By Regerai Tukutuku
When hordes of Zanu (PF) supporters from Chilonga communal lands in Chiredzi chased commercial farmer Gary Mortar off his property during the height of farm invasions, the community rejoiced.
The villagers had every reason to smile as they had taken over the huge farm in addition to thriving crocodile and irrigation projects – later named the Joice Mujuru project.
But like Mujuru’s fortunes that seem to be taking a nose dive following factional fighting in the ruling party, the projects are facing collapse. The crocodile project initially had about 300 reptiles but is left with only 20. During the golden days the village women used to take turns to provide food for them, but that is now history.
Lack of skills
Dozens of women who took over the crocodile and irrigation projects have failed to sustain the co-operative, which is on the brink of collapse. According to Monica Chingele, the secretary, the women are appealing for help from well -wishers to pump in resources to save the venture.
The main problem they face are lack of markets and working capital. According to Chingele, the lack of proper skills to manage the reptiles has contributed significantly to the current problems. Since they took over the project, the women have never been trained in how to manage the crocodiles or the business.
“When we took over there were 300 crocodiles,” said Chingele. “We established a co-operative and named it in honour of the vice President – who actually came and officially opened it. The reptiles are fed on meat and we were taking turns to provide food for them. Things went on well for some time. “But due to the current economic environment we have failed to continue operating. We have no working capital or good markets for our products – both crocodile meat and hides. Because of these serious financial problems we have decided to limit the number of reptiles we can feed and the project now has only 20 crocodiles,” she added. Chingele said if they fail to get funding in the next two months they will just abandon the whole project. “We tried to track down the former owner of the farm in the hopes that maybe he was in a position to tell us where he used to market his products – but all was in vain,” she added.
All in vain
According to experts in crocodile management a group of 200 crocodiles would need food worth $5,000 a month. If well looked after the same group of reptiles has the potential of raising $1,5 million on international markets. It is not only the crocodile project that faces imminent collapse. The irrigation project, which used to supply the whole of Chiredzi town and other places like Chipinge, Checheche and Save with horticultural products, is also facing serious cash flow problems. The entire irrigation infrastructure on the farm is dilapidated. The engines that used to pump water are not working and the villagers have no money to repair them. About $100,000 is needed to bring life to both the crocodile and irrigation projects. “At one time we got funding from Tongaat Huletts sugar milling company to rehabilitate the dilapidated irrigation infrastructure – but it was not enough,” said Chingele.
Dilapidated
“We approached the Ministry of Small to Medium Enterprises for funding, but nothing materialised. We even went on to approach banks and other financial institutions – but none of our efforts bore fruit. So we are now appealing to well-wishers, including vice president Mujuru, to come to our rescue.”
The co-operative, which had 20 female and 20 male members, used to depend on the projects to send their children to school.
Chiredzi central legislator Denford Masiya said that several co-operatives initiated by communities in his constituency were on the verge of collapse due to cash flow problems. He said lack of proper financial management was a major factor in their collapse.
“The government should establish a fund to assist promising and well-managed community co-operatives to access funding,” he said. The Zimbabwean
