MUREHWA, Zimbabwe (Thomson Reuters Foundation) &#8211; Preparing his three-hectare plot of land for planting each year used to take Musafare Chiweshe – or the laborers he hired – two weeks. Now it takes just hours.
Better yet, the land is producing a crop even as southern Africa’s droughts grow stronger and more frequent, a problem linked to climate change.
That’s because Chiweshe is no longer plowing a portion of his farm, but instead planting his seeds directly into the intact soil, a water-conserving technique called “no-till” farming.
“Come next year you will find even bigger cobs in my field,” promised the 67-year-old retired bus driver, who this year expects to harvest 2 tonnes of maize from a half-hectare “no-till” trial plot.
No-till farming is hardly new. Three decades ago, Zimbabwe’s commercial farms adopted the technique and it has been promoted by Zimbabwe research and development organizations since 2004.
But it is seeing new popularity among small-scale farmers in Zimbabwe as many, shaken by a recent long drought that killed crops, look for ways to avoid a repeat of those losses the next time drought returns.
About 300,000 small-scale farmers in Zimbabwe, most of whom depend on rainfall to water their crops, are now using the no-till farming system, according to Christian Thierfelder, an agronomist with the southern Africa regional office of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).
Besides planting seeds directly into the soil, no-till farming involves allowing the stalks and leaves left from earlier harvests to remain on the ground, to help hold moisture and eventually add nutrients to the soil, building soil fertility over time.
Often weeds are sprayed with herbicides rather than removed by digging them from the soil.
The technique has had problems of its own over the last growing season, marked by flooding and heavy rains. In some areas where soils are sandy, farmers practicing no-till farming saw yields no higher than those of farmers who plowed their land.
MORE MAIZE, FEWER HASSLES?
But for some farmers, like Chiweshe, the new style of farming is providing more reliable than the old way of doing things, which “was stressing” in the face of worsening drought, he admits.
Before taking up no-till farming, he said he harvested just one tonne of maize from his 3-hectare plot last year, during the drought. This year he expects twice that from just one-sixth of his land.
Eliminating plowing and other labor also is saving money, he said, and giving him more time to concentrate on other money-makers on his farm, such as bananas and livestock.
Thierfelder said conventional farming equipment – such as plows – can be converted into specialized no-till equipment for a small investment of about $25.
In Malawi, no-till farmers find they need to spend 25 to 45 fewer days each season weeding their fields using animal-pulled equipment – though they then need to buy and use herbicides to get rid of weeds without tilling the land, Thierfelder said.
Efforts to spread the use of no-till farming in Zimbabwe, in the face of worsening climate change impacts, have been hampered by a lack of sufficient trainers to help farmers make the adjustment, he said.
Under a 2011 government plan to promote the practice, each of the country’s 4,300 farm extension officers was expected to train at least 75 farmers a year, said Phillimon Ngirazi, an extension officer from Chavakadzi in Shamva District, 120 km northwest of Harare.
But not all extension officers have reached that goal, he said.
“Changing minds that crop production is possible without plowing has been difficult. But once farmers have experience with conservation agriculture practices for some time they influence other farmers to adopt,” Ngirazi said.
(Reporting by Busani Bafana; editing by Laurie Goering :; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, climate change, resilience, women&#8217;s rights, trafficking and property rights.

