Will we get home on time or not? That is the question. If the world press and the fearful politicians have their way, probably not. If logic and good sense prevail then, yes. However, the second option is unlikely. For Rozanne and I being retired, it is not a major problem other than my next heart and cancer reviews along with my eye injection are all due starting on the 16th of December through until the 20th of January.
Our current society boasts individual freedom, but why do I sometimes feel very unfree? I now appear to have limited freedom of expression and now I am restricted on my movements. Interesting that in contrast, the virus ignores these restrictions of movement.” - Peter McSporran
As we all know changing appointments during Covid-19 is always a challenge. The tests, not so much, the face to face reviews, yes. In Storm’s case, she was expecting to get back to her fiancé, which is of more concern as personal relationship contact is important. In addition, we may not see any of our family over Christmas in Portugal as they planned to spend Christmas with us. Here in Southern Africa, there are so many people who have not seen loved ones for two years or more who are facing much emotional disappointment. For me, the virus must run its course, banning travel will not be the deterrent in defeating the virus, rather it only temporarily delays its inevitable spread. Yes, we must take personal precautions and be careful, have your vaccinations but it is important we can continue with our daily jobs and businesses. How much hardship will the new restrictions bring to Southern Africa? Many businesses involved in travel and hospitality were hanging on by a thread hoping better days were on their way, to now see their hopes dashed. Meanwhile, the local man on most African city streets seems to get on with his daily life with no concern, the only change is mask-wearing. Is it the hot weather that slows the virus down or is it the African people’s natural immunity through long exposure to the many endemic diseases in Africa that helps them combat Covid-19? Who has the answers? Cold weather definitely seems to allow it to flourish as we have seen in Europe.
Once again, we are at Dave and Lisa Clements lodge, on Lake Mutirikwi, this time in their tented lodge, not their house. We have the whole lodge to ourselves, which can sleep fourteen people comfortably. Are we privileged? We also have nearly the whole lake to ourselves, seldom seeing a boat other than the local co-op fishermen. Of course, evenings are spent with the Clements doing what all Zimbabweans do best, reminiscing over a sundowner, often talking about the good old days. This time we are also visiting the game park to walk with rhino and view giraffes and other game in Kyle National Park. Most of the rhinos have been dehorned to avoid poaching. National Parks notch their hooves so poachers do not track them, clearly seeing the notches on the rhino spoor. Poachers are known for tracking a rhino and then in frustration, on finding it hornless, shoot it, so it does not waste their time in future.
“In this world of “wokeness”, “cancel culture”, “politically correctness” and “confusion over gender” many in this world still archaically consider rhino horn an aphrodisiac. It is foolish to think our actions, including comically frustrating demonstrations, in trying to enlighten the world about the social injustice despite our ‘so called’ freedom, will impact on the rest of the world. These actions remind me more of spoiled brats than serious thinkers.” - Peter McSporran
We also had time to visit the Great Zimbabwe ruins, which appear to still hold a mystery about their purpose although most agree on the origins. It is so unfortunate there is no written record of the events. Why and for what reason all of those stones were cut into squares and turned into impressive buildings? Much of it, destroyed now, I suppose that’s why they are called ruins.
Every time I visit there, I leave with both a sense of wonderment on man’s fortitude and endeavour to build such a place and also question why. Yes, there are a number of smaller similar ruins in Zimbabwe but few. Why did these people break with tradition to build with stone rather than the traditional way of timber and mud? The labour in cutting the stone is mind-boggling, if not impressive. Is it just I am too lazy to consider their actions sensible? Were these people forced labourers or slaves? So many questions, so much more reading to do.
Meanwhile, we are catching only small bass. In the evenings I always try and read a little before going to sleep. Not much, as generally exhausted from driving or from early rises to go fishing. I recently took to reading Tug’s Trek. It is written by an old friend of the past, Alan Morkel. It traces his mental struggles post the war and the trauma of losing his farm. I am not far into it, although already struck by its honesty. It is refreshing to read about ordinary people, not fanciful heroes.
