Sunday Mail Reporters
Parliament’s Portfolio Committee on Agri­culture, Water, Lands and Resettlement is once again making spirited attempts to bring back Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor Dr Gideon Gono for another hearing this week to reveal how equipment that was bought under the Farm Mechanisation Pro­gramme was dis­tributed.

However, the Clerk of Parliament, Mr Austin Zvoma, has questioned the motive behind the committee’s decision.
The move by the committee comes amid startling revelations that some former white farmers, especially those in South Africa, are working with some MDC officials to flood the local market with cheap GMO products in a bid to sabotage the land reform pro­gramme by “killing” the market for the new farmers.

It is understood that the committee, which is chaired by Mr Moses Jiri (MDC-T), is bas­ing its move to recall Dr Gono on the legal opinion that it sought which indicated that technically, the move by the central bank boss to cite Section 69 of the RBZ Act 22:15 in refusing to provide information to the com­mittee had no basis at law.

However, Mr Zvoma told The Sunday Mail yesterday that the move by the committee was not procedural because first there has to be an audit that establishes that public funds were misappropriated and, even after such an audit, it would be the responsibility of the Public Accounts Committee to look into the matter. Mr Jiri confirmed yesterday that they were still pursuing the matter, saying the
committee had advised Parliament adminis­tration to make a formal request for Dr Gono to release the information.
“We made a deci­sion as a committee and we advised Parliament administration to formally summon the Reserve Bank Governor,” he said.
He said Dr Gono had no choice but to com­ply with Parliament.

“I can say that he has only two choices, either to come with the list in person or to send the list to Parliament. However, we would prefer it if he would bring the list in person,” he said.
Mr Jiri said Parliamentary Standing Orders supersede Section 60 (1) of the RBZ Act (Chapter 22;15) which forbids bank staff from disclosing information relating to affairs of the bank or customer, unless lawfully required to do so by any court or enactment.

Contacted for comment, Mr Zvoma explained: “This same information being requested now by the Portfolio Committee on Agriculture was once requested by the Budget Committee. What I am not sure of is, is this mere coincidence or what?
“Anyway, for any investigation into this mat­ter to commence, there has to be an audit that shows misappropriation of public funds. This has not happened as far as we know.

“However, even if there was such an audit, it’s not the mandate of the agriculture committee to look into the matter. Instead, according to the terms of reference of the portfolio commit­tees, this matter happened years ago and so should be looked into by the Public Accounts Committee if there is an audit that shows that public funds were not used properly.
“The terms of reference for the agriculture committee relate to the current national budget. They look into how funds that were allocated to agriculture under the current budget are being used. We are shadowing the work of the current ministers.”

According to RBZ statistics, about US$200 million was used to acquire equipment under the mechanisation programme. The benefici­aries included 400 chiefs, 2 000 headmen, 60 000 villagers and about 3 000 A2 farmers.
It is estimated that in total, about 75 000 peo­ple benefited throughout the country from three allocations that were carried out from 2007 to 2008 out of a target of between 450 000 to 500 000 beneficiaries over a five-year pro­gramme. The programme was, however, stopped on March 8, 2008.

In July this year, the agriculture committee called Dr Gono for a hearing on the same mat­ter, but nothing materialised after the central bank boss refused to provide information requested by the committee, saying he was bound by the RBZ Act 22:15, which prohibits the disclosure of the information they wanted.
This incensed Goromonzi North legislator Cde Paddy Zhanda (Zanu-PF) who went on to storm out of the meeting, leaving the chairper­son, Mr Jiri, with no option but to call off the hearing. After the walkout, Mhondoro-Ngezi MP Cde Bright Matonga (Zanu-PF) said: “This meeting is not supposed to be a platform for the settlement of scores but the discussion of important national issues.”

Relations between Dr Gono and Cde Zhanda soured after the central bank boss alleged that the legislator had sought bribes from him. Dr Gono said the bribes were meant to cause the abandonment of investigations on the same matter by the budget committee.
Cde Zhanda refuted the allegations and the House of Assembly went on to reject a pro­posal to set up a commit­tee to investigate the alleged request for a bribe.

While the commit­tee is buried in the Gono matter, highly placed industrialists who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of victimi­sation said they had unearthed a clandestine plot by former white farmers, especially those in South Africa, to undermine the land reform programme.
“There is a well-orchestrated plot to discour­age newly resettled farmers from farming. The former white farmers, mainly in South Africa, have ganged up with their MDC colleagues who have import licences to bring in cheap GMO prod­ucts into the country.

“They are flooding the local markets with these cheap GMOs, leaving newly resettled farmers with nowhere to market their prod­ucts. The idea is to squeeze the new farmers out of the market and in the process kill the land reform pro­gramme, said one industrialist.
MDC-T spokesperson Mr Douglas Mwon­zora was not reachable for comment last night, as his phone went unanswered. However, the party’s organising secretary, Mr Nelson Chamisa, said he would be interested to know the names of the people who were involved in this scam.

“I am not aware of such a thing. I would actually be interested to know the names of the people involved and where such things are tak­ing place. Call me after 10 minutes,” he said.
Mr Chamisa, however, did not pick up his phone to give the promised response.
Another industrialist said: “There is even a sickening joke doing the rounds that an import licence is now more important than a 99-year lease. Armed with an import licence, these importers just travel to South Africa, buy these cheap GMOs and dump them in Zimbabwe.

“We wonder why the Standards Association of Zimbabwe is not doing anything about it. Even our poli­cies are not consistent. We don’t allow GMO inputs into the country, but we allow GMO products. What exactly are we try­ing to achieve? How do we revive our econ­omy with such a scenario?” said one industrial­ist.
Another industrialist added: “Farmers are failing to get adequate finance, the finance is costly if you are lucky to get it, payment from institutions like GMB come late, there are no input support schemes and yet we talk of reviv­ing the econ­omy with this flood of imports around.”

The industrialist added that after real­ising the danger caused by the flooding of cheap imports, the International Trade Administra­tion Commission of South Africa has since introduced an anti-dumping duty to protect its farmers and indus­try.

“As Zimbabwe we should follow suit other­wise the noble land reform exercise will come to nought and subsequently industry will col­lapse. Remember these two are interlinked,” said the industrialist.
In its July 2012 Business Intelligence Report, the Confederation of Zim­babwe Industries expressed concern that “our supermarkets are at least 65 percent stocked with goods imported from South Africa and other coun­tries.”