Faced with more drought, Zimbabwe’s farmers hang up their plows

Politics are in shambles across the world. Populism and political gambles are making headlines from London to Washington. Southern Africa is no exception. If it’s any comfort, this suggests that there’s nothing genuinely typical about African versions of <a href="https://www.dandc.eu/en/article/populism-common-southern-africa-where-former-liberation-movements-have-become-dominant">political populism</a>. Nor are the flaws in democracy typically African.
This might put some events into wider perspective. But it’s nonetheless worrying to follow the current political turmoil in some southern Africa countries.
The regional hegemon, South Africa, is embroiled in domestic policy tensions of unprecedented proportions since it became a democracy. And the situation in the sub-region is not much better.
The state of opposition politics and democracy is in a shambles too. The fragile political climate and the mentality of most opposition politicians hardly offer meaningful alternatives. This is possibly an explanation – but no excuse – for the undemocratic practices permeating almost every one of the region’s democracies.
Beyond multi-party systems with regular elections, they resemble very little of true democracies.
<h2>South African hiccups</h2>
At the end of May the dimensions of “state capture” in South Africa were set out in a report published by an <a href="http://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2017/05/26/FULL-REPORT-%E2%80%98How-South-Africa-is-Being-Stolen%E2%80%99-a-report-on-state-capture">academic team</a>.
It shows how deeply the personalised systematic plundering of state assets is <a href="https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2017-05-26-betrayal-of-the-promise-the-anatomy-of-state-capture/">entrenched</a>. Additional explosive evidence was presented only days later through thousands of leaked e-mails. Dubbed the “Gupta Leaks”, they document a mafia-like network among Zuma-loyalists and the Indian Gupta family.
The evidence points to massive influence, if not control, over political appointments, the hijacking of higher public administration and embezzlement of <a href="http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/stnews/2017/05/28/Here-they-are-The-emails-that-prove-the-Guptas-run-South-Africa">enormous proportions</a>.
Some 65% of South Africans want Zuma to <a href="http://www.politicsweb.co.za/news-and-analysis/65-of-south-africans-want-zuma-to-resign--ipsos">resign</a>. An all-time low approval rating of 20% makes him less popular among the electorate than even <a href="http://time.com/4785127/michael-temer-nicolas-maduro-donald-trump/">US President Donald Trump</a>. Despite this – combined with growing demands from within the party that he steps down – the ANC still backs its president.
But divisions within the party are deepening, with some in its leadership demanding an <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/88337066-4797-11e7-8519-9f94ee97d996">investigation</a> into the Gupta patronage network.
For his part, Zuma is focused on pulling strings to secure Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma as <a href="https://www.theelephant.info/dispatches/2017/03/10/zuma-succession-the-businessman-vs-the-ex-wife-or-is-it-all-smoke-and-mirrors/">his successor</a> as president of the party. The other front-runner candidate is Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Zuma’s assumption appears to be that, once in office, his former wife would not endorse any legal prosecution of the father of her children.
But the country’s official opposition party, Democratic Alliance (DA), isn’t reaping the benefits of the ANC’s blunders. It has its own problems, which are constraining the gains it might otherwise be making from the ANC’s mess.
The party is divided over what to do about its former leader and Premier of the Western Cape province, Helen Zille following a tweet in which she defended the legacy of colonialism. The comment whipped up a storm of protest and for weeks the party had been at pains on how to deal with the scandal.
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-medium wp-image-127318 alignleft" src="http://cnbc.africa/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Helen-Zille_Tweet-300x127.png" alt="" width="300" height="127" />
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DA leader Mmusi Maimane finally announced that Zille had been suspended from the party and that a disciplinary hearing would decide what further <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-40143710?ocid=socialflow_twitter">political consequences</a> she might face. But a resilient Zille immediately challenged <a href="http://m.news24.com/news24/SouthAfrica/News/das-u-turn-on-zille-suspension-20170603">the decision</a>.
Whatever the outcome, the DA’s image is damaged. Its aspirations to be the country’s new majority party has been dealt a major blow.
<h2>Regional woes</h2>
In Angola, 74-year-old Jose Eduardo dos Santos, who has been in office since 1979, has decided to select a <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-3995176/Angolas-President-Dos-Santos-stand-2017-state-radio.html">successor</a>. The scenario will secure that the family “oiligarchy” will remain in control of politics and the country’s economy, while the governing People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) uses the state apparatus to ruthlessly suppress any meaningful <a href="https://www.pressreader.com/south-africa/the-mercury/20170221/281706909446949">social protests</a>.
In contrast Robert Mugabe – reigning in Zimbabwe since independence in 1980 &#8211; shows no intention of retiring. He was nominated again as the Zimbabwe African Nation Union/Patriotic Front’s (ZANU/PF) candidate for the 2018 <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-africa-30365706/mugabe-confirmed-as-zanu-pf-candidate-for-2018-election">presidential elections</a>. But everyone is anxiously following the party’s internal power struggles over the ailing autocrat’s <a href="http://www.thezimbabwean.co/2017/04/zimbabwes-make-break-moment/">replacement</a>. Fears are that the vacuum created by his departure might create a worse situation.
While the regime’s constant violation of human rights is – as in Angola – geared towards preventing any form of meaningful opposition, there are concerns that the unresolved succession might add another violent dimension to local politics.
Zambia’s democracy also looks sad. The country’s main opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema of the United Party for National Development (UPND) is on trial for high treason. Hichilema has been embroiled in a personal feud with President Edgar Lungu of the governing Patriotic Front (PF) for years. He was arrested in early April after obstructing the president’s motor cavalcade. The charge of high treason is based on the accusation that he <a href="https://zambiareports.com/2017/04/09/hichilema-willfully-put-pres-lungus-life-danger-state-house/">wilfully put President Lungu’s life in danger</a>.
The trial is feeding growing concerns over an increasingly autocratic regime. The once praised democracy, which allowed for several <a href="https://www.themastonline.com/2017/05/15/its-time-to-start-talking-about-zambia-says-cheeseman/">relatively peaceful transfers</a> of political power since the turn of the century, is <a href="https://www.lusakatimes.com/2017/05/16/birmingham-university-professor-cheesemans-ignorance-democracy-shocking-regrettable/">now in decline</a>.
Lesotho is also in a mess. It provides a timely reminder that competing parties seeking to obtain political control over governments are by no means a guarantee for better governance. Aptly described as a <a href="https://mg.co.za/article/2017-06-02-00-lesothos-groundhog-day-election">“Groundhog Day election”</a>, citizens in the crisis-ridden country went to the polls for the third time since 2012 with no new <a href="http://africanarguments.org/2017/06/02/lesothos-night-before-the-elections-photo-of-the-weekexplainer/">alternatives or options</a>.
Their limited choice is between two former prime ministers aged 77 (Tom Thabane) and 72 (Pakalitha Mosisili). The likely election result is another fragile coalition government – provided the military accepts the result.
Meanwhile, the biggest challenge for relative political stability in the region might still be in the making: President Joseph Kabila, whose second term in office in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) ended in December 2016, is still hanging on with the promise that he’ll vacate the post by end of this year.
Despite a constitutional two-term limit, his plans remain a matter of speculation. In a recent interview, he was characteristically <a href="http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/die-lage-am-samstag-aggressiver-nationalismus-plus-atomraketen-a-1150544.html">evasive</a>. He refused to give a straight answer on whether he’s still considering <a href="http://www.news24.com/Africa/News/kabila-says-he-never-promised-to-hold-elections-in-drc-20170603">another term</a> and flatly denied that he had promised anything, including elections.
Kabila’s <a href="http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2016/12/21/Up-to-20-dead-as-Congo-police-protesters-clash-over-president/6411482288306/">extended stay in office</a> threatens to exacerbate an already explosive and violent situation, with potentially devastating consequences.
His continued reign would not only provoke further bloodshed at home. Any spill-over will challenge the Southern African Development Community’s willingness and ability to find solutions to regional conflicts in the interests of <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-southern-africa-can-learn-from-west-africa-about-dealing-with-despots-71722">relative stability</a>. A stability which is at best fragile and indicative of the crisis of policy in most of the regional body’s member states.

