Beatific Gumbwanda

CHIREDZI – Chiredzi sugarcane farmers are complaining over Tongaat Hullet Zimbabwe (THZ) Company’s delay to take in their sugarcane forcing them to spend three to five days in queue to deliver one load while Kilimanjaro out growers, whose cane is managed by THZ, are getting priority through express routes into both Triangle and Hippo Valley mills.
Hippo Valley Productive Sugarcane Farmers Association (HVPSFA) Chairperson, Patrick Muvingi said there has been a deliberate delay by the miller to take in farmer’s sugarcane in order to manage her cash flow while opening a green route for respected people as well as the Kilimanjaro farmers.
“It’s sad that we took almost 12 months growing sugarcane but we are now failing to recover our costs as most of our cane is rotting before being delivered to the miller.
“Burnt sugarcane is supposed be milled within 48hrs but we are now spending three to five days to deliver our cane.
“The Miller is even failing to abide by the quota system, where farmers are supposed to deliver certain bundles of cane per day and we now spending five days to deliver what we were supposed to deliver in a single day,” said Muvingi.
He lamented the conditions that delivery truck drivers endure in queues since there are no toilets where they wait.
“There are no toilets and we are forced to bring in food to our drivers who would be in queues for some days because the company gave us false promises,” said Muvingi.
Kenneth Chafanza one of the truck drivers said it was disheartening that the company was even locking the toilets they are supposed to be using.
”We were used to the quota system where farmers would deliver certain bundles per day. Now the five bundles that I am supposed to deliver on a single day is now being delivered after five days. We are being holed up here in harsh weather conditions and we even don’t have toilets to use while we are waiting to deliver the cane because they are locked,” said Chafanza.
The milling is supposed to close on the 8th of December but farmers are yet to finish delivering their cane to the mill.
THZ’s Head of Corporate and Industry Affair, Doctor Dahlia Garwe, said the challenge was emanating from farmers themselves as they were failing to implement the quota system and bringing in more that they require per day and that was causing queues.
“The mills are up and running as usual. We have a policy to communicate to farmers whenever there is a breakdown to alert and advise them not to bring cane to the mill until the issue has been resolved and this is done in real time.
“One of the biggest problems we are facing is that some farmers bring cane outside their allocated quota. By this we mean, farmers are allocated specific days on which they are supposed to deliver their cane to the mills. If they bring cane outside their specific time slots, we then have the long queues that you have seen. The farmers working outside the quota system are causing inconveniences to those that would have been properly booked.
“More cane than can be comfortably handled arrive at the mills causing the kind of difficulties you have observed.
“We urge all our farmers to religiously observe the quota system to maintain order in the delivery system and avoid inconvenience of an ordinate time in the queue awaiting delivery into the mills,” said Dr Garwe.
However, Mkwasine Estates which transport 80% of their cane by rail are also facing the same challenge as the train that is supposed to take only 8 hours offloading is now extending to 24 hours.
The sugar industry, is slowly crumbling following governments open door policy to imports aimed at thwarting price surges, which has significantly affected the sale of Hullets sugar in the domestic market, with tons still being stacked at Tongaat Huletts Zimbabwe which has significantly affected sugarcane delivery by out grower farmers as the company is slowly failing to pay them.
THZ and most out grower farmers signed a new contract, Cane Purchase Agreement (CPA) while a few went for the old one, the Milling Agreement where the former allows the company to pay for the cane delivered withing 10 working days at the cost of US$54.89 per ton while the later implies that the company will sell the sugar on behalf of the farmer and will be paid on monthly basis after deducting their milling charge.
The Milling Agreement allows Tongaat to pay farmers after they have sold the sugar while the CPA forces the company to pay the farmers on cane delivery, which has been difficult for the cash strapped company to pay as they are even failing to quickly rectify mill breakdowns and suppliers will be demanding cash up front.
The Zimbabwe Sugar Sales, which is a subsidiary of THZ and responsible for selling sugar internationally and domestically escalated sugar price a few months ago citing an increase in the cost of production, which forced the government to allow importation of basics including sugar which is now being sold at a lower cost that Huletts sugar which is produced locally thereby reducing supplies in the domestic market.

