BY MTHANDAZO NYONI

DELTA Corporation has injected more than $11 million into its Beverages Sorghum Contract Farming Scheme (BSCFS) during the 2019/2020 farming season, as it moves to support local farmers.

Delta requires about 11 400 tonnes of red sorghum and 2 400 tonnes of white sorghum annually but requirements vary every season, depending on projected domestic beer consumption levels.

Delta corporate affairs executive Patricia Murambinda told NewsDay Business that 6 949 farmers across the country had been contracted to produce sorghum this season.

“Our current season input finance on the sorghum contract scheme is $11 481 416. Total contracted hectarage for the season is 10 673. 6 949 farmers have been contracted,” she said.

During the 2018/19 agriculture season, the company invested at least $2,8 million to facilitate the production of 10 500 tonnes of sorghum.

Sorghum beer has grown in importance within Delta’s product mix, as demand for clear beers and sparkling beverages continues to weaken due to a slothful economy.

In its latest trading update, Delta said sorghum beer volume declined 15% as the prices of the major inputs such as maize and imported packaging materials rose ahead of disposable incomes.

This, it said, had put pressure on the sorghum beer prices which has resulted in consumers switching to more affordable brands and packs within the category.

Lager beer volumes declined 48% compared to the same period last year while the sparkling beverages volumes declined 56% compared to last year mainly due to the prolonged stock outs at the beginning of the financial year.

Delta’s BSCFS is a farmer development programme meant to train and provide extension support, ensure accessibility of farming inputs in order to guarantee future supply of malting sorghum for the business while also guaranteeing a market for sorghum producers.

Under the scheme, the benefits for the farmers are a guaranteed market for their produce and free agronomic services that have resulted in improved grain yield and quality.

Delta offers a free and extensive quality assurance programme that ensures access to technical information by growers, improved yields and grain quality. The farmers are provided with agricultural inputs.

BY WINSTONE ANTONIO

SOUTH AFRICA-BASED Zimbabwean top model Mercy Kamanura has challenged young local women to be innovative if they are to survive under the current harsh economic climate in the country.

Kamanura, the founder of Mimi’s Empowerment Centre, yesterday told NewsDay Life &Style that she was pursuing several projects to train girls and young women from different backgrounds in Zimbabwe and South Africa in essential skills to improve their income-generating capacity.

“The training projects under Mimi’s Empowerment Centre are to capacitate them with life entrepreneurial skills which will help them make great exploits for personal growth and individual empowerment. The way the economic environment is in Zimbabwe is such that it requires innovation, life skills and an inclusive economy,” she said.

“The projects are meant to continuously empower communities with essential development skills through vocational training along with various measures such as strategies to improve household incomes.”

The model, who was recently hired by SOS Children’s Village, an organisation that provides humanitarian and developmental assistance to children in need and protects their interests and rights around the world, to train people from different backgrounds, said she was pleased with the results so far.

“About 750 people have so far been trained and are running their own enterprises in Zimbabwe and South Africa. This initiative is a life changer, that will make a huge impact on the lives of many individuals through provision of start-up capital and identification of lucrative markets and marketing of the products,” she said.

“Among the products being made under Mimi’s Empowerment Centre are rugs, mats, handbags and shoe-coating.”

She said they were currently working on a project to train women to make their own sanitary pads.

“We are still in the process of acquiring the machine from India, but that is also going to be another project which will capacitate women and the girl child,” she said.

Kamanura, who is also the brains behind Nothing But Pad Campaign that saw her distributing sanitary pads to vulnerable girls across the country, has spread her wings into perfume production.

BY BUSINESS REPORTER

ADVOCACY group, the Sadc Tribunal Rights Watch (STRW) has called the recent Supreme Court ruling allowing for the settling of US debts incurred before February 22, 2019 in the local currency, theft.

The Supreme Court judgment, handed down on 20 January 2020, gives anyone who owes US dollars prior to February 22, 2019, the authority to settle the debt at a 1:1 parity in Zimbabwe dollars.

“Supreme Court debt judgment is theft by conversion… This judgment, handed down on 20 January 2020, gives anyone who owes US dollars prior to February 2019, the authority to effectively pay 5 US cents for every dollar they owe. This, unequivocally, is theft by conversion,” STRW, in a statement said.

“The Zimbabwe dollar has on average been trading at US$1:ZW$16 on the Interbank market and over 1:20 on the parallel market. Consequently, creditors will be getting ZW dollars that are far weaker than they were in February 2019.”

STRW’s spokesperson, Ben Freeth said with this ruling farmers and others, who had prior payment agreements which government had failed to settle, would now receive those payments at a 95% discounted amount.

“The amount that they receive will diminish even further as the controversial ZW dollar continues to lose value,” he explained.

Freeth said that the organisation was also extremely worried about the continuing failure of the Zimbabwe government to resolve the land issue by re-establishing the rule of law and individual property rights.

“To date, less than one percent of the compensation bill has been settled,” he said.

Freeth was referring to the compensation meant for white farmers who lost their land during the land reform programme in 2000 that saw government forcibly take land to redistribute to blacks.