Op-Ed: Democracy is looking sickly across southern Africa

Michelle Nichols | UNITED NATIONS
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe used an address on Monday at the opening of the first United Nations conference on oceans to call for an end to sanctions on his landlocked country so it can implement a series of global goals on sustainable development.
The 93-year-old was among about nine leaders to attend the New York conference, which is due on Friday to adopt a &#8220;Call to Action&#8221; committing to &#8220;conserve and sustainably use our oceans, seas and marine resources.&#8221;
<blockquote>&#8220;The effects of climate change are not discriminatory, so please down with your sanctions,&#8221; Mugabe said. &#8220;My country is committed to implementing the (sustainable development goals) and will do so within the means available to it.&#8221;</blockquote>
In 2015, the 193 U.N. member states adopted an agenda of 17 goals for the world&#8217;s sustainable development up to 2030. One of those goals was to safeguard the ocean, while another calls for &#8220;urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts&#8221;.
<blockquote>&#8220;Allow my county to act freely within the context of our agreements and its sovereignty,&#8221; Mugabe said.</blockquote>
Western countries imposed sanctions in 2001 on Mugabe&#8217;s government over allegations of vote-rigging and human rights abuses, which he rejects.
Mugabe&#8217;s travel to international conferences such as the ocean summit has raised eyebrows in cash-strapped Zimbabwe. Last year Mugabe made at least 20 trips abroad, spending $36 million in the first 10 months, according to government figures.
Bolivian President Evo Morales used his address on Monday to denounce neighboring Chile for failing to provide his landlocked country with unfettered commercial access to its ports.
Bolivia lost access to the Pacific following an 1880s war. Under a 1904 treaty, Chile has to allow Bolivia to cross its territory for trade access.
&#8220;The broad and free commercial transit that Chile is obliged to provide us suffers from constant interruptions through strikes, stoppages for various reasons, but above all because our access has become a profitable business for private companies that benefit from the port monopolies,&#8221; Morales said.
The U.N. ocean conference will also promote partnerships, such as between governments and businesses, to address issues such as marine pollution, ocean acidification, and marine research. It will also compile voluntary commitments.
&#8220;Unless we overcome the territorial and resource interests that have blocked progress for far too long, the state of our oceans will continue to deteriorate,&#8221; U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said. &#8220;We must put aside short-term national gain, to prevent long-term global catastrophe.&#8221;
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Tom Brown)

Landlocked Zimbabwe calls for end of sanctions at U.N. oceans summit

MacDonald Dzirutwe | MARONDERA
Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe called on Friday for unity in his ruling ZANU-PF party, which has been riven by infighting over who will eventually succeed the world&#8217;s oldest leader.
Mugabe, 93, has ruled the southern African nation since independence from Britain in 1980 and wants to seek another five-year term next year, his last under the constitution, despite concerns over his health.
The veteran leader, who looks increasingly frail, has made two trips this year to Singapore for medical checks, which his spokesman said were related to his eyes. Private media have reported that Mugabe has prostate cancer, which officials deny.
Addressing a ZANU-PF youth rally in Marondera town, some 70 kilometres (43 miles) east of the capital Harare, Mugabe said different party factions were preoccupied with plotting how to take over from him, saying some of the plots had assumed tribal overtones.
<blockquote>    &#8220;That kills the party. Stop it, stop it. We do not want to start to fight each other before the time comes,&#8221; Mugabe said.
&#8220;Be at peace, the time will come, it&#8217;s certainly coming. Congress will decide,&#8221; Mugabe said, referring to the five-year gathering of the party that chooses the ZANU-PF leader, due to take place in 2019 when Mugabe will be 95.</blockquote>
Some party officials have been privately lobbying for the meeting to be brought forward to December, allowing Mugabe&#8217;s successor to contest next year&#8217;s vote.
Friday&#8217;s rally was meant to see Mugabe making a pitch to youth voters ahead of the 2018 elections, and the veteran leader spoke for more than an hour, promising to hand over farms and fund construction of housing apartments for youths.
Young people make up nearly half the population and bear the brunt of chronic unemployment. They are also the ones most likely to turn their backs on ZANU-PF, either by supporting the opposition or leaving the country for better economic prospects.
ZANU-PF youth leader Kudzai Chipanga said young party members would support no one except Mugabe for president.
<blockquote>    &#8220;As long as you are there, you are our life president. There is no one with a name that qualifies to go on the ballot box except that of Gushungo (Mugabe&#8217;s clan name),&#8221; said Chipanga.</blockquote>
Critics accuse Mugabe of wrecking one of Africa&#8217;s most promising economies through policies such as violent seizures of white-owned commercial farms and money printing. He and his party say the economy has been undermined by western powers.
(Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Helen Popper)

