Source document: https://docs-lawep.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/1697707399411.pdf (Zimbabwe)
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE Wednesday, 17th January, 2018 The National Assembly met at a Quarter-past Two o’clock p. m. PRAYERS (THE HON.

SPEAKER in the Chair) HON.

DR. SHUMBA: On a point of order Mr. Speaker.

Before we proceed, I want to begin with a point of privilege.

Yesterday, Hon.

Mliswa rose to withdraw the allegations and averments made in this House against me for which he sort in his withdrawal that concur with it.

So, if it pleases the Hon.


Speaker, I may be given a minute or two to just expound my position.

Hon.

Speaker, it is with a heavy heart that I took that sort of bashing on the basis that I knew my honest standing and I regard my reputation highly.

However, I have had occasion to speak to Hon.

Mliswa and I do see the sincerity in that he acknowledges the injury it may have caused.
In spite of other trivialities, I do not think it would be fair for me to carry the burden because it will yield no positive value to the perpetuate acrimony with my new Chairperson.

Accordingly, I would like to request the Chair that may that record be expunged from the records.

I have accepted the apology which my Hon.

brother has given and that we work as professionally as we should.

Thank you Mr. Speaker – [HON.

MEMBERS: Hear, hear.

]- THE HON.


SPEAKER: Order, order, I think the acclamation is a very validation of the reconciliation that has taken place between the two Hon.

Members.

It has to be recorded as that I think it is a sign of maturity and sincerity.

To that extent, we will make sure that the appropriate section be expunged accordingly from the record.

I thank you.

HON.

DR. SHUMBA: Also Hon.


Speaker, I would to draw your attention to a matter of process in this House, in particular the manner that Statutory Instruments are issued by various Ministries in order to cure a lot of things, including lacunas that exist in the law.

It has become practice Hon.

Speaker, that when Statutory Instruments come to Parliament, they go to the Parliamentary Legal Committee which specifically examines them for their consistency with the Constituency.
They do not address the issues that are peculiar to the operations of various laws and practices that are specific to the Portfolio Committees of Parliament.

I therefore move Mr. Speaker, that the Chair rules to cause the Papers Office to bring Statutory Instruments before the respective Committees before they are passed into law in order to examine the other operational aspect that relate to those Statutory Instruments.
Mr. Speaker Sir, I move so because if specific Portfolio Committees are unaware of the various exchanges between Parliament and Ministries, we will not be able to examine the legal and legislative cures that are sort to be provided by the Statutory Instruments, if it so pleases the Chair.

– [HON.

MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]

- THE HON.

SPEAKER: Order, order Hon.

Phiri, please.


We will make sure that the Papers Office informs the relevant Committee where necessary so that the necessary Committee can assist the Committee to have a look at the Statutory Instrument – [HON.

MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]

- Order, order I think what the Hon.

Dr. Shumba is saying is a proper due process.

Committees must be aware of this Statutory Instrument.
Yes, so that they can deal with the issues that are being raised by the Statutory Instrument in their Committee work – that is proper.

Thank you.

HON.

NDUNA: Sorry Mr. Speaker, on a point of order – [HON.

MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]

- Thank you Mr. Speaker.

– [HON.

MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]

– The Hon.

Minister of Finance and Economic Planning having given Notices of Motion to suspend Standing Orders.

THE HON.

SPEAKER: Order, order!

Hon.


Nduna, I hope you are not trying to debate the point of order raised?

HON.

NDUNA: Yes, Mr. Speaker, I would not do that.

I am rising on a new point of order.

Mr. Speaker, we want to pay homage and due recognition where it deserves.
Last week during question time, the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education gave a statement in this House to the effect that he was going to make sure that no child is sent back from school because of no fee payment and that children who had passed or attended Grade 7 would get their results for the furtherance of education to Form One.

This has since happened in Chegutu West Constituency and I want to thank the Hon.

Minister for a job well done.

– [HON.

MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]


– THE HON.

SPEAKER: Order, order, the Notices are withdrawn because – [HON.

MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]

– Order, order Hon.

Chibaya, what is your problem?

HON.

CHIBAYA: Mr. Speaker, I am saying that I did not say anything.

THE HON.

SPEAKER: Yes, you were saying something to the Hon.

Minister.

HON.

CHIBAYA: No, no, it was Hon.

Gonese.

– [Laughter.]

– THE HON.

SPEAKER: Alright Order!

The Hon.


Minister has withdrawn the Notices because they were taken care of yesterday and the leave was sought and adopted accordingly.

MOTION FINANCE BILL: BUDGET DEBATE First Order read: Adjourned debate on motion for leave to bring in a Finance Bill.

Question again proposed.

THE HON.

SPEAKER: I would want to advise that it would be first and foremost the Chairpersons who did not deliver yesterday.

HON.

MISIHAIRABWI-MUSHONGA: Thank you very much Mr. Speaker Sir.
Mr. Speaker let me start my presentation by stating this fact.

Traditionally and I do not know where that tradition came from.

When we have discussions around the budget, we have officials who come and not necessarily the Ministers.

I have just had consultation with the Hon.

Minister so that I could at least warn her on the presentation that I am about to make.

She indicated to me that in fact, she… THE HON.

SPEAKER: Order, order, the Hon.

Minister indicated.

HON.

MISIHAIRABWI-MUSHONGA: The Hon.


Minister, I am sorry, I am sorry.

She indicated to me that in fact she was now shown the presentation that the officials made to us.

So I just want that to be understood when I begin to do an analysis of this particular budget.

The Hon.

Minister did not see it because she is new.

I am going to do a small presentation on power point.
While I wait for the setting up of the presentation, I am glad that we are probably one of the last of the presenters because it is interesting that of the previous presentations, only one of those presentations – the Committee on Budget said something about the need to do gender budgeting.

The rest of the Committees did not speak to it.

I think it buttresses the point that I am going to raise about the kind of challenge that we do have.
The presentation as you see it there is entitled ‘Business Unusual’.

If you look at the theme of this Budget as presented by the Minister, it did speak to the issue that it is a new economic order and therefore, it is speaking to some kind of radical transformation… THE HON.

SPEAKER: Order Hon.

Mguni.

Can you please be attentive with your colleague there?

You can carry on.

HON.

MISIHAIRABWI-MUSHONGA: It is speaking to some radical transformation.

It is speaking to some change that we need to put.


However, Hon.

Paradza did raise that aspect when he spoke that - what you are finding in most of our budget is a disconnection between the vision that is espoused by both the Minister of Finance, the President of this country, the strategic focus and the programming.

You will find that in the Ministry that I oversee, the issues that I am going to raise as I go into the recommendations speak to that lack of appreciation.
One did not get a sense that there was an appreciation that we were going towards a new economic order.

It was as if it was business as usual.

This is why it is entitled ‘Business Unusual’ – that if we are going to follow the theme, then we need to do things differently.

Mr. Speaker, I thought I needed to show you where these people that I am talking about, the women and youth are located.

This is where you find this particular group that we are talking about.
You find them in mushikashikas and you find them as vendors.

Generally, you are finding them in the informal sector.

You are finding them at the marginal….

HON.

MAJOME: On a point of order, can the presenters put the slides on full screen so that we see properly.

HON.

MISIHAIRABWI-MUSHONGA: This is where they are located.

If we are talking about a budget that is responding to pro-poor or the majority of your people, those are the people that you are talking about.
Fifty two percent (52%) of the people that you are seeing there are made up of women.

Thirty Six per cent (36%) are made up of the youth.

So in fact, that is the majority of your people.

However, the Budget does not seem to be responding – [HON.

MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]

– THE HON.

SPEAKER: I shall name and ask the Hon.

Members who are speaking above their voices to get out of the House.

We need to follow what the Hon.

Member is saying.

HON.

MISIHAIRABWI-MUSHONGA: Those are just images.


We either have them at our rallies, sitting around watching us as we drive our beautiful cars or they are in the villages.

That is where these people are located.

They are not at the centre of economic development.

That is just meant to demonstrate that.

I had put in a slide around the figures that show where the constituencies I am talking about in terms of paid or permanent employees are.
You will find that there is a slant particularly around women even in those areas where there is employment.

They are less than the males in terms of employment but that was supposed to speak to issues around the marginalisation of both women and youth.
Like I said at the beginning, we had problems because of the lack of strategic focus in the presentation by the Ministry and the realisation that we were going towards a new economic order, my Committee then did not spend too much time looking at issues that are to do with figures save to say that it basically looked at the trend that has been going on around issues of budget allocation.
What you find around the budget allocation unlike other ministries is that this is one Ministry that has not had any significant increase.

Even when it used to be separate ministries, Women and Youth, that particular allocation has not changed.

Inspite of the images that I have shown you, in fact the allocation of resources does not speak to the realisation that the majority of what we are talking about as a population is what needs to be catered for.
In the Budget, there is a disconnection between resource allocation and the issue that these are the main constituents that we should be looking at.

What is more worrying is – this is where I go to the presentation by the officials.

We tried to do an analysis of those ministries that have been merged together because it is not just the Ministry of Women and Youth that have been merged together; Industry, Commerce and Enterprises also have been merged.
However, I would want to refer you to the last part of that particular graph.

It is the ratio between the wage bill and the development allocation – that the Ministry of Women and Youth Affairs is the only Ministry where the wage bill is 61.89% against a development of 38%.

I think that is where your problem is.

If we look at the allocation of Industry, Commerce and Enterprise development, The Hon.

First Lady’s security lady having followed her into the House.

THE HON.

SPEAKER: Order, order.


Lady security, you are not supposed to enter the House.

HON.

MISIHAIRABWI-MUSHONGA: If you look at Industry, Commerce and Enterprise Development, it is actually the opposite.

Sixteen percent (16%) goes to the wage bill, 84% goes to development.

What is happening with the Women’s Affairs is that we are paying people that have nothing to do on the ground.
That is why when the Minister of Finance abolished the 3 500 youth posts, he should have proceeded to actually deal with issues of those that are employed in the Ministry of Women Affairs because there is no point in having ward people that are working at the grassroots if they do not have the resources to be able to do development work.

For me, that is the most worrying aspect around that particular budget.

The next slide speaks to the issue of the merging of the ministries.
Again, that is where the biggest concern comes through.

One would assume that the merging of ministries was a strategic decision but there was nothing in the presentation of the Ministry that says they understand the strategic synergies that are involved between women and youth.

They did not speak to each other.

In fact, what you find is that there is a silo mentality, you have youth there and women here.

Therefore, the question that we had as a Committee is; should they have been merged?
Is it practical for them to be merged and what is it that needs to change if they are going to be merged and what are the strategic synergies?

Mr. Speaker, the one thing that the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning underlined this time around was that you cannot keep asking for money, you need to be growing the cake and growing the cake is about using your resources efficiently and pulling those resources.
Nothing in the presentation said there was that change of mindset Mr. Speaker, both from a strategic point of view and from a programming point of view.
Let me just give you an example Mr. Speaker; just the movement from a women in development ideology or way of doing business to Gender and Development, you are finding that the Ministry was still presenting to us that they wanted to go and do 100 gardens in the communities in this particular era when we are looking broadly at how we can get women at the centre of the economy.
We kept saying to them; you either have to decide whether you are going to be gender mainstreaming or you are going to be doing activities that are ‘a feel good activity,’ like doing your 100 gardens, doing your two mines in a whole economy where you will have to address 52% of the economy.

We did not get a sense that they were going Ministry by Ministry to say - we will ask the Ministry of Mines how many mines they have and therefore, how many of those mines are going to be allocated to women.
We are going to go to industry and say, how many industries do you have, how many enterprises do you have?

Therefore, how do we as Women’s Affairs, make sure that there is an allocation or a quota to women?

So, the concept of gender mainstreaming was nowhere in, and that concerned and worried us a lot – [HON.

MEMBERS: Hear, hear.]

– Mr. Speaker, I will just quickly go to the recommendations.
The first recommendation, I am glad the Minister is here, the Ministry has to go back to the table as a matter of urgency.

