Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development Professor Jonathan Moyo
Felex Share, Harare Bureau
GOVERNMENT will this week dispatch teams to audit usage of Command Agriculture inputs countrywide, as it emerged yesterday that the programme’s financier, Sakunda Holdings, paid duty for fuel used in the project.
Invoices obtained by our Harare Bureau from the National Oil Infrastructure Company of Zimbabwe (NOIC) showed that Sakunda Holdings paid duty for the 15 million litres of diesel and petrol used under Command Agriculture between September 2016 and last Friday. This is contrary to assertions by Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo that fuel for the special maize import substitution programme was duty-free.
In an interview with The Standard, Prof Moyo claimed that Command Agriculture had no monitoring and evaluation mechanisms. He did not proffer evidence to substantiate his claims.
Deputy Chief Secretary to the President and Cabinet Mr Justin Mupamhanga yesterday said he would provide details on the audit teams today. A Government official privy to the developments said security details would be part of the audit teams.
“This week we have 10 teams of four people going to all the eight provinces where farmers got inputs under Command Agriculture to assess the usage of those inputs,” said the official.
“The teams will include one official each from the Ministries of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development; Finance and Economic Development, Sakunda Holdings and a security detail.
“Mashonaland Central and Mashonaland West provinces will each have two teams of four people. Apart from their audits, they will also be gathering vital information for the new season. The teams will be assisted by Arex officers who recently received 200 motorbikes for that purpose from Sakunda Holdings.”
The official said the teams would also ensure that farmers were delivering their maize to the Grain Marketing Board.
Command Agriculture is the brain child of First Lady Dr Grace Mugabe and is being supervised by Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who chairs the Cabinet Committee on Food and Nutrition.
Together with the Presidential Inputs Support Scheme, Command Agriculture has yielded positive results this year as the country is expecting a bumper harvest. The success has seen Government stopping maize imports and President Mugabe last week described the initiative as “beautiful”.
Prof Moyo, who is a Cabinet minister, has been lampooning the programme and VP Mnangagwa.
He continued with his vilification yesterday in The Standard newspaper, wrongly stating that Sakunda Holdings — who used $192 million on the programme — was getting fuel duty free. Documents and invoices from NOIC showed that duty was paid for all the fuel used for tilling, planting and harvesting. To date 15 million litres have been used, of which 732 000 litres were direct deliveries (bulk fuel). The remaining 14,2 million litres were fuel coupons issued to farmers.
Sakunda Holdings, invoices reveal, bought the coupons from Redan Coupon (Pvt) Limited at between $1,18 and $1,23 per litre.
The petroleum giant sold the coupons to Government at $1,21 per litre, a figure agreed in the contract signed by the two parties. It also emerged that contrary to Prof Moyo’s claims that 1,4 million households benefited from the Presidential Input Scheme, only 1,1 million families benefited.
Under the initial contract, 600 000 households were expected to benefit under the Presidential Inputs Support Scheme, but the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development in December last year requested Sakunda Holdings to move more inputs under Command Agriculture to the President’s scheme.
An official from the Ministry of Finance said: “To show that his (Prof Moyo) interview is driven by malice, he does not even know the actual statistics involved. He claims the fuel was duty free. He should provide proof and not just soil the company’s name. He is free to check with NOIC if the fuel he also used as a beneficiary was duty free.”
Prof Moyo received inputs worth about $100 000 under Command Agriculture, which went to his Elephant Trust Farm in Mazowe.
Just last week, the Moyo family was requesting more diesel from officials administering the programme in Mashonaland Central for harvesting and delivering their maize to GMB.