Decide Nhendo

Masvingo Theatre and Arts Club (Charles Austin) is hosting a workshop for the strategic planning aimed at capacity development of the committee and the strategic plan for Charles Austin Theatre 2024 at Clevers Resort from 9am to 4pm.
The theatre Public Relations Officer Engineer Emmanuel Sakhala said the workshop was a strategic meeting running from October 6 – 7 2023 and the main focus was to create a roadmap for the club and find ways to benefit all the stakeholders.
“We are having a strategic meeting for the Masvingo Theatre and Arts Club on 6 to 7 October the idea is to create a roadmap for the club, to benefit all the stake holders,” said Sakhala.
He said Masvingo City Council and National Arts Council of Zimbabwe will be at the workshop for strategy implementation focused on budget, resources required, and taking corrective action to achieve objectives to establish consolidation and way forward.
The workshop will also focus on how to actualize the activities to be done at Charles Austin theatre to improve professionalism and make people aware of different artists and their different activities as realistic.
The workshop will also look at strategy and formulation which has to do with action plans and a calendar of activities and projects to undertake for one year up to December 2024 to achieve the missions and objectives.
The committee is focusing on strategies and ways to make artists aware of plans and activities that happen in Masvingo making people aware of dates and events that are going to take place.

Decide Nhendo

Masvingo residents have called for the city council to find and maximize other sources of revenue to lessen the burden of financing council activities to on residents.
Speaking during budget consultation meeting at Mucheke Hall recently, residents said the rates were increasing every day and council was supposed to find more ways of raising money including proper leasing of council beer halls and Mucheke Rank among other sources.
A resident from Twizza Hostel said the person renting Farai Beer hall is also subletting some compartments for other uses instead of using the beer hall for its intended use.
“Council is failing to run its bars and is renting them out, however, we feel they are not doing it properly and is not getting meaningful revenue from there, this means council will turn to us on everything they need financially.
Council should lease bars to people with capacity who will transform them into cash cows not what we are seeing right now.
“Farai Beer Hall used to be one of the best beer outlets in Masvingo but now the standards have deteriorated and I am sure council is no longer making money from it this is now affecting us residents greatly as the rates and taxes like refuse collection are increasing while revenue from council bars can be used to cover other costs,” said Gigantic Fudzani.
Another resident said council should make sure they maintain Mucheke Rank properly as it is another cash cow that can raise more money for council and lessen pressure on residents.
“The council have to make use of opportunities like the rank which can be used to generate money to use in other projects if kept up to standard as they will be able to collect money from vehicles that will be operating within the rank to fund other social services programmes,” said the resident
Masvingo City Council is proposing a USD$17 million budget where USD$15 will come from internals sources and the remainder from other sources.
The local authority is proposing to introduce another levy on residents called fire levy where residents are expected to pay US$ 1.50 for residential stands are and US$3 for commercial stands.
Council said the need was necessitated by the fact that it covers the whole province and due to the nature of the operations residents will have to pay a levy towards that cause beginning of January 2024.

Admire Chatindo

Masvingo City Council has revealed that it is still struggling with sewer management both pumping and treatment.
This was revealed in the 2023 half-year budget performance review where the local authority said the major reason was lack of funds
Council said challenges were built on, the non-functional Biological Nutrient Removal, the major sewer treatment, and efforts to fix the equipment were moving at a snail’s pace due to lack of funds since the repairs demands lots of money;
“The Biological Nutrient Removal Plant, which is the main sewer treatment plant has several non-functional components which require repairs. The pace at which the repairs have been undertaken was slow due to lack of financial resources coupled with a high cost involved.”
The report stated that sewer pipes lacked proper maintenance as blockages prevent efficient wastewater drainage and the non functioning high-lift pump, the power outages experienced in the first quarter and the archaic drainage systems including water pipes for transporting water.
“During the period, we also experienced a breakdown on the high-lift pump which pumps wastewater to standard farm for irrigation of pastures.
“These challenges were an addition to the power challenges experienced in the first quarter, and the ageing and increasingly overloaded sewer mains which resulted in an increase in sewer blockages.” Reads the report