2006: Bad luck continues to stalk Zambia’s white farmers, hounded from Zimbabwe

[Some White farmers fled from Zimbabwe and then tried to exist in other Black African countries. But that's not a good idea. Diversity does not work. Jan]

[Note in this article how the Blacks in Zambia are embarrassed at what 200 White farmers did to the whole country of Zambia. Zambia is about 1 1/2 times the size of France! Two hundred white farmers from Zimbabwe completely turned the currency around and changed the economics overnight. Sadly, other economic factors are now going to break them.

But this again brings me back to my point. It took only 6 million White people in Africa to take it out of the Stone Age. Remove us from the equation and Africa returns to the Stone Age.

But the Blacks, being falsely arrogant, don’t want anything to do with us these days: To which I say GREAT, you go your way, and we must go ours. If we whites stuck together, we’d do EXCELLENTLY. We don’t need the Blacks. The Blacks need us.

It is my view that those white farmers who left Zimbabwe and are trying to make it elsewhere in Africa must be careful because other African Governments will screw them too. It is my view that in the end, whites in Africa must start sticking together because that is the only option that will really work. We must stand together, fight together, live together and make a future for OURSELVES on this African continent – which WE KNOW is a Garden of Eden. The Blacks can’t live in this Garden of Eden. They starve to death in it. We can live without them and we can carve out a great future for OURSELVES right here in Africa. (Of course that will embarrass the blacks too – but tough).

African Governments and African economies are always a potential problem – as is crime, etc. Doing business in Africa is NOT EASY. The opportunities look great… but there are plenty of casualties.

Just 3 years ago, a company I worked for here in Johannesburg, whose market was all of Africa ended up going under. We had great products – but in Africa – there is little that works, no matter how hard you try. Jan]

Currency’s success spells ruin for exporters who are paid in US dollars

Rory Carroll, Chongwe
Monday February 27, 2006
The Guardian

When disaster visited them in Zimbabwe it had a name, Robert Mugabe. Now
disaster has followed white farmers into exile in Zambia but this time there is no villain, just bad luck.

Hounded from Zimbabwe, things went well at first for the 200 farmers who
crossed the border to Zambia. Welcomed by the government, they leased tracts of fertile land and borrowed money to buy equipment and seed. Within two years the new arrivals were producing bumper harvests of maize and tobacco, helping to transform a hunger-stricken nation into a breadbasket and exporter.

In this peaceful corner of southern Africa the settlers, part of the
diaspora from one of the continent’s last white tribes, thought they could
start anew. Now that dream has withered. A fickle economic wind has gusted
through Zambia, scattering the farmers’ calculations and driving many to the brink of ruin.

“There is a real risk people will go under. Our own operation is really
struggling. The mood is very despondent,” said Peter MacSporran, a former
president of Zimbabwe’s Commercial Farmers Union who relocated to a property 24 miles north of the Zambian capital, Lusaka. The gloom was shared by Guy Scott, a former Zambian agriculture minister, who said many farms were not viable under present conditions.

In the past three months Zambia’s currency, the kwacha, has surged by a
third against other currencies, hammering exporters whose produce is paid
for in US dollars. Heavily in debt, their livelihood in the balance, some
farmers have compared the impact to Zimbawe’s land grabs.

“It feels like a double whammy – the second time something terrible has
happened in six years,” said Mr MacSporran, 56. “The economics are killing
us but it’s no one’s fault. It’s because of the success of the country.”

It is a plight laden with ironies. President Mugabe turned on white farmers to divert attention from his government’s political and economic failures.

Now it is success – Zambia’s – which is causing the difficulty.

Debt forgiveness, a recovery in copper mining and a boom in agricultural
production – driven largely by the Zimbabwean influx – have helped make the kwacha one of the world’s best performing currencies.

With most farmers locked into a set dollar price for tobacco their income
has been slashed by up to a third because they must convert the dollars into local currency to pay labour and other costs.

Confusion over a 17.5% VAT on farm inputs – in theory the tax can be claimed back but it cripples cash flow – has compounded the crisis.

Some of the 4,000 white people dispossessed in Zimbabwe moved to Australia, Britain and other western countries, farmers no more.