However, the redistribution of the land has largely been done to senior government officials and members of the ruling party, Zanu PF.

For example, in an interview published by our sister paper, Zimbabwe Independent, dated May 20, 2019 according to the Commercial Farmers’ Union, full compensation to white farmers would cost the government US$10 billion.

But, through this Supreme Court ruling, this US$10 billion can now be settled with US$562,74 million eroding the value by nearly 18 times.

STRW said government needed to respect the rule of law as per the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act (Zidera) and compensate farmers fairly according to the Sadc Tribunal judgments, the rule of law and international precedents, guidelines and norms.

“In the event that the Zimbabwe government cannot find the tens of billions of dollars of compensation required, Sadc Tribunal Rights Watch calls on the government to restore private property rights and the land market.,” STRW said.

“This will resurrect billions of dollars of dead capital and give commercial farmers the wherewithal to invest — with full individual property rights — so that food production, employment and forex generation can once again take place in Zimbabwe.”

BY STEPHEN CHADENGA

WATER levels at City of Gweru’s main reservoir, Amapongokwe, have dropped from over 70% last year to around 50%, prompting council to intensify water rationing.

Council spokesperson Vimbai Chingwaramusee yesterday said the erratic rains received so far in the Midlands capital were not enough to fill Amapongokwe.

She said Gwenoro Dam, which used to be the main supplier, has reached the Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa) recommended decommissioning level and was currently not contributing much to the city’s water needs.

“As such, we still encourage residents to use water sparingly and report any pipe bursts since the dam levels can take us up to eight months,” Chingwaramusee said.

Last year, council introduced water rationing, which has seen residents in some parts of the city going for more than three days without the precious liquid.

Most parts of the country have received erratic rainfall, except for much of the Mashonaland regions and north of Manicaland.

Chingwaramusee said parts of the city last week experienced flooding largely because of blocked storm drains, with residents in Mkoba 4, 7, 12, 13, 16 and 19 as well as Ascot Infill mostly affected.

“The flooding was caused by blocked drainages and some residents’ properties were damaged,” she said.

“The city’s engineering team is on the ground clearing the drainages. Ninety percent of the drainages were clogged with litter. As such, we appeal to residents not to dump litter in drainage pipes.”

BY FIDELITY MHLANGA /TAFADZWA MHLANGA

PRESSURE to finance the importation of grain, electricity, fuel and agricultural inputs is expected to push the government to print money to buy foreign currency and increasing money supply, a stock broking firm has said.

The southern African nation is in the throes of its worst economic crises in a decade with biting shortages of foreign currency, grain, fuel and rolling power cuts that last up to 20 hours a day.

Last June, authorities ended the 10-year use of multi-currency regime by reintroducing the Zimbabwe dollar, the sole legal tender, which is fast-losing value since then.

In its 2020 economic outlook report, Morgan & Co said it envisaged the parallel market rate to continue moving northwards.

“Our assessment is that controlling money supply growth will be a mammoth task given a number of economic realities. Firstly, foreign currency shortages continue to loom and there is a high propensity of imports among economic agents, government included,” the stock broking firm said in a research note.

“Secondly, the drought in Zimbabwe will require Treasury to create new money. Finally, the government still has strong appetite for foreign currency given the need to finance agriculture, farming inputs, energy imports (fuel and electricity). This huge appetite or demand will likely to push the parallel market exchange rates ($70 to US$1) and this will have a pass through effect on pricing and inflation. Given the shortages of foreign currency in the broader economy, we contend that the RBZ (Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe) will be forced to print money so as to finance foreign currency purchases.”

Money supply as of July 2019 increased 62% year-on-year to $17 billion driven by profits or realised foreign exchange gains.

“The formal exchange rate has moved from 1 to 17. The redenomination of the foreign currency positions into local currency resulted in inflated balances, hence the increase in money supply,” the firm said.

Morgan and Co firmly believes Zimbabwe is following the steps of Venezuela, a situation that might worsen the former’s economy.

“Venezuela unveiled the Sovereign Bolivar to tackle hyperinflation in 2018, with two coins and paper denomination ranging from 2 up to 500 Sovereign Bolivars. The continuous economic decline in Venezuela has resulted in the country issuing new 10 000, 20 000 and 50 000 bills to make payment ‘more efficient’ and ‘facilitate business transactions’. Zimbabwe on the other hand, introduced the bond note in 2016 which was pegged 1:1 against the US dollar. However, the deteriorating macro-economic environment has resulted in the parity being disbanded in February 2019.”

The research firm said the long-standing hyperinflation in Venezuela also triggered expectations of higher inflation in Zimbabwe in 2020 given the strong similarities.

“We note that the main difference between Zimbabwe and Venezuela has been that monetary authorities in Zimbabwe have been tightening money supply or liquidity and this phenomenon has also contributed to wide spread poverty. The strategy has been to maintain the growth of money supply between 8 and 10% thus anchoring inflation pressures,” it said.

The company added that the inflationary pressures being experienced in Zimbabwe and Venezuela were being caused by the depreciating currencies in both countries.

