A TOP Zanu PF youth activist has been dragged to court for allegedly defrauding the Agricultural Rural Development Agency (ARDA) of fertilizer and chemicals through a loan scheme, which he is accused of manipulating.
Shepherd Marime (31) of Karoi is a Zanu PF Central Committee member and National Youth League secretary for education.
He was recently arraigned before Chinhoyi Magistrate Archie Wochiunga facing a fraud charge as defined in section 136 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act chapter 9:23.
The complainant is the State represented by Patience Gurira in her capacity as Grain Marketing Board (GMB) Mt Hampden dept supervisor.
Prosecutor Grace Zhou told the court that sometime in December last year, the Government of Zimbabwe, through the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development, directed the Agricultural Extension Services (Agritex) to be an implementing partner in a joint venture programme aimed at contracting 100 000 hectares worth of farming inputs to eligible farmers for the summer crop for 2024/24 agricultural season.
The court heard that this was meant to boost output and enhance food security in light of the predicted El Nino phenomenon.
It was further heard, Agritex officers were tasked with assessing, verifying and recommending total arable hectarage held by each farmer and compiled schedules of eligible individuals to benefit from the inputs loan scheme.
After signing contracts between Agritex and farmers, ARDA would forward lists of verified beneficiaries to GMB for issuance of inputs such as seed, chemicals and basal fertilizer.
Court heard that on December 29, 2023, the accused person was contracted by ARDA to grow 50 hectares of maize at Wingate farm, Karoi.
On January 2, 2024, he received 20 metric tonnes (400x50kg) bags of Compound D fertilizer, which he collected from GMB Karoi. He allegedly also got various crop chemicals.
Marime did not grow maize at Wingate but purported he grew crops at Moyale farm, also situated in Karoi
On January 21 this year, Agritex Hurungwe proceeded to Moyale farm and conducted an assessment and established that there were 42.7 hectares of maize.
Based on the information, Marime was allocated a 17.08 metric tonnes (341x50kg) bag of Calcium Nitrate top dressing fertilizer, which he collected from the GMB Karoi depot.
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After Marime obtained 17.08 metric tonnes from GMB Karoi, he hatched a plan to further defraud ARDA by collecting an additional 17.08 metric tonnes from another GMB depot using the same documents.
Pursuant to his plan, he went to GMB Mt Hampden depot on February 26, 2024, where he collected 12 metric tonnes (240x50kg) bags of Ammonium Nitrate top-dressing fertilizer.
According to court documents, Marime was allocated less quantity because the type of product he was given had a higher nitrogen content of 34% as compared to the one with 28% previously given while application per hectare differs.
The State alleges he collected fertilizer from GMB Mt Hampden knowing fully well that he had already exhausted his allocation of top dressing.
Investigations also revealed the accused person went on to sell all the fertilizer he got from GMB Mt Hampden in Harare and ARDA suffered prejudice of US$9 480 and nothing was recovered.
Marime was granted US$200 and ordered to report once every fortnight at Karoi Urban police station.
The matter was remanded to June 20 for routine remand.