It needs to go and re- strategise, re-plan and refocus.

It needs to invest in change management process and I need to underline this.
If His Excellency VaMnangagwa is doing what he is doing at that level and that is not linked to the issues of what is happening on the ground, he will lose steam very soon because he will hold on to his vision which is not translated to the programmatic work.

In Rwanda Mr. Speaker, when this process was happening, they closed shop for some time and made sure that everybody began to understand that it was a new dispensation and things had to be done differently.
We did not get a sense that people were in a new dispensation.

People were still in the new order and something has to be done – [HON.

MEMBERS: Hear, hear.]

– The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning needs to invest in a process of change management.

Let me also say Mr. Speaker, those who have done strategic management – change management does not only speak of your vision, it speaks about changing even those who are working in those areas.
One of the things that we have to deal with is to say that those who have been part of the old order on a day to day basis, may have to be changed either to another Ministry or to something else so that you can give a new impetus and new energy to people who are willing to be radical.

Without that Mr. Speaker, this new economic order is a waste of time; it is just word and will be never be practical.
Mr. Speaker, I spoke about the issue of consolidating the financing mechanism, because those images of the people I showed you are sitting there for they have been excluded from the financial economy.

If you are going to do financial inclusion, then you need to have financing mechanisms.

However, you cannot have ridiculous financing mechanisms like we are having now.
Two banks - Empowerment Bank for you; Women’s Bank - Women’s Development Fund, Youth Development Fund; for goodness sake, somebody needs to sit down and have one financing mechanism.

We have moved for the women’s bank but there is also need to analyse and say; does the market right now allow for an entry of a bank.

If it does not, let us do it gradually.

Let us work with the existing banks and open windows that will facilitate for women and youth to go and access resources.
That way, we then grow to having the women’s bank.

However, it is ridiculous for a Ministry to still talk about having two banks and three financials – [HON.

MEMBERS: Hear, hear.]

–This is why I am saying it is clear that there is no strategic thinking and refocusing.

Mr. Speaker, the Ministry did not also give us a legislative agenda.

There was no legislative agenda and yet these are low hanging fruits.

The Child Marriages Bill is already there, we should just put it into law in the next 100 days.
The Marriages Bill is there, it should come to this House and we pass it in the next 100 days.

The issue of mandatory sentencing, Hon.

Majome’s favourite pet needs to come back into the House and we can deal with it right now – [HON.

MEMBERS: Hear, hear.]

– The review of the age of consent can be done in five days and that is what the Ministry of Women’s Affairs should be pushing for, not to go and do gardens in the villages – [HON.
MEMBERS: Hear, hear] – Mr. Speaker, we need to deal with the issue of engendering Command Agriculture.

There is no discussion about where women are in Command Agriculture.

Issues of small livestock, most of the women do not talk about cattle, zvinonenetsa - it is problematic, kuyahlupha, but we love our goats.

There is absolutely no conversation around Command Agriculture as it relates to women’s needs – [HON.

MEMBERS: Hear, hear.]

– Mr. Speaker, my favourite one; sanitary wear – [HON.
MEMBERS: Hear, hear.]

– Mr. Speaker, I brought to this House a sanitary cup.

You can use a sanitary cup for 10 years.

I spoke to the producers this morning and they said they can sell the sanitary cup at $6.50.

If you give it to a young girl now, she can have it for 10 years.

So, if we put aside $6 million, we will deal with a million women or young women who will not ask us about sanitary wear ever.

I know I have spoken to the Hon.


Minister and he promised me, it is a subject he is willing to have a conversation on but I think it is important.

On that point Mr. Speaker, why are we having condoms in the budget and not sanitary wear – [HON.

MEMBERS: Hear, hear.]

- and yet Mr. Speaker – forgive me for this statement - yet for men who are over 40 years or 45 years, actually having an erection is almost like winning a lottery – [Laughter.]

– It is very difficult for a man over 40 to have an erection.
So, we have condoms that are actually not being used because most of these men cannot use it – [HON.

MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]

– THE HON.

SPEAKER: Order, order.

HON.

MISIHAIRABWI-MUSHONGA: In conclusion Mr. Speaker, I am going back to the legislative agenda.

We want that dealt with Mr. Speaker – (Pointing to the slide with a label: I AM A GIRL CHILD.

DO NOT MAKE ME A CHILD MOTHER) – It is one of the priority areas – [HON.

MEMBERS: Hear, hear.]

– We cannot continue to have this.


Like I said, it is a low hanging fruit, let us deal with it.

We will not forgive the Ministry and ourselves if we do not get the Executive to bring that particular Bill so that we can pass it into law.

The last slide Mr. Speaker, is basically speaking to the issue of change management and I did speak to that.

Mr. Speaker, if we do not deal with the issue around change management, we have not done anything.
In fact, I actually think that this is an area that you, Mr. Speaker, need to begin to look at.

Can we see the role of Parliament in this new economic order?

We cannot be sitting there as bystanders and watching the Executive.

We need to begin to say to ourselves, what is our oversight role as we begin to define a new economic order.

You also have to deal with us as Members of Parliament so that we can have a mind shift that says things are not like they were before.
There is a part around the Gender Commission, but I am sure you will find it in the report because it is speaking to the same issues around changing mindsets and beginning to get the Gender Commission itself to say they cannot be sitting in those offices here in Harare.

They need to be where women are.

Violations are not only in the urban areas, they are in the rural areas and it does not take money for them to go to rural communities.
They can go and get into the structures that already exist in rural communities and be able to develop work.

We said as a Committee, we are not looking at their request for vehicles.

People have to stop thinking work is about getting a personal vehicle.
It is about doing things on the ground and the Commission needs to get the 46 they employed, deploy them to our provinces and then we can start talking about what they are doing and they need to deliver on the 50/50 because it is a constitutional issue under Section 17.

That is where their main mandate is.

I thank you Mr. Speaker Sir.

HON.

MLISWA: On a point of order, Mr. Speaker Sir.


My point of order is, in line with the new order as Chairman of the Mines and Energy Committee, we have a workshop this week to try and deal with that Bill which has been outstanding for five years.

For five years the Mines and Minerals Bill has not been passed and the ruling party has got interdistrict meetings which they are having.
I have no problems with that but equally; the party in power must also ensure that from a constitutional point of view, the passing of this Bill is critical to the Minister who is going to Davos to attract investment in the country through minerals.

For as long as that Bill is not passed, resources that we have, like minerals, we shall not make the money that we require.

So, I implore the leadership of the ruling party here, the Vice President General Chiwenga and the National Chairperson, Hon.
Opah Muchinguri, to please ensure that you excuse members who are on this Committee to attend because it is critical that they attend.

I also want to bring the issue - according to Section 129 (k) of the Constitution, the party must be able to put its house in order.

You have Members of Parliament who were expelled from the ruling party.

They are still coming, but they cannot operate on the ground as party.

Can the party put its house in order and not create confusion in the country as a result of that.
I think it is important that you put your house in order because we have Members of Parliament, Mr. Speaker, who were expelled from the party who are no longer coming to some of the committees.

Hon.

Chimedza for example, because he was expelled; others do not know where they are.

Can you be honest and sincere and deal with issues accordingly so that this country moves forward.

You cannot keep people hanging and the country suffers.

Thank you very much.

THE HON.

SPEAKER: I think the Hon.


National Chairman of the ruling party is here.

There is no point of the Minister of Mines and Energy going to Davos and they ask a simple question – where is your law about mining and the law is not there.

We have made some sacrifices, including myself, I had other commitments.

We have said we have to deal with that Bill so that it is concluded here in Parliament; the same with the Exploration Bill.

So, I appeal to the Hon.


National Chairperson of the ruling party, to please release those members to attend the meeting as from tomorrow up to Sunday.

Thank you.

HON.

CHIWETU: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir.

My report is on the Portfolio Committee on Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement.

THE HON.

SPEAKER: Order, can we hear the Hon.

Member please.

HON.

CHIWETU: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir.

I am standing in for the Chairman.


One of the recommendations of the Portfolio Committee on Lands, Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development during the 2017 budget analysis was that the Ministry of Lands and Rural Resettlement should become a department under the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement to avoid unnecessary duplication and enhance synergies and accountability.
The new Government which came into effect in November, 2017, merged the Ministry of Lands and Rural Resettlement and the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development to create the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement.

The new Ministry of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement is responsible for ensuring food and nutrition security in the country.
Being responsible for a primary sector the Ministry is also responsible for ensuring that downstream manufacturing industries receive the necessary throughput for value addition.

The role of the Ministry is to facilitate the development of a sustainable and viable agricultural sector through promoting equitable distribution of land, provision of security of tenure and creating an enabling environment for food production and raw material availability for the manufacturing industry.
The Ministry also provides administrative, technical, advisory, research and regulatory services to the agricultural sector.

In order to adequately perform its role, all the seven programme areas need to be adequately funded.

The programme areas are as follows:-  Policy and administrations which creates an enabling environment for the sustainable and viable agriculture sector.

 Agriculture education which focuses on producing competent agriculture graduates with analytical and entrepreneurial skills.
 Crops and livestock research and technology which focuses on developing, adapting and disseminating innovative research technologies to improve crop and livestock productivity.

 Crop production extension and advisory services which promote sustainable competitive and viable agricultural production through the provision of technical extension, advisory and coordination services.
 Agricultural engineering and farm infrastructure development which promotes agriculture mechanisation farm structures and irrigation technologies.

 Animal production health extension and advisory services which..

THE HON.

SPEAKER: Order, order.

Can you please go to your recommendations?

HON.

CHIWETU: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir.

I thought maybe I would start with the introduction so that people....

THE HON.

SPEAKER: No – [HON.

MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]

– Go to your recommendations.


What are your recommendations?

HON.

CHIWETU: The Committee recommended that while appreciating the efforts that Treasury has made to increase the capacity of the sector to perform roles expected under the new economic order by increasing resourcing to the sector in comparison with 2017, the following need to be addressed:-  The agro-based services needed can only be adequately performed if the staff is on the ground as agriculture activities are field based.
The operations budget allocated needs to be increased to enhance mobility of staff to support farmers.

 The current operations budget of only about 5% of the total budget is not enough to ensure that officers in the provinces are mobile to visit farms while research and development is prioritised to deal with new pests and diseases.

 Funding for operations thus needs to be increased.
 Government programmes need information about how much agricultural land is available, who is making use of it, what is being produced and in what quantities?

This makes the land audit of paramount importance, hence the decision to only allocate 38% of what was bided for is counterproductive.

 There is need for more resources for the land audit programme.
The amount allocated for agriculture education which is only 2% of the total budget is not suitable for an economy that needs to capacitate officials and ensure that they are up to date with new developments.

 The infrastructure in agricultural colleges is in a bad shape while materials for students are in short supply.

There is need for more resources towards agriculture education.
The funding for crop and livestock research and technology department which is only 4% of the total budget should be increased to ensure that the current low yields for all crops is adequately addressed through the development of better crop varieties that are more suitable to the changing climate.

 The budgetary allocations for the Land Commission, Land Audit and farm inspection including 99 year leases should be increased to the amount bid.

The resources availed can only result in preparatory work.
 There is need to ensure that even though the allocated resources are not enough they are at least disbursed towards the programmes which they are intended as indicated in the 2018 national budget statement.

Since the resources are already inadequate, further reductions and delays will only worsen the situation.

I thank you Mr. Speaker Sir.

HON.


GONESE: Thank you very much Mr. Speaker Sir, at first glance the budget statement would appear to be a masterpiece and when you look at the cover Mr. Speaker Sir, you will find out that it is very colorful and one gets the impression that we are indeed moving towards a new economic order.

When one goes into a deeper analysis, when one goes deeper, it would appear that as is happening with most things in Zimbabwe, it is actually the opposite of what they look like.
I remember on the date when the Budget was presented, when we added the various analyses people where falling themselves in praising the old new Minister in respect of the Budget.

I want to believe that he did try to do what he could under the circumstances.

He was very candid about the dire economic situation that we have in this country.