“Depreciating currencies in both Zimbabwe and Venezuela have led to inflationary pressure. In September 2019, Venezuela’s annual inflation rate topped 39 113,8%. Meanwhile the International Monetary Fund (IMF) projects a rate of over 200 000% for 2020. We note that Venezuela’s hyperinflation woes are hinged on the performance of the price of the oil. Oil accounts for 96% of the country’s exports and the collapse of the crude oil prices in 2014 resulted in a foreign currency crisis,” it said.

“Further, the introduction of a currency peg, installation of the import controls, the nationalisation of other industries and the establishment of subsidies for food and consumer goods were also driving factors in the country’s inflation problems. Similarly, Zimbabwe’s output increased the country’s dependence on imports.”

BY NIZBERT MOYO

Communities in Matabeleland North province have partnered with government to construct health infrastructure, with 12 clinics already built in Binga South.

Matabeleland North provincial medical director Purgie Chimberengwa confirmed the development on Monday, saying 12 clinics have been built in Binga South and these would soon be handed over to the Health ministry.

“It is, however, a good gesture for communities to actively participate in the delivery of health through infrastructure development. As the Ministry of Health and Child Care, we will partner the communities to deliver quality and equitable health,” he said.

Binga South legislator Gabbuza Joel Gabuza (MDC Alliance) said villagers contributed cash, material and labour towards the project.

“We started the construction of clinics in two phases, whereby villagers contributed $5 each. After realising that the idea of cash contributions was no longer viable, villagers mobilised materials and moulded bricks in phase two,” he said.

“I chipped in with the other building material using Constituency Development Funds, which (were) given in three phases.’’

Some of these clinics are Simbala, Malaria, Mupambe, Lubanda and Munde.

“Clinics are a major challenge here because some villagers travel more than 60km or even more to reach the nearest clinics. We want to close that gap and hope to create employment in the health sector,” he said.

BY NQOBANI NDLOVU

DETHRONED Chief Nhlanhlayamangwe Ndiweni of Ntabazinduna, Matabeleland North, has left the country for the United Kingdom for a cataract operation, Southern Eye has heard.

Cataract surgery is a procedure to remove the eye lens and, in most cases, replace it with an artificial or a clear synthetic version.

The operation is carried out to clear the clouding of the lens inside the eye which causes blurred vision.

Ndiweni, who recently underwent eye surgery in Bulawayo, left for the UK on Saturday on the advice of doctors, his spokesperson Nothiwani Dlodlo said yesterday.

“Yes, he left for the UK on medical grounds. His doctors said he needs an urgent cataract surgery,” Dlodlo said.

In earlier tweets, Ndiweni confirmed undergoing surgery in the city last week, adding he will also use the time to write President Emmerson Mnangagwa a short letter.

“Thank you all for the prayers and support! As I lay in surgery and grappled with the likelihood of losing my sight, I thought of all the things I should have done with it. One of those things, which, thanks to God’s mercy, I will do now is write a short letter to @edmnangagwa,” Ndiweni tweeted.

“Yes, recently my doctors advised that there is nothing more they can do for my sight in http://Byo. At the insistence and expense of some Ntabazinduna villagers and colleagues I am en-route to UK for an emergency operation.”

Ndiweni is challenging his removal as Ntabazinduna Chief by the Local Government ministry which has claimed that his chieftainship was being contested by his elder brother, Joram who says he is the heir apparent.

The ministry also stripped Ndiweni of all benefits accruing to him.

The government, through Local Government permanent secretary Zvinechimwe Ruvinga Churu, has filed a notice of opposition challenging Ndiweni’s application, arguing that his removal was lawful.

The matter has not yet been set down for hearing.

BY BRENNA MATENDERE

BULAWAYO High Court judge Justice Martin Makonese has described some lawyers as incompetent and unethical in the manner they prepare litigants’ cases, thereby causing miscarriage of justice.

Speaking at the official opening of the first term of the Gweru High Court circuit on Monday, Justice Makonese said some lawyers deliberately caused delays in the completion of cases by continuously making requests for postponements.

“I must also publicly make it known to all that some of the delays in the finalisation of cases particularly civil cases is caused by litigants and legal practitioners who set down cases for trial, only to postpone them on the day of trial,” Justice Makonese said.

“The reasons normally given for requests for postponements are that lawyers have just assumed agency and are not ready for trial. In other instances, litigants with hopeless cases pretend to seek time to settle the matter out of court, only to indicate that they are not amenable to a settlement.”

He warned that judges would soon be forced to approach the Law Society of Zimbabwe to complain over the conduct of some lawyers. “It is unethical and unprofessional for a legal practitioner to appear in court unprepared. In some cases, lawyers appear in court without taking adequate instructions from their clients. This practice is not fair to the litigants and to the court. In appropriate circumstances, judges shall report cases of unethical conduct to the Law Society of Zimbabwe for appropriate action,” Justice Makonese said.

He lauded the Hwange High Court for diligently handling last year’s cases.

“At the Hwange High Court circuit, a total of 39 cases were referred for trial during the year 2019.

“Of these, 20 matters were finalised. The remaining pending cases will be handled during 2020. In general, therefore, the disposal rate of cases at Hwange High Court circuit is fairly satisfactory,” the senior judge added.