Zimbabwe: Show Made the Door

Source from:  Financial Gazette (Harare) September 20, 2006 09/25/2006

IN INTERMITTENT droughts, the government, in its search for a scapegoat, had found what it thought was a perfect alibi for the savage slump in agricultural production. But such an excuse for failure cuts no ice with many who know only too well that the successive failed harvests were in the main due to human error. Indeed, the scandal-tainted land reform initiative has slipped on so many banana skins mainly because of misplaced priorities informed by political expediency. It is because of the upside-down priorities that the government failed to take into consideration the country's implementation capacity and affordability of the exercise when it embarked on the widely condemned fast-track land reform exercise. And here we are. The exercise meant to alleviate poverty has instead caused an unprecedented economic meltdown and thereby aggravated poverty. That the initiative has spawned extreme poverty is an enduring irony of the much-vaunted agrarian reforms. The recurring biting shortages of critical inputs such as fuel that resulted in the lack of tillage facilities, fertilisers and seed, which have threatened to derail the back-to-the-land idealism, should also be seen in the same context of affordability and the country's implementation capacity. And it is against this background that we find ourselves in an unlikely situation where we have to commend, though with reservation, the announcement last week of a US$490 million agricultural support facility by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ). At the longest last the government, which has made so many strategic mistakes as regards the land reform exercise, seems to have realised, albeit at the eleventh hour, that it should do something about a problem as soon as it appears because it will only get worse if it is left until later. This is probably the clearest sign yet that the government is now prioritising agriculture, as it indeed should. Zimbabwe has had to grapple with the recurring input shortages over the past five years. The gravity of the problem is mirrored in the terrifyingly falling production levels in maize, wheat and tobacco, to mention just a few. With the launch and subsequent failure of small-scale commercial agriculture, the country's food security situation has largely remained precarious. Zimbabwe has been reduced to a grain deficit country. As it is, the country will this year have to import 170 000 tonnes of wheat and upwards of 500 000 tonnes of the staple maize to cover shortfalls. Thus, the agriculture support package deal put together with the help of local and regional financial institutions should be commended. Under normal circumstances, this should signal a new era for Zimbabwe as agriculture, which has been comatose for some time now, could tip-toe back to recovery. But we don't have high hopes for it as long as Joseph Made remains the minister responsible for agriculture. We choose to err on the side of caution because we have a strong sense of deja vu. Much as we would like to, we do not believe that even with all these resources at their disposal and assuming that mother nature does not send her worst, those running the country's agriculture, particularly Made who has proved beyond reasonable doubt that he cannot organise a drink-up in a brewery, have what it takes to return production in the key sector to its pre-crisis levels. This is why under his stewardship agriculture has lurched from crisis to crisis over the past seven years even to the point of touching off a humanitarian crisis of catastrophic proportions. The gloom and pessimism is thus not without foundation. It is because of Made's ineptitude that famine and hunger have stalked Zimbabwe for years. And unless such a critical development as the availing of US$490 million is accompanied by the restructuring of the Ministry of Agriculture where Made should be shown the door, it could be an exercise in futility. With all due respect to Made -- who came in as one of the so-called technocrats -- the minister has proved that no one in Zimbabwe ever knew so much that was so little to the purpose. Otherwise drought or no drought, Zimbabwe should not have been reduced to a perennial deficit country alongside Lesotho, Swaziland and Malawi if only Made, who has seen Zimbabwe producing the smallest tobacco crop since independence, had not slept on the job. Thus we have guarded optimism for a quick turnaround in agriculture even with the commendable efforts of those that put together the US$490 million. We have said it before and we will say it again. Much as President Mugabe must not throw away the baby together with the bath water when he reshuffles his Cabinet, the continued stay of Made in the agriculture portfolio where he is a typical square peg in a round hole not only provokes a sharp intake of breath from the generality of Zimbabweans but also spells doom for the economy. It is an issue of genuine public concern particularly when it is hoped that government ministers must of necessity be re-deployed according to best fit. The sacking of Made should therefore be an integral part of the efforts to save agriculture from imminent collapse. Enditem