Justice Mayor Wadyajena, Gokwe-Nembudziya MP (Zanu PF) and chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Agriculture has warned the Cotton Company of Zimbabwe against getting involved in politics at the expense of service delivery.
Speaking at a parliamentary committee workshop organised by Cottco in Kariba, Wadyajena said:
Instead of trying to manipulate selection of candidates for political parties, Cottco must be thinking of beneficiation. Instead of watching and allowing politically-connected crooks to loot inputs, Cottco must be participating in the building of communities.
As Parliament, we have an interest in ensuring that there is transparency and accountability in the use of public resources, as these must only be deployed for the purposes authorised by the law.
The youthful MP claimed that the presidential input scheme was being abused. He added:
We have recorded some saddening and shocking cases of serious abuse of State-funded programmes that are meant to empower and uplift poor farmers for example, the presidential input scheme.
Let me hasten to say, the presidential input scheme is a very a noble idea and it has helped to revive the cotton industry, which was once on the brink of collapse. However, we are seeing it being threatened by side-marketing and looting of inputs.
As Cottco, you should not stand by and let the presidential input scheme get misused and manipulated. All households must receive inputs regardless of political affiliation. Crucially, we all have to put on our thinking caps and come together to call out and stop them cheaters that ruin such important and valuable programmes.
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