EDITORIAL COMMENT: GMB saboteurs must face the music

Reports suggesting that some Grain Marketing Board (GMB) officials are conniving with unlicensed grain merchants to prejudice farmers are not only shocking, but scandalous. Frustrating a farmer who toiled 24/7 to produce a bumper harvest this year for a nation that had gone for years with half full silos is an insult to Government programmes like the Presidential Inputs Support Scheme and the Command Agriculture Programme.

It is a clear act of sabotage. This act of criminality must be punished severely to send a message to other such disruptive and greedy elements in our society. We are happy to note that Government is aware that such bad apples exist in the GMB and elsewhere in the system.

Their network is fast spreading like a spider web. We applaud Cabinet for pledging to descend heavily on GMB and public officials who are callously reaping where they did not sow. The rainy season is upon us and farmers must be paid on time for grain delivered to enable them to prepare for the new season.

Only that way, can the nation break the cycle of poverty and over-dependence on the State by farmers for inputs and other forms of support nearly two decades after the fast track land reform programme. Our farmers now understand that farming is a business and frustrating them is harmful for everyone. We urge farmers to play ball. Farmers deal with GMB and public officials who are at the centre of these shenanigans.

They know them by their first names. They know them by office. They must not take it as a favour when the GMB or any other public officials facilitate easy payment for grain delivered for a fee or whatever demands. They must report them to the police and allow the law to take its course. We cannot and we must not be a nation of criminals. This madness and greed by some among us must surely come to an end.

We, therefore, do hereby repeat a call made yesterday by Government through the Minister of Information, Media and Broadcasting Services Dr Christopher Mushohwe that: “Farmers and the public at large should expose and report malpractices by public officials and bogus grain buyers and sellers to the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development and the police.”

We also implore the police and public officials to act swiftly when farmers make such reports. The courts must equally play ball by ensuring elements arraigned before them for crimes related to defrauding our farmers are punished with equal measure. Only then can we rid our country of corruption that has permeated all facets of life in a manner so devilish.