By the time I have posted this, we will have arrived in Victoria Falls after spending a night with Gay and Cedric Wilde in Bulawayo. I will chat about our stay with them next week.
The Need to Know Rule
About halfway through our training, we set off on a combined military exercise. Being the army, they chose some very difficult terrain in the Ngwezi hills. It was winter, which is dry in Zimbabwe, also very cold at night but exceedingly hot during the day. No problem really if you had water, of course. There was little or no water in those damn hills! On our first night, we joined our designated unit, marched up a hill being told we had to defend it. Have you tried digging trenches in rock? Further, our trenches had to be deep and large enough to allow for part of it to be covered for protection from aerial attack. A futile task with the added incentive to keep alert as the Special Air Service (SAS) were going to attack and in doing so would probably beat the shit out of the Territorial Forces (TF) troops, that was us, manning our sector. We all had blank-firing attachments on our rifles along with blank rounds. Some sectors of our defence found blank rounds were of little deterrent against the SAS. By morning, we had finished our water and were told a couple of us could go down the hill to fetch some “jerry cans”. At that stage, there were not many volunteers. By the end of the week, we would fall over ourselves to be the ones chosen to collect water. We were not meant to drink it before returning to our positions but of course, we did. Each can carried 20 litres of water with 2 litres per man, our daily ration.
No sooner than later that first day we were told to move to a new position. This was a daily occurrence with the accompanying trench digging. I did not know if we were advancing or retreating, we were just a bunch of disorientated conscripts happy to follow the lead of the regular troops with whom we were attached. That was the pattern for the first three days: move, dig trenches, sometimes three times in a day. In between, we undertook “recce” patrols, skirmish attacks all under the control of regular officers at about company commanders rank. I am sure they had generals and brigadiers above them whom we never saw.
It became obvious that the army was as much about logistics and feeding troops as fighting. Moving large numbers of troops, coordinating them and feeding them is an immense task. Luckily it was the dry season, I cannot imagine it in the mud of Europe or even in our rainy season. Hard enough then on the farm with tractors.
About halfway through the week I was seconded to a company of Rhodesia African Rifles (RAR). My goodness, what a change, from dry rations, “rat packs”, to a cooked meal every night and water delivered. Dry rations are prepacked daily rations consisting of tinned food and starch normally in the form of rice. They are used on patrol, most of it discarded as it is too heavy to take the designed five days rations. The critical items to take were tea, powdered milk, dog biscuits and only one tin instead of three per day. Not pilchards in tomato sauce as they increase your thirst and you stank of fish. Nobody got fat on active service in the Rhodesian army, despite the amount of beer we drank.
The RAR organisation was an eye-opener to me. The “troopies” (soldiers) were highly disciplined, always looked tidy, in contrast, us “whities” by now were covered in mud with dishevelled clothes and faces covered with stubble. On the penultimate evening, I was tasked along with a RAR corporal and his “stick” to go and “recce” the enemy’s positions in preparation for a full-on attack the following night. So off we set, although I was meant to be leading, I soon let the Corporal lead the way. After about five hours of clambering over hills, we were sitting at the edge of the designated enemy camp. By then I would have quite happily shot them rather than retrace our steps. I was so tired and pissed off! After studying their positions, I discovered a fence line that went right through it. We followed this back as close to our friendly positions as we could. On hearing this information it was great to see the relief on the face of the officer in charge of the attack when we told him it went straight into the enemy camp. So, no rest that night, nor the next as the fence line was to be the centre line of our advance. All day we prepared for the attack, in the evening we assembled and in the early hours we attacked. Another night with no sleep. Finally, after a successful onslaught, the exercise was deemed over. At the debrief, I kept falling asleep being constantly reprimanded by Bruce Snelgar. All part of the game of being a soldier.
