Yet another Election Debacle and Rumour of Bonds.
A great three days this week with Storm, my daughter and partner Duncan in Lisbon, and yes we attended another bullfight. Lucky enough to have been able to have a beer with an old friend, Kevin James, while we watched the Springboks dismantle the All Blacks.
Once again, we find ourselves scratching our heads, wondering why the people have re-elected the incumbent President and his ineptitude corrupt party back into power in Zimbabwe. For many of us, it is no surprise despite our dreams for change. I am afraid, like many, I have spent too much of my time in wishful thinking. That is:
“An attitude or belief that something you want to happen will happen even though it is not likely or possible.” - Britannica Dictionary
When I say ineptitude, perhaps there is one department they, the ZANU(PF), are good at and that is rigging elections even when under the umbrella of international observers who, it seems only after the voting realise they had no chance of ensuring a fair election.
“Zimbabwe’s abject failure to hold credible elections means that its pariah status will endure for the foreseeable future.” - The Economist
In fact, ZANU(PF) has learned that no action will be taken to ensure democracy other than imposing sanctions, which only assist in the accumulation of wealth to those who can manipulate the system to their own advantage. Without the rule of law, fair elections or behavioural integrity, change is only a dream, despite what my good friend Angus Shaw says. In that there is “Change in the air”. Sorry, Angus, I do not share your optimism just yet.
“The government you elect is the government you deserve.” - Thomas Jefferson
This is only true if elections are free, fair and each individual vote is counted. Easy to say, but there are so many means to influence election results, even post-election. When you have cheated for so many years, not only are you au fait with all the means to do so and adept at it you have also learned to simply ignore any calls of foul. After all, the referees have no means to sanction, unlike a red card in rugby. Since independence, I doubt even one election has been free and fair, and the people have suffered because of this.
“There is only one thing worse than not having the vote, and that is when your vote is stolen.” - Peter McSporran
To add to this suffering, their ensuing obvious anguish and poverty is photographically used to raise money from donor countries, NGOs and individuals, much of which has and will be used to the private benefit of the perpetrators, not the victims of the stolen vote. The role of monitors only works where there is at least a semblance of democracy, something that does not exist in Zimbabwe
“International election monitoring must be one of the most futile tasks one can do. Neither the organisations and countries that sponsor them nor the incumbent government act on what they declare to influence the result.” - Peter McSporran
For us disposed farmers, we should not pin any hope in achieving a fair and transparent compensation settlement in the near future as the present government will only burden the country with further debt in maintaining its personal individual wealth and privileges while pilfering from the country and impacting on the poor even more so. It is so essential that we, the farmers who lost their farms, do not start to mirror the Government's undemocratic practices in our endeavours to obtain fair retribution for our farms.
Perhaps the saddest thing for me over the election period was how little coverage there was in the international media about the build-up, the election itself and the result. It was almost taken as a ‘fait accompli’, a repeat of all those held over the past twenty-five years, so why bother to report? Most people here in Europe were neither interested nor even aware of its occurrence. Of course, the social media sites were emblazoned with it, but I am afraid the vast majority of their authors and readership are Zimbabweans, including those in the diaspora.
“In the international press, gender issues get more attention than a flawed election in Africa despite the former affecting the few while the latter affects many and subjects millions to poverty. In fact, a stolen kiss has far exceeded any such coverage on a stolen election.” - Peter McSporran
Talking about democratic choice and obtaining one’s rights, I hear on the grapevine that the Compensation Steering Committee is planning to present us with another bond offer despite the mass majority of ex-farmers opposition to accepting bonds as payment. Hopefully, the Commercial Farmers Union's Council will have taken heed of the earlier rejections.
