ZANU-PF mobilises farming inputs

Masvingo (Masvingo Star-New Ziana) – The ruling ZANU (PF) party has mobilised enough inputs for the forthcoming farming season, a senior official has said.

Speaking at a rally at Maranda Business Centre in Masvingo North Constituency, party national commissar, Victor Matemadanda said the ZANU-PF leadership had mobilised the inputs, and these will distributed countrywide.

He said measures had already been put in place to transport the inputs to beneficiaries.

“As ZANU (PF), through the efforts of the President (Emmerson Mnangagwa), we have mobilised fertilisers and seed. However, I want to warn you that we will not tolerate people who will divert the inputs to the black market,” he said.

Matemadanda, who is also deputy minister of Defence, said some lazy and greedy people sold agricultural inputs soon after getting them, a practice that kept them in perpetual need for food handouts.

This time around however, he said,the distribution process and use of the inputs would be closely monitored by Agritex officers who would be expected to keep records.

Turning to the economy, Matemadanda said it had suffered badly due to the sanctions which the West imposed on Zimbabwe two decades ago to force the government to relent on its land reforms.

The reforms involved the compulsory resettlement of landless blacks on white owned farms to redress colonial land ownership imbalances which favoured the latter.

Matemadanda said the sanctions were part of the power politics played by the West, and had gravely ruined the economy of the country.

“The West is solely responsible for causing chaos (economically, culturally, socially and politically) and let’s not forget that these are the people who are responsible for the death of well over 50 000 of our people. One of the reasons why we went to war was that we had seen that these people were not observers of their so called Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is therefore complete double standards that the chief abusers of such rights are working with some of us to destabilize our continent under the pretext of human rights protection.”

Matemadanda said it was painful that some among us have forgotten who our real enemies were.

“The manner in which they are propping xenophobic attacks (in South Africa) is the same manner in which they propped up the suffering of Zimbabweans through illegal sanctions. We fought for one man one vote and we got that right, isn’t it an irony that those who denied us that basic right are at the forefront of castigating us for practicing a far much better system than theirs? Certainly we should not forget who the real enemies are,” he said.

Speaking at the same occasion, Masvingo Provincial Affairs Minister and ZANU (PF) provincial chairperson, Ezra Chadzamira expressed disdain in the manner in which South Africans were attacking black foreign nationals in that country.

Chadzamira, who is also the Masvingo West Member of Parliament, echoed Matemadanda’s sentiments that Africans were being used by foreign negative forces to derail efforts by African countries to re-gain full sovereignty.

“South Africa’s real enemy is not and will never be fellow Africans but the people who own 80 percent of the South African economy who happen to be a minority, those who own almost all the land in South Africa are the real enemies not just of South Africa but of us as Africans. Let’s not forget who the enemy is, because if we do we risk misdirecting our resentment and anger,” he said.

“These forces of destruction and disunity have not stopped, they are now pushing their agenda using some of us. There is no rationality in Africans fighting amongst ourselves,” he added.

Chadzamira said politics that disregarded history and identity was dangerous and could erode the meaning of the liberation struggle which was fought by gallant sons and daughters of this country.

“If we forget and disregard history we may face the risk of setting aside national interests for personal desires of power and this can lead to the suffering of the people,” he said.

Masvingo Star-New Ziana