THE farm mechanisation programme spearheaded by the
Government between 2007 and 2008 was not corrupt but legal with the costs taken
care of by the State through the central bank’s internal operations, former
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) Governor Dr Gideon Gono stressed yesterday.
He said the programme, which was carried out during a
difficult period, started as a loan and was later changed to a grant after the
then Government of National Unity had approved the switch.
Deliberating during a live ZTN show yesterday, Dr Gono said
what happened was legal and constitutional, as it was approved by Parliament.
“The farm mechanisation programme was not corrupt. This was
a Government-executed scheme at the time of the most difficult period in the
history of our country. It is unfortunate Alex Magaisa had to superimpose his
opinion to label certain people as corrupt,” he said.
Dr Gono said the criteria for accessing the machinery was
not political, but needed the possession of a verifiable farm and farm records.
He said a team comprising Grain Marketing Board (GMB) and the then Cold Storage Commission
(CSC) and other receivers of grain would certify the records for the previous
two years.
The programme was to empower good performers to do better
in the interest of food security in support of land reform.
“It was not an RBZ programme, but a Government-sanctioned
programme of which the RBZ was merely an implementing agent,” he said.
Dr Gono said there were senior members of the MDC who
benefited from the scheme.
The former governor denied benefiting from any Government
programme, saying he could account for all his properties.
“I can confirm to the world that there were over 100 000
beneficiaries of the mechanisation programme. It was categorised into two — one
for animal-drawn implements and the other for tractor-drawn or mechanised
equipment that included combine harvesters, tractors, planters, ploughs and
vicons among other implements.
“Governments the world over have one prerogative, which is
to change policy as and when they require. In our situation from 1980 to 1998,
the land reform programme was going on a willing-buyer willing-seller basis
until Government changed policy and went on to the fast-track land reform.
Within that context there was pre-occupation with acquiring a piece of land.
“It was discovered that if productivity was going to be an
issue, which it was and will still be, it was necessary to capacitate the
farmer. There was need for fast-track farm mechanisation programme,” he said.
He said when the programme started, the GNU came in, a
Government incorporating members of Zanu PF, the MDC-T and the MDC.
“The GNU came in 2009. There were so many changes that took
place in the manner of statehood; in the manner in which things were being done
and one of those was in relation to the land. The GNU changed it from being a
loan to a grant,” he said.
Dr Gono, who spoke as a technocrat and superintendent of
the farm mechanisation, said agriculture performed well during the GNU era due
to the farm mechanisation programme with sectors such as the tobacco industry
doubling production.
“During the GNU years, agriculture contributed close to 50
percent to the GDP. We had a period during which the dependence on importation
of grain was reduced compared to previous years. We enjoyed some of the
greatest economic programmes during the GNU, thanks to the impact of
agriculture.
Dr Gono said people were talking as if it was only the farm
mechanisation that was put on the RBZ assumption bill when there were others.
“The Assumption of RBZ Debt Act does not carry the $200
million that is being talked about. It was $1,35 billion-dollar Act. The
impression is that the whole RBZ assumption bill was to do only with farm
mechanisation. There were two lines totalling $2,5 million out of the $1,3
billion debt for storage costs and farm mechanisation spares.
“The funding was an internal matter; it was generated from
internally produced income in the normal operations of the bank,” he said.
“The law as far as the RBZ was concerned was RBZ Act
chapter22, Section 15 subsection 8. That paragraph says: “Nothing in this Act
prevents the state from directing the Central Bank to act in a manner in which
it so requires and when directed to so act, by Government the RBZ shall proceed
in that manner’.
“That is the legal point, which makes the farm
mechanisation and any funding of it in terms of the directive of it legal. The
debt was funded by Government.
“The GNU instructed the governor that beneficiaries were
not to pay. Who is the governor to go against Government to say I will go at a
tangent? Besides, during that time my brother (Magaisa) was adviser to the
Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai who was head of the implementing ministries.
Dr Gono said it was on the basis of some of these clauses
that then Finance Minister Tendai Biti found the clauses offensive and he took
the right channel and went to Parliament to expunge that section 8 “but that
was after the horse had bolted”.
“When it comes to facts please listen to the man who was on
the scene and let us not depend on the information that is leaked. I am the man
who was in charge and let me talk about certain things in authority. Of the
$1,3 billion the $300 million of that is before year 2000. It was about the IMF
debt that was contracted in 1996. It’s about the bank Negara programme. Of
1994, it’s about the South African Reserve Bank debt of 1976. Why are we
ignoring that and we are thinking that it’s all about farm mechanisation?
“When we look at post-2000 we find out that the one billion
was made up of significant amounts that relate to even election-related aspects
of procurement,” he said.
Dr Gono said when Mr Biti came in 2010 as Minister of
Finance, they worked together.
“We sat with the IMF to divide the balance sheet into what
is core to the RBZ and what is not. What is not core was elaborately identified
and we said this is what Government should assume. So, all that was
Government-related needed to go to the Ministry of Finance through the debt
assumption,” he said.
There was nothing to take to the Government for farm
mechanisation because the Ministry of Agriculture Mechanisation and Irrigation
Development was the one responsible.
The current acting president of the MDC-A Prof Welshman
Ncube by his own admission benefited not just on this programme, but on many
others.
Dr Gono denied that former Malawian president benefited
from the scheme but that it was his in-laws in Kadoma instead.
The former RBZ governor welcomed the new stance of the
present Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement Minister that
farmers should now pay for whatever they receive from now, saying this was a
noble idea. Herald
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