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Cde Mandipaka

Nyore Madzianike Eastern Edition
BUHERA West legislator Cde Oliver Mandipaka has praised the brains behind Command Agriculture and Government officials who are implementing the programme, saying it was a noble and well-thought-out initiative.

Speaking during the Parliamentary session on Tuesday, Cde Mandipaka lauded the Command Agriculture Programme, saying it had improved the food situation of the nation.

Cde Mandipaka said this while making comments on President Mugabe’s address during the official opening of the 5th session of the 8th Parliament in Harare on September 12, 2017.

“Firstly, he talked about Command Agriculture, which I view as a successful activity for the betterment of this nation. Madam Speaker, allow me to congratulate the brains behind Command Agriculture and those that were steering the programme who are in Government. It was a successful programme but we resolve as Parliament that this programme should cascade from commercial farms, plots to the villages so that villagers from where we come from also benefit from Command Agriculture which is a noble and well thought out initiative,” he said.

The Buhera West legislator called upon the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development to ensure that inputs were distributed on time to farmers for the forthcoming farming season.

He said inputs distribution should be sped up to allow farmers to prepare in time.

“Madam Speaker, we anticipate a good season similar to what we had last time and we are going to fill up our granaries. We call upon the relevant ministries to activate their processes so that farmers in the villages and farms get adequate inputs so that we are always prepared as a nation to achieve food security,” he said.

The former top police officer also challenged the police and other State agents to ‘deal’ will unruly elements of the society that fuel corruption in the country.

He said cases of corruption should be dealt with fairly without looking at anyone’s status in the society.

“It is not enough for us as a nation that we carry out several launches to give information. We need action. Once allegations of corruption are levelled against individuals in society no matter their status, we expect the Anti-Corruption, the ZRP’s CID department to be equal to the task, investigate these cases and bring people to book so that at the end of the day members of this nation have confidence in the executive. We therefore call upon Parliament the Executive agencies that are involved in investigating cases of corruption to be up and equal to the task so that we have confidence in the Executive. Launches are not enough, we expect action,” he said.

Cde Mandipaka has also called upon citizens to respect and stop vilifying the Defence and Security forces.

He said: “Equally the same with us as citizens, we need to take time to comment on our defence forces and encourage them, help them, give them direction and work together with them for the betterment of our nation,” he said.