Lands, Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Resettlement Minister Anxious Masuka on Friday fired the head of an Agricultural Rural Development Authority (ARDA)-run agriculture scheme in Lupane on the spot.
Masuka fired the Bubi-Lupane Irrigation Project manager for alleged incompetence and warned that the same fate will befall officials who fail to meet the Government’s expectations in the transformation of the agriculture sector.
However, Chronicle could not establish the official’s name.
The incident occurred on Friday during Masuka’s tour of the Bubi-Lupane Irrigation Project and the Bulawayo Kraal Irrigation Scheme where he was accompanied by Matabeleland North Provincial Affairs and Devolution Minister Richard Moyo. Said Masuka:
I’m not happy with Arda’s performance, you are still in the past. Arda must wake up to the realities of the Second Republic and the President’s thrust of using agriculture as a vehicle for the attainment of vision 2030.
Masuka also announced that henceforth, Government wants ARDA managers to be stationed on-site as opposed to visiting the farms. He said:
When you employ you must pay only a basic survival salary to that scheme manager. It must be a performance-based contract and 75 per cent of the annual salary must come from a crop production bonus.
The crop production bonus is predetermined. For wheat we want 4,5 to 5 tonnes per hectare they (farm managers) get their two per cent on the net.
If they are unable to do that then it means they will be a sunset clause in that contract which says the moment they harvest and it not happened (achieving the yield target) it means the contract automatically lapses.
So, we don’t deal with this perennial problem of hiring mediocre people that do not want to grow this community.
What Minister Masuku did is applausible in the sense that he seems to be a results-oriented man.
Managers must deliver for this country to prosper especially in the agricultural sector which is regarded as the backbone of
our economy.
However, there are also other agro-based institutions of goverment that deserve such punitive measures at both managerial
and field level for incompetency.
Responding to the article saying the US Foreign relations commitee is not happy about Biti and fellow parliamentarians’ recalls;
It is my personal view that politicians must adhere to the constitutions of
their respective parties to avoid unnecessary mayhem or confusion.
I sincerely believe that if different political parties form an alliance
just for the sake of an election advantage they
must go back to their respective parties after that election.
The idea of continuing in that alliance must be well communicated by the leadership consistent with the party’s constitution to avoid breach.
If Tendai Biti’s Alliance ticket caused him to breach his PDP party constitution and eventually ditch it then what next? PDP is now exercising its constitutional mandate against a defaulting member.
As for the American Foreign relations commitee, I think Biti is their man for some obscure reason which will unfold with time.