Mnangagwa doesn't own command agriculture, says Zanu-PF

Policy Co-ordination minister, Simon Khaya Moyo yesterday said the context of command agriculture was part of the broad ZimAsset government policy and had not been extended to other sectors of the economy.

In an interview over reports that there were clashes within government over the intellectual ownership of the command agriculture programme, Khaya Moyo said the programme was a product of ZimAsset, adding that government had not adopted anything called command economy as suggested by some people.

"There is nothing like command economy or command mining or command what. What, other than command agriculture, has been adopted or discussed by Cabinet? Let me be very clear, we don't have any policy or policy direction pushing for command economy," he said.

"No, we don't have that. I am the minister responsible for policy coordination and the economic policy we have is ZimAsset."

Khaya Moyo reiterated that command agriculture was a component of ZimAsset and its success or failure was not an individual responsibility, but a collective task for Cabinet ministers under the leadership of President Robert Mugabe.

"Don't look at command agriculture in isolation; it is a component of ZimAsset under the cluster of food security. It is not a stand-alone initiative, no. Command agriculture is just fulfilling what is demanded under the food security cluster which is provision of enough food for the people of Zimbabwe. It is not a stand-alone policy," he said.

Mnangagwa is being accused of running a parallel government through his command agriculture initiative, which many within Zanu-PF circles allege was now a factional project aimed at propelling his political fortunes.

And after what some in government allege was its success, Mnangagwa announced that government was pondering to introduce command economy which his loyalists believe would revive Zimbabwe's battered economy but critics think otherwise.

Mnangagwa recently angered fellow Cabinet ministers after he was invited to address Midland's State University students on the topic "From command agriculture to command economy".

His rivals in Zanu-PF accused him of creating parallel initiatives to what Mugabe and Cabinet were running for his political advantage as he battles it out against a faction named G-40 which is opposed to him taking over from Mugabe.

"We can't have command economy in a fragile situation like ours; it is not going to work. Command economy is an idea of corrupt people who would want to loot and steal. They are afraid of free market system or competition. That would never work," said a senior government official yesterday.

"What the VP and his handlers from Midlands' province are pushing are failed policies. We had the price control regime which failed to help when it was implemented. This is just a corrupt exercise which we should not allow. The world has rejected this type of doing business," said the official.

Mnangagwa is entangled in a protracted succession battle with hawks in Zanu-PF who are determined to derail his path to the throne.

As VP responsible for food security, Mnangagwa has been projected as the brains behind the initiative and its success has largely been credited to him, leaving out the minister of agriculture [Joseph] Made who oversees the programmes implementation.

Under the extended command programme, government is targeting the livestock sector and winter wheat farming.

Using the success of the programme, Mnangagwa's backers are pushing to use it as the launchpad for his success story and project him as a man reliable to take Zimbabwe forward.

Mnangagwa has repeatedly denied harbouring presidential ambitions or working to remove Mugabe, declaring his undying loyalty to the veteran politician.