Zimbabwe’s Mugabe tells allies to stop fighting over his successor

Lawrence White | LONDON
Barclays announced the sale of its Zimbabwe bank to Malawi-listed First Merchant Bank on Friday as the British lender continues its exit from Africa.
In March it announced it was in talks on the sale of its stake in Barclays Bank of Zimbabwe as part of a broader exit from Africa to refocus on the United States and Britain.
Barclays did not announce a price but said the deal would remove 292 million pounds ($375.69 million) in risk-weighted assets from its balance sheet.
All 700 Barclays Bank of Zimbabwe employees will transfer to the new owner, Barclays said. The deal is expected to complete in the third quarter of this year.
Barclays cut its stake in Barclays Africa Group to 15 percent on Thursday, ending more than 90 years as a major presence in Africa.
($1 = 0.7772 pounds)
(Reporting by Lawrence White; editing by Jason Neely)

Barclays sells Zimbabwe bank to Malawi’s First Merchant

HARARE (Reuters) &#8211; Econet Wireless, Zimbabwe&#8217;s biggest mobile telecoms company, reported a 10 percent fall in after-tax profit to $36.2 million on Wednesday, blaming a decline in consumer spending.
Revenue for the year to February 2017 fell to $622 million from $641 million last year, the company said in statement.
The southern African nation&#8217;s economy flatlined last year, while shortages of foreign currency and cash have hit consumer spending, with businesses struggling to pay for imports and repay foreign loans.
In January Econet went to the market to raise $130 million from shareholders to avoid defaulting on its foreign loans, which it was struggling to settle due to the dollar shortage.
(Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Greg Mahlich)

Econet Wireless Zimbabwe posts 10 pct fall in full year profit

Despite his advancing years and increasing frailty, 93-year-old Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe shows few signs of losing his love for foreign travel, a predilection that is costing his cash-strapped country dear.
Having racked up 200,000 air miles since the start of 2016 and outspent the parliamentary budget on trips abroad, Mugabe jetted off to the Mexican resort of Cancun this week for a &#8220;Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction&#8221; conference with a three dozen-strong delegation in tow.
Back home the trip raised eyebrows, with opposition wags wondering whether Mugabe, who presided over economic collapse and multi-billion percent inflation a decade ago, was there to talk about causing disasters rather than preventing them.
The length of the trip was another bone of contention in a country where banks seldom allow withdrawals of more than $50 a day and the government frequently pays state wages late.
Mugabe left on May 19 on a private charter flight &#8211; his normal Air Zimbabwe plane is grounded &#8211; with an entourage of at least 35 officials, including cabinet ministers, bodyguards and reporters from state TV and the official newspaper, the Herald.
He is expected back on Friday &#8211; a seven-day trip for the three-day U.N. conference, also attended by leaders from the likes of Albania, Dominica, Swaziland and Kiribati.
During that time, Herald staffers will receive a daily allowance of $1,000 and other officials up to $1,500 depending on their rank, according to a government official who helped organise the trip.
By contrast, the average state employee in Zimbabwe is paid $500 a month.
To make the most of their overseas jaunts, many officials have been known to check in to cheap hotels far from conference venues to save up for property, cars or school fees back home.
&#8220;We have a bureaucracy that is getting extortionate per diems from the travels. It is a parasitic mindset,&#8221; Tendai Biti, a former finance minister and opposition leader, told Reuters.
&#8220;When you look at the latest trip it shows a president who makes unstrategic trips to unstrategic countries.&#8221;
&#8220;GLOBETROTTER&#8221;
Last year Mugabe made at least 20 trips abroad, spending $36 million in the first 10 months, up from $33 million the previous year, according to Ministry of Finance figures.
Meanwhile parliament, which has more than 300 members, made do with a budget of $30 million for the entire year.
Despite growing concerns about his health &#8211; the government denies he falls asleep in public, saying he is merely resting his eyes &#8211; there has been no let-up this year, with eight overseas trips, including two to Singapore for medical checks.
Mugabe spokesman George Charamba could not be reached on Friday but in comments in the Herald on March 5 he said Mugabe&#8217;s globetrotting zeal proved he was strong enough to remain in office, and denied any waste of taxpayers&#8217; money.
&#8220;Diplomacy does not come cheap,&#8221; Charamba said.
In Cancun, Mugabe attended the opening ceremony, a group photo and a closed-door meeting of leaders. He was the first to leave the session.
A security guard said the Zimbabwean delegation was not staying at the five star Moon Palace hotel complex hosting the conference.
Western sanctions imposed in reaction to widespread allegations of security forces using violence to crush political dissent mean Mugabe is barred from visiting the United States and European Union.
However, he has been able to exploit the diplomatic cover granted to the annual United Nations General Assembly to make regular visits to New York.
At the 2013 inauguration of Pope Francis, he flew to Rome but was met on the airport tarmac by an embassy limousine and whisked off to the Vatican, meaning he technically did not set foot on Italian soil.
(Additional reporting by Sophie Hares in Cancun; Editing by Ed Cropley and John Stonestreet)
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Frequent flier Mugabe racks up the air miles – and dollars

