The Minister of Agriculture Joseph Made, the chief executive of the Grain Marketing Board and the board of management of the GMB should all be fired in one day, the Member of Parliament for Mabvuku-Tafara James Maridadi says.
In his contribution to the debate on the GMB audits, Maridadi said: “I was thinking to myself that if I had the power, I would say Hon. Made, please ask the board to fire the Chief Executive Officer of GMB in the morning.
“In the afternoon, I would say please kindly accept the resignation letters of members of the board and in the late afternoon, please go and tender your resignation to the President of the country as the Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development because you have failed.
“Therefore, we would have three resignations in one day; 1) dismissal by the board, 2) resignations by members of the board and 3) resignation of the Minister, failure of which if the Minister does not resign which I suspect he will not do, he must then be fired.”
Maridadi said Made should not be Minister of Agriculture and should not talk about agriculture at all except what he reads in the newspapers.
“If there is a person who should be furthest from the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development, it must be Minister Made. The only time that Minister Made must talk about agriculture is when he is reading about it in the newspapers. We cannot allow a man like Hon. Made to run the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development and look at the mess of GMB,” he said.
Full contribution:
HON. MARIDADI: Madam Speaker, yesterday was the 18th of November and in the afternoon, I was very excited celebrating the birthday of two lovely women who have something to do with my life. The first one is Hon. Thokozani Khupe here and my daughter Brenda Shamiso. Out of that excitement, I said to myself, if you are so excited and you want to get yourself angry, all you must do is go to the Auditor General’s Report and open page 78 and read about GMB. You will get very angry and this is what happened.
I was thinking to myself that; if I had the power, I would say Hon. Made, please ask the board to fire the Chief Executive Officer of GMB in the morning. In the afternoon, I would say please kindly accept the resignation letters of member of the board and in the late afternoon, please go and tender your resignation to the President of the country as the Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development because you have failed. Therefore, we would have three resignations in one day; 1) dismissal by the board, 2) resignations by members of the board and 3) resignation of the Minister, failure of which if the Minister does not resign which I suspect he will not do, he must then be fired.
How do you have GMB, such a strategic parastatal which looks after the livelihood of this country being in such a mess? Madam Speaker, to say GMB is in a mess is an understatement. If you just go to the issue of Muga Foods alone where the Chairman of GMB who is the Chief Executive of the Infrastructural Bank of Zimbabwe, under his watch, he instructs GMB to put money into his bank, $160 000 as an investment. The investment matures and instead of the money to be put into a GMB account, the money is transferred into another company that has no relationship whatsoever with GMB, Muga Foods. In 2011, that company is put under the hammer and liquidated. What it means is that Zimbabweans have lost $160 000 under the watch of the Chairman of GMB, the Chief Executive and most importantly, under the watch of the Minister who does not even issue a statement to the nation that $160 000 has been lost. To him, it is not significant.
We are a net importer of our staple food – maize. When the Minister comes here to answer questions, he paints this very glowing picture of our agriculture in Zimbabwe yet nothing is happening. I remember when I was a young boy, it was the same Minister who said that, “I went into an aeroplane, went round the country and I saw that there was maize all over” yet the country could not even have enough maize to feed itself. What is Hon. Dr. Made doing as Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development? If there is a person who should be furthest from the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development, it must be Minister Made. The only time that Minister Made must talk about agriculture is when he is reading about it in the newspapers. We cannot allow a man like Hon. Made to run the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development and look at the mess of GMB. I will leave that.
I was worried when the Hon. Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee was going through this report, Members of Parliament were busy talking and I actually approached the Chair and said, I think this is the most important report of this Parliament and Hon. Members of Parliament must pay attention. It talks about the livelihoods of the people that we come to represent in this Parliament, constituencies, food security. What it means is that GMB is one of the most important parastatals that we have in this country yet it is in such a mess. I am a member of the Public Accounts Committee. When this report was being presented, I was saying to myself, having come from the private sector – if the GMB were a private sector company, the Chief Executive and the Board Chairman would not have lasted until the end of the meeting. We would have simply told them to pack their bags and leave and then go and talk to our lawyers. These are the people that would leave without a handshake.
Madam Speaker, the Parliament of Zimbabwe, with the mandate that is given to us by the Constitution of Zimbabwe, with the mandate that is bestowed on us by the people of Zimbabwe, I think we must honestly, in all fairness bring Hon. Made to account for the mess at GMB. After Hon. Made has accounted for the mess at GMB, he should have the decency to walk across to Munhumutapa Building and say to His Excellency the President, “Hon. President, I thank you for having given me the opportunity to be a Minister, I resign”. Then he goes to Rusape and becomes a farmer or whatever he can become.
Madam Speaker, enough has been said and all the information about GMB in this country has been eloquently presented by the Chairperson of the Public Accounts Committee and seconded by Hon. Madondo. I think the only thing that this House will do and I am using the loudest voice that I can use and all the decibels that God has bestowed on me to say, Hon. Made, if you are a man, the most honourable thing for you to do is to go and give your resignation to the Hon. President of this country and tell him that enough is enough. I thank you Madam Speaker.
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