Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement Minister Perrance Shiri has admitted that his ministry has failed to deliver on its mandate to provide food security to the nation as well as produce 40 per cent of the country’s exports.
Shiri made the remarks while speaking at the official opening of the ongoing strategic planning workshop on Wednesday. He said:
It pains me to realise that this potential remains to be exploited and that as a ministry we are falling short of delivering on our national mandate which has five key result areas which are… food and nutrition security, foreign currency generation, employment creation, value addition and beneficiation and coordination of the agricultural sector.
Shiri challenged the 11 parastatals under his ministry to up their game as some of them are only able to pay their staff while contributing nothing to the fiscus.
Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube is pushing for the privatisation and commercialisation of most of the parastatals as they have become liabilities rather than assets, with most of them now a breeding ground for corruption, nepotism, waste and gross incompetence.