HARARE – Parliament descended into chaos on Wednesday after Lands and Agriculture Minister Perrance Shiri compared MDC MPs to monkeys and baboons.

Parliament was abruptly adjourned after Shiri made the comment in response to repeated heckling from MDC benches as he denied that US$3 billion earmarked for “command agriculture” had disappeared without trace.

“Mr Speaker Sir, I’m not addressing baboons and monkeys. I’m addressing people who are supposed to listen when I’m responding. If they want me to respond and they want an answer, they have to give me a chance to respond,” Shiri said as MDC MPs howled at him.

MDC MP Joana Mamombe protested: “The minister cannot refer to us as baboons and monkeys. We need sufficient answers Mr Speaker. Mr Speaker, you need to protect us Sir. We’re not going to allow that kind of language in this House. He has to withdraw.”

Both Zanu PF and MDC MPs began singing, prompting Speaker Jacob Mudenda to adjourn the sitting.

Shiri had moments earlier denied that US$3 billion allocated to the controversial “command agriculture” scheme had been spent without documentation.

“There is no US$3 billion which was swindled or missing. It is unfortunate that when the matter was raised by the appropriate Parliamentary Committee, my staff failed to avail correct responses or factual responses around,” Shiri said.

“The money in question was correctly spent by the government. These are monies which were used to buy grain from the farmers. Whenever farmers sell grain to GMB such as maize, wheat, soya or whatever it might be, they are paid by GMB and GMB gets money from Treasury for the procurement of the grain. Some of the money is money which was used to pay for the Presidential Input Scheme. Some of the money was used to pay for utilities such as electricity and others. When all these monies are added together, they add up to the US$3 billion.

“According to the proper financial treatment, whenever such expenditure has been incurred it has to reflect on the budgets of the ministry and the ministry was advised of such expenditure well after the end of the financial year. So at the end of the financial year, the expenditure did not reflect on the ministry’s budget because the Procurement Authority was not resident in the ministry.

“The papers have since been availed to the ministry and this is expenditure which was incurred by GMB and by the Cotton Company of Zimbabwe. For the Cotton Company of Zimbabwe, it was for the Cotton Input Scheme hence, there is no money which cannot be accounted for.”