Zimbabwe is planning to build a $200 million platinum refinery next year in a joint venture with Australia&#8217;s Kelltech Ltd, the Mines Minister said on Wednesday.
The southern African nation holds the world&#8217;s largest deposits of platinum after South Africa and has been pushing mining firms operating in the country to build refineries to stop the export of raw platinum ore.
Walter Chidhakwa said the government&#8217;s mining arm, Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation, would own 30 percent of the refinery, privately-owned Kelltech would own 49 percent and the balance would be held by Golden Sparrow, a Zimbabwean firm.
Kelltech director Keith Liddell said the refinery would be built using new technology that would cut costs and reduce construction time.
&#8220;For us to achieve total beneficiation at a cost of $200 million and for a plant to be constructed between 18 and 24 months, it&#8217;s an unbelievably good solution,&#8221; Liddell said after signing the deal with the government.
In 2015, the government imposed a 15 percent tax on raw platinum ore exports to force companies to process locally but suspended the levy after the mines agreed to support local platinum processing.
The world&#8217;s two largest platinum mining companies, Anglo American Platinum and Impala Platinum Holdings, have operations in Zimbabwe.
It was not possible to immediately establish Golden Sparrow&#8217;s ultimate owners.
(Reporting by Kuda Chideme; Writing by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Ed Cropley)

Zimbabwe plans $200 million platinum refinery with Australia’s Kelltech

Ed Stoddard | BOTHAVILLE, South Africa
South Africa&#8217;s ruling African National Congress (ANC) is not likely to approve any expropriation of land from white farmers without paying compensation, the agriculture minister said on Tuesday after President Jacob Zuma mooted such an idea.
Faced with opposition mainly from ANC&#8217;s urban base, Zuma appealed to the rural poor in February with promises to seize land without paying the owners and then handing it out.
Agriculture Minister Senzeni Zokwana said the ANC was unlikely to back such a policy at a party conference in June and July, particularly given government efforts to attract investment.
&#8220;I don’t think so,&#8221; he told Reuters on the sidelines of an agricultural conference and exhibition when asked about the possibility of seizures. &#8220;It will be challenged in the courts. You would need to first amend the constitution to do that.&#8221;
<blockquote>&#8220;The issue is that to attract investors in any industry you need policy certainty. If you are not sure whether you will find your farm tomorrow or you will find shacks around it, you will not invest in that land,&#8221; he added.</blockquote>
Analysts have said they did not expect farm seizures in South Africa, where most agricultural land is still owned by whites more than two decades after the end of white rule.
Violent seizures in Zimbabwe sent its economy into tailspin. But analysts said that even talking about the idea of expropriations in South Africa unnerved investors.
The Department of Rural Development and Land Reform says only 8 million hectares of arable land has been transferred to black people since 1994, less than 10 percent of the 82 million hectares available and a third of the ANC&#8217;s 30 percent target.
On a government proposal to establish a strategic grain reserve, Zokwana said one of the aims was to have enough maize to satisfy domestic demand for 120 days, which equates to about 3.5 million tonnes at current consumption rates.
&#8220;If you can have a cushion of 120 days, then you won&#8217;t have a situation where you have no maize at all,&#8221; Zokwana said, although he said commercial farmers with whom he discussed the idea opposed it, saying it risked distorting the market.
Zokwana said one proposal involved buying surplus maize from smallholders who lacked storage facilities but were producing more than needed, as yields rose with the use of genetically modified (GMO) crops and improved farming techniques.
Neighbouring Zimbabwe and Zambia both hold such reserves. But it would require a major policy shift in South Africa, where agriculture is driven by market forces not state purchases.
A strategic grain reserve usually requires a government to buy and store crops, releasing them at times of need.
Zokwana said private business could have a role in setting up the strategic reserves, but did not give details.
South Africa was set to reap 14.54 million tonnes of maize in 2017, almost double last year&#8217;s harvest and its second largest ever due to good rains, the government&#8217;s Crop Estimates Committee (CEC) said last month.
Industry body Grain SA said on Tuesday it expected a surplus of 3.5 million tonnes this season and aimed to export all of it. [L8N1II45X]
(Editing by Edmund Blair)

South Africa farm minister sees no land expropriation without payment

HARARE (Reuters) &#8211; Zimbabwe&#8217;s cash shortages could worsen and inflation may be triggered if President Robert Mugabe&#8217;s government doesn&#8217;t temper excessive state spending, the International Monetary Fund said on Monday.
The southern African nation has been grappling with cash shortages since last year and the introduction of a &#8220;bond note&#8221; currency in November has failed to meet demand.
Without balance of payment support from international financial institutions, President Robert Mugabe&#8217;s government has relied on taxes and the domestic market for borrowing, sending the budget deficit spiralling in 2016. 
&#8220;Excessive government spending, if continued, could exacerbate the cash scarcity, further jeopardize the health of the external and financial sectors, and, ultimately, fuel inflation,&#8221; the IMF said after a country visit.
http://cnbc.africa/news/southern-africa/2016/11/25/as-zimbabwes-money-runs-out-so-does-mugabes-power/
Official data on Monday showed inflation rising to 0.48 percent in April, the second month consumer prices have increased following more than two years of deflation. 
(Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Joe Brock)
© Thomson Reuters 2017 All rights reserved

