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Wallace Ruzvidzo in Kwekwe
Opposition legislators must actively scrutinise and hold the ruling Zanu-PF party’s Members of Parliament to account so that they deliver for the general citizenry, President Mnangagwa has said.
The President said the opposition legislators should give their ruling party counterparts a hard time in Parliament to build and develop Zimbabwe.
He said this yesterday during a familiarisation tour of the First Family’s Pricabe Farm by the country’s legislators drawn from both the ruling party Zanu-PF and the opposition CCC.
“Do not make the ruling party (MPs) sit, you should criticise them a lot and when you do they will work in Parliament.
“As the opposition be serious with your opposition because where they (Zanu-PF MPs) have erred, they will fix it and that will help us remain in power and you will stay in the opposition,” said the President with a chuckle.
Turning to the business of the day, President Mnangagwa said it was critical that Zimbabwe maintains its food self-sufficiency.
“Because we are aspiring for the best, to me, the first and best principle for a country is the ability to feed itself. A country must be able to feed itself. If a country can feed itself, it earns respect and I am happy that in Zimbabwe, we can feed ourselves. We must not lose that position,” he said.
To this end, President Mnangagwa said Government would continue to capacitate the country’s farmers at all levels.
Their capacitation, he added, was far much better than spending foreign currency on imports.
“Government’s role is to capacitate our farmers at every level . . . you may think it is expensive. No, it is cheaper for us to capacitate every single farmer to produce, than not to capacitate them and then import because when you import, you are sending your own resources outside.
“It is particularly important that you capacitate your own people to have the capacity to produce at every level. We (Government) do our best to make sure we support our farming sector. That way, we remain a food-secure nation and I am happy that so far, we have managed to remain a fully secure country,” he said.
On climate change, which has brought with it various phenomena such as droughts, the President said the Government was putting in place measures to increase the country’s irrigation capacity. “We can always mitigate the impact of weather by creating water bodies and promoting irrigation countrywide.
“I believe that, I have discussed with my Minister of Agriculture and said to my minister, minister, suppose there was no rain in the country, but our people wanted to eat food, whether there is rain or there is no rain . . . now, work out how much hectares of land should be under irrigation, so that whether there is rain or there is no rain we guarantee food security in our country. And my minister has done that.”
The President said although the set target is yet to be met, there is commendable progress towards that goal.
“It is necessary to make sure we guarantee ourselves food security by making sure that when there is severe drought, we still have enough hectares in the country under irrigation, which guarantees us food,” said the President.
He said the First Family, which has thriving maize, potatoes and soya bean crops, coupled with abundant livestock, was playing its part in contributing to the country’s food security.
President Mnangagwa said the farm’s success was a result of a highly mechanised operations system and learning from other farmers.
“We are a small farm, not very big, but I can assure you we are productive. I am satisfied that we are very productive on the piece of land which we were given. In the winter, in the summer, this place is kept productive. We are highly mechanised (and) we do our best to contribute to national food security as a family,” he said.
The President said both himself and the First Lady were from agricultural backgrounds hence their passion for farming.
“Both myself and my wife are from very humble beginnings, so to us, farming is in our blood so we keep our little farm highly productive,” he said.
In her brief remarks, First Lady Amai Auxillia Mnangagwa applauded the legislators, especially those from the opposition, for visiting the farm to witness the works being done at the First Family’s farm.
This, she said, was very productive and unifying. “As the First Lady I am very happy and elated because this has never happened before, seeing both ruling party and opposition MPs here. We never used to see eye to eye . . . this is very brave, it was not something that would have ordinarily happened,” she said.
The First Lady also gifted the legislators some of the farm’s agricultural produce.
Midlands Province Minister of Provincial Affairs and Devolution Cde Owen Ncube said the President was leading from the front.
Speaker of Parliament Advocate Jacob Mudenda said President Mnangagwa had demonstrated that economic freedom was possible. The tour was attended by MPs, Senators, Chiefs, Ministers, Deputy Ministers and senior Government officials.
