IN CASE anyone is concerned about what happened to the R300m worth of agricultural inputs SA gave to Zimbabwe at Christmas, your worst fears have been realised. Yes, Zanu (PF) got its hands on the goodies. And perhaps a few farmers with party cards.
SA entrusted the operation to the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which cobbled together the Zimbabwe Humanitarian and Development Assistance Framework (ZHDAF) to undertake the distribution of farm inputs.
However, the inputs arrived in Zimbabwe while ZHDAF was still being put together and it appears that due to the urgency of getting the inputs out, the Zimbabwean government was entrusted with the operation.
Corrupt Zanu-PF Members of Parliament have been implicated in a massive inputs scandal involving a syndicate that looted maize seed and fertilizer that were procured under the South African R300 million aid to Zimbabwe to bail out Zimbabwe’s crippled agriculture sector.
The inputs were brought into the country recently but unfortunately fell in wrong hands of Zanu-PF members in influential positions.
The revelations show that corrupt Zanu-PF members are abusing the South Africa's R300 million agriculture aid meant to support Zimbabwe's ailing farming sector.
The MDC warned South Africa against handing over the aid to the Zanu-PF government before the conclusion of the inter-party talks. see South Africa does U-Turn Gives R300 Million Aid Direct to Zanu PF
The eight corrupt Zanu-PF legislators, who are close allies of Mugabe, believed to be Mugabe's henchmen, were working cohorts with some farmers and members of the public to swindle large quantities of the ammonium nitrate, Compound D and maize seed.
Mugabe’s henchman, Brigadier General Douglas Nyikayaramba, handles the inputs that were sourced by South Africa.
Nyikayaramba’s inputs committee has denied to name-and- shame the Zanu-PF thieves but sources in Parliament have promised to let the cat of the bag.
However the four accused Zanu-PF supporters are Shingirai Mawere, Simon Machiri, Simbarashe Benhura, Paddington Mutasa.
The other fraudsters are two Malawians who acquired 30 tonnes of Urea Fertilizer and 160 litres of diesel under unclear circumstances.
The inputs committee says Mashonaland East Province tops the list of corruption cases, with 22 while six cases happened in Mashonaland East, and Matabeleland North has four cases. Mashonaland West and Masvingo have three cases each, while two cases were recorded in Harare.
The process has lacked transparency and accountability. A key player in the distribution process is the Grain Marketing Board (GMB), a parastatal with a record of being a political agent of the state in Robert Mugabe’s food-for-votes schemes. GMB’s general manager, Albert Mandizha, who appears on Australia’s sanctions list, was senior assistant police commissioner . His predecessor was a former soldier.
During the Zanu-PF conference in December, party members stole nine beasts, mealie-meal and other foodstuffs, as thuggery in the regime reared its ugly head.
Zimbabwean farmers have failed to plant the summer crop due to a biting inputs shortage. Once Africa's breadbasket, the southern African nation has low agricultural outputs because of poor farming preparations.
The UN says more than 5.5 million Zimbabweans require food aid this year.
SA's R300m aid gift to Zim a 'waste of money' Independent online (SA)
Cape Argus February 08 2009 (Do these boons have any clue about anything??)
South African taxpayers' gift of R300-million to Zimbabwe was a waste of money and was misused for the benefit of President Robert Mugabe's cronies in Zanu-PF.
The donation - or aid - was announced late last year by Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, who pledged the gift would only be handed over after an internationally-recognised government of national unity was formed.
see South Africa does U-Turn Gives R300 Million Aid Direct to Zanu PF
President Kgalema Motlanthe repeated this assurance.
An instant SADC foundation, the Zimbabwe Development Assistance Framework, was formed to channel agricultural inputs to Zimbabwean farmers.
This framework is still not yet fully operational and its impartiality has been questioned.
The aid began moving into the country before Christmas.
It is mostly seed, fertiliser and fuel from South African companies and was sent despite warnings from Zimbabwean agriculturalists that most of it was too late for this summer season, and unless distributed carefully would be abused.
Most of the seed arrived months too late to plant and is being eaten, and the wrong fertiliser was ordered for this time of year in the maturation cycle of annual crops like maize.
Before Christmas, 60 000 litres of diesel was also sent into Zimbabwe for distribution.
A senior civil servant, working in the depleted technical support network for farmers, Agritex, in the fertile Mashonaland West province, confirmed that South African aid was often only available to Zanu-PF supporters in parts of the country, particularly Mashonaland West, Mugabe's home province, and Mashonaland Central where Zanu-PF is also in control.
The senior Agritex officer from Mashonaland West, who spoke on condition that he was not identified, said SADC had tried to provide for fair distribution by not using civil servants such as those from Agritex to disperse it.
"The South Africans don't know how the system works. Not all of us are Zanu-PF. There are still a few professionals left in Agritex and we could have stopped this. The chiefs have to obey Zanu-PF even if they don't want to."
In theory the monitoring of the South African-sponsored SADC aid was done by three church groups, seen by many Zimbabweans as aligned to Zanu-PF; the Evangelical Fellowship, the Zimbabwe Council of Churches and the Johannes Masowe Apostolic Church.
At the height of the distribution last month the Catholics, cited as monitors in the department of agriculture circular, were supposed to have joined but had not yet been invited.
Abdenico Bhebe, Movement for Democratic Change MP for Nkayi, one of the driest parts of Zimbabwe in the south west, said on Thursday his constituency had received no SADC aid packages.
"Nothing, nothing, and there is also not enough food aid coming in either because the government is not fulfilling its part of the memorandum of understanding it signed with the NGO sector by providing 40 percent of food.
"There is only Western food aid coming in, and people are hungry. We have received none of the SADC seeds and fertiliser but it would be too late now anyway."
A hostile Agritex official at its head office in Harare denied that it was possible to misuse the aid, because he said a SADC official, whom he called Mr Whale, attended many of the distributions.
But he conceded Whale couldn't be everywhere when the aid was handed out.
Each village head was given - to dole out to seven or eight farmers in his precinct - three packs of South African seeds, 25kg of maize, 20kg of beans and 5kg of Rapoko, ground nuts, sorghum and cowpeas, and 50kg of fertiliser.
Experienced seed growers for both commercial and communal farmers said the deadline for planting maize, sorghum and groundnuts passed in November, and that if seeds were sent to Zimbabwe after this, when so many people were hungry, they would all be "consumed as food".
According to the latest Ministry of Agriculture circular, distribution began on January 19, although maize seed had arrived in Zimbabwe a week earlier.
Most of the rest of the inputs arrived a week later.
The World Food Programme has upped its estimates of Zimbabweans needing food aid from 5.2 million to more than 7 million and it says it does not have enough donations to buy food for those in need and so it cut rations again this month.
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