allAfrica.com: Zimbabwe: Unfair to Slam Mechanisation Scheme (Page 1 of 1)

Criticism by opposition parties that the Government's farm mechanisation programme is a vote-buying exercise should be dismissed as far-fetched.

What makes us dismiss the claims as such is, firstly, the fact that both members of the ruling party and others from opposition parties have benefited from the programme.

Secondly, the equipment and implements are not being handed out for free. The Government has made it crystal clear to all beneficiaries that the cost of the equipment and implements will be recovered over a given period of time.

Moreover, the farm mechanisation programme did not start during the current election period. This is an ongoing programme, which started in June last year with the first phase and is planned to run through to phase 10. Although we are in an election campaigning period, it was a mere coincidence that the launch of the third phase of the programme fell within the time frame for the March 29 harmonised elections.

And this has caused a lot of hullabaloo from opposition parties. Those in the opposition are simply failing to distinguish between Government and Zanu-PF programmes and are taking the phase three launch as a vote-buying exercise by the ruling party to sway voters ahead of the elections on Saturday. The distribution of the farming equipment and implements is for the benefit of all Zimbabweans, opposition and ruling party supporters included. Why then will the programme be viewed to work to the advantage of President Mugabe's re-election bid when there is no evidence of political discrimination in the distribution?

The farm mechanisation programme is clearly an extension of the land and agrarian reform programme, whose objective is to capacitate deserving commercial farmers and also reach out to rural families. The Government is simply saying while it has allocated people land, there is need to complement this noble development with farm equipment and implements. We are certainly going to see this programme continuing well after the elections and we are wondering what then will the critics say. It is the same opposition people who have also criticised the donation of computers to schools throughout the country by President Mugabe as a vote-buying exercise. But the donation of computers started in 2005 during a period when there was no election. The President has pledged to continue donating the computers until every school in the country has a computer. The objective is to introduce computer education in schools and has nothing to do with elections. After all, the targeted people are pupils who do not vote, hence we fail to understand how this should be linked to vote-buying.

It is unfortunate that the Governor of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, Dr Gideon Gono, who is directly involved in funding and active distribution of the farm equipment has taken a lot of blame for doing what is best to help the country. In labelling Dr Gono an economic saboteur and terrorist for playing a crucial role in the development of the country only serves to show how warped are the minds of some elements in the opposition ranks.

We expect those in opposition politics to stop whining over far-fetched claims but show maturity and concentrate on winning the confidence of voters.

web allafrica.com	Enter your search terms	Submit search form
OR subscribers use AllAfrica's premium search engine


Use our pull-down menus to find more stories