Those who could imagine no life except under African skies scattered across the continent, tilling fields in Nigeria, Mozambique, Malawi, South Africa and Zambia. The last, anglophone, politically stable and with a soil and climate similar to Zimbabwe, was initially thought the easy option.

Despite the hardship Brent Greatorex stood by his decision to move to
Chongwe, a lush district south east of Lusaka. “I’m 37 going on 90 but
knowing what I know now I would still come, though I’d do things
differently.”

His story is typical. A second-generation Zimbabwean, he watched helpless as youth militias and independence war veterans heeded Harare’s call to invade white-owned farms. Salvaging what they could in January 2003, Mr Greatorex, his wife Vanessa and two children moved to Chongwe and took a 15-year lease on 1,300 hectares of a disused dairy farm. With just over $1m borrowed from a bank and a US company, Universal Leaf Tobacco, they built a house, bought equipment and hired labourers. Teething problems in the first two seasons produced disappointing yields. “But now we’re flying,” said Mr Greatorex, standing amid 10-feet high maize. He expected to produce 240 tonnes of tobacco, 280 tonnes of maize and 360 tonnes of wheat.

But the profit had all but vanished. Costs were much higher – creaky
infrastructure made transport expensive and labourers earned $2.30 a day
compared to 20 cents a day in Zimbabwe. In addition to 400 labourers it was necessary to hire 35 guards to hinder crop theft.

Meanwhile revenue had dwindled because of the rise of the kwacha, which
analysts predict will continue to strengthen. Mr and Mrs Greatorex had given up socialising and showjumping as too expensive.

Their son and daughter missed friends and loathed their adopted country,
which was relatively undeveloped compared to Zimbabwe. “I’m not going to be a farmer. No way,” said Kurt, 14. He wants to be a motorbike mechanic.

Nevertheless Mr Greatorex was hopeful of riding out the crisis and paying
his debts within seven years. “I’m not starting again, this has to work.”

In addition to the economic woes there is a fear, largely unstated, that
Zambia’s politics may one day unravel. Their memories are haunted by
Zimbabwe where after 20 years of cordial relations the government, desperate to deflect unpopularity, turned against the white minority.

Zambia’s authorities are grateful for the farmers’ investment but
embarrassed by the perception that it took white people to turn around the
economy. Mr Mugabe has scolded his neighbour for taking in “racist
colonialists”. President Levy Mwanawasa has played down their impact and
stressed they have received no tax breaks.

“The government has been welcoming but it’s not as if they’re singing and
dancing at our arrival. We have to keep our heads down,” said one farmer.

The agriculture minister, Mundia Sikatana, praised the settlers’ expertise.

“They have contributed a lot to our economy. Our farmers are emulating their methods,” he told the Guardian.

But in the next breath he said: “We are giving them the instruction that
they have got to take their Zambian employees for what they are, human
beings.”

It was a coded warning that any hint of exploitation or racism would not be tolerated. In Zimbabwe some farmers, self-described “Rhodies” who pined for the days of Ian Smith’s white minority rule, were notorious for their prejudice.

But interviews with black Zambians found that the majority respected the new arrivals for the wealth they had created. Mr MacSporran said his compatriots had resolved not to rock the boat. “When you lose everything once, and you get a second chance, you don’t do anything to compromise your chances.”

Moving away

Mozambique
More than 100 farmers have moved to the former Portuguese colony, many
settling in the districts of Manica, Barue and Sussundenga, near the border with Zimbabwe. Employing more than 4,000 labourers, they grow tobacco, cotton and maize. All land in Mozambique belongs to the state and cannot be bought or sold, but can be leased.

Malawi
Dozens settled in Malawi after an invitation from the government which said the investment could provide jobs. Only a few critics have railed against the arrivals: “There is no land to give away in Malawi,” said an editorial in the Daily Times.

Nigeria
President Olusegun Obasanjo has encouraged farmers to come to west Africa.
“We don’t want to take away what is good for Zimbabwe, but we don’t want
what is good for Africa taken away.” More than a dozen have accepted the
invitation.

Source: https://archive.africancrisis.info/?p=107704