When we actually look at what is provided in the Budget, it might appear that we might have been sold a dummy.
We may have a situation where on the surface it appears to be a very, very good budget.

When we actually go into detail, when we actually interrogate what is provided for in that Budget you may find that yes, the old new Minister has been given a second bite at the cherry but at the end of the day...

THE HON.

SPEAKER: Order.

Are you speaking proper Queen’s language?

What is an old new Minister?

– [AN HON.

MEMBER: What is wrong with that?]

– No, I do not accept that.

HON.


GONESE: It is a figure of speech in the sense that he was the Minister before ....

THE HON.

SPEAKER: No, that is not acceptable.

You have to withdraw that.

HON.

GONESE: Yes, I withdraw the reference to the old new Minister, and I will simply refer to the Hon.

Minister of Finance and Economic Development.

THE HON.

SPEAKER: Thank you – [AN HON.

MEMBER: But he is old.]

- HON.


GONESE: What is important Mr. Speaker is for us to bear in mind what will make this Budget succeed, what will lead us into Canaan, what will lead us into paradise.

Mr. Speaker there has been a departure from the past in the sense that the speeches coming from the Executive are quite encouraging; they are very different to what we have got used to from the former President.
However, I want to underline that speeches and good speeches and promises and more promises are not going to turn around this economy.

What we need Mr. Speaker is action.

At the same time, actions speak louder than words.

I believe that one of the challenges that we have in this country is on issues relating to confidence.

There is no confidence in this economy and the Minister recognised that factor in his Budget statement.
If you go to page 23 on bullet number 60, when he was dealing with the issue of the cash crisis, he appreciated that the performance of this economy, the recovery of this economy, the resolution of the issues of cash crisis comes down to issues of confidence.

I want to say that Mr. Speaker...

THE HON.

DEPUTY SPEAKER: It is now Madam Speaker in the Chair.

HON.

GONESE: Madam Speaker, my apologies.


The new Government promised that they would hit the ground running, but it appears that they are still in the air, somewhere in the air, they have not yet hit the ground – [HON.

MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.

]- because we had received promises that within 100 days we would see some transformation.

We are not yet up to the 100 days but we have now passed the halfway mark.
It is now 54 days since the inauguration of the President and at the moment there are no real signs to show that we are on the recovery path.

This issue of confidence is very important.

The other aspect Madam Speaker is about the issue of consistency.

What we had got used to is that under the former President Robert Mugabe, it was clear that he was consistent in his inconsistency.
What is worrisome is that the new Government seems to be following the same path where we had issues of policy reversals and it appears that this monster is beginning to rear its ugly head.

Madam Speaker, I will also talk about the issues of fiscal imbalances.

The Hon.

Minister alluded to it in his Budget Statement on page 30.

He talked about issues of fiscal prudence.

However, what we need Madam Speaker are not promises or manifestations of good intentions.
What we actually need are concrete measures or steps which this Government is going to take in order to reduce financial irresponsibility.

We need fiscal prudence.

Madam Speaker, my concern is that when you look at this budget, you find that there are some deceptions in the budget and I will point out some of them.

The first deception Madam Speaker is that we all ululated here, clapped our hands and hit the tables when the Hon.
Minister said that Members of the Government except for the Presidium will not travel in First Class.

When you go deeper and look at most of the airlines, they do not actually have a First Class.

They have Business and Economy Class.

So you find that most of the aeroplanes, even Ethiopian perhaps except Emirates and a few others, do not have a First Class.

So that statement means nothing if those members of Government are going to continue travelling in Business Class.
It means there is going to be no actual saving in that regard.

What we want to hear, if the Hon.

Minister and his Government are serious about financial discipline, they should tell us that they are all going to travel in economy, mumbombera, imbombela then we know truly Madam Speaker that we are trying to make some savings.

You look at the Budget Statement or the Blue Book Madam Speaker; on the surface it appears that we have had a reduction in the number of ministries from 31 to 22 Ministers.
Again Madam Speaker, when you look in the actual Blue Book, you find that the actual budget allocations have actually increased.

In short, the reduction in the number of Ministers is meaningless.

All the other departments which were in the various ministries have been absorbed and merged and are all there, but again the bigger problem is in the increase in the budget allocation.

We had a budget of $4,1 billion in 2017, now the budget is going to go to $5,7 billion.

So, where is the saving Madam Speaker?


This is the reason why I am saying that at first glance, on the surface, it appears to be a very good budget but the reality is that it is not.

When you look at last year’s budget Madam Speaker, we had been promised by the Hon.

Minister that we were going to have a budget deficit in the region of $400 million, but look at the out-turn.

The actual budget deficit was estimated at $1,7 billion which is a big jump.
Now Mr. Speaker, what will give us confidence that estimates which he has made that we are going to have a deficit of $675 million is going to be realised.

I want to agree with the Budget Committee that the actual deficit is more likely to be $1,9 billion and that is based on the reality on the ground.

We do not actually have any savings which are taking place.

The more things change, the more they remain the same.
Madam Speaker, the reduction in the budget deficit is predicated upon the assumption that you are going to have an increase in revenues.

The budget makes the assumption that tax revenues are going to be $4,3 billion and that total revenues are going to be $5,1 billion, but there is no empirical evidence to show that this is going to be a reality.

What is the basis for the Hon.

Minister’s optimism?

The economy which all of us are aware of Madam Speaker is actually shrinking.
I do not understand why the Hon.

Minister has predicated everything upon an actual increase in that revenue collection because if it does not happen, the result is that we are going to have even a bigger deficit in 2018 than the one that we had in 2017.

There are a lot of concerns Madam Speaker, when you look at some of the budget allocations and I want to reiterate the point made by those who spoke before me, in particular relating to the budget of this august Institution.
We are one of the three Arms of the State and we have asked for a very modest sum of $98 million.

When you look at this budget in the context of things, it is a very small percentage of the actual budget but the Hon.

Minister had the temerity to reduce it further to $57,2 million, which Madam Speaker, is inadequate.

We must appreciate that this Institution has got an oversight role to ensure among other things that Government is living within its means.
When it does not have adequate resources, it is not going to be able to carry out its mandate.

I want to say to the Hon.

Minister, what we are asking for is very little, please give us our full dues.

We have not asked for 10% of the budget.

We have only asked for $100 million and we need to have that granted.

I want to say to all Members across the political divide, if we do not get this adjusted, we must not pass this budget.
Madam Speaker, I want to go to the issue of another serious concern and this is about the Ministry of Health and Child Care.

Madam Speaker, we were not forced to sign the Abuja Declaration.

We did so freely and willingly and it is important that when you have a voluntary act like agreeing to that Declaration, we must then adhere to it.

Time and again, we have bemoaned this failure to comply with the Declaration.
I want to say to the Minister and reiterate the calls which have been made by the Members of this august House that at the very least, we must have 15% and the health budget must be bigger than any other budget of any other ministry or Vote.

In this regard, I have tried to work out what the 15% comes to.

It amounts to $855 million and we need to have the budget for the Ministry of Health to be adjusted accordingly.

I also want to say Madam Speaker, in his Budget Statement, the Hon.
Minister talked about some institutions where he wants to reduce the budget allocations to them.

We are talking here about the Commissions.

Madam Speaker, we have got the Chapter 12 and 13 institutions.

All of them enhance democracy and combat crime.

We need to have them fully supported so that they can carry out their mandate to ensure that we have got good governance in this country.

Again Madam Speaker, we have had a situation where we have been violating the Constitution for no good reason.
I appreciate that the Government has been very slow in implementing the provisions of Chapter 14 which … Hon.

Member having been holding discussions in the Chamber.

THE HON.

DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, Hon.

Members.

Hon.

Members, you are not supposed to hold meetings in this room.

If you do not want to listen, I think it is better if you go to the lobby because there are other members who want to listen to the debate.

They cannot appeal to you to keep quiet.

If you cannot keep quiet, leave the room.


Would you please proceed Hon.

Gonese?

HON.

MLISWA: On a point of order.

Madam Speaker, I brought up an issue with the Speaker, I think he forgot to bring it.

The reason why there is so much noise is people do not know whether they are in the party or not in the party...

THE HON DEPUTY SPEAKER: That is not important.

HON.

MLISWA: It is important, let there be clarity… THE HON DEPUTY SPEAKER: No!

HON.
HON.

MLISWA: There are people who were expelled and now they are here.

The ruling party must put its house in order.

We cannot have a ruling party which is so confused in this dispensation.

When I was expelled, a letter came here and I went home.

People who were expelled are creating confusion on the electorate.

THE HON.

DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon.

Mliswa!

HON.

MLISWA: The Vice President is here and the Leader of Government Business is here, can there be clarity so that there is order in the House.
THE HON.

DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, order!

Hon.

Mliswa.

Hon.

Mliswa, you are out of order because this is not a ZANU PF gathering.

They are going to have their own meeting and give us a ruling… – [HON.

MLISWA: They were expelled at the Congress.]

– Please take your seat.

HON.

GONESE: Thank you Madam Speaker Maam.

–[HON.

MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]

– Can I have your protection Madam Speaker?

THE HON.

DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order Hon.

Members can we come back to Business.


Let us be serious on Business?

HON.

GONESE: I was talking on the issue of devolution.

We would like to have that allocation in terms of Section 301 to local authorities granted.

THE HON.

DEPUTY SPEAKER: Mind you, you have four minutes to go.

HON.

MLISWA: Again, we had a situation where we have got Ministers of State, sometimes referred to as Provincial Governors.

I want to say that this is against the spirit of the Constitution.

We must move with speed.


I was really concerned by the statement by the Hon.

Minister that they may want to amend the Constitution to remove the provision which relates to the appointment of Provincial Councils.

I want to say, let us abide by the spirit of the Constitution and instead of amending the provision relating to Provincial Councils, let us not persist with the appointment of Provincial Ministers which is against the spirit of the Constitution.
On the issue of corruption, which is very important, what the Hon.

Minister did was to refer to it in his budget statement but there is a perception out there that yes, whilst we are having more arrests than what used to happen but there is a perception out there that this a selective and factional targeting of certain individuals.

We want to believe that if corruption was really endemic; if it was permeating the whole of the Government, we believe that there are many criminals.
Not only those who were around the former President but also other criminals who were not surrounding the former President but who were in the same Government.

Those same criminals are still with us.

For people to have confidence that this is not a factional agenda, we should see some arrests across the board and not what we are seeing now.
Let me come to the issue of solutions, I already alluded to the issue of fiscal prudence, let it be very genuine; let us be committed to it and let us live within our means.

I would like to say to the Hon.

Minster, his predecessor had said that we must always live within our means, eat what we kill.

Let us have a balanced budget, where we do not have this budget deficit.

I know that there is always a temptation.


You tell us that the budget deficit is going to be $400 million or $675 million, then the reality is that it is going to be much more.

Why can we not have cash budgeting and only utilise those resources that we have generated.

In terms of reducing expenditure, I would like to say that the Chief Executive, the new Sheriff in town, His Excellency the new President must demonstrate by example.
We must have a situation where perhaps we can have a reduction in the budget.

THE HON.

DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, Hon.

Member… HON.

GONESE: Just my last point Madam Speaker, on the issue of taxation, let us reduce taxation on fuel.

Our fuel is the most expensive in the region and the main reason for that is duty is pegged at 0.4 and 0.5 litres for diesel and petrol respectively.
If this is reduced, this can stimulate the economy, it is going to reduce overheads for all the companies, they can operate profitably and they can generate more revenue when we have got more companies which are more productive.

I thank you.

HON.

NDUNA: Thank you Madam Speaker Maam.

I will be very short, precise and to the point.

THE HON.

DEPUTY SPEAKER: For the first time.

– [Laughter.]

– HON.


NDUNA: Madam Speaker, seeing this year’s theme is revenue generation from domestic resources and utilisation of the same; I would like to delve on that aspect in particular in the transport sector.

Seeing I am a former chairperson of that Committee, I have institutional memory.