What did I learn from the classical war exercise? Digging trenches is hard, RAR soldiers had a wonderful quartermaster support system while classical war seems very tough even without a real enemy. Finally, the unranked soldiers knew very little of what was going on, therefore, just responding enough to keep the officers happy. In real war the incentives will be greater I have no doubt. I figure the troopies on the ground know or are told very little as Tug puts in his book due to the “need to know” rule. I think it goes like this. The General tells the Brigadier his orders and role on what he considers he needs to know, limited to his specific task. The brigadier then applies this to the battalion commander, who in turn passes on what he considers his company commanders need to know, in turn, carry out their task. The “need to know”, at each step is edited to what the individual giving the orders feels he should pass on. It continues down to platoon commanders and by the time the corporal tells his “stick”, it is felt he needs to know very little and just, “do what you are bloody told!” Don’t ask why.
We were about to start counterinsurgency (COIN) training, a completely different type of warfare where often the person on the ground knew more than the commanders.
The Challenges of Investing in African Agriculture Part I
When we set up AgDevCo, its aim was to fund viable early-stage agricultural enterprises based on their track records, sponsors expertise and business model. We felt it was critical to develop these early-stage businesses as you do not have to be in Africa long to find out there is a very limited number of enterprises that normal lenders or investors would be willing to support. Of course, the exception is in countries such as South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Kenya. These countries have a commercial agricultural base, along with value addition, some existing for many years, some recovering or some in the early stages.
The lack of businesses to invest in makes them hard to find, while those that appear viable and established are sought after by many possible investors who in doing so inflate their values. Often dismissing some fatal flaws in their desperation to find something to invest in. Who are the main culprits in this regard, private equity and agricultural fund managers? It is not their fault; their investing partners demand a return and most importantly within a set time frame.
When we started AgDevCo we carried out a number of consulting roles to sustain and grow ourselves, both in the private and public sectors. I soon found out the business models we used in Zimbabwe and Zambia were very difficult to duplicate and implement in many African countries. The main reason being most of the small emerging businesses in those countries were spawned out of the informal sector. That is, they were used to operate, for lack of a better term, “by ducking and diving”. No proper accounts, in fact often no records at all. No tax returns or even payments, as for things like environmental compliance, human resource management, health and safety, forget! There is no doubt there are many, if not millions of such businesses in Africa who will not qualify for funding as funding sponsors require very high first-world standards. Those standards only being implemented well after their own industrial revolutions. In fact, the whole world is paying for their negligence and ignorance in the form of the present environmental crisis. Of course, those countries such as China and India want to catch up, making adherence to the desired rules hard under the present order.
Another action by some Governments and NGOs which confused the issue for both sponsors and investors was the historical and ongoing issuing of grants. A sponsor who has received a grant may treat his commercial loans as grants despite all the screeds of paper he or she has signed clearly stating his obligations. Some of the most successful businesses we saw actually were where they were due to be darlings of the donor community and not their business endeavours. Of course, lenders are often too weak-willed, filled with political and reputational fear to enforce loans creating a culture and scourge of non-repayment. We started funding small businesses and in 2010 AgDevCo provided loans to six start-up agricultural businesses in Mozambique as part of the Beira Agricultural Growth Corridor (BAGC) initiative. I specifically mention this as having been involved in over fifty new companies in Zambia, this new geographical operational area was to prove a much greater challenge.
I do not want to talk specifically about AgDevCo but rather put in words my own views while respecting and learning from the challenges I found in working in African Agriculture with AgDevCo. I was lucky also to be retained by Phatisa, therefore also learning a lot, but never enough about how Private Equity works and the challenges it faces in primary agriculture. In my mind, we all talk about patient capital not really appreciating how patient we need to be in farming.
We have learned BA have cancelled our flight.
Disclaimer: Copyright Peter McSporran. The content in this blog represents my personal views and does not reflect corporate entities.
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