Sheperd Mukaka (35) was sentenced to 7 years in jail after he was convicted of abusing Command Agriculture inputs worth $2 000. He appeared before Rusape magistrate Shane Kubonera facing fraud charges.
The court heard that Mukaka approached Command Agriculture officers in Makoni pretending to be a genuine farmer and lied that he owned 5 hectares in Ward 38, Makoni Central. He received 5x25kg bags of maize seed, 32x50kg bags of compound D and 24x50kg bags of Ammonium Nitrate for the 5 hectares which he reportedly diverted for other uses. The matter came to light when the district verification team carried a monitoring and evaluation exercise on all farmers contracted on the scheme.
When Mukaka was approached he took the team to his relative Farai Mapako’s Arrafat farm in Rusape. However Mapako approached the verification team and disclosed that the farm they were shown by Mukaka was his.
More: NewZimbabwe.com
How did they give away so much without verifying his authenticity in the first place?