Your Committee on Transport caused the revenue generation in the transport sector, in the insurance sector in particular of US$121 million, through just computerisation of third party insurance.
The distribution was $90 million went to insurance sector, it left the street, from the tout in the insurance sector and it went to genuine insurance companies, which are registered.

Ten Million United States Dollars (US$10 million) went as remittance to Traffic Safety Council of 12½%.

Madam Speaker Ma’am, US$2 million went to ZINARA as facilitation fee and US$10 million went to Brokerage companies who were taking money from the motorists on behalf of the insurance players.
I could go on and on but the issue of continuing to be manually oriented, moribund and rudimental archaic and antiquated cannot generate revenue for us as a nation.

It cannot generate revenue for the Hon.

Minister of Finance and Economic Planning.

We need to embrace technology so that we do not further tax the unsuspecting, innocent citizens and do not further hike taxation and get what we want from what we already have.
Madam Speaker Ma’am, your Committee proved to the nation that if the 13 parastatals under the Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development can each generate $100 million, there will be $1.3 billion generated just from the Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development from computerisation alone.
If this can be done across all Ministries, we will have out of the 22 Ministries, US$2.2 billion generated not by further taxing; not by further payments from citizens but by embracing technology, to enhance coordination, collaboration, networking, spike revenue generation, plug illicit outflows and stop revenue outflow or stop corruption just by computerisation.

It is with a sad heart that $100 000 certificates of competence or licences are produced annually.
You and I know very well that at one point or another, one of our relatives would have paid a bribe at VID of US$250 in order to get a certificate of competence.

That is US$25 million that is accruing to VID officers annually Madam Speaker Ma’am.

If we can get this money directed to the fiscus and to the budget, it means that we can optimally and effectively generate revenue by making sure that at the VID, we embrace technology.
The reason why it is not computerised and linked to all transport management systems, it boggles one’s mind but if we are going to make sure that we have revenue generation, we need to computerise VID and remove human to human interface.

A computer does not ask for a bribe.

So, this is one way of revenue generation.

If it is expeditiously conducted, we are going to have a windfall not yesterday, but immediately and going forward by embracing technology.
Computers were actually invented and put into the system in 1936 and 1938 Madam Speaker Ma’am.

Why should we continue to be backward and not embracing technology?

We need to do it for the good of the nation.

A thousand vehicles are registered at CVR each month.

That means, there are people buying ex-Japanese vehicles into the country at a rate of nothing less than US$4 000 per vehicle.

There is US$4 million that is going out of the country, not in telegraphic transfers but hard currency.
If we embrace the issue of Special Economic Zones and make sure that those private players who are selling ex-Japanese vehicles are given a niche in our economy, some bonded warehouse or some area where they can sell their vehicles using that hard cash, we ban the importation of those ex-Japanese vehicles through our borders and we only buy them from those bonded warehouses in hard cash.

The Minister of Finance and Economic Planning only requires 10% of that hard cash to be put into the banking system.
So, we will certainly be awash with ubiquitous US dollars Madam Speaker Ma’am.

What is currently happening is that people are going out and getting from the black market US$4 000 in order to import that one thousand automobile each month.

Also Madam Speaker Ma’am, because the automobile as has been alluded to by my Chairperson, Hon.

Chitindi in his report, there is about 1.5 million vehicles in this country.
If we continue to try and police these vehicles using a moribund way of dealing with it, it means that we will need to employ more than 1.5 million policemen or foot soldiers.

We need to embrace technology to police those automobile to enhance revenue generation and plug illicit outflows.

Your Committee is the one that called for the reduction of roadblocks and I am happy that my Committee Chairperson is saying we need to embrace technology in order to police all these.
As you get to the tollgate Madam Speaker Ma’am, at that point from one tollgate to another tollgate, this is where you need to be given your ticket for over- speeding.

That is, distance over time taken from one tollgate to another, it is going to give you the speed that the bus or that mass transport system was moving at.

We do not need a plethora of roadblocks criss- crossing our road network but we need just a few gadgets to put on our tollgates and toll plazas.
Madam Speaker Ma’am, I spoke of third party insurance and the Chairperson of the Committee also proved how we can get money from passenger insurance.

As we speak, there is about US$35 000 000 to US$75 000 000 which is accruing to touts which is not going to the unsuspecting innocent citizens who would have paid for their bus fare.

When they are involved in accidents, they expect compensation for the bereaved to the tune of US$3 000 and for those that are injured, it is US$1 000.
This is not happening Madam Speaker Ma’am.

They are going to the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning after every road disaster to go and claim US$200, a bag of mealie-meal and maybe some medical bills whereas this money resides in the insurance sector.
If we embrace technology, it can optimally, effectively and efficiently be given to the right entity, which is the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructural Development and the mass transport operators so that there can be compensation at the time of need.

This is not happening because we are still manually related on the passenger insurance.
If we can embrace technology and immediately make sure that RMT, the Insurance Council of Zimbabwe and ZINARA are embedded in technology and we give money to the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning against trying to get compensation from the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning after every road disaster.

Madam Speaker Ma’am, the Transport Committee Chairperson called for expeditious establishment of road disaster stabilisation centres at all tollgates.
What are these going to do to your fiscus and to your budget?

Seventy percent of all people who die on our roads die because they have not been attended to before they get to a hospital and this is where your money resides in.

This is where your budget is aware that the Masvingo-Beitbridge road brings in US$3.5 billion annually, which is three-quarters of the annual budget from those people that are in the informal sector who use mass transport systems.
So, if these people die after the accident because they have not reached the hospital, it is because there are no disaster accident victims’ stabilisation centres at the tollgates and these need; be expeditiously established.

Madam Speaker Ma’am, there is already the need and there is the toll plazas and the tollgates operators who have alluded to that fact who have agreed that there is need for the establishment of these at their tollgates.
We need to get some of the amount or a percentage quantum from the Health Fund which has been established by the Minister of Health and Child Care to make sure that we alleviate the plight of the travelling public and we in a way can make sure that we stop deaths due to road carnage.

I then come to issues to do with mines Madam Speaker Ma’am.

The issue of the Mines and Minerals Act of 1951 does not do the country any good.
His Excellency has alluded to the fact in his State of the Nation Address that artisanal miners and small scale miners have contributed enormously to the National Budget and to the fiscus – aware that they have surpassed the contributions of the big and multinational companies and miners.

They have given to Fidelity and they have contributed to the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ) in terms of more than 51% of gold deliveries.
We have ubiquitous amount of mineral wealth and it has been proved by those artisanal miners and those makorokozas.

What we need to do is to make sure that they need nothing more than just support and do not need a lot of money.

They need Madam Speaker Ma’am, just the right legislation so that they can be given those idle mine claims that are held for speculative purposes.
If we continue to operate on the antiquated piece of legislation, we will not empower the artisanal miners and the small scale miners.

So, I come here and also fervently make my clarion call to say, let that piece of legislation, come to Parliament, we shred it and leave the hardware then put in new software so that the formally marginalised black majority who are the most artisanal miners - I have never seen an artisanal miner or small scale miner who is white.
These are the formerly marginalised people who we are putting on the sidelines of economic development.

We need to empower them and in the same vein, empower the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning in his requirement for domestic resource mobilisation and utilisation.

Our gold is also being bought by South Africa at more than 15% premium of our price because of a loophole where our payment system or our pricing structure is flawed.
So, we need first and foremost to repeal that legislation, the Mines and Minerals Act.

We need expeditiously to have the Explorations Act come to Parliament.

Madam Speaker, I called for the repeal of that legislation in 2015.

I ask Madam Speaker, with the power vested in you to quickly call for that piece of legislation to come into this House.
I am also aware that at some point, it came and it was on Second Reading but I see now that we have got a new Chairperson for the Mines and Energy Committee who has also called for that archaic legislation to come into the House so that it is repealed.

It empowers the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning in that there is going to be a lot of revenue generation because there is security of tenure in terms of the mines and quantification of our resources.
We know how much we are endowed with as a nation.

In Chegutu West alone, there is more than 40 gold mines and I shudder to think how many more other gold mines there are in the country.

As I conclude, I want to congratulate the Defence Forces for Operation Restore Legacy.

The military needs to be capacitated in terms of demining exercises.

The budget needs to be complemented and augmented with other resources.

I was here one day when Hon.


Gwanetsa was debating so vociferously and eloquently about his constituency which is riddled with a lot of mines and needs a demining exercise.

I therefore call upon the United Nations because it is the one that caused our erstwhile colonisers to ensure that they mine all that area in Manicaland and in the eastern highlands so that our liberators would not come into the country at that time.

I call upon them to also put in resources.


They have since withdrawn support for the demining exercise.

I ask that they also give resources to the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning so that he in turn gives the resources to the Defence Forces to enable them to be efficient, effective and optimize the demining exercise in the eastern highlands.

I want to thank you Madam Speaker for this opportunity that you have given me to eloquently and vociferously debate on the 2018 budget.

THE HON.
THE HON.

DEPUTY SPEAKER: Before Hon.

Majome starts debating, may I please appeal to Hon.

Members of Parliament not to go and talk to the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning when other Members are debating the Finance Budget which he presented so that the Minister can listen to what is being said in order for him to respond.

HON.

MAJOME: Madam Speaker, my first point around the budget that I hope the Hon.

Minister and also Hon.


Members of the august House will consider is the issue of the budget of Parliament itself.

I want to begin by drawing the attention of the Hon.

Madam Speaker to the provisions of Section 325 (5) of the Constitution which requires that all institutions that are established by the Constitution which therefore include Parliament must be given an opportunity to make their views known about the proposed budget.
I rise to raise concern that I am not actually aware that this august House itself, being an institution established by the Constitution made its views known as Parliament to a Committee of Parliament.

I happen to belong to the Portfolio Committee on Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs and I do not recall Parliament coming to give its views about whether it is happy or not about the budget.
I say this not just to complain about non- implementation of the Constitution but I believe this is an important procedure that would allow the budget of Parliament itself to be ventilated so that this House can approve a budget of Parliament which is meaningful and allows Parliament to perform its functions and give it capacity.

As I speak, I would also like an opportunity to give my views.

This is high time that the Hon.


Minister of Finance and Economic Planning provided for the administrative expenses of Hon.

Members.

I think it is a scandal and a shame that even as a Member of Parliament, I must buy my own stationery.

I am a citizen of Zimbabwe but when I am conducting Parliament business whether in this august House or in Committees, I have to buy myself stationery.

There is no stationery for Members of Parliament, let alone in the constituencies.

It is important that the Hon.


Minister budgets and provides for the communication expenses of Hon.

Members because when we perform our representative function, we must engage with our constituencies.

By the nature of our trade, Members of Parliament make more phone calls than the average ordinary person and right now, we fund it from our own pockets.

Judges and Ministers do not pay for phone calls that they make in the course of their duty but Members of Parliament do.

Hon.
Hon.

Minister, it is time that you fund Members’ and staff’s communication.

Those Members of Parliament who engage assistants do it from their own pockets but Hon.

Ministers do not pay for their administration in the ministries and judges also do not pay for their clerks from their own pockets.

Members of Parliament require that their administrative expenses be budgeted for.
Even for travelling inside constituencies, I am fortunate I represent Harare West and the longest point in my constituency is less than 9km but I shudder to think what other Hon, Members who represent rural constituencies that could stretch for maybe 100kms do and there is no budget for travelling within constituencies.
I rise to say it is high time that Parliament stops forgetting itself by making sure that it approves a budget that takes care of the administrative expenses of being a Member of Parliament.

I believe if we had debated this in a Committee, Members of Parliament would get a chance to debate; even to hire halls.

For example, in Harare West where I am, there are no public halls for meetings.
If I want to hold a constituency meeting, I have to rely on the benevolence of the churches, that is if they are free to do so.

I must pay for venues such as the Mandel Training Centre.

It will charge me a dollar for each person who comes to sit in my meeting and I have no budget for that.
I want to make a very strong point Madam Speaker, through you that it is high time that the administrative expenses and cost of being a Member of Parliament are met by the Budget in the same way as the administrative expenses of members of the other arms of Government, that Hon.

