admineducation, the other two pillars of rural self government, still belonging to central government.
It was obvious why these councils were formed and why commercial farmers were prepared to levy rates to fund them.
No matter how good a farm you have, how skilled a farmer you are, how wonderful the weather, and how productive the seeds you plant and animals you raise, if you cannot get your produce to the market, or more precisely cannot get it to market at a reasonable cost, then you are wasting your time.
Crops have no value sitting on a farm. They only get their value when they are taken to market and sold.
Even animals have a much reduced value on a farm; if you have to walk your cattle 200km to get them to a buyer then they are going to be in poorer condition, be possibly diseased, and you will have a huge labour bill for your herders.
With adequate roads, the sort of thing you can drive a truck easily along, farming economics change dramatically. Bringing in inputs and taking out your produce becomes cheap and simple.
So as commercial farmers switched from ox-wagons to lorries they wanted adequate roads, and were prepared to pay for them.
The need for roads is now even more vital with land reform. Farm sizes are generally smaller, meaning that many farmers have to rely on hired transport, on smaller lorries or on buyers driving up to their farm gate.
And that in turn requires quite good roads, otherwise no transporter will risk hiring, at least at reasonable rates, and no buyers will want to go to the farm gate.
And a bad road will murder a pick-up truck.
So the rural district councils are under pressure to make sure that they have good roads and that they maintain them.
They have not been doing this very well as the equipment inherited from the old rural councils comes up for replacement.
The District Development Fund, which used to cope with the communal areas, now also has extreme budget limitations.
The Association of Rural District Councils, realising that they have to help themselves, has worked out a scheme with suppliers to sell equipment in instalments and Zinara has done its best by making 20 graders available each year, as it switches from handing out cash, which can be spent on anything, to handing out equipment, which can only be used on roads.
The councils still need something more, farmers to pay their rates. Zinara equipment, while free, still needs diesel, maintenance and a driver. Other equipment, even sold on terms, still has to be paid for one day.
So if farmers want good roads they have to pay.
But for a good farmer the rates are a tiny fraction on the income they can earn so long as they have a decent road running near their farm.
The two are intimately connected. A good road means there is the income required that can pay rates and give the farmer a decent standard of living.
In effect farmers should think of their rates as part of their transport charges and part of their charges they need to pay to ensure they have a healthy family and workforce.
And even a weekend farmer needs a reasonable road to get to the farm on weekends. So he should pay too.
The association and Zinara have done their part. Now farmers have to ensure that they do theirs, by paying bills, this time in the near certainty that they will at last get value for their money, in the form of a decent road.
Online Reporter