Zimbabwe’s cash shortages could worsen: IMF

South Africa&#8217;s state-run power utility Eskom could cut supplies to neighbouring Zimbabwe by the end of this month if Harare fails to clear arrears, Zimbabwe&#8217;s state-run Herald newspaper reported on Monday.
Such a move could trigger widespread power cuts in an economy already battling with a liquidity crunch but which hopes for faster growth this year after rains boosted crop production.
Zimbabwe imports 300 megawatts (MW) per day from Eskom, but owes the utility 603 million rand ($44.5 million), of which 119 million rand is outstanding arrears, the Herald reported. Acute shortages of foreign currency have seen the southern African nation struggle to pay for imports.
The Herald quoted a letter from Eskom&#8217;s acting chief executive Matshela Koko telling Zimbabwe state power company ZESA it had failed to stick to an agreed payment plan.
&#8220;Kindly note that no further leniency or accommodation will be made in this regard,&#8221; Koko was quoted as saying. Officials at Eskom were not immediately available for comment.
Zimbabwe&#8217;s imports from Eskom are backed by a 500 million rand guarantee issued by President Robert Mugabe&#8217;s government.
ZESA chief executive Josh Chifamba was quoted by the Herald as saying the utility was talking to the central bank about foreign currency allocations and was confident there would be no power disruptions.
On Monday Zimbabwe was producing 1,051 MW of power, with another 350 MW coming from imports, against demand of 1,500 MW.
($1 = 13.4855 rand)
(Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Ed Stoddard and Dale Hudson)

Zimbabwe risks power cuts from S.Africa’s Eskom over arrears

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The second day of the <a href="http://cnbc.africa/category/insights/world-economic-forum/wef-africa-2017/">World Economic Forum in Durban</a> began with the sight of 93-year-old Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe shuffling on to the world stage for the umpteenth time, in his 37 years of power, to pronounce and provoke, on a stage shared with a Hollywood film star, with harsh words about Islamic States.
Mugabe was a panellist on a debate about fragile states in the main hall at the International Convention Centre that included diverse voices from former AFDB head Donald Kaberuka to Hollywood actor Forest Whittaker. The first question went to Mugabe about whether he thought Zimbabwe, with its economic troubles, is a fragile state.
&#8220;We are not a poor country, you can&#8217;t call us a fragile state, you can call America a fragile state,&#8221; says Mugabe to chuckles from the hundreds in the audience.
Mugabe pointed to his country&#8217;s vast resources, 14 universities and 90 per cent literacy rate. He believed conflict in his country was mainly down to rival political groups, but had sharp words for Islamic states.
&#8220;If you look into the Islamic world and talk about ISIS, and various other groups, it will appear the belief is the more violence you inflict on the population the greater the people will listen to you and join your side. That is a dangerous one and I do not know how it will be remedied.&#8221;
Greater truth to political power came from the youngest member of the panel Victor Ocho  -an activist from Uganda who was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and grew up in the violence in the north of his country. He told Forbes Africa he was once so angry about the violence he stoned soldiers with tears in his eyes.
&#8220;When young people complain it is called a protest. When leaders speak it is called an excuse,&#8221; he says.
&#8220;Every year hundreds of Africans die in the Mediterranean Sea trying to escape Africa. Why to do they leave what is wrong ? It is because of the lack of integrity of power.&#8221;
Whittaker told how he was working in camps in South Sudan to try to get former child soldiers to put down the gun.
&#8220;We are working hard with the help of sports programmes to empower the young and we are getting positive results,&#8221; he says.

Zimbabwe is not a fragile state: President Mugabe

MacDonald Dzirutwe | HARARE
Zimbabwe has met all conditions to clear arrears to the World Bank and African Development Bank, paving the way for possible future funding from the International Monetary Fund, its finance minister said on Thursday.
The southern African nation in October last year cleared its 15-year-old financial arrears with the IMF, in a major step towards its first loan programme with the Fund since 1999.
Finance Minister Patrick Chinamasa said in a statement that facilities negotiated by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to repay the $1.75 billion arrears had been &#8220;scrutinised and scrutinised&#8221; by the World Bank and AfDB, who were satisfied.
&#8220;Clearance of debt arrears is expected to open the door to foreign finance inflows and possible debt treatment by the Paris Club and non-Paris Club Bilateral Creditors through an IMF financing programme,&#8221; Chinamasa said.
He did not give details on where cash-strapped Zimbabwe had obtained the money to clear the arrears.
President Robert Mugabe&#8217;s government is struggling with dwindling foreign exchange inflows and acute shortages of cash that meant that banks have been limiting withdrawals.
Without foreign funding, the government has relied on tax inflows to support its budget, 90 percent of which goes towards paying its civil service.
(Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Tom Heneghan)

Zimbabwe says has met all conditions to clear arrears to World Bank & AfDB

Tanisha Heiberg | JOHANNESBURG
South Africa&#8217;s ruling party will introduce an amended land rights bill in parliament in May after the top court declared invalid a law that re-opened a process for blacks to make claims on land taken from them during white-minority rule.
The Restitution of Land Rights Bill, allowing state expropriations of land to redress racial disparities, was among the first laws passed by the country&#8217;s first democratic government in November 1994.
But many people failed to lodge claims within a 1995 to 1998 window, and most land remains in white hands more than two decades after the end of apartheid. President Jacob Zuma signed an amended act in June 2014 to allow those who had missed out on making claims to do so.
However, the Constitutional Court last year declared the law invalid saying that Parliament had failed to allow for proper consultation before passing the law, and gave it 24 months to re-enact it.
The ruling African National Congress Party (ANC) said the draft bill, which will be open for public comment until May 19, sought to extend the date for lodging a land claim to 30 June 2021.
&#8220;The introduction of this draft bill is a crucial step in the work of the ANC in Parliament in ensuring that land is lawfully returned to those who have been historically dispossessed,&#8221; the ANC said in a statement.
The government says only 8 million hectares of arable land has been transferred to black people since 1994, less than 10 percent of the 82 million hectares available and a third of the ANC&#8217;s 30 percent target.
Experts say the bill will not signal the kind of often violent land grabs that took place in neighbouring Zimbabwe, where white-owned farms were seized by the government for redistribution to landless blacks.
(Reporting by Tanisha Heiberg; Editing by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo)