Judges and Hon.

Ministers are met as well.

Madam Speaker, I move on to a concern that I have about the Hon.

Minister’s Budget proposals which are very noble.


It is a very refreshing possible outlook attitude that might start to be honest in this country in terms of trying to trim Government expenditure as well as raising revenue and doing the things that matter most.

However, I am concerned Madam Speaker that there are issues around its inconsistency and insincerity that arise.

My brother, Hon.

Gonese mentioned something about that but I want to speak to an example.
I welcomed with much glee the intention by the Hon.

Minister to trim down excess members of the civil service, starting possibly with those who are near retirement age.

Madam Speaker, I saluted that - yet in the same Parliament, I was dismayed.

I was excited because I had a question that was on the Order Paper that had been waiting to be answered.
That was dodged the better part of last year for about eight months, ministers ducking and diving from my question around the retirement of the Registrar General, who I suspected was over the age 65 years old.

I was told that the civil service Ministry is the one that deals with these conditions.

What was interesting is that I celebrated when I heard, I was not in the country but I was so happy when I heard from Hon.
Chinamasa that the Government was finally going to start rationalising and trimming down the civil service starting with those over 65.

Alas and lo and behold!

Just the very next week, the Hon.

Minister of Public Service Hon.

Kagonye, finally came to answer my question and I was shocked Madam Speaker.

She said the exact opposite of what the Hon.

Minister said.

She said that Government does not want to – in fact, it is sad.

She spoke at cross- purposes.


She said that no, Mr. Mudede is not going anywhere because the Government has a policy whereby it does not “discriminate against elderly people and that in fact, it wants him to stay in office because he is valuable”.

Madam Speaker, these are the kinds of things that bring into question the probity and the sincerity of the new Government.

Is this new Government taking us for a ride or is it sincere when it makes the noble pronouncements even in the 100-day exercise?
Does it mean them or does it not?

Madam Speaker, I think we have a problem here.

We have issues of trust that were raised.

If the Hon.

Minister does not address that, are there certain sacred cows that are kept or maybe which Minister is telling the truth?

Is it the Hon.

Minister Chinamasa who is saying that the Government is sincere about trimming the civil service, removing those who can retire and Minister Kagonye says, no, we want to keep all of them, even those who are past retirement age.
Who is telling the truth?

I expect the Hon.

Minister to address issues like that and not discriminate and walk his talk and make sure that the 100-day plan that he has espoused and even his Budget, it does meet that.

If the Government was sincere, Hon.

Minister Kagonye should not have come to this House and made nonsense of Minister Chinamasa’s very noble intention that were also espoused by the President.

Around that, is also the issue around youth officers.
Through you Madam Speaker, 3 500 youth officers is a number and is encouraging but it is nowhere near enough all those people who also need to be removed.

I would rather think, they be more removed and instead, ECD teachers be paid instead of those other ones that are remaining and the ghost workers.

For example, I will say the District Administrators, I learnt that Harare has seven district administrators.
Madam Speaker, I wonder what does a district administrator who works in the Ministry of Local Government do in Harare, when Harare is administered by the Municipality of Harare.

What do they administer?

I say this to move on to my next question.

It is about sincerity and consistency.

Some of us are watching to see if this Government is honest and it indeed, needs to do what it says or it just wants to possibly pull wool over our eye so that we rush to an election, we are watching.
This Budget is an opportunity for the Government to show us by walking their talk.

The other issue is around the Provincial Ministers as well.

I am concerned that Hon.

Chinamasa indicated that instead of going by what His Excellency the President indicated that we are going to observe the Constitution and we are a constitutional Government; by the way, we were in the process of impeaching the former President because of not implementing the Constitution, therefore, he must respect the Constitution.
I would expect Madam Speaker, terms of sincerity instead of Hon.

Chinamasa coming and saying he is going to introduce a Bill to remove provincial councils which will not be proper.

Madam Speaker, to amend the Constitution yet again, the second time running before it has been implemented, I think that kind of mindset calls into question the sincerity of this Government around the Constitution.

How can the Hon.
How can the Hon.

Minister tell us that provincial councils cost too much money and we want to amend the Constitution to remove them when we have not seen them in operation?

How much money would it cost to run a provincial council?

In my view Madam Speaker, provincial councils will not cost much money because the bulk of its officials are already engaged and ensconced in other Government institutions.

For example, MPs here are already in Parliament.


A provincial council will not need to give them anything for them to come and sit at meetings.

Councillors as well, all a provincial council would need is an administrative budget, maybe a place to hold meetings, maybe water and stationery.

I would be curious to see how much money a provincial council would cost as compared to the budget of a Minister of State.

As far as I am concerned Madam Speaker, as was said by my colleague Hon.
Gonese, provincial ministers are unconstitutional creatures.

Our Constitution did not establish Provincial Ministers who should be called governors.

They are a way of sneaking in governors through the back door that the Constitution took out.

So for the Government to tell us and for the Hon.


Minister to want to continue to fund the administration of Provincial Ministers and refuse to fund provincial councils is hypocrisy, it only does nothing but discredit the sincerity and the bona fides of this Government.

Remember the hundreds of thousands and millions of Zimbabweans who marched on that fateful day, they did so not because they were just doing so; but we expect a totally new dispensation and we expect the Constitution to be implemented.
So, Madam Speaker, I would hope that the Hon.

Minister retracts his threat to bring a Bill to remove provincial councils before they are even born.

My humble proposal is that possibly, they might need to revisit with His Excellency, hopefully, the very institution of Provincial Ministers.

Those are not necessary, let us have provincial councils instead.

The third point I want to make Madam Speaker is that, I fear that we are at the risk of passing an unconstitutional Finance Act 2018.
I fear that because there are again certain provisions that are in the Constitution regarding financial provisions that we seem to have just hopped, skipped and jumped over, this is unacceptable especially in a dispensation that came about because we were unhappy that the former President did not adhere to the Constitution and we were even impeaching him around that.

Fortunately, he resigned before that.

I will just mention them - but before I go there, there is another issue of sincerity.
The test for whether this new Government is sincere about transforming the economy of Zimbabwe and improving the lives of Zimbabwean and implementing the Constitution is the diaspora vote.

Madam Speaker, it is my hope that there be allocations for providing administrative facilities for ensuring that Zimbabweans who are not State employees also vote.

We were told at the pre-budget seminar that Nigeria for instance, doubled its diaspora remittances by simply allowing Nigerians outside to vote.

If the Hon.
If the Hon.

Minister is sincere about growing our budget from $4 billion and if that is what is more important to him and the Government than retaining power, surely it is time to fund the Diaspora vote.

I have also not seen the Hon.

Minister show us a comprehensive statement of public debt in terms of Section 300 (4) simultaneously with the budget.

I would like to be educated on that because the Constitution says while we deal with this budget, we must have that statement.
If we do not implement Section 305 (3), the 5% of all revenues that is an amount of $200 million.

Madam Speaker, for local authorities - this budget will not be constitutional.

Also the Council of Chiefs enjoys a separate vote like was said by the report on the Portfolio Committee on Local Government.

That would be constitutional.

I do not know whether Government last spent totally within the budget.

I do not recall the Hon.


Minister coming to this House in terms of Section 307 to allow us to authorise if we want, expenditure that is overshot.

I want to propose that the Hon.

Minister reduces the rate of PAYE as well as that of value added VAT because we were told in the pre-budget seminar that those two heads of tax constitute the bulk of the revenue base PAYE alone in a country that has 98% unemployment, it constitutes the biggest head of revenue which is 15%!
Surely that means the Zimbabwean employee is working like a slave.

Can the Hon.

Minister reduce that because it is disproportionate, while working on long term measures to grow the tax base?

I want to also ask the Hon.

Minister to remember to ensure that he uses the leverage he has to ensure that local authorities are funded.
For example, Harare water - we cannot continue having a Reserve Bank conducting quasi-fiscal activities and rescuing a capital because there is insufficient funding for local authorities.

Hon.

Minister, give local authorities their $200 million that is the 5% in terms of Section 304 (b), and also ensure that you allocate funding to the Ministry of Health to ensure that it in turn, pays to local authorities the amount it is supposed to pay every year for public health facilities.
This is because all these things are making local authorities groan as well as the Zimbabwe National Roads Authority.

Let the Hon.

Minister and his colleagues ensure that we allow local authorities to receive direct funding so that they can fix roads.

I want to end there by requesting the Hon.

Minister who is busy somewhere and I do not know whether he will read the Hansard tomorrow, maybe he will.
I would also want him to look at the issue of fiscal discipline and refunding of the elections in particular.

We were told by the Electoral Commission that the money it has will not be sufficient to cause a free and fair election.

There are cuts that will have to be made.

If the Hon.

Minister does not increase funding, there will be insufficient voter education, especially around the inspection of the Voters’ Roll.

We cannot afford another disputed election.


If this is a new dispensation, we must see a stopping of all that abuse...

THE HON.

DEPUTY SPEAKER: I hope you are winding up your time is up.

HON.

MAJOME: Thank you Madam Speaker.


The abuse of State resources to conduct political rallies that we saw in the Government of the former President where provincial administrators, district administrators and all other Government officials will be using their vehicles and fuel to go and sit at what were called ‘meet the people interfaces’.

It is my hope that the Hon.
Finance Minister will take steps to ensure that this Government exercises maximum financial discipline and that his party which is in Government does not abuse State resources, but that the money that we are allocating to the Ministries and Governments get used only for those purposes, and also even stopping this strange behavior of fully paid advertisements that cost a lot of money, that of congratulating people that can be congratulated by buying a greeting card at OK or wherever it is.
Madam Speaker, I end there by hoping that the Hon.

Minister of Finance addresses particularly those constitutional issues that he has possibly forgotten, but which would render this budget an unconstitutional budget and unconstitutional Finance Act, if you do not address these issues and the other issues it will not show that the Government is serious about growing the economy and about implementing the Constitution so that we can have investor confidence local and external.

I thank you Madam Speaker.


HON.

MANGAMI: Thank you Madam Speaker.

May I also add my voice to this Finance Bill?

I am going to talk about three items only.

Firstly, I would like to talk about the budget for Parliament.

I feel that the budget for Parliament has to be increased because when we are carrying out our oversight role, for example I was a former Chairperson in the Committee on SMEs.
We have not conducted our oversight role which we planned in 2015 where we could not monitor projects which were done under SMEDCO, until the Ministry was dissolved.

So, up to now we have not done that because there are insufficient funds in Parliament.

It appears that some Committees are going to be sponsored by donors thereby disadvantaging other Committees.

I appeal that the budget for Parliament be increased so that no Committee is disadvantaged.
The other issue which I want to talk about is on Health.

A Health Ministry has to be funded sufficiently because right now, maternity has been made free but it has to be paid for elsewhere by someone.

What we are going to have is that women are going to be asked to purchase some of the things are required during giving birth.

By so doing, they will end up paying when they are not supposed to pay.

So, I think the budget for the Health Ministry has to be increased.
The other issue is about the legislation which we once asked in this House concerning the export of labour.

I understand that the current budget is so big in terms of the payment of labour.

If we are going to have legislation on how we can export labour, it will be easy for the Finance Ministry to do away with the labour that we have.

Right now, we are looking at the ECDs.

If we have an opportunity to export them when we do not need some of them, it would be okay.
So, I appeal to the Minister of Labour to actually assist the Ministry of Finance by coming up with a legislation to export labour like what other countries do.

If that does not happen, I feel that the ECD teachers should also go under training with Government sponsoring them.

This is because their courses allow them to teach the infants and so, they should be incorporated in other grades if they are not going to be paid by Government because obviously, parents cannot pay.
Lastly Madam Speaker, in the past we have had the infants department – the informal part of it when they are coming from their homes was being bridged during the six weeks of teaching when these infants come to school.

I think that should also be looked at so that the same system which was there before can also be used.

I thank you.

HON.

MARIDADI: Thank you Madam Speaker for this opportunity to debate.
Technical issues on the economy, technical issues on how money should be raised and how money should be allocated and spent has been dealt with quite elaborately.

