The recent scandalous revelations of how the Presidential Goat Scheme was handled left a sour taste in the mouth.
Zanu PF central committee member Mike Chimombe and his business associate Moses Mpofu were awarded a US$7m tender to supply goats to the government, which would in turn donate to the “masses”.
The biggest question however is who had requested for the goats?
What is clear is that ZANU PF remains an enabling organisation to people who want to continue taking agriculture as the biggest corruption trough.
Agriculture in Zimbabwe will never be a business as purportedly preached.
Our agriculture will remain a national resource drain hole because of various reasons.
During the land reform programme, the proletariat were given small A1 and A2 farms that were very difficult to develop and be productive because there was no infrastructure and most importantly water to support either crop or animal husbandry.
On the other hand, chefs gave themselves two, or more 800 hactre farms which they later ran down and rented out.
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Kumbirai Kangai went down with the GMB maize scandal in 2000, while other schemes like Operation Maguta and Command Agriculture came and pilfered national coffers.
There was also the farm Mechanisation Program under then Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono whose bill was paid by tax payers.
As it stands today, our farms are not matched with professional managers as was the case before land reform. So the government pours support on farms where non farmers stand ready to receive and resale.
This has been happening for years, and needs to stop. It is evident that some people do not want our agriculture to be sanitized or made professional.
How would they make money ? They deliberately perforate the system and benefit from profuse leakages.
That is a straight shame. Chinombe and Mpofu have no history in livestock market but were awarded the lucrative tender. This is despite the fact that are thousands of graduates in the agriculture sector who are jobless but the administration chose to sideline or sacrifice thousands of young graduates and Youths in Agriculture who have been requesting to find spaces of attachment in economic building through practicing that which they went to colleges, polytechnics and universities for.
This is just an assessment of one govrnment departmrnt out of twenty or so that has done so much damage to the country through corruption.
This does not mean that the others are clean.
Currently the ministry of transport is engaged inn road rehabilitation programs , in preparation for Sadc Summit, its only a matter of time before we hear of other scandals being pepetrated by those corruptly linked to the Zanu PF government.
The growing stench of corruption in President Mnangagwa's administration cannot be ignored anymore