South Africa’s ANC to introduce amended land claims bill in May

MacDonald Dzirutwe | HARARE
Zimbabwe&#8217;s &#8220;bond note&#8221; surrogate currency will not solve its economic problems, the International Monetary Fund said, adding that only comprehensive reforms would address a fiscal crisis.
The southern African nation last year introduced bond notes, which officially trade at par with the U.S. dollar and are backed by a $200 million bond from the African Export and Import Bank.
http://cnbc.africa/news/2016/11/01/mugabe-decrees-regulations-paving-way-for-bond-notes/
The director of the IMF&#8217;s Africa department, Abebe Aemro Selassie, told reporters in Washington on Sunday that limited foreign exchange inflows and a lack of monetary policy tools since Zimbabwe&#8217;s adoption of the U.S. dollar in 2009 had worsened cash shortages.
&#8220;We think that, going down this one (bond) note route, in and of itself, will not address the challenges that the country has,&#8221; Selassie said, according to a transcript of the media briefing.
&#8220;So, it&#8217;s very important to have a more comprehensive policy package which also addresses a lot of the fiscal challenges that the country faces, a lot of the structural reforms that have to be done.&#8221;
The central bank says it has so far printed $121 million in bond notes but a high demand for cash has meant that the surrogate currency is also in short supply.
Importers, including mining companies and manufacturers, say they are facing serious delays in paying for imports because banks have no dollars to make the payments.
&#8220;So, it&#8217;s, again, more of a holistic package of reforms that are required to get Zimbabwe out of the place it&#8217;s in right now,&#8221; Selassie said.
(Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Olivia Kumwenda-Mtambo and Andrew Roche)

IMF says bond note cannot solve Zimbabwe’s economic problems

Nelson Banya | HARARE
Zimbabwe&#8217;s tax agency said on Thursday it had collected $862 million in the first quarter of 2017, exceeding its target by 6 percent, helped by automated operations and improved compliance among businesses.
The southern African country, which fell short of its 2016 revenue goal by 4 percent as its economy suffered from weaker commodity prices and a liquidity crisis, expects to collect $3.7 billion this year.
President Robert Mugabe&#8217;s government, which fell out with western donors nearly two decades ago amid accusations of human rights abuses and electoral fraud, does not receive significant direct international aid and relies almost entirely on tax revenues to fund its budget.
Zimbabwe&#8217;s economy stagnated last year following a devastating drought while its budget deficit exploded as Mugabe&#8217;s administration struggled to pay its workers, which helped fan anti-government protests.
Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (ZIMRA) chairperson Willian Bonyongwe said gross revenue collections for the first quarter of 2017 were 10 percent higher than figures for the same period last year.
<blockquote>&#8220;This upward trend is a result of a battery of revenue enhancement measures &#8230; which include automation, greater enforcement and the fight against corruption,&#8221; Bonyongwe said in a quarterly statement.</blockquote>
Value-added tax on local sales, at 22.42 percent, weighed in with the biggest contribution towards the revenue, followed by individual tax at 20.05 percent, ZIMRA said.
Company tax made up 11.2 percent, while mineral royalties, at $16.39 million, exceeded the quarterly target by 21.42 percent on the back of improved output and commodity prices.
The tax agency says it expects better revenue flows this year, following an improved farming season, but has cautioned that an extended bank note shortage Zimbabwe has experienced since the beginning of 2016 will affect economic performance.
Zimbabwe&#8217;s government has revised upwards its 1.7 percent economic growth projection for 2017 to 3.7 percent, citing the rebound in agriculture.
(Reporting by Nelson Banya; Editing by Gareth Jones)