Issues of legislation, what the Minister must do pertaining to legislation have been dealt with.

The last time I stood up to debate the Budget in the last session, I said that Hon.

Chinamasa was a very honest man and that he was a very good Minister of Finance but his problem then was that he was working for a very bad boss.
However, now there is new sheriff in town, Hon.

Chinamasa has a good boss and it is a new dispensation.

Madam Speaker, I want to deal with the political issues of this Budget.

When I got married as a young man, my mother said to me, now that you are in a marriage, there is company that you cannot keep because it does not add value to your new style of life.

Madam Speaker, our President is the groom, this country is the bride.
There is a company that the President kept before he became President that he cannot afford to continue to keep because we are in a new dispensation.

The President must now start to make very painful decisions and say there are some people that he can no longer be able to associate with because of who they are.

Madam Speaker, I want to deal with the issue of corruption.
There are people in this country who when you mention about their names or when you talk about corruption, you cannot construct a sentence which talks about corruption and not mention their names.

Their names have become so synonymous with the word corruption.

They are so embedded and that is the kind of company our President cannot afford to keep anymore.

Madam Speaker, the President in his inauguration speech said there will be zero tolerance to corruption and that there will be no sacred cows.
There are people that seat in Cabinet today with His Excellency, that I think must be excused.

They must be excused, go under due process and they must clear their names.

We are in Parliament here to assist the Executive to run this country.

When we are in this Parliament, we have not come here to make friends, Hon.

Minister of Finance, Madam Speaker.


If in the process of debating in order to placate our country from the economic problems that it has, if it means in the process we must loose friends, for me, so be it.

I am addressing this in particular, to His Excellency, the President and I am saying this, Your Excellency, in your Cabinet, when you have a man like Hon.

Obert Mpofu, the Minister of Home Affairs, you have a problem.

There is a problem of 15 billion dollars that this country must deal with.
We were told by the former President and I do not think he was wrong.

The former President said, 15 billion dollars either in money or in diamonds disappeared.

The person who was in charge of mines then was Hon.

Obert Mpofu.

Madam Speaker, the President cannot continue to be seen working with Hon.

Obert Mpofu who is now the Minister of Home Affairs if he has not gone through due process which clears him of that corruption.
I think what must happen and there will be no sacred cows, that is what the President said and I am taking a leaf from what the President has said.

Madam Speaker, a former Chief Executive of a State institution has written a letter to His Excellency, the President and has outlined a latent of allegations of corruption.

Hon.

Super Mandiwanzira has not gone through due process and yet we hear ZACC saying he has no case to answer.

ZACC is not a court of law, ZACC are not the police.

Hon.
Hon.

Super Mandiwanzira should be able to say to His Excellency; Your Excellency, I see what is being said about me, let me go on sabbatical leave, let me excuse myself and subject myself to due processes and be cleared and then you can re-appoint me and I will work with you.

Madam Speaker, trust me, I hold dear the principle of not innocent until proven guilty.

I am not saying they are guilty but they must be subjected to due processes and they must clear themselves.
When you are a public servant, a Member of Parliament, a Minister or Speaker of Parliament; you have subjected yourself to scrutiny and people will scrutinise you.

People will put you on the slaughter table, people will slaughter you, dissect you and scrutinise you.

This is exactly what we are doing to our Ministers; we are putting them on a slaughter table, we are dissecting them.

We are saying your Excellency, Mr. President; this is what we think about your people.
Subject them to due process and when they are cleared by due processes, only then can they be re- appointed.

Madam Speaker, if Dr. Chombo was arrested for corruption, Mr. Walter Mzembi arrested for donating four televisions and then you have another Minister who has been arrested for being seen in possession of some packets of beans, some packets of rappoko, how about a man who was in charge of the Ministry of Mines when 15 billion dollars disappeared.
At least he must give a statement to the police at the very least.

He must be able to walk into a police station and give a statement.

Madam Speaker, those are the issues that this country must grapple with.

We can talk about 4 billion dollars being inadequate, this country in terms of resources, is a rich country.

The problem is that the bucket in which you are putting the resources, Minister of Finance, has no bottom, there is so much slippage.
Zimbabwe has nothing to show for the diamonds that were discovered in Chiadzwa.

China has better things to show for our diamonds in Chiadzwa.

There are better houses that were constructed in South Africa with money that was taken out of this country by people who split it out of the country to South Africa.

South Africa has better things to show.

When we talk about corruption in this House, it is not good enough for us to say, no, there is too much corruption; the President must deal with it.
The reason I am mentioning names is because I am saying to His Excellency, the President deal with these people, subject them to due process.

When they have been subjected to due process, they must be cleared by competent courts of law.

Hon.

Mliswa one day stood here to say that he has been arrested for more than 8 times and that on all those occasions he was taken to court and was cleared by a competent court of law, what is good for the goose is good for the gander.
Madam Speaker, I am saying this, Hon.

Ministers that have skeletons in their closets must subject themselves to due process and they must excuse themselves from the President, be subjected and clear themselves.

Madam Speaker, the most saddening scenario is that a person, who then reports that a Minister has engaged in this corruption, is the person who is arrested.

Now, we are told Reward Kangai is guilty of criminal abuse of office.
He has not been taken to court because he is making allegations against the Minister, the Minister is making counter allegations; those two people must be brought before a court of law.

The court of law must decide who is guilty and who is not.

Madam Speaker, for as long as we do not make painful decisions, for as long as we do not come to this House and make very painful debates, as a nation, we are going round in circles.

Next year, the Hon.
Next year, the Hon.

Minister will come to this House and he will again present a Budget of 4 billion.

Portfolio Committee Chairpersons will stand up and say this money is not enough, we must do a, b, c, but as long as this corruption is still in this country, we are not going anywhere.

I was watching videos, some of the houses that we have in this country, you cannot have such houses in a developed economy like South Africa.
There are people who live in such Houses, in a 4 billion dollar economy, where on earth does a person get money to construct a three storey building that is bullet proof with 27 bedrooms, all en suite.

The last time I was here making my contribution, I said to the former President, Mr. President when you are going to your house and you see Hon.

Kasukuwere’s house to your right what goes on in your head.
Quite honestly if you are the man in charge and you see that somebody who is working for you has such property, you must be able to ask where did he get this money from.

A person who has not invented anything, a person who has no known business, all he did was get into Government and the next time he has constructed a four storey building with 27 bedrooms and it is bullet proof and it has a helipad.
For as long as we have Ministers who have 19 year old children going to university driving vehicles that are worth $196 000, we can talk about Hon.

Chinamasa and how he can cut on Government expenses, it will not help.

How do people get the money to import a vehicle that is worth $200 000 for a girl who is 19 years?

Where are they getting the forex from?

Hospitals have no drugs and yet a minister’s daughter is cruising in a Land Rover Autobiography worth $196 000.
Where did the Minister get the foreign currency from?

Those are the difficult conversations that we must have with His Excellency.

We have seen pictures on social media where a Minister parks 11 state of the art vehicles.

The cheapest of those vehicles is worth $150 000.

Some of the cars that the spouses of ministers are driving, those are the kind of vehicles that are driven by Prince Philip, the husband to Queen Elizabeth and those vehicles are manufactured in England.
That is why they are able to drive those vehicles.

In a country like this one, I am telling you some of the vehicles that are driven by children of ministers, if you sell that vehicle and put that money in Mabvuku-Tafara, I have said this is my favourite; even stray cats will come back home because there will be adequate money in the constituency.

It is time for us to make painful decisions.


We must be able to say Your Excellency the President, this is the list of Ministers that you have given, this one must be subjected to due process.

This one because of this, must go there.

This one because of this, he must go there.

This one because of this, must go to court.

There are people who sit in Cabinet who in all honesty must not be sitting in Cabinet.

They must be in Chikurubi.

What they are doing in Cabinet I do not understand –[HON.
CHINAMASA: Bring evidence.

]- The Hon.

Minister here says come with the evidence – the house that was built by the former Commissioner General of Police, you know his salary, you know how much he earns, how does he afford to build a house which is bigger than Holiday Inn.

That is the evidence.

What more evidence do you want?

If you see a 14 year old girl pregnant and the father says my daughter was raped and the Minister says bring the evidence.
She is pregnant, it means somebody had sex with her and made her pregnant.

What more evidence do you want when pregnancy is there?

The Hon.

Minister must know that 75% of the problems in this country is not because people are not paying taxes, it is not because there is a huge informal sector.

Seventy-five per cent of the problems in this country are because people in high places are corrupt.

It is simple and straightforward.

This is because of corruption.


What is the Minister saying trying to defend the indefensible?

You must continue Hon.

Minister to protect the guilty.

If you continue to protect the guilty – we were patient for 37 years, I can guarantee you now that Zimbabweans will not have another 37 years to wait.

Trust me on that.

Zimbabweans will not have another 37 years to wait.

I will not have another 37 years to wait because if I wait another 37 years, by then I will be 90 and I will be of no use.
I do not have that time.

The time to act is now.

If nothing happens to those Ministers that are facing allegations of corruption, I will tell you what we would do.

We will effect citizen’s arrest outside.

We will arrest them because the Constitution allows us to do that.

You will still be looking for evidence Hon.

Minister and those people will be arrested.

When we arrest them, we will cause a scene and see what the President is going to do.
Is he going to exonerate them before they go to court or are they going to go to court and get convicted and then he pardons them.

This is a new dispensation.

A new dispensation means a new way of doing things.

A new way of doing things means there should be no sacred cows.

If there should be no sacred cows, the axe should start chopping people that are in Cabinet.

If we say to members in Cabinet please declare your assets, there will be a funeral in this House.
People will come into this House and all these Hon.

Members will be mourning like they are at a funeral because there are people that we know that we grew up with.

I grew up in the dusty streets of Mabvuku and there are Ministers that I know who grew up wherever they grew up – poorer than the way I grew up.

The moment they joined ZANU PF, they are put into Cabinet; all of a sudden, wow, they are rich.

That is why today you find that ministers have several small houses because they can afford to do it.
Without money, you cannot afford to have small houses.

Those are serious issues that His Excellency the President must address.

If the President does not address that, he is going to suffer what is called collateral damage.

Former President Mugabe, we removed him using an impeachment because of collateral damage.

Probably, the former President Mugabe himself did not commit any acts of corruption but because he allowed corruption to take root within his watch.
His Excellency the President, when he comes back before he goes to Davos, he must deal with these issues of his ministers.

I think I have said enough and I appeal to His Excellency in order to help the Minister of Finance who I think is a very good Minister but he needs a good boss and he needs all the support that he can muster.

In the previous dispensation, the Hon.

Minister would say my hands are tied.

His hands have been freed and the Hon.

Minister must be able to speak truth to power.


He must be able to walk up to his boss, the President and say Mr. President, this job that you gave me, I cannot perform it with this man near you and this other man near you and this woman near you.

That is what the Minister must do.

If the Minister does not do that, then he is not living up to expectation.

He will come here and start mourning that I have not enough money.

Money is there.

It is in the pockets of those that he sits with in Cabinet.
Madam Speaker I say ini nemi tine basa.

Asante sana.

HON.

MLISWA: Thank you Madam Speaker for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this Finance Bill.

The issue of corruption is an issue which brings confidence or will chase away investors.

The Government has failed in its promise to the people to deal with the aspect of zero tolerance on corruption… THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Order, there is a vehicle registration number ADI-8984 which is blocking other vehicles.
May the owner please go and remove your vehicle.

HON.

MLISWA: I want to address the issue of corruption being imbedded in us as a country even at institutions that we believe should be protecting us, institutions that should be advancing the objectives of this country.

The Cabinet - the Cabinet is responsible for the implementation of Government policy at every level so that the manifesto that the ruling party would have delivered to the people or promised the people is delivered at the end of the day.
We have a situation where you really ask yourself, what does Cabinet really do?

When you look at how badly we perform, Cabinet seems to just sit, have coffee and go to their offices.

