Thu, 16 Feb 2017 14:19:06 +0000 By Philip Chirwa By mid-morning of that sunny day in December, 1987, several helicopters had landed at Zambezia Farm in Chieftainess Chiawa’s area near Chirundu. They had brought VIPs who included the first republican president, Dr Kenneth Kaunda, his party Secretary-General, Grey Zulu, prime minister Kebby Musokotwane(now late), Central Committee members, cabinet ministers, all defence chiefs and other high-ranking party and government officials. The mission: to witness, first hand, the “miraculous” production of diesel from grass by the owner of the farm, the tall, powerfully built Zimbabwean-born American, Eric Owen Winson. Now, there was this huge machine which was supposed to produce oil from grass. From the publicity earlier given on the project, the presidential entourage expected the then 61-year-old Winson to feed the machine with grass on one side, then the grass would undergo some chemical process and –akadabra kadabra – diesel would immediately start flowing from […]
