BCC demands company to host 18-member delegation in Botswana

Vusumuzi Dube, Online News Editor

THE Bulawayo City Council last year demanded that a Botswana-based company, interested in venturing into dairy farming at its two farms- Aisleby and Goodhope- hosts an 18-member delegation for a one-week site visit at their operations in the neighbouring country.

The trip, however, hit a snag as the company- MilkAfric- raised concern on the expence of hosting the delegation as they were going to be expected to meet transport, accommodation and other costs for the travelling party. This comes at a time the local authority has raised concerns over the state of their two farms, which has seen it giving the greenlight for management to engage private players to either lease or takeover the farms.

According to a council confidential report, the local authority almost missed out on the lucrative deal which was going to see the farms being turned into viable dairy fodder and crop production farms. However, the local authority has since agreed to reengage MilkAfric and have them set up a demonstration project within the farms for a year to show what they aim to do. The demonstration will also act as a feasibility study.

“The representative from MilkAfric (Mr Matibe) explained that the visit to Botswana had failed because council had brought forward a total of 18 delegates to represent it for one week. It was not feasible for the company to incur the costs without any knowledge of the way forward in terms of partnering. The trip to Botswana was still on the table only if council provided a smaller number of delegates to visit the site. The same would apply for the visit to the United States. MilkAfric was also open to take the committee to Manicaland to view a dairy farm that was almost similar to what they intended to do at Aisleby and Goodhope farms,” reads the report.

For the visit to the United States, the company had offered to take a small delegation for training Zimbabwean staff for management of the project once it took off, as they argued that if the local authority shortened the possible Build Operate and Transfer (BOT) period before management and competent people were in place, the project would collapse within a year of the company handing over the project to Council.

“In the ensuing discussion, Councillor Edwin Ndlovu raised concern that the presentation was not what the business and investment committee had expected. The committee’s wish was to know more about the company and the work it had done in other areas before they could make any decision. He added that another expectation was for the presentation to include the amount of funding secured to run the project.

“It was important for the committee to be clear on the company’s capacity before acceding to their proposal. He was not in support of the company’s proposal to demonstrate for one year as he felt that the company could not be trusted. Clr Shadreck Sibanda concurred with Clr Ndlovu. He highlighted that the committee was concerned with MilkAfric’s identity. He further mentioned that the committee was supposed to go to Botswana in 2022 to observe and have an appreciation of the company’s project but that did not happen,” reads the report.

According to the report, MilkAfric will run the demonstration for a one-farming season lease of 50 hectares of arable land at Aisleby and Goodhope Farms planting winter wheat and lucerne grass April 2023 to March 2024. In the company’s proposal for the demonstration project, they state that they aim to demonstrate the viability of their idea for the broader project

“MilkAfric’s project proposal seeks to demonstrate the idea for the conversion of the Municipal Sewer Disposal Farms, Aisleby/Good Hope into a viable dairy fodder and crop production farm. Once proven through this project MilkAfric wishes to implement its dairy or fodder project as presented to the Bulawayo City Council. MilkAfric hereby requests consent from your office to install two 25-hectare centre pivots at Aisleby and Good Hope for the cultivation of winter wheat. However, should the approval process exceed the dates for the economic planting of our winter wheat we opt for a crop of lucerne instead, we aim to demonstrate the viability of this idea for the broader project which we’ve already proposed,” reads part of the proposal.

Asked to vote on the proposal to have the company get the one year demonstration contract, the item sailed through however with Clr Ndlovu registering his dissent.