The Cotton Company of Zimbabwe (COTTCO) says it has paid farmers US$19.6 million and $7.2 billion with outstanding dues expected to be cleared by 31 March 2024, reported the Chronicle.
In a trading update from 01 September 2023 to 31 January 2024, company secretary, Eunice Mupanduki, said liquidity in the local economy remained constrained.
She said COTTCO was unable to draw down to the full extent of available facilities, despite having adequate security. Said Mupanduki:
The company was, however, able to settle US$19.6 million (83 per cent) and $7.2 billion (18 per cent) of the farmer payments dues in the respective currencies with outstanding dues expected to be cleared from product receipts by 31 March 2024.
She said the final intake figures for the 2023 cotton buying season stood at 69 419 metric tonnes, which was a 48 per cent increase from the 46 748 metric tonnes achieved in 2022. Added Mupanduki:
To date, 58 326mt (84 per cent) of seed cotton has been ginned with only 1 066mt (two per cent) having been toll ginned in the Lowveld due to the high volumes in that area.
Local and offshore lint customer collections are still underway with 7 776mt of lint in stock.
Ginned seed on hand is 4 642mt and upliftment by seed suppliers and oil expressors is underway.
475mt of lint has been converted to yarn since April 1 2023 to date.
She said erratic power supplies in the last quarter of 2023 delayed the completion of ginning.
COTTCO is expecting to break even, in US dollar terms, for the year ended 31 March 2024.
Mupanduki said the Government’s 37.1 per cent shareholding in COTTCO Holdings Limited, previously held in the name of the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development is now held through Mutapa Investment Fund.
The Government, through COTTCO, is the major financier of cotton production in the country.
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237. The Commission found that after the abortive ‘Nhari Rebellion’,
and particularly after the Chifombo trials over which he presided, Chitepo
became a suspect and was virtually a captive in the hands of his colleagues
in DARE.
238. It is clear from the evidence that those found guilty, including
John Mataure and the Nhari group, were executed on the orders of Tongo-
gara and the High Command and with the knowledge and connivance of
Chitepo and the Karanga members of DARE.
Those connected but who
were not at Chifombo Chimurenga General Council, like Mukono, Muta-
mbanengwe, Madekurozwa, Santana and Mpini were sentenced to death
and were to be executed whenever they were found. Most of these were
Manyikas like Chitepo and were very close to him.
239. The charge or belief held by the Karanga elements against the
Manyikas, that the latter had instigated or organised the ‘Nhari Rebellion’
appears to the Commission to have been unfounded. There was no tenable
evidence before the Commission
that the Manyika master-minded
the
mutiny as the Karangas maintained, beyond trifling incidents that could
be immediately dismissed for want of substance. At worst, the Manyika
merely understood the grievances of the Nhari group and sympathised
with the young men. They preferred a reconciliation rather than con-
frontation with the kidnappers.
240. ZANU lacked a well institutionalised machinery for regulating
and controlling its affairs. This resulted in irregular and criminal acts by
the DARE and the High Command. It also accounted for much confusion
in the Party, bordering on a state of anarchy.
241. Much as it was expedient to offer a wide scope to the Zimbabwe
nationalists in their militant struggle for independence with minimum
interference in the domestic or internal affairs of the Party organisation,
the necessary pre-requisite of ensuring that the freedom fighters prosecute
their aims and conduct themselves in Zambia within the bounds of pro-
priety and legality was not strictly observed by the Zambian Authorities.
The latitude allowed by the host country far exceeded these lines, and it is
apparent that the Government of Zambia did not keep a watchful eye on
all the activities of the liberation movements operating within their
territory. The Government assumed that liberation movements had their
own intra-Party machinery for disciplinary and orientation purposes.
ZANU, for instance, was regarded as a sort of Sovereign Government-in-
exile, hence the non-interference in the conduct
of its internal affairs.
242. In the matter of the security of Zimbabwe nationals in the
political activity of freeing their country, the Zambian Government could
be said to have done all that could possibly be done in the circumstances.
Sufficient security measures were taken wherever there were freedom
fighters, including the Liberation Centro itself, the Headquarters of all
liberation movements in Lusaka.