Zimbabwe tax agency beats first quarter revenue target

Could it happen in this age of greed? A leading international musician pays his own way to travel thousands of miles to celebrate the independence of an African nation. He spends a night in a run-down hotel; smokes marijuana with farmers; survives teargas and writes a song that goes down in history. This was Bob Marley 35 years ago at the birth of Zimbabwe – an African story told by those who were there.
It all started with the impossible dream in Harare. Two Zimbabwean businessmen, nightclub owner, Job Kadengu and Gordon Muchanyuka, wanted a big name to serenade the new Zimbabwe at independence at midnight on April 17, 1980. Kadengu and Muchanyuka agreed Bob Marley was their man.
They flew to Kingston, Jamaica, to invite Marley, just weeks before independence day.
“Chris Blackwell, his manager at the time, was against this tour, but Marley, who had been following events in Zimbabwe, decided he would go. He hired a PA system in London and paid for his freight to Zimbabwe at his own expense,” says Fred Zindi, now a professor at the University of Zimbabwe, then, one of the Marley dreamers.
Marley had inspired Zimbabwe.
“During the years of Chimurenga (chiShona for uprising), Bob Marley’s music had been adopted by the guerrilla forces of the Patriotic Front; indeed, there were stories of ZANLA troops playing Marley cassettes in the bush. Certainly, Marley’s music has potency and a commitment which goes far beyond simple entertainment. He now enjoys a special place in Third World culture; an artist who directly identifies with the black African struggle. Thus, he was the only outside artist asked to participate in Zimbabwe’s independence celebrations,” says Zindi.
“His songs were the food that people in liberation movements, particularly the armed wings, were swallowing. From that point of view… to be able to see that music was an important aspect of the liberation of this continent. Bob Marley, like Amilcar Cabral (the first president of Angola), articulated so well the importance of the role of culture and music in the liberation struggle,” says Shadrack Gutto, a Unisa professor and constitutional law expert in South Africa, who was to teach law in Zimbabwe for 12 years.
So, it was set for a strange arrival at Salisbury Airport (now Harare International) on a Wednesday afternoon, on April 16. A bemused contingent of police in stiff green uniforms and peaked caps struggled to control a swarming crowd who came to see the arrival of the Jamaican dreadlocked band. The airport had not seen so many people for years as sanctions kept the world away.
“By the time the band arrived, a chartered Boeing 707 was on its way from London to Salisbury with 21 tons of equipment; a full 35,000-watt PA system plus backline equipment. It was one of the most extraordinary logistics operations. Mick Cater, from Alec Leslie Entertainment, flew down with the equipment and then set himself the problem of building a stage in time for the celebrations. By Wednesday, when the 12-strong road crew arrived in Zimbabwe, he had six hours in which to construct the stage and find sufficient power for the PA system,” says Zindi.
Marley and his crew spent the night, socializing with many former guerrilla fighters, at the run-down Skyline Hotel on the outskirts of Harare as foreign journalists had booked all the big hotels. The next day, Marley traveled to spend time with marijuana farmers in Mutoko, a town 143 kilometers outside Harare, where he sampled the herb.
In the last hours of Rhodesia, on April 17, thousands flocked to Rufaro stadium in Mbare, the Harare township that was the crucible of the struggle. There was a carnival atmosphere, people wore caps and t-shirts bearing the face of the new prime minister, Robert Mugabe.  At midnight, the green, gold and black flag of Zimbabwe, with the African fish eagle, replaced the Union flag.  A 32-year-old Prince Charles stood and saluted as the Union Flag came down for the last time in Africa.
People crushed into the stadium as Marley took to the stage. The police panicked and fired teargas into the crowd.
Back-up singers Marcia Griffiths and Rita Marley, the wife of the lead singer, were the first band members to get a whiff of teargas and they ran backstage. When it cleared, they went back.
“Bob was still in his element, he didn’t realize what was happening around him. So when we got back on stage, this is what Bob said to us: ‘Now I know who the true revolutionary is,’” says Rita in a documentary years later.
“It was a poignant moment; Bob Marley takes a celebratory stance at the front stage, calling out ‘Viva Zimbabwe!’ Each time eliciting a greater response from the audience. It is a moment pregnant with possibilities. Rastafari in our father’s land. A realization of the inherent unity in black culture, as emotional for the audience as it is for the band. Homecoming,” says Zindi.
“Bob Marley was at his height and that alone attracted a lot people’s attention to Zimbabwe. It was an historic moment of the liberation of Zimbabwe where the white arrogant people declared independence and so on. It was a moment when I and the other progressive intellectuals went to Zimbabwe. It was a special period. It captured the imagination of the world. You can’t hold Marley responsible for what Robert Mugabe did after that,” says Gutto.
One of the things that Mugabe did was to declare Gutto persona non grata, on unspecified national security grounds, in 1988 and deported him.
One of the many Zimbabweans turned away on independence night by police outside Rufaro stadium was 21-year-old Enos Nyarenda, an activist who had just returned from exile.
“When the war ended in Zimbabwe, in January, I went home in Harare with many other activists to witness our independence. My mother cried so much. It was after two years of my absence. My father was still in detention then, detained by the Ian Smith government, but he was released just a few days before independence day. I can’t describe the feeling, it was so emotional. We hugged. He had been detained for five years,” says Nyarenda, now a businessman in Kwekwe, in central Zimbabwe.
Luckily, for thousands like Nyarenda, Marley agreed to play again at Rufaro the following day. Nyarenda went with his new girlfriend, Susan, who is now his wife and mother of his three children.
“Oh man, we had this international outfit for the first time in Zimbabwe, these guys with long dreadlocks. Some of these things were not familiar at that time. I have never attended a music show bigger than that one. Having been from the bush, I was not the real reggae person. But the people were so excited and screaming. It was a free show. We instead had love for the music. Everyone couldn’t believe we were actually free, I never felt like that in my life. We are still talking about that day,” says Nyarenda.
So will Africa as long as people talk.

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Zimbabwe

Faced with more drought, Zimbabwe’s farmers hang up their plows

Op-Ed: Democracy is looking sickly across southern Africa

Landlocked Zimbabwe calls for end of sanctions at U.N. oceans summit

Zimbabwe’s Mugabe tells allies to stop fighting over his successor

Barclays sells Zimbabwe bank to Malawi’s First Merchant

Econet Wireless Zimbabwe posts 10 pct fall in full year profit

Frequent flier Mugabe racks up the air miles – and dollars

Zimbabwe plans $200 million platinum refinery with Australia’s Kelltech

South Africa farm minister sees no land expropriation without payment

Zimbabwe’s cash shortages could worsen: IMF

Zimbabwe risks power cuts from S.Africa’s Eskom over arrears

Zimbabwe is not a fragile state: President Mugabe

Zimbabwe says has met all conditions to clear arrears to World Bank & AfDB

South Africa’s ANC to introduce amended land claims bill in May

IMF says bond note cannot solve Zimbabwe’s economic problems

Zimbabwe tax agency beats first quarter revenue target

Bob Marley serenades Zimbabwe on its birth

News Tips

Advertise With Us

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