Zimbabwe is a fascinating country. Zimbabweans, particularly those in the opposition, are aroused and titillated by thumb-sucked figures of alleged theft of public funds and alleged corruption. This is more so as we are in an austere environment, where the New Dispensation has deliberately implemented austerity measures to stabilise our economy in preparation for take-off towards attaining an upper middle income economy by 2030. By their very nature, austerity measures tend to affect the generality of the people as Government tightens its grip on the National purse.

Scholars define austerity as a political-economic term referring to policies that aim to reduce government budget deficits through spending cuts, tax increases, or a combination of both. Austerity measures are used by governments that find it difficult to pay their debts. Zimbabwe was reeling under a huge domestic and international debt when President Mnangagwa took over from his predecessor, Robert Mugabe, under whose watch Zimbabwe's economic fortunes took a nosedive.

In a bold, pragmatic fashion, President Mnangagwa has chosen the difficult, but necessary path of austerity, as the panacea to attaining Vision 2030. Reeling under the effects of the austerity measures, Zimbabweans, particularly in the opposition, have latched onto any suspicion of alleged malfeasance to lambast Government. Enter MDC Vice President, Tendai Biti, who is the Chairman of the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Finance. Biti, in his confrontational and inciting fashion, misinterpreted a response from permanent secretary in the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Climate and Rural Resettlement, Ringson Chitsiko, to a question on how Government had utilised $3 billion Command Agriculture Programme (CAP) funding. Chitsiko merely responded that he could not account for funds that were never channelled through his Ministry where he is the accounting officer. Boom, Biti concluded that $3 billion had been siphoned from State coffers without a trail!! What hogwash!

Biti deliberately chose to ignore the fact that Chitsiko said that the CAP was being executed from the Office of the President and Cabinet (OPC). It would have made more sense for Biti to excuse Chitsiko and call in the relevant arm of Government that ran the programme, than to conclude that $3bn had disappeared into thin air. Even a kindergarten child is discerning enough to see that, one who receives money is the only one who can account for it.

The private and social media have gone into overdrive, citing this fiction as evidence of high level malfeasance in the execution of the CAP. In their warped prognosis, the money was stolen. Some more cunning and sensational ones have added the $3bn to another fictitious thumb-sucked figure of $15bn that Mugabe uttered at the tail-end of his ill-fated reign as Zimbabwe's President. The false narrative that $18bn of diamond and maize money had been stolen has gained traction. Let us dissect the presumption that $3bn had disappeared. Dear reader, no money disappeared. CAP is a special programme conceived to boost Zimbabwe's agricultural production as the panacea to food security. As a result, the project was conceived and executed through the OPC together with other arms of Government, to ensure maximum supervision and cutting of red-tape.

Farmers, both A1 and A2, benefited from the programme, receiving inputs ranging from fuel, tillage, agro-chemicals, seed, fertilisers and sacks among others. Surely, this is ample proof that the fiction that $3bn disappeared is just that -- fiction! How did Government distribute all this through the Grain Marketing Board (GMB) and Agricultural Technical and Extension Services (Arex), which by the way fall under the Ministry of Agriculture, without expending a cent?

Biti's Committee is merely grandstanding for political expediency. Biti is famed for his toxic hyperbole, which creates the proverbial storm in a tea cup. If Biti is so keen on ensuring accountability, which the New Dispensation embraces and fosters, the moment he heard Chitsiko saying the Ministry was not directly receiving the funds, but rather inputs through GMB and Arex, he should have immediately excused them. Instead, he has set on a dangerous path to psyche up Zimbabweans feeling the pinch of the successful austerity measures that are stabilising Zimbabwe's economy, by claiming that we are in the economic mess we are in because of alleged grand theft.

Nothing can be further from the truth. It is a reality that Zimbabwe's agriculture largely depends on rainfall. There are not enough irrigation facilities. El nino-induced erratic weather patterns that spawn either excessive rainfall as happened in Chimanimani, or excessive drought witnessed across Zimbabwe, all have a direct negative bearing on why the CAP has not been as successful as was anticipated. Global warming is a sad reality, and Zimbabwe is no exception to its ruthlessness, which is marked by unpredictable weather patterns and shift in climatic seasons. The below satisfactory agricultural output is a result of natural phenomena, not "grand theft."

This explains why Government has already initiated moves to import 800 000 tonnes of maize grain to alleviate the pending hunger. It is not that $3bn has disappeared. It has not. In fact, we are in a better situation, where we are importing 800 000 tonnes, not the total 2,2 million tonnes required as a result of CAP. Zimbabwe could be in a worse off situation.

Make no mistake, the New Dispensation does not condone, nor brook any corrupt tendencies. In fact, it has put in place multiple anti-graft machinery, ranging from the Special Anti-Corruption Unit (SACU), ZRP's Special Corruption Unit, a new Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) and Special Anti-Corruption Courts, all in a bid to stem graft.