TWO Zanu PF Mashonaland West Youth League leaders are in the law's crosshairs after they sold two heifers donated under President Emmerson Mnangagwa's pass-on scheme.

The accused persons were identified as Stembeni Madzima and Maringa Phiri, who were suspended Sunday during the party's Youth League meeting chaired by Tapiwa Masenda held in Chinhoyi.

Sources told NewZimbabwe.com that Madzima and Phiri were among 88 beneficiaries of Mnangagwa's benevolence, who last week received the cattle in Chegutu, Mashonaland West.

However, instead of rearing the beasts and pass-on the offspring to other party youths as part of the economic empowerment programme, the duo decided to make a quick buck and sold the cattle to butchers for a song.

Authorities from the President's Department have reportedly launched a full-scale probe into the matter.

"Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) operatives are working round the clock to sniff information of other possible culprits among Zanu PF youths who had become accustomed to selling agricultural inputs they got for free and pieces of land parcelled out under the guise of empowering young people...they are being hounded and there might be arrests, with some going to prison," the source further added.

"On face value, the Presidential heifer project is well-meaning but it is its timing that is problematic. It has been interpreted as kickbacks so youths back Mnangagwa's bid for a third presidential term," another source told NewZimbabwe.com.

The scheme is meant to economically empower youths, grow the national livestock herd, to ensure food security for vulnerable people, especially in rural areas with beneficiaries expected to pass on calves produced by the heifers to other farmers for the continuity of the programme.

Abuse of the heifer scheme comes hot on the heels of Vice President Constantino Chiwenga's pronouncement that endemic corruption was a security threat.