Not So Good Medical News.
My visit to my urologist did not go exactly as hoped. Despite the visual appraisal following the operation looking good, the biopsy proved that the cancer had invaded my seminal vesicles. So, further treatment will be required. Once again, it is referred back to a panel to decide, and I will await their deliberations before I relay some sort of prognosis to you. I am not planning to go anywhere soon, so those interested will hopefully continue reading my blog for the foreseeable future. Mind you, a month ago I thought I was gone. Now I am probably looking at years if I am lucky, which puts things into perspective. Unfortunately, I developed an infection, so I spent a day in the hospital this week and am back on the catheter. Rozanne pre-warned emergency, and on arrival, I was whisked in for blood and urine tests and treated before moving to outpatients for scans. Outpatients is a misnomer as you can only get here once transferred from emergency. It is not a walk-in facility.
“Once you are diagnosed with cancer, it is your constant companion even if in remission” - Peter McSporran
Despite this, I am once again driving, gardening and having meals out, and while not back to my pre-operative strength, I am getting near it.
Commercial Farmers Union Election Debacle
When I have visited Zimbabwe over the years since leaving in 2001, I have always said it is I who has changed, not my friends who have remained there. As the years have gone by, the difference between us who have left the country and those who have remained has become more profound. Yes, friends are still friends, despite some life standard differences brought about mainly by the constant survival mode required to live, let alone prosper in that country.
One of the first things that happened to me, although it took a number of years, was my voluntary reduction in alcohol intake. As an owner farmer, you are answerable for your own performance, and I must say over the years, some days on the farm would have found me wanting in both mental and physical ability following a heavy session at a neighbour’s bar or worse, the Red Lion at Harare Sports Club. Once in Zambia and with clients relying on your ability to be there for them, often following many hours driving or even a flight to a foreign land. Once there, wherever that was, you would be expected to put in a full day's work trampling around the farm or plantation gathering information or soil samples for analysis later while writing up your findings in the evening—no time for drink or frivolity. For me, I think that was my biggest change; the responsibility to myself became much more focused on performance for the client than my personal relaxation. Unfortunately, in Zimbabwe, drinking always occupied my relaxation, even when fishing. Furthermore, the travel and diverse businesses made me more aware of other cultures, especially in business and personal practice. So, on returning to Zimbabwe, instead of being impressed by my friend's drinking capacity and joining in the heavy drinking, I became aware of a sort of cultural separation from my old self.
The next change I noticed was in business or life standards. Working with banks, yes, I do know they are thieves; despite this large multinational organisations such as the IFC and World Bank and eventually AgDevCo, where I was a Director, the business practices had to become squeaky clean. Not like many successful business people in Africa who make fortunes through political patronage or just simple corruption, often on a grand scale. The rule in both my private businesses and with AgDevCo was zero tolerance to corruption. That is not to say that almost on a daily basis, a policeman at a roadblock or some government official would try to extract a bribe. We all know the pressures that can be brought to bear to concede to giving a bribe. When we used to return to Zimbabwe as roadblocks multiplied, the locals informed me paying a bribe to get about your business was now an acceptable cost to be built into the business model. Like all corruption, especially when such practice is blatantly carried out by the political leadership and its minions, petty corruption soon becomes a way of everyday life. In Zimbabwe, it is normal business practice. So it is to either accept the status quo or leave the country, the latter hard for many remaining there, while for the indigenous, it is virtually impossible as a citizen. I sound holier than thou here, which is far from the truth. What I am saying is your living and working environment very often dictates not just your habits but also your personal perspective of standards to ensure survival. It is summed up in the most common phrase used in Zimbabwe when a challenge arises, "We will make a plan."
"The fact is it is human nature to adapt to and adopt the moral standards of the country you live in purely as a means to survive. To do otherwise, you would soon be identified as a radical, perhaps to the extent of being ostracised by your peers." - Peter McSporran.
