ZIMBABWE, for the second time since the turn of the century, is engaging in another State-sponsored farm mechanisation programme.
A close analysis of the project gives the goosebumps: the Zanu PF elite are repeating socialism for the rich using State resources.
The first phase of the programme came during Gideon Gono’s tenure as central bank governor.
The project was originally budgeted for US$200 million, but like most of the Zanu PF government doing, the budget was overrun.
It finally ended in the region of US$300 million, but cannot be ascertained due to the murky nature of the procurement and the government’s reluctance to release the actual figures.
Under the project, the bank imported tractors, combine harvesters, vicons, boomsprays, ploughs, bowsers, trailers and disc harrows, among other implements.
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Most of the equipment, however, was distributed to political elite, senior civil servants and Zanu PF apparatchiks.
Initially, the programme was established as a loan scheme, where beneficiaries would pay back the value to the bank.
In reality, no one paid a cent back and their names remains a mystery, except some leaked document which the government has not acknowledged.
It shall be remembered that the loans were later assumed by the State and hence every Zimbabwean is now required to pay through their taxes.
Parliament endorsed the deal when it passed the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Debt Assumption Bill.
Let us be a bit candid. Parliament was bribed to pass the Bill.
MPs car loans were also written off.
Parliament, for the umpteenth time, did not have a spine.
It chose to serve the Executive instead of the citizens.
Now, the government is at it again.
The State media this week cheerfully told the nation that the government was buying and distributing 35 000 tractors to modernise agriculture, boost production and strengthen national food security.
Agriculture, Mechanisation and Water Resources Development minister Anxious Masuka was quoted as saying: “The President, in the next two months, will be launching a mechanisation programme for 35 000 villages, so that each village in our view, must have a tractor suitable for their circumstances.”
The new scheme comes with zero purchase cost, tractors equipped with standard multi-purpose attachments (including disc plows, harrows and trailers) suitable for diverse soil types and terrain and selected recipients will receive introductory fuel stipends and comprehensive maintenance support for the first two years and hands-on operator training.
It is clear from the Agriculture ministry that these tractors and implements are for free.
There is nothing about the terms of a loan.
The ministry is clear: it would distribute 35 000 tractors each to each village.
There is a two-paged application letter on the ministry’s website that interested farmers should fill.
The form asks the generic stuff like names, national identity number, mobile number, description of the property and some vague request of a paragraph why one thinks qualifies to be given a tractor.
There is nothing on the form about the criterion to be used in selecting the beneficiaries.
It seems it will be solely on the discretion of the ministry’s officials.
This is bad policy: it has to be stated in black and white.
Just like in the first phase, these would be distributed using political patronage.
The beneficiaries will likely be the party’s cell group chairman, war veterans who missed the first train or war collaborators embedded to the party.
The ministry said beneficiaries will be trained to use the equipment after allocation.
They will receive fuel stipends and free maintenance/service for two years. This is a scam.
This is political coercion and power consolidation.
The beneficiaries are the party’s rear guard, on the ground troops.
Politically correct villagers will most likely receive free tillage services — coercion.
The beneficiaries will feel powerful and rightly so because they will control the means of production in the village.
The beneficiaries’ loyalty is sealed: how can they betray when they receive free capital.
The distribution of the tractors and implements are to be done by President Emmerson Mnangagwa.
This is meant to kill two birds with one stone.
The first bird is to safely get re-endorsed as the party leader and secondly, securing the party’s nomination as the party’s presidential election candidate.
The 35 000 beneficiaries are the commissars.
They don’t have to be farmers per se.
They are the candidate’s paratroopers.
They would be thanked by the princely ownership of a tractor, free diesel and free maintenance for two years.
Why did the government not roll out the tractors under the Agriculture Extension Services (Arex)?
This could be a commercial arm of Arex, capacitated to own, use and repair/maintain the tractors.
Second, they know farmers who deserve the free tillage services and third, the implements will remain on the government’s balance sheet.
This is not farming. It is politics. Politics of patronage.
This is why the selection of beneficiaries could not be done before distribution.
The beneficiaries do not need the training.
They are getting free capital.
Their children or relatives can use them and they hire out services to their neighbours or in the village for a fee.
A compromised Parliament will not question this arrangement.
It is, in fact, expected to adopt and praise the political project being funded by taxpayers’ funds.
In any event, Mnangagwa is collecting his dues after he gave MPs a two-year term extension and most likely more freebies like a “car loan” and a residential stand in their constituencies or closest town.
The second phase of farm mechanisation, like the first, is meant for political patronage.
The majority of the poor will pay for the few politically chosen beneficiaries.
Beneficiaries who get capital for free and use it to make more money without investing a cent.
It’s like the peri-urban land that has since been divided into residential stands, creating new Zanu PF millionaires.
It is obvious, Zanu PF wants to maintain power because of its parasitic relationship with the State.
It gets funding and political consolidation through State funds.
I’m out!