The 2015-16 agricultural season has started in earnest. There is a lot of farming activity taking place across the country.
PDP
Hardworking Zimbabweans, who are planting various crops across the country despite lack of adequate inputs such as implements, seeds and fertilisers, must be commended.
Such commitment from ordinary farmers is worth recognition and support from the government, however, the Zanu PF government cares for no one other than itself and has not prioritised the issue of availing inputs to farmers in Zimbabwe.
Zanu PF has found the distribution of the farming inputs under various government programmes to be an avenue for primitive accumulation, corruption and patronage.
Currently, there are two main schemes under which farmers are being supported and all of them have been open to abuse by the avaricious elites in Zanu PF whose looting knows no shame.
Under the Zimbabwe-Brazil More Food for Africa Programme, $98 million was extended to Zimbabwe as a loan that is to be paid back, but has been usurped by First Lady Grace Mugabe and turned into a private campaign war chest. Grace has broken all known formal channels of implementing government programmes, as she has gone on a drive to use the facility for furthering her political ambitions and to service her ego.
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Thus in her pursuit of power for its sake, she is distributing the various inputs acquired from Brazil under the loan agreement for the benefit of her supporters and not the broad farming community.
This abuse of State resources is uncalled for and is the very reason why as a nation, 15 years after land reform, we are still a basket case far from being capable of feeding ourselves.
This critical programme needed to be implemented professionally and in the best national interest of securing food for all by ensuring that inputs are efficiently distributed to genuine farmers and monitoring and evaluation on the use of the inputs is undertaken. That this abuse is going on must be a cause of concern for everyone, including the Brazilians.
Indeed, how do they expect to be paid their money when it is apparent that the implementation of the programme is a political gimmick designed to line the pockets of the politically powerful?
The Presidential inputs scheme is supported by the fiscus needs to be implemented impartially across the country. Through this partial distribution, the Zanu PF government has already started to tilt the 2018 electoral landscape in its favour through patronage.
So, going forward, Zimbabweans deserve the following:
Setting up of community peace committees under the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission. These structures will play an oversight role on the implementation of government programmes and see that they are carried out in a manner which gives every citizen equal access.
Decentralising the operations and activities of government through actualising and strengthening the institutions of devolution as defined in the country’s Constitution. By giving greater autonomy to local institutions, they will invariably focus on inclusive development instead of partisan politics often imposed from above.
Through an Act of Parliament, establish the Zimbabwe Development Council, as the principal consultative body to work closely with the Executive, Parliament, Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe and other State enterprises.
