In an apparent exposure of the system of corruption and economic mismanagement that has wrought untold suffering on the whole nation, it is emerging that huge quantities of grain and fertilizer – produced in the country as well as imported – have all along been hoarded by senior ruling party officials.
In addition to marketing the grain and fertilizers on the black market for exorbitant prices, they have also been keeping other quantities for campaigning purposes. The Zimbabwean has established that top Zanu (PF) officials that include its political commissar, Elliot Manyika, government minister, Nicholas Goche, Olivia Muchena, Saviour Kasukuwere, Bright Matonga and other MPs such as Shuvai Mahofa, have begun implementing various vote-buying tactics, which include registering people in their constituencies to receive grain and fertilizer donations.
Some deliveries have already been made on a partisan basis, leaving out MDC supporters who are then asked to buy Zanu (PF) cards and promise to vote for that party’s candidate.
Kasukewere is currently distributing Chinese-imported fertilizer in his Mt Darwin constituency, as well as grain believed to have been imported from Malawi.
“Kasukuwere’s programme started late last year but only very few people have received whatever has been promised, the majority have merely been registered and made to wait even for the fertilizers despite the fact that crops are getting worse in the fields,” a source from Mt Darwin said.
n Bindura and Shamva, MPs Manyika and Goche, have been been handing out maize and deploying their youths on a vicious campaign to intimidate the electorate.
When contacted for comment Manyika defended the use of grain and fertilizers for vote-buying. “We are showing that we have the people at heart by giving them food and fertilizers, what’s wrong with that?” he said.
In Mutoko South, Muchena, the incumbent MP, has left people desperately waiting for her return after she “helped” them source small quantities of fertilizer. “Muchena’s people moved around and registered people. Very few received one bag of fertilizer each late last year, and since then there have been only promises that more would be coming,” said John Kaseke, a local MDC official.
Senior ruling party officials are at the centre of a serious fertilizer scandal following the “disappearance” of 800 000 tonnes of fertilizer imported from China in October last year. – Staff reporter
Post published in: News