HARARE - Zanu (PF) officials, for long used to free agricultural implements and inputs from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe after taking over large-scale commercial farms, could be facing a gloomy year.Not only is the government prioritising small-scale farmers this time around, but banks have resisted pressure to accept offer letters and 99-year leases as collateral for loans.
President Robert Mugabe and Zanu (PF) have been lobbying banks to accept as collateral the offer letters, which purportedly authorise the holder to forcibly take over a farm.
However, at the weekend, the Bankers Association of Zimbabwe reiterated that banks required asset-based security.
Dr John Mangudya, the associations president said: Offer letters are acceptable forms of entitlement to the land, but cannot be used as collateral security.
Meanwhile, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe said it would not force banks to extend agriculture support loans to farmers, because that responsibility now lay with the ministries of agriculture, mechanisation and irrigation, development and finance.
That the banks governor, Gideon Gono, agreed to this position was seen as proof that he had finally accepted Finance Minister Tendai Bitis advice not to engage in quasi-fiscal activities.
Gono also revealed that the RBZ would not be able to offer direct financial support to farmers following a policy shift by the government, which now requires the bank to concentrate on its core business.
The RBZ announcement came as a major blow to many farmers who had been inundating the central bank with inquiries about its farmer support schemes for this years summer cropping season, which has already started.
Previously, farmers were used to getting thousands of litres of fuel from Gono, subsidies to such a level that the amount they paid would not have actually bought a single litre.
Gono said the central bank would, outside performing its advisory role to government, concentrate on its core functions, such as bank licensing, controlling monetary aggregates, exchange control and prevention of money laundering About 4,000 commercial farms have been taken over under Mugabes land reform programme. The few remaining white farmers are on the verge of losing their farms to a new wave of land grabs.
A recent report by the General Agriculture and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe estimated that 350,000 black farm workers had been displaced by the redistribution of farms since 2000. Zanu (PF) officials and senior military, police, intelligence and prison services officers, including President Robert Mugabe, have grabbed more than one farm each, with Mugabe and his family owning 12 farms.
Post published in: Economy