The Sunday Mail
Howdy folks!
The United States never cease to amaze. Does that Western country want to see anything good coming from Zimbabwe? Certainly not!
The shameless Office of Foreign Assets Control has recently added two of our biggest fertiliser manufacturers — Chemplex Holdings and Zimbabwe Fertiliser Company — on its long catalogue of sanctions against Zimbabwe, much to the frustration of our progress in this key economic sector. Agriculture is the backbone of our economy and by striking the backbone, they are hoping to paralyse this Phoenix economy of ours.
America, when it’s not in pursuit of its own happiness, is really on a deliberate and relentless mission to destroy our economy, no matter how much they may try to distance themselves from this naked truth. Slapping sanctions on these two entities is akin to declaring an economic war to our economy!
You see, one thing this cowboy likes about these devils is that they are far-sighted.
When they look at Zimbabwe, they see potential in our economy — which some of us may be sometimes blind to see. And in our agricultural sector, they saw an avalanche of that potential. They know that once agriculture is dealt with to booming levels in Zimbabwe, then a dynamic change can result.
Agriculture has very strong linkages with our manufacturing sector, and other key sectors of the economy. It also employs many people.
But what is it that America saw, to prompt it to throw this bomb in our agricultural sector? I will tell you a long story that has been happening in this sector for the last couple of years.
Well I can begin from the Finance Minister’s Mid-Term Fiscal Policy Statement of last year, which protected fertiliser manufacturers by imposing a 25 percent tariff duty on imported fertiliser.
I knew then that it was a step in the right direction, which is why I supported that move in my piece dated 16 August 2015, titled “Protect fertiliser manufacturers”. I was actually challenging the recommendation that had been made by the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Finance and Economic Development that the import duty on fertiliser “should not be introduced”.
I indeed cited the Industrialisation Development Policy’s pledge for the fertiliser industry: “To encourage local manufacture of fertilisers, fertiliser raw materials will be placed on zero tariffs with respect to customs duty while finished fertiliser imports will attract customs duty.”
Of course, local fertiliser manufacturers had done their homework. They were not just seeking the protection for the sake of it. They actually pledged to reduce the price of fertiliser by 20 percent, by implementing dynamic competitiveness measures. And true to their word, the prices of fertiliser started to fall down in the months to follow, which in itself is a big plus to farmers.
You see, fertiliser costs dominate the production costs of most commercial or even communal farmers. So the going down of fertiliser prices would definitely means the cost of agricultural production will also fall down. And America was watching and envying all this as our backbone was gaining this might, watching from a distance.
Then the Zimbabwe National Water Authority followed suit and gave farmers an early Christmas box last year by slashing tariffs.
For A2 farmers and estates, tariffs were slashed by 27 percent and a 40 percent for A1 farmers, with those of communal farmers being cut down by a whopping 56 percent. We all know that water is an integral input for farmers and the reduction of its tariff would again reduce the cost farming.
Again, jealous America was watching.
America knows that we are the breadbasket of Africa. The wicked country knew that the reduction in water tariffs would encourage uptake of water for agricultural purposes. And we have many water bodies that can be utilised for agriculture — 11 000 dams with a capacity to irrigate 11 million hectares.
This is huge!
Zimbabwe did not end there. We then started a revolution to acquire irrigation equipment and also rehabilitate existing infrastructure to link our soil with water so that meaningful agriculture can take place.
Friendly countries like Brazil, China, Belarus and others came to our aid, by giving us concessionary loans to acquire agricultural equipment. We knew as a country that a sustainable solution in agricultural production lies in irrigation, in the face of these unfortunate incidents such as the El-Nino-induced drought, which will now require us to import more than a million tonnes of maize this year.
The issue of irrigation as already been unequivocally pronounced in Zim-Asset, which spoke of the need for “improved agricultural infrastructure to mitigate against drought through rehabilitation and expansion and expansion of irrigation projects and increased construction of dams”.
The blueprint seeks to increase functional irrigation area from 150 000ha to 220 000ha through rehabilitation, building and modernisation of irrigation schemes; and increasing power available and affordable for irrigation.
And Zesa also came to the party by ensuring they sourced adequate power from neighbouring countries to replenish our dwindling stocks.
Farmers require constant power to irrigate their crops. A cocktail of the above, I tell you, can transform the way we look at our agriculture. It can certainly bring back our glory days in no time.
While all this was happening, then BOOM! — America dropped the bombshell on ZFC and Chemplex. It just could not bear with it anymore.
It had to act before it’s too late! It had to hit us somehow it can. The hypocrisy manifested in the move is also shameful.
You see, America actually imports agricultural produce and things made from agriculture from Zimbabwe, talk of our fresh cut roses that they use to propose to their sweethearts; cocoa butter, fat and oil; and others. When they are tired of eating their GMO foodstuffs (70 percent of their foodstuffs is made from GM crops), they look at countries like Zimbabwe for reprieve.
Yet we are the same country they slap its key institutions in the agricultural sector with sanctions. How ironic!
Now we are in a situation where the two entities — ZFC and Chemplex — are going to face challenges that are likely to result in their cost of production rising, no matter how much we may try to protect this sector with tariffs.
I don’t have to give a new explanation other than that which has already been offered by the president, explaining how the sanctions system works. President Mugabe aptly puts, in his birthday interview, that: “We don’t have our own currency. We are using American currency. When we import say vehicles be it from America, South Africa, Brazil and want to pay for them, it’s the American dollar that we use. Questions are asked when the money gets to New York, where is it from and if it’s from Zimbabwe, No! Similarly, if payments are to be made to us, if these are to Zimbabwe, America says no because all the payments must be made through their banking system.”
So there you have it!
America was against us taking back our land. And when we took it back, they have since been on a rampage to make sure that we don’t do anything on that land. It’s all about land, folks; hitting our backbone hard by making sure that nothing happens in agriculture.
Even China also confirmed that, not long ago. China’s director-general for African affairs, Mr Lin Songtian, is on record saying, “Before 2000, President Mugabe was loved by the West, but when he started redistributing land to the people, to them he became a dictator.”
Folks, in light of the above, we can actually deduce that America is an enemy that doesn’t want anything good about us. But my question really is: What are we doing about it? We are still stuck with the same currency they are going to use to unleash their full wrath on Chemplex and ZFC.
The same currency they are playing contractionary tricks with, this year, when we are in a liquidity crisis and seeking to play it the expansionary way, albeit with our wings clipped.
Again, the same US dollar has been gaining much strength and frustrating our exports in the process. Exports which are supposed to be our number one source of liquidity and now suffocating. Yet again, the same US dollar that is overvalued and bringing the obvious consequences in the process — we see them wherever we set our eyes on.
Folks, just as much we are enemies of America, her currency too is an enemy to our economy.
I agree with Dr Ranganai Gwati’s submission in a three-series article in this paper that the US dollar is no longer a sustainable currency for Zimbabwe.
I only disagree with him on his notion that the rand is the way to go. This however can be a discussion for another day.
For now, it may be a good idea for me to get on my horse and ride on.
Later folks!
