The struggling Zimbabwe National Water Authority (Zinwa)
has been directed to supply uninterrupted water to Zanu PF bigwigs and top
government officials who are participating in the command winter wheat
programme even though some of them have outstanding bills, the Daily News can
report.
Lately, the water national authority has been terminating
supplies to defaulting customers, among them Zanu PF and government bigwigs who
owe the parastatal substantial amounts of money.
Zinwa had been buoyed in its pursuit of delinquent ruling
party heavyweights by its line minister, Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri, who had
validated its aggressive debt collection techniques.
The parastatal will now have to go back to the drawing
board after the national Command Agriculture taskforce said it should not
interfere with listed farmers who are growing winter wheat under the Command
Agriculture initiative.
The list is made up of senior Zanu officials, including top
civil servants. The list includes the chairperson of the taskforce, Justin
Mupamhanga, who doubles up as the deputy chief secretary to the president and
Cabinet.
Mupamhanga, who could not be reached for comment yesterday,
will pay $1 020 for the 30 hectares put under winter wheat at his Argyle Park
farm at a cost of $34 per megalitre.
The $34 is applicable to all the other beneficiaries as
well, who include the taskforce’s deputy chair and Air Force of Zimbabwe chief,
Perrance Shiri.
Shiri has put 66 hectares at his Hoperdale Farm under the
winter wheat crop, which requires 396 megalitres and is supposed to pay $2 244.
Local Government minister Saviour Kasukuwere and his
brothers Tongai and Dickson Mafios have 40 hectares (Cornucopia Farm), 50
hectares and 30 hectares (both Insingizi Farm) respectively. Their collective
water requirement for the season is 780 megalitres, costing an aggregate $26
520.
Kasukuwere is Zanu PF’s national political commissar, while
Mafios chairs the party’s Mashonaland Central province. Tongai is the national
secretary for finance in the Zanu PF youth league.
Deputy head of the commissariat department Omega Hungwe has
60 hectares of land at her Riversdale Farm and requires 360 megalitres.
Other beneficiaries include top State bureaucrats
Mariyawanda Nzuwa, Ngoni Masoka and Washington Mbizvo.
Masoka, who is permanent secretary in the ministry of
Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, requires 360 megalitres to irrigate
60 hectares at his Dunmaglass Farm and has already signed a stop-order form
which obligates him to pay Zinwa $2 040.
Nzuwa, the Civil Service Commission chairperson, requires
600 megalitres for the 100 hectares put under wheat at Stella farm, located
just outside Bindura and will have to pay $3 400.
His counterpart, Mbizvo is asking for 240 megalitres to
irrigate 40 hectares under winter wheat at his Nyawata Farm. Zinwa has
calculated his water bill at $1 360.
Legislator Remigious Matangira (Bindura South); senior
police officer and Innocent Matibiri are some of the major beneficiaries.
The majority of the farmers are along the Mazowe catchment
area.
Insiders at Zinwa, who spoke on condition of anonymity for
fear of reprisals, said they had expressed disquiet over the fact that most of
the bigwigs listed by Mupamhanga already owe the authority huge sums of money
from previous farming seasons and are not even adhering to payment arrangements
that would have been negotiated.
Zinwa has been unwilling to make further water allocations
unless the farmers clear their arrears or negotiate payment terms. The major
bone of contention has been that while the farmers are getting all the other
inputs from government under the programme on credit, water has not been
considered a key input in their operations which should also be paid for in
advance as government is doing with the suppliers of other critical inputs such
as seed, fertiliser and chemicals, paid for from the Command Agriculture funds.
But government has maintained that farmers should pay for
the water individually even when it is clear that some of them just do not want
to honour their bills.
Zinwa insiders said Zanu PF bigwigs had used their
influence in government to direct the parastatal to give uninterrupted water
suppliers to the farmers under the guise that they feared that the winter crop
could go to waste due to non availability of power.
Following Mupamhanga’s intervention, the parties have made
a compromise agreement whereby Zinwa would deduct its dues through a stop-order
facility upon farmers delivering their crop to Grain Marketing Body (GMB).
Zinwa’s corporate communications manager, Marjorie
Munyonga, confirmed the development saying water had been recognised as a key
input “just like any other input under the Command Agriculture programme”.
“The agreement is that farmers who have planted wheat under
the Command Agriculture programme will pay for their water through a stop-order
facility that will be administered through GMB. Zinwa will provide water to the
farmers in advance and then collect money when the farmers sell their produce,”
she said.
She said Zinwa was currently in the process of compiling
the names of the farmers who are supposed to sign stop-order forms from other
catchment areas.
“The stop-order forms are then submitted to GMB through the
local Command A griculture structures in the districts and provinces,” she
said.
However, fears are that with most farmers unable to meet
the May 1 deadline, which saw government revising the target hectarage by 70
percent from 61 000 to 43 000, farmers may fail to produce enough wheat to be
able to pay the water bills and remain with something.
Late planting results in poorer harvests, which means
farmers could fail to reach the average 3,5 to 4 tonnes per hectare, with GMB
maintaining the $500 per tonne producer price.
The situation is further compounded by the fact that
farmers still have to off-set costs of input through produce.
Munyonga said Zinwa would still pursue what it is owed by
farmers regardless of output.
“The authority reiterates that it is a criminal offence
under the Water Act for anyone to use water for purposes other than primary
purposes without the relevant water abstraction agreement, which compels
farmers to pay for the water they consume,” she said. daily news
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