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  MikeRook
  October 6th, 2012 @14:28 #
   
  
  

  Early 2002 The Farmer magazine that first appeared in 1942 as Vuka the organ of the Matabeleland Farmers' Union suddenly disappeared. The official statement issued by the Commercial Farmers' Union (CFU) at the time was 'financial constraints'. Mike Rook its CEO who served the CFU for 23 years (1979-2002) now publicly reveals the true story behind its forced shut down ...

  Since my review of Rory Pilossof's book THE UNBEARABLE WHITENESS OF BEING; Farmers Voices From Zimbabwe, I have had numerous feedback from Zimbabwe farmers, mostly concerning the chapter devoted to The Farmer magazine. The question everyone asks is why were large scale commercial farmers in general and Commercial Farmers Union members in particular not consulted or even informed of the arbitrary shut down of their only means of communication?

  It was a matter of fact that the CFU licence fee was structured to include receipt of The Farmer. It would therefore have been courteous and correct for CFU to have facilitated open discussion and debate amongst its members before closure of the magazine, allowing an opportunity to mount a concerted rescue operation. The opposite occurred! To set the record straight for Zimbabwe's large scale commercial farmers past present and future, I have decided to put this topic into the public domain.

  The closure of The Farmer magazine in early 2002 was orchestrated by the existing CFU administration and the magazine's own Board of Trustees, that included the incumbent CFU president and director. The lame excuse given for its demise was lack of viability. Due to prevailing circumstances the magazine was no longer the Union's 'cash cow'.

  Despite CFU trying desperately to stop the accessing of its members' email addresses the magazine's CEO received them surreptitiously from a sympathetic Head Office staff member. The resulting feedback was overwhelming support for The Farmer. The vast majority of CFU members not only agreed to pay for the magazine, but insisted it continue publishing. A business plan with an accompanying income expenditure analyses showing a reasonable financial surplus was subsequently presented to CFU and the magazine's Board of Trustees. The business plan was never even considered. It was summarily shelved and conveniently ignored by the Union and The Board of Trustees.

  So why such perverse skulduggery? Why was The Farmer with its proud history of serving Zimbabwe's large scale farming community for over half a century through wars pestilence and droughts silenced? The simple answer is that neither the Union or its Board of Trustees were able to influence the magazine's content or compromise its independence. Being too timid to sack the editor it was decided to remove the publication instead.

  To add insult to injury the manner of the closure itself was a shameful example of duplicity and Machiavellian conspiracy between CFU and the Board of Trustees. To avoid legal obligations of severance pay due to the enforced redundancies of loyal and long serving staff: CFU and The Board of Trustees connived together to present the Trust as the employer, not CFU. As the Trust had no reserves of capital this meant staff, some with over thirty years on the magazine, would leave with nothing. A letter solicited by the magazine's CEO from CFU's own lawyers clearly stated the employer as CFU. The CFU and Board of Trustees were forced to back down and the issue was forcefully redressed, albeit harshly with some malevolence and under duress. The Farmer was sacrificed on the altar of expediency by those in trusted positions that were expected and required to display and implement the highest standards of morals integrity and fortitude.

  Alas! The realisation that it is easier to tear down than to build up came too late to save The Farmer.
  Subsequent CFU administrations on two occasions tried unsuccessfully to launch replacement magazines. The publication AgriZim was launched and managed to publish for awhile before disappearing, and afterwards a second attempt at a magazine with European Union funding never even saw the light of day.

  
  

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