For a very long time, I have never understood the role of Cabinet and I would equally ask these Hon.

Ministers what they do in Cabinet because there is no work on the ground which they discuss and think in Cabinet.

We have situations where Cabinet departs from the very policy that it is supposed to put forward.
Let me talk about the recommendations that were made by the Comptroller and Auditor-General pertaining to parastatals and ministries.

It is important that we deal with facts.

This is the reason why this Parliament supported the Comptroller and Auditor-General in retaining that position because of the good work that she had done but most of the recommendations - nothing was ever done.

There is no way an Hon.

Minister appointed by Cabinet should do anything outside Cabinet.
We had a situation where this august House recommended that Air Zimbabwe must not function but then we had a situation where there was Zimbabwe Airways created by an Hon.

Minister who sits in Cabinet.

My question would be, are there minutes from Cabinet which say the Hon.

Minister was supposed to fund Zimbabwe Airways?

The reason why I am saying this is that most of what the Hon.

Ministers were doing was outside their mandate.


There are no minutes at all relating to what they did, which means there needs to be a thorough investigation by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) together with the police on every decision the Hon.

Minister took, whether it was sanctioned by Cabinet or not.

This is where the corruption must start from.

If it was a directive from the former President, it must be in black and white.

We cannot have situations where Hon.


Ministers are hiding behind the former President because you are corrupt.

You were protecting the former President because you were scared of going to jail because you had been stealing – [HON.

MEMBERS: Hear, hear.]

- Not because you liked, him that is why you wanted him to be in power because you knew that you would end up in jail.

The whole former Cabinet and current Cabinet members need to be investigated and those who are clean must stay in Cabinet.
Those who are clean must not go because what stops us from believing that they will still do what they used to do with the current President?

- [HON.

MEMBERS: Hear, hear.]

– We will continue having Operation Restore Legacy Two and we cannot have that happening.

So we must be very clear.

His Excellency, Cde.

Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, whether you like it or not is the man for the job but the question is, are his lieutenants the people for the jobs?
I must say that I was disappointed by the Cabinet that he appointed because I looked at the personnel in ZANU PF and said to myself, you have people who are educated and work hard in their constituencies but they are not rewarded.

An Hon.

Member of Parliament is rewarded when he/she is working hard in his constituency and contributing in Parliament but we have Cabinet members who have never said anything in Parliament.

So what will they say in Cabinet?

We have Hon.


Members of Parliament who do not go the constituencies to a point where you end up losing confidence.

The people lose confidence in that team.

It is important that when Cabinet is picked, the Head of State equally consults the Hon.

Speaker to say, Hon.

Speaker, is this Hon.

Member of Parliament qualified to be a Cabinet Minister?

It is important, this institution is critical.


You know, I have nothing against the wealth of anybody especially the wealth of Hon.

Mpofu because I would like to have the same wealth but I would like to ask him how he acquired it.

When children are growing up they always say, I want to be like Batman, Superman and so forth because you see how they fly.

I would like to know, for me to be as rich as him, how did he get that rich?
For me, he seems to have a better career being a business person than a Minister but he chooses to be a Minister and allows his business to go broke.

His business triumphed while he was a Minister especially when he was the Minister of Mines and Mining Development.

People are not stupid.

If you think they are stupid, they are not.

He had a bank when we was Minister of Mines and Mining Development, where did he get the money from?

Now he is a partner in a mine in Hwange, Makomo - is it?
This Cabinet, if I am not mistaken, wanted to give him a $600 million sovereign guarantee.

If I am lying, members of the Cabinet should tell me yes or no.

A $600 million sovereign guarantee for a Minister who used its powers to go and get the money and we must be sitting here endorsing $600 million!

You think the world will give $600 million to entities acquired in a corrupt manner?

The former President, I am told, was aware but it is a few Ministers who were able to object.
Thank God to the factions of ZANU PF because some of this information, I get it from the G40 members.

They would say, but this issue the President knew but others argued and said, but if Government is to do that guarantee, then it must be a shareholder – but they were prepared, sovereign guarantee for $600 million with the Chinese.

So to me, it is an issue which I am saying, how much money has been signed for at the expense of the people?
Today, we have a situation where the issue of that mine, it is important that as Hon.

Members of Parliament, every Zimbabwean has a right to own business but there is also a problem.

When you become the Minister of Mines and Mining Development, you are equally having more businesses to do with mines.

Ethically and morally, it is wrong but because you have a habit of stealing, you do not see how wrong it is.
So we have a situation where investors must put in money when they know what is happening and we have such members of Cabinet and so forth.

We had the aspect of Command Agriculture - I want to talk about Command Agriculture.

We have names of companies sponsoring Command Agriculture - where is the money coming from?

Tell us!

Command Agriculture is being funded by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning through Treasury Bills but we see companies saying they are giving money.
Can we see the paper trail of how much money they have put into Command Agriculture for us to be able to say they are putting in money?

We are not blind to this.

We are here to represent people and we shall say the truth.

Whether you are linked to a General or not, it does not matter because Zimbabwe comes first.

– [HON.

MEMBERS: Hear, hear.]

– We shall equally target criminals around the Generals, if you think being associated with the Generals is your way of making money.
Then sorry, we shall tell the Generals that this is a criminal.

The same way we used to tell the former President; he is a criminal, he allowed them to be around him – where is he today?

It was a people’s revolution because corruption had been too much and people were suffering.

– [HON.

MEMBERS: Hear, hear.]

- The ruling party is the last party to say that they are the ones who put His Excellency in power.

They kicked him out in all the provinces.

Did you not sit down and resolve that E.D.


Mnangagwa must go?

You did.

Do you think we are stupid?

Now, you want to go around and say to him we helped you.

I have minutes of every provincial meeting that you had to say he must go – the same way you did with the former Vice President Joyce Mujuru.

So, do not come here today and tell us that you are the ones who put him in power.

You got him out.
You got him out.

It was people like us who were not in ZANU PF, the War Veterans, the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, the Opposition and the people of Zimbabwe who put him in power.

Do not claim glory where you have not gained glory – [HON.

MEMBERS: Hear, hear.]

– Today, it was important for people to understand that when it comes to the issue of Zimbabwe, we all get together.
As such, it was important for the President to equally appoint people who are not in the party on merit to also move forward - it was important.

Let them say no to that issue but he would have shown inclusivity in terms of moving forward because that was the people’s revolution.

For the ruling party to claim glory on this, you are lying to yourselves.

The people know that you kicked him out to the point where he border-jumped and walked for 30 minutes.

You actually wanted to arrest him.


So you want to claim what glory?

It was important that everybody is recognised.

I want to talk about the welfare of the war veterans which will never come.

We seem to be very reactionary to war veterans.

We only give them money when they talk.

We treat them like kids.

War veterans are not kids.

The success of any country is measured by how you look after the veterans of the struggle.
If you have not looked after the veterans of the struggle, you have failed as a people.

America looks after its veterans.

Britain does the same too but our war veterans are the poorest.

When it comes to issues of politics, you use and dump them.

Where in the budget do we have a situation where we must address the welfare of the war veterans once and for all?

We do not see anything.

This means that we will be reactionary again.

You still want them to go and march.

Others are no more.
Others are no more.

They are busy queuing up, they are on the ground and they spend days or months ensuring that you are in power but when you are in power you forget about them.

It is important that the welfare of the war veterans is addressed once and for all.

As Members of Parliament, we must be together in this – [HON.

MEMBERS: Hear, hear.]

–The opposition agrees but the ruling party does not do anything.

What are you ruling if you cannot look after the war veterans of the struggle?
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER (HON.

DZIVA): Hon.

Mliswa, you have five minutes to go.

HON.

MLISWA: We had the former President who was a patron of the war veterans.

When you are a patron, you are like a father.

What did he do other than insulting them left right and center; undressing them in public yet they were so kind that they gave him power that he never had during the war.

He comes and treats them in a manner which is unacceptable.

I want to talk about the issue of hospitals.


The budget must address that.

The Abuja declaration is clear on that.

Minister, you are a lawyer – you a Minister of Finance and I expect you to comply with agreements.

There is no debate there.

Let us comply.

The health sector is in a mess.

We have had the First Lady going around doing a good job, exposing the mess in the health sector that has got to be attended to.

I totally agree with Hon.

Cross pertaining to the 5% on those transactions.


I think we need time Hon.

Cross.

I respect you when it comes to these issues.

I must say when we come to issues of finance, black people usually trust white people.

It is a fact, you do not lie.

No wonder why you see that – not that you are not Zimbabwean but what I am trying to say is that 5%, if we look at our economy, the informal sector has more money.

The big businesses no longer have money.


So, if we use that 5% across the board, you talked about the $9 billion that will be generated.

Five percent 5% on every transaction – Hon.

Minister, that money is coming directly to you and not to anyone.

It will kick-start this economy and I think that is a no brainer.

That is something we need to talk about.

Where is the revenue that is coming from the diamond mines?
We had Mbada, Anjin and so forth and there was a moment that the former Minister of Home Affairs, Ignatius Chombo sent 300 police officers with AKs to go and take over a mine.

What was his interest – three hundred police officers with the Commissioner General.

This is where commission of inquiries must be set up on all these issues.

I was arrested so many times but I see that others are not arrested.

I used to go to my uncle Didymus Mutasa and say, sekuru ndasungwa zvonzi enda ku court.
I would go to the current President and say, ndasungwa zvonzi enda ku court.

I would go to the Air Marshal who is a brother to me – enda ku court.

So, why are you also not telling these corrupt people to go to court – [HON.

MEMBERS: Hear, hear.]

– It is only Mliswa who must have a record of being arrested.

I went to court and I was cleared in court and yet the crimes that I had committed had nothing to do with causing havoc in the economy or having to steal money.
It was just from a political point of view.

I am saying this with a heavy heart that I went through everything.

Hanzi it is an allegation, enda inonoperera ku court.

All these are allegations, ngainoperera kucourt ka.

Ko sei muchiramba kuti vaende ku court?

Asi zvinobata ini here?

The President must understand that ZEC cannot be the only institution which arrests people.

From a constitutional point of view, what is their role?

Right now, we read that ZEC has arrested people.


What is the role of the police?

Why are they being given money?

We have police stations in every area.

Saka basa remapurisa rave rei?

ZEC haina mapolice station, ZEC must be overhauled because it is equally corrupt.

That I agree.

– [HON.

MEMBERS: Hear, hear.]

– That, is something that I will agree with the former Vice President Mphoko.

He was right that ZEC must be overhauled.

Even if he is not with us, the truth remains.

ZEC must be overhauled.


It has become corrupt.

Why is it that we only arrest people when they are out of power?

It means all of you here are committing crime but when you are out of power you will be arrested – Hon.

Mavima.

Why are you arrested when you are out of power?

The only person who enjoys immunity is the President.

We have a situation ….

[Time Limit] THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Hon.

Mliswa, can you please conclude.

HON.


MARIDADI: On a point of order Madam Speaker, I propose that we increase the Hon.

Member’s time so that he can round up his debate nicely and talk about all these corrupt people that must go to court.

HON.

ADV.

CHAMISA: I second.

HON.

MLISWA: I want to say something which is important to all the political parties – for me it is sad to say that the former President was destroyed by the people around him.
I even equally say about the opposition leader, I have never known President Tsvangirai to be corrupt, I will not lie to you; I have never heard of it.

Mugabe, I must be honest too – our leaders seem to have that moral in them but it is the people.

It is important that they choose the right people.

The aspect of Command Agriculture Madam Speaker, we are in the deficit and these figures are important.

We are in a deficit of $1.8 billion.


Six hundred million dollars was used to pay the farmers - that is Treasury Bills for all the maize.

$358 million, if not mistaken was used for Command Agriculture; and $158 million was used for Presidential inputs.

If you calculate that, you are probably hitting $1.2 billion which has gone to agriculture and our deficit is $1.8 billion.

So, in real sense, the money that is owed is $600 million which can be paid easily.
We have a situation where the $600 million paid to the farmers; the farmers were given inputs, they were supposed to pay, how much did they pay back?