It would appear the more corrupt you are, the more you can excel in Africa. Zimbabwe has become a country of dog-eat-dog. Just look at those on other people's properties, farming them without offering any payment, let alone asking permission to access them. Those that have asked the rightful owner for the use and pay of some form of rent, I do not include. In fact, for a few of the older Title Deed Holders (TDHs), it has been what helps them survive the tough times. Unfortunately, the number of these is so few, with most looking on helplessly as the land thieves sub-rent their land to the ‘New Farmers’. When I was approached to lease my Mazoe farm, I turned it down on principle, only to be approached by a mutual friend of mine and the interested party one day over lunch in Newlands. He suggested I should get over it and lease the land; at least, he was offering some benefit. My reply was this:
“Imagine if you had a nice truck in your garage and a thief stole it. After a while, the thief realised he could not sell it nor afford the fuel to run the vehicle, let alone maintain it. He then offers one of your neighbours or other acquaintances to hire it, who in turn approaches you for permission to do so. Would you agree? No, so why should it be different when your farm is stolen?”
In all probability, they would not have the courage to approach you in regard to car theft, while with farms, it seems no problem with permission or not. Is it because the benefactor knows the thieves and their consorts protect them politically?
These last few paragraphs are a lead-up to the important subject matter I wanted to raise. On the ninth of this month, the CFU had its Annual Congress. This annual event had been delayed for several months, traditionally being held in August each year to report on the past year's events and the present state of commercial agriculture and all subject matter related to its well-being or challenges. The delay was because the director had been involved in a car accident and therefore could not officiate, let alone facilitate the meeting. This is despite the ex-farming community's turmoil over the CFU and the Compensation Steering Committee's (CSC) stance on compensation. To say there would not be a high level of awareness of the disquiet in the hierarchy of these two organisations would be an understatement. This disquiet only brought further suspicion of the CSC within the TDH groups, both for and against the proposals on the table. In that time, under the tutelage of the Past Presidents of the CFU, much to their own personal expense, a legal review was undertaken of the Global Compensation Deed (GCD) and other auxiliary proposed agreements under its umbrella. The report was damning in the GCD's lack of constitutional and legal regulations compliance leaving the CFU and CSC embarrassed, or at least they should have been, as this exercise should have been done at the very onset. That is before touting the GCD, let alone the further unsubstantiated offers of compensation within its confines, to the TDHs.
As is normal following Congress, the CFU council sits to elect the office bearers, including the President and Vice President for the following year. This is when the present President hands over to the Electoral College (committee) to carry out what should be an independent managed election. Before that started, I was told that there was a call by Andy Pascoe, the standing President, to delay the procedure as he and the Director thought they could face constitutional challenges on the eligibility of some of the councillors to vote. This is at a meeting delayed several months and being proposed by a President who has been publicly pleading for an alternate to take over from him for the past two years. Obviously, this raised much discussion, which should have readily been resolved by the returning officer, the Director, who should have knowledge of the constitution of the organisation he works for to hand.
“How much credibility has an organisation whose elected senior office bearers and professional executive declare they cannot hold an election due to lack of knowledge of their organisation's constitution despite of being the head of that orgaisation for five years? None, I would think..” - Peter McSporran
The very crux of his job, him now claiming he was unprepared. It would appear Pascoe was unaware of a challenge to his position; therefore, the quickest solution would be to kick the ball into touch. He then declared that certain parties had presented their nominations too late, despite these only being made available at the beginning of Congress by the Director. Then Andy Pascoe, I am told, went to lengths arguing why he should not be replaced after five years for continuity despite the Union having survived such changes regularly over the past eighty years of its existence. I have no doubt he saw his position as tenuous, as for him to remain in office, he would require seventy per cent or so of the vote, hence the demand for delay and his following filibustering speech.
"The fact that the standing President argues he needs to stay in for at least a transmission period would appear at face value there is a requirement to clean out dirty linen, or give time to explain to Government they are losing there man and his cohorts on the otherside."- Peter McSporran
The long and the short of it, probably for the first time in the CFU’s history, the vote and election of office bearers have been delayed, mainly because the standing President and the returning officer, the Director of the CFU, claimed they would have to refer to the CFU lawyers to clarify the very constitution they have been working under while in office. I am told the Director, who is meant to be independent, stood up and defended Pascoe’s stance, which at best to the layman, would appear unconstitutional. Was the confusion to cover the constitutional planned fallback position if Pascoe’s position looked untenable? It would appear so.
Just like many Zimbabweans have resorted to corruption to survive, the present office bearers of the CFU have followed the unconstitutional path of Government to stay in office. Is the CFU doomed or will it get its house in order? What seems obvious is that there are too many conflicted and vested interest parties influencing the present leadership who seem to want to disregard or respect its present and past members and not least the CFU’s constitution.
Disclaimer: Copyright Peter McSporran. The content in this blog represents my personal views and does not reflect corporate entities.
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