Gen Chiwenga reads riot act, warns anti-Command Agriculture lobbyists

THE nonsensical behaviour by turncoat Government officials who attack State programmes like 

Command Agriculture can no longer be tolerated and must stop, Zimbabwe Defence Forces 

Commander General Constantino Guveya Chiwenga said yesterday.

In an exclusive interview with The Herald in Harare, Gen Chiwenga — in apparent reference 

to Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development Minister Professor 

Jonathan Moyo, and his Youth Development, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment 

counterpart Patrick Zhuwao who have been attacking Command Agriculture — said the 

security services were fully aware of the forces sponsoring the spirited attacks.

Prof Moyo has been on a campaign against Command Agriculture which he derided as 

“UglyCulture’’ equating reports of its success as ‘‘Command Lies’’, while Minister Zhuwao 

rapped Zimpapers, accusing the group’s titles of promoting Command Agriculture at the 

expense of Zim-Asset. This is despite the fact that Command Agriculture falls under the 

Food and Nutrition Cluster of Zim-Asset.

At the two Presidential Youth Interface Rallies he addressed in Marondera and Mutare 

recently, President Mugabe hailed the success of Command Agriculture amid indications 

from Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Minister Joseph Made that the 

programme would exceed the projected yields.

Gen Chiwenga said of all Government interventions to promote food production since the 

launch of the fast-track land reform programme at the turn of the millennium among them 

Operation Maguta and the various phases of the Farm Mechanisation Programme, Command 

Agriculture had been the most successful in moving the Zimbabwe to national food 

selfsufficiency.

“So we ask the question: who is saying this is a bad programme? A programme which has 

been spearheaded, approved by the Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, Head 

of State and Government, His Excellency the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe.

“You go and say no that is not right? He (President Mugabe) pronounced himself in 

Marondera when he was addressing the youth. He pronounced the same thing in Manicaland.

“And you say no, this is now bringing Communism … some of these people, they have farmed 

80 hectares with inputs – seeds, fertilisers – from Command Agriculture, and they are 

talking of a bumper harvest.

“So these people who are talking against Command Agriculture, linking it to unthinkable 

things, they are no different from those in Sodom and Gomorrah; ma homosexuals aya, where 

Lot’s wife akaita churu chemunyu,” Gen Chiwenga said.

He added that it was unthinkable during the liberation struggle for senior officials to 

leak private discussions held by the leadership for their own selfish ends.

“We have fought a bitter armed struggle and we have never seen it that whatever was 

discussed at the High Command was leaked to the cadres. What was discussed at the Central 

Committee of the party was respected and they would tell the cadres what they need to 

know.

“They could argue and no one would ever talk. We were in the front. We would meet the 

commanders and sometimes disagree on strategy but it would never reach the ears of the 

fighters.

“Even those who were there to record what was being discussed would never open their 

mouths.

“Now before a meeting is complete we already see it on Twitter. What is that? Discipline 

has been completely lost. Now it shows when individuals come and say I will destroy, not 

only the party, but the entire system from inside.

“The papers are there for everyone to read. We say enough is enough. This nonsense can no 

longer be tolerated at all. People have perished because of this land, ivhu ndiro rakafira 

vanhu.”

Gen Chiwenga went on: “You think you can divide people, kuita divide and rule, and bring 

confusion to the people. No, it doesn’t work like that.

“Mweya uyu wauya uyu wekwana Sodom ne Gomorrah wengochani uyu, ngaudzokere kwawakabva, 

unoda kupumhwa, uende kwawo.

“And programme iyi (Command Agriculture) tichaitsigira and tinoitsigira tichitsigira 

Commanderin-Chief wedu kuti inotofanirwa kutoti iitike kusvika yapera.”

Gen Chiwenga said over and above his right as a citizen to speak on such issues, the 

military was part of Command Agriculture’s implementation by virtue of Air Marshall 

Perrance Shiri’s vicechairmanship of a subcommittee involved in steering the policy.

And then again apparently reverting to Prof Moyo’s recalcitrant behaviour, Gen Chiwenga 

said: “This guy who is vomiting that nonsense, didn’t he get support from Command 

Agriculture?

“He has some other forces behind him. Hasn’t he written in his books that he is going to 

destroy from within?

“We read. We are all educated. We read. He has said that. Everyone must see. He rebelled 

before. Not once. He rebelled when we were in the struggle, he ran away. When he was here 

he did all his nonsense, his column in the Financial Gazette.

“And in his book, when he was teaching, in his commentary on why he went to America – we 

know.

“When he left and went independent, was he repentant? And we know now that the tweeting 

is coming from Baba Jukwa and company; we know that.

“But I think he has got to where we wanted him to. Let me leave it at that,” Gen Chiwenga 

said. 

BY Mabasa Sasa