annual general meeting, which was being held on Spurwing, Kariba that year. It happened to coincide with the OK Grand Challenge Race at Borrowdale racecourse, and despite owning horses for some ten years, I had a runner for the first time in this major event of the racing calendar. When I say I, it should be we as I was part of a syndicate. I think we called that particular syndicate the Lomagundi Syndicate, which was made up mainly of farming friends. Anyway, the horse’s name was Sweden, and blow me down it won the race in my absence. I missed the highlight of my racing days, having to talk to a bunch of ranchers. Probably just as well, as my bed at Spurwing was not far from the bar. 

Every day, recently starts with a battle between the clouds and the sun,, with the clouds most days having the upper hand

Finally, I have written ‘finally’ about 1997 three times; following the news of the payout to war vets on the 11th of November, the Government posted a list of some 1,471 for compulsory acquisition in that same month. Until that date, the designations, except for those farmers involved, appeared to be more tokens to apply pressure on the British government for funding. Negotiations had many removed and the few left were still battling in court, although compensation was a significant unresolved issue. This new listing seemed to be a new agenda driven much more by political reasons in efforts to buy votes. Since leaving the CFU in 1996, I rarely visited the offices, letting the new leadership get on with the job as Anthony Swire-Thompson did for me. The then President Nick Swanepoel was agitated but felt the issue could be resolved. I was not so sure.

Ending this blog lets me leave 1997 well behind. I will not promise not to come back to it again.

Disclaimer: Copyright Peter McSporran. The content in this blog represents my personal views and does not reflect corporate entities.