Professor Jonathan Moyo repeated attack of the command agriculture programme could land him in trouble with President Mugabe’s revelation that the initiative is the brainchild of his wife Grace.
During his address to Zanu PF youths in Mutare last week, Mugabe said command agriculture programme was his wife’s brainchild which she shared with Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa before its adoption as a national programme.
“It was First Lady’s idea and she approached Vice-President Mnangagwa and they decided to help our farmers, grouping them around water sources like dams. We then christened it Command Agriculture,” said Mugabe on Friday
“It is our programme and we came together on this. It has been enhanced by the abundant rains. We provided our farmers with seed, fertilizer and equipment. It has saved us. Now we have a bumper harvest,” added Mugabe.
However, a day after Mugabe’s remarks, Prof Moyo wrote on his Twitter account attacking command agriculture by labeling it “Command Ugly-Culture.
Moyo said the programme had been hijacked and soiled by Mnangagwa.
“VP Mnangagwa’s Command Ugly-Culture, disguised as Command Agriculture, is a corruption of a noble objective and is, thus, totally unacceptable!” Moyo said on his Twitter on Saturday
“The noble objectives of Command Agriculture, first enunciated by Dr Grace Mugabe, have been corrupted by VP Mnangagwa into an Ugly-Culture,” wrote Moyo on Twitter.
Moyo has also previously labeled the programme as a communist type of policy aimed at militarizing society.
Moyo’s attack of command agriculture exposes the serious rifts the ruling party as the Tsholotsho North legislator is believed to belong to the G4O faction which is opposed to Mnangagwa ascendancy.
With the roping in of Grace into the command agriculture matrix, Mnangagwa could have succeeded in shielding himself from further attacks as it will be deemed disrespectful of the President and First Lady.
