The Portfolio Committee on Agriculture yesterday accused Manicaland Provincial Ellen Gwaradzimba of misleading Parliament and even threatened to charge her with contempt of parliament for reportedly providing contradicting statements to the committee, Newsday reports.
Gwaradzimba was being probed for allegedly misleading the late Lands Minister Perrance Shiri, to allocate a part of Farfell Coffee Estates to her son Remembrance Mbudzana, and the Justice Wadyajena committee is alleging that Gwaradzimba’s son was allocated the farm based on false information.
Gwaradzimba reportedly brought a dossier to the parliament claiming it is hers but later on admitted it was prepared for her son.
During the probe. Wadyajena then accused her of misleading the court and threatened to charge her with contempt of parliament:
What you are saying and what we have from this document is inconsistent. The document that you now say was prepared by Mbudzana although you gave it to us as yours, shows that he never applied for land in 2014 like you indicated.
I think I have to recuse myself because this committee must charge you for misleading us and I don’t want to be doing it myself…it must come from the committee.
Minister, you are making our lives difficult. We want evidence that the provincial lands committee met to offer the land to Mbudzana, not media reports. I am adjourning this committee out of respect to allow you to go back to Manicaland and come back with evidence.
However, Gwaradzimba who is being accused of lying that the Manicaland provincial lands committee recommended her son’s land grab when in fact the committee had not met stood her ground and said:
I did not mislead you; this is exactly what he (Shiri) advised me to do. Mind you, I was still very new in the office and I was not yet familiar with procedures, so this is what he told me, to write a recommendation letter and forward the necessary documentation.
Gwaradzimba still maintains that she did nothing wrong because she followed Perrance Shiri’s orders and even made several remarks about her having fought for the country during the probe.
More: Newsday