BEFORE presenting Zimbabwe’s coveted livestock honour, Agriculture, Mechanisation and Water Resources Development Minister Dr Anxious Masuka, a man more often associated with statistics and big policy figures, set them aside and chose instead to tell a story.
It was about an athlete.
In the first race, the runner was so astonishingly fast that his rivals never really saw him. They followed only the swirling cloud of dust he left hanging in the air.
In the second race, there was no dust at all. His rivals laughed, convinced he had slowed down. Some eased their pace, certain the competition had finally caught up. But as they approached the finish line, officials delivered a startling verdict: the runner had already crossed.
He had become so fast that by the time the rest arrived, even the dust had settled.
Dr Masuka turned towards Dr Divine Simbi-Ndhlukula and allowed the metaphor to settle over the gathering at Zvikomborero Farms in Featherstone.
“That,” he said, “is where Zimbabwean agriculture is heading.”
At Zvikomborero Farms, that metaphor is not abstract. It is visible in the land, in the systems and in the people who move through it before sunrise. The dust of the Minister’s story, however, is not only symbolic.
It is remembered.
Tabeth Rwafa remembers 2019 differently. It was the year the drought tightened its grip on Featherstone and the surrounding communities, when pastures failed and herds became liabilities rather than assets.
https://www.heraldonline.co.zw/ndhlukula-racing-ahead-of-climate-change/