Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development Minister, Anxious Masuka, said villagers who benefit from government programmes should vote for President Emmerson Mnangagwa in the 2023 general elections.
Masuka said this while addressing villagers in the Chinyamukwakwa area of Chisumbanje, Chipinge, over the weekend while handing over 250 plots from ethanol producer, Green Fuel to the villagers.
He told the villagers that when they vote in 2023, they “must return the favour” to President Mnangagwa because he was the one who gave them free farming inputs. He said:
Right now we see the rains are coming and we are busy ensuring that we organise and provide all inputs for you on time.
That is what we call Rural Development 8.0 so that you will be able to get the inputs on time.
The electoral campaign period is still way ahead. I am not a campaign manager, but let me try it here.
When you are given these agricultural inputs, you must think of one person in your mind — and that is the person who has given you the inputs — President [Emmerson Mnangagwa].
When you are given goats, think deeply of the person who has remembered you — you must return the favour and remember him too in 2023.
Masuka also told the villagers that farming inputs come from ZANU PF, even though they were bought using taxpayers’ money. He said:
I now want to speak on the issue of Members of Parliament (MPs). We had a situation whereby the inputs disappeared before they got to the beneficiaries. So the MPs should be witnesses during distribution to oversee it.
This is because these inputs come from ZANU PF, which is the ruling party that forms the government, and government acts on what ZANU PF says. So, the party must not be excluded.
Masuka said traditional leaders will be given more fertiliser than ordinary villagers because, in the past, they would assist those who were starving. He said:
You will be given enough fertilisers and other inputs for three plots. Village heads are in the distribution committees because they will know all of you.
We will give village heads more than everyone else — for seven plots, because long back when there was drought, the village heads would assist those who would be starving.
The headmen will also be given inputs for nine plots while the chief will get inputs for eleven plots.
Don’t think that these have been favoured, we have all been given by President ED.
Opposition political parties and Civil Society Organisations have in the past accused ZANU PF of politicising agricultural inputs and food aid, especially towards general elections. | NewsDay