Immigration
The only subject matter in the European press that can compete with gender matters is immigration. I remember repeatedly telling my fellow board members at AgDevCo in London in its early days that if the Western World does not invest in Africa or in fact, the developing world as a whole, immigrants will not be arriving in small rubber dinghies, rather they will be by the shipload. This was more than ten years ago, so one of my predictions has come true. Sad to be vain about such a serious issue and one I wish I had got wrong. War and lack of political freedom are causes of emigration, but poverty and lack of opportunity for one to better oneself are the main drivers. Often, it is a combination of all three. Undemocratic countries are often plagued by civil war and corruption only adding to the collapse of their economies. Unemployment in Zimbabwe, they claim, is only 5%; what they do not tell you is that 90% of employment is informal. Anywhere else in the world, it would be called unemployed. Informal employment runs from selling a tomato at the side of the road to collecting recycling plastic or stealing a loaf of bread to resell. Even the more formal of the informal do not pay taxes, let alone the minimum wage, with many living well below the poverty line. So what are the options for these people living in these countries? Leave or starve or be brave and be imprisoned or even killed for asking for their human rights. At first, the West always welcomes those early immigrants and benefits from them. Why? The first to go are always the professionals and skilled workers. Just have a look around your European building sites, engineering works or hospitals to see who makes up a large portion of the employees. These early migrants get a reasonably easy entrance to the ‘new promised lands’ as their contribution will increase productivity and collections by the treasury. The problem is, those remaining have little skills to maintain the economy. Remember, as skills leave and economies fail, the number of trained and skilled people decreases, leaving most remaining to think they would be better off elsewhere. Especially as their friend’s sister’s aunt is a nurse and getting paid maternity leave for a rumoured six months while her cousin has been living on social security for nearly a year in free housing as he has cut his finger. Must be much better than sharing a room with eight others with no running water, no electrical power and a communal long-drop for a toilet with aspirin, if available, to treat all ailments.
Democracy is hard to enforce by external means unless the sanctions are much stronger than those imposed nowadays. The sympathy card rarely allows them to be stricter; those who suffer most are never the target it is said. But employment can help, and countries with some semblance of democracy should demand and get much greater investment. They will also be examples to their neighbours, if not their governments, their people on what can be achieved closer to home. Until there is work, good healthcare and education, the boats will continue to come no matter how many billions are spent in trying to stop them on the shores of the EU and Britain—an expensive and doomed-to-failure exercise. Even though I had no plan to leave Africa on retirement, the force of circumstance did, no wonder those much worse off than me want to.
Funnily enough, there are not so many immigrants or refugees, I am not sure of the differential anymore here in Portugal. I think it is due to the perceived social benefits and lucrative employment opportunities further north. There must be some lessons there, but in the end until there is opportunity in their own countries, the tide will not ebb.
1991
In early 1991, the country, Zimbabwe, was unaware that it was entering its severest drought in history. For ourselves on the farm, we were busy following the receding water on Darwendale Dam by digging deep trenches to allow the water back to our what we thought had been portable irrigation pump stations. Due to having to use cables from the transformer to the pumps, the longer the cable got the larger the cable required to avoid voltage drop. After about a hundred metres, it became easier and cheaper to bring the water to the pumps than extend the cable. Diandra was particularly bad as our dam shore area was very shallow, dropping only a few metres until the old Gwebi River bed. The Hunyani River bed was much further but equally shallow, almost to the centre of the dam. We were not as bad off as those upriver where the water retreated many kilometres. They resorted to secondary low-pressure pumps to feed their high-pressure ones, although by 1992, all of us were doing the same. Launching our boats for an evening fishing now required a tractor rather than a pickup, the latter too prone to getting stuck in the mud, our concrete launching pads now far from the water's edge. Cattle numbers were reduced, although with leasing land, we were able to maintain our breeding stock.
In the meantime, I was active on the board of the Seed Co-op, having been elected Vice Chairman to Keith Kirkman. Having served as Chairman of the Commercial Oilseeds Association has given me some status to ensure election to this board and in becoming an office bearer. It was an interesting time at the Co-op, and the decision was made to move the premises out of the industrial sites of Southerton, in Harare, to premises at Stapleford. Once again, as always, any change was to be resisted by farmers. One of the main drivers was that the premises in Harare were of limited space, and further premises had to be leased, making it difficult, not so much for delivery but for collection of seed as the seed was often stored separately by variety. Security was also a big issue. Every extra door is an extra opportunity for theft. Queues for delivery and collection were common. There was also a requirement for cool stores for foundation parent seed, a new and upgraded seed testing laboratory and new offices for the expanding staff requirements of the rapidly growing business. In the end, we had little alternative but to move, and to do so within the city limits would have been prohibitive. So a brand new head office complete with all the required services and storage space was planned and built-in 1991. Probably, unbeknown to us at the time, our first step in readiness for listing. One of my roles at that time on the board was to try and promote horticultural lines which, despite our efforts, or perhaps because of mine, it failed. It was many years later, thirty in fact, that horticulture was introduced by buying Prime Seeds.
Being on the Seed Co board did not interfere in my farming, and cattle judging became my keen interest with me now judging pedigree cattle, fatstock and interbreeds. Travelling to the regional shows brought me exposure to many farming areas and farmers I would have never met. Perhaps helping me in my future role in farming politics.
Disclaimer: Copyright Peter McSporran. The content in this blog represents my personal views and does not reflect corporate entities.
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