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continued to dwindle hence the need to replace soldiers who retire, die or are dismissed.
Minister Mnangagwa said this in the House of Assembly during question and answer session on Wednesday.
Chinhoyi MP Mr Steward Garadhi (MDC-T) had asked Minister Mnangagwa why the Zimbabwe Defence Forces continued to recruit and train soldiers when the fiscus was underperforming.
Minister Mnangagwa said Sections 211 and 212 of the Constitution provided for the ZDF to defend the country.
“The current authorised strength is 40 000 members and currently we stand at only 36 000, falling short by 4 000. Presently, the filled posts are well below the authorised strength. As such, the current engagements are not massive or over recruitment,” he said.
He said the majority of members were former freedom fighters most of whom had reached retirement age.
“Any pause in replacing members wasted through retirement, resignations, deaths, court martial dismissals and other causes, creates shortfalls which take time to fill thereby affecting the strength of the ZDF and its effectiveness. The ZDF therefore needs to continuously recruit as part of the replacement process.”
For Zimbabwe Defence Forces to achieve total defence of the nation and uphold its constitutional mandate, it must always be ready to respond to any threats at any time in the correct strength and correct level of training.”
Meanwhile, responding to a question, Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development Minister Joseph Made said no support would be extended to wheat farmers by the Government this year because of limited fiscal space.
Goromonzi North MP Cde Paddy Zhanda (Zanu-PF) had asked the minister what was going to be done in assisting wheat farmers.
“I made it clear that Government is constrained this year to support farmers in wheat,” he said.
Minister Made said financial institutions had to come in to support farmers while millers should be roped in as well because they are the ones who use wheat.
He said there would be an introduction of a commodity exchange market where farmers had an option to sell their maize to it or to the Grain Marketing Board.
“The agriculture commodity exchange is coming into play. The second aspect is that GMB will also be a buyer along with other buyers. I hope that they will be having resources to do that but at least the farmers will be able to make a choice in terms of the agriculture commodity exchange,” said Minister Made.
He was responding to another question from Uzumba MP, Cde Simba Mudarikwa (Zanu-PF) who wanted to know how long it would take formers to be paid when they deliver their crops to the GMB.
Online Reporter