A senior state official has revealed that several top Zanu PF officials and members of the military are allegedly looting inputs designed for the government-funded Command Agriculture program launched last year.
According to the DailyNews, Mashonaland Central Provincial Affairs Minister Martin Dinha has informed acting president Emmerson Mnangagwa that the officials are collecting all the maize and fertilizer delivered at various places in the region.
The independent newspaper reports that Dinha told Mnangagwa that the province has a list of these officials, who have sidelined communal and small-holder farmers that need the inputs.
Indications are that the agriculture inputs are allegedly being looted in a similar way that befell the Farm Mechanization program, which was abused by top ruling party officials who failed to pay for the farming inputs in a project run by the then governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Gideon Gono.
The RBZ was subsequently forced to recover the loans through the enaction of a law that put the debt squarely on tax payers.
Mangagwa was quoted last week by state-controlled newspapers threatening that the government will take stern measures against people who were abusing the Command Agriculture inputs scheme.
There was no official government comment on this issue.