There was no money paid back.

So, more money would be printed.

My point Minister, the money that was paid back is not enough, so you are forced to then print more money.
What should happen at the end of the day is that; when those inputs are paid for, that is the money that should be used to then pay for the maize and there is a top up, but we do not have figures of how much was paid by the farmers – [HON.

CHINAMASA: Can you present it during question time?]

– You have a situation of $150 million of the Presidential inputs distributed by the Ministry of Agriculture but the inputs for Command Agriculture are not.

So what is the role of the Ministry of Agriculture?
Who is distributing these inputs if it is not the Ministry of Agriculture and yet the $153 million for the Presidential Inputs is distributed by them?

The timeous issue of inputs is important.

Inputs are coming in late and we have a situation where farmers do not get the yield that they require and we end up in this hole.

We have a situation where that $350 million is given to the suppliers to buy fertilizers, they do not have foreign currency and they are forced to go on the black market.
So, who is pushing inflation, it is the Government – [HON.

MEMBERS: Hear, hear.]

– it is the Government pushing inflation because they keep on printing Treasury Bills and when they need foreign currency, they go on the black market, the rate goes up.

Let me also say this in terms of confidence; there are three issues which are critical in an economy, three factors which make sure an economy ticks; 1.

Expectation 2.

Availability 3.

Cost What do I mean by expectation?


It is the confidence of the people.

I might say since the 15th of November, the rate was at 90% to 100% in terms of RTGS, it has gone down to 60%.

So, it means the confidence is not the issue.

Availability – are things available?

Things are not available because there is no production.

We talk about domestic resource mobilisation which we went to Bulawayo for and we spoke about it.

How much money has gone into domestic resource mobilisation?
We were told that ZISCO Steel needs only $65 million, Kamativi needs a little bit of money but yet we have these people who are called investors who were sitting on our resources.

We have the Great Dyke Investments (GDI) in Darwendale, which should be the biggest platinum mine, no deal has been signed but we are sitting on it.

We have resources which we are sitting on, no one is using them.
However, we have bureaucracy which is allowing this to happen and corruption at the end of the day at the expense of this economy.

So, it is important that these minerals are utilised in a proper sense.

We have got the aspect of cost, who is pushing the cost?

Right now the meat price has gone down, the wholesale price for Super was $67 but in the supermarkets, it was going at $13.
Basically, what we are saying at the end of the day is that we also need to have business which has the discipline of ensuring that they serve the people and not make money.

I want to talk about what the Minister of Lands, Agriculture and Rural Resettlement must do in terms of the farms that the former First Lady owns.

The Government policy is ‘one man, one farm.’ The former First Lady is sitting on over 20 farms, what is Government doing to recover those farms?
There must be no debate because it is a policy on ‘one man, one farm.’ There must be no consulting, the only consulting that must happen is to ask the former First Lady ‘which farm do you want’ out of all these farms, she keeps one and the rest go to the people.

These are the issues that we are talking about.


It is important Madam Speaker that those Ministers who did ills when the former President was there, must be honest and stand in front of this House and the people and say, ‘I was sent to do this which I was not supposed to do, it is called confession when the time is ripe – [HON.

MEMBERS: Hear, hear.]

– because if they do not do that, then they are not honest.
So, it is important Madam Speaker that the new dispensation in having to close, requires Ministers who did things which were not proper, to do things which are proper.

They must be able to say so that ‘I was under pressure, I was instructed by the First Lady or the President then to be able to do this.’ It is about time that the new dispensation does not take instructions from people who do not have Executive powers – [AN HON.

MEMBER: Varikuzvihwa!]

– they must never do that.


Madam Speaker, I want to thank you for giving me this opportunity but I want to remind the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning that the price of maize in Mozambique is $140 per tone, Zambia it is $140 per tone.

This means that the subsidy that Government has given to the farmers here is $250, there is absolutely no way that an economy can take off by giving such a subsidy.
They would rather reduce the cost of inputs so that the farmers grow more and make more profit and so on.

I want to thank you Madam Speaker for giving this opportunity, and Members of Parliament for pushing for the extension of my time.

Thank you very much.

HON.

MANDIPAKA: Thank you Madam Speaker.

Let me start by saying; I really understand the issues that have been raised by Hon.

Maridadi and Hon.

Mliswa and I have a buy-in to their debate, a very strong one.
Madam Speaker, if there is one thing that the new administration will be known for by generations and generations in Zimbabwe; if there is one thing that the new President may be known for by generations and generations, it is the ability to fight corruption practically and not theoretically.

Madam Speaker, why do I say so?

We have the Zimbabwe Anti Corruption Commission (ZACC) in this country, which is legally constituted.
However, when I look at the resources that this nation gives to this body, my heart bleeds, whether it is deliberate or an act of omission or commission, I do not know but for as long as we have ZACC which is underfunded, then the dream to fight corruption will remain in the pipeline forever from one generation to the other.

It is my considered view Hon.

Speaker that we need to fund the Zimbabwe Anti Corruption Commission very strongly if ever we are going to fight corruption.
It would be naïve Mr. Speaker Sir for a nation to introduce an anti corruption commission which is defunct.

It would be meaningless, waste of time and waste of trust by our citizens.

So, Mr. Speaker Sir, I want to urge the Hon.

Minister of Finance and Economic Planning to revisit the resources that have been allocated to the ZACC.
This is one commission which is very sensitive, deals with very sensitive matters of high profile political persons, those in the private sector and in various offices of Government.

I can assure you Mr. Speaker that this Commission needs to be equipped both in terms of material resources and the caliber of persons that are seconded to this Commission should have ethical behaviour, moral uprightness and the aptitude to competently investigate these matters.
In the absence of that, we are fighting a losing war.

Mr. Speaker, we had one on one interaction with the Anti Corruption Commission.

They presented before our Committee a plethora of challenges.

They were talking about human resources.

The intention of the Anti Corruption Commission is to cascade to various cities, centres and districts where corrupt activities are being perpetrated by various people in authority, in offices and in the private sector.
So their intention is to make sure that they cascade to those places and they reach out to everyone, but then, Mr. Speaker, they cannot reach out if they have a skeleton human resource base.

They have no one to deploy.

They are telling us also that sometimes they seek the services of police officers, junior officers for that matter, some of whom are constables.
They are expected to go and investigate a Minister who has stolen well over $500 million and that constable is only getting about $100 per month as remuneration.

Do you expect that we are going to make an effective arrest, competently prosecute that person?
No, Mr. Speaker, we will not be able to do that because the moment that constable, that officer from the Anti Corruption Commission is given some money well above what he is getting from Government, he totally forgets about the matter or if he deals with the matter he deliberately ignores relevant evidence that is important for us to secure a conviction.
So, what I am calling for, Mr. Speaker, is that as we second people in the Anti Corruption Commission, we want to second people that have the aptitude and the skills to be able to gather evidence that at the end of the day we secure a conviction.

If there is anything that people out there are crying for, it is the fight against corruption.
I represent Buhera West, Mr. Speaker Sir, and in Buhera West people are up in arms with corruption that is taking place either in Government institutions or in the private sector because this is disadvantaging those people who cannot even manage a dollar in the rural areas because one person would have amassed wealth.

It is high time, Mr. Speaker Sir, in this new era, in this new dispensation, that we walk the talk.

We become very practical about it.


It is one thing to pick Mr. A, put him in cells, write a docket and pick Mr. C, put him in cells, write a docket.

It is another thing to ensure that we have a conviction.

Why do we need convictions - because they will send the right signals to those of the like mind.

So, my appeal is that as we investigate these cases, at the end of the day, we must secure convictions so that others of the like mind are deterred.
We are a nation endowed with a lot of resources, but for as long as we do not have a change of the mindset, for as long as we are greedy, for as long as we want aggrandize wealth, for as long as we want to disadvantage others then we are not getting anywhere.

I think that it is high time in this new dispensation that all of us introspect and make sure that we live a truthful life, faithful life so that even when we die, in heaven we are accepted.
It is unfair that someone does not manage $10 and someone can manage $500 000, $1 million, $20 million, but the earnings are almost the same.

So, Mr. Speaker Sir, it is high time that we equip the Anti Corruption Commission by way of giving them resources.
One of the problems that they raised when we had an interaction with them is that they do not have vehicles because when you investigate cases of corrupt and scandals, you need to be mobile, but if you do not have the resources to ensure mobility, at the end of the day, those cases are lost.
At the end of the day, His Excellency the new President will fail to have the credit, which credit he is supposed to be getting because he has a vision for this country which vision has been accepted by the majority of our people in Zimbabwe.

Mr. Speaker Sir, my appeal to the Hon.

Minister of Finance and Economic Development is to actually revisit the budget that has been allocated to the Zimbabwe Anti Corruption Commission.
I have information on good authority that ZACC went to Russia to understudy how Russia has actually sorted out their anti corruption commission which they feel is very effective.

I want to believe that when those officers were seconded to Russia they came and wrote a report.

I think it is important and paramount that ZACC be allowed to exchange notes with other countries that have an anti corruption commission which is running smoothly.

We have countries like China.


Mr. Speaker Sir, we have often said in our policies let us look East.

If you look East when someone is found guilty of corruption in China, it is death untold.

I do not know whether I am correct but I believe that is correct.

He is killed just because when you amass wealth at the expense of the nation, it is just as good as genocide economically to those people that must gain from their resources.

So, I am praying to the Hon.


Minister that we want to take a relook and equip our Anti Corruption Commission.

The police force has to do their part.

They have to play a role and ensure that they complement the activities of the Anti Corruption Commission so that at the end of the day, we have a cleaner society.
We might not be able to completely eradicate but at the end of the day, we are able to promote a society, a nation of people that are honest, people of integrity so that we do not paralyse our economy.

Corruption should be fought from all angles and it is a clarion call to the nation that let us endeavour to live a truthful life for the betterment of generations to come.

I thank you.

HON.

DR. KHUPE: Thank you very much Hon.

Speaker.


The budget we are debating here today is a cake and for me, this cake must be shared equitably amongst all the 13 million people in Zimbabwe.

I would like to applaud all the Hon.

Members who spoke before me because they raised pertinent issues, but I would like to take this opportunity to speak as a woman; at the same time, to speak as a mother.
I want to speak on behalf of the voiceless and these voiceless are women who are in the rural areas who are in the majority.

I want to talk about a woman who is in Uzumba-Maramba-Pfungwe, a woman who is in Binga, Bubi and in Shamva.

These women, Mr. Speaker Sir, wake up as early as 4.00 a.m.

It is either they are carrying a baby on their back, are pregnant or both.

They go to work on the land using primitive tools.


Mr. Speaker Sir, what I expect from this budget is for it to cater for modern agricultural technologies like drip irrigation so that women do not wake up as early as 4.00 a.m to go and use primitive tools because with drip irrigation, you use a small piece of land, little water, but the yield is very high.
If you plant maize on one hectare, your yield is between seven to 10 tonnes and this is more than enough for the women such that they will be able to have food, at the same time sell the surplus maize so that they are able to pay school fees for their children and look after their families.

When they come back from the fields they carry a bucket of water.

They walk for kilometers to go and fetch water.


Mr. Speaker Sir, I want this budget to make sure that women have water in their homes, they open water from taps.

God gave us a lot of water.

Even if it does not rain there is a lot of water underground, Mr. Speaker Sir.

Therefore, boreholes must be dug so that people have got water in their homes and this budget is supposed to cater for that.

After that Mr. Speaker Sir, these women go and look for firewood to come and cook.
I expect this budget to cater for at least bio-gas because every person in the rural area has got a cow and biogas uses cow dung so that women are able to cook using stoves.

This will also deal with issue of environmental degradation where trees are cut every day.

So, I expect this budget to deal with these issues so that the burden is lifted from the shoulders of the women Mr. Speaker Sir.

This is how the cake is going to be shared.


Mr. Speaker Sir, health is a very important component for development because a health nation produces but an unhealthy nation does not produce.

At the same time, investors will not come to a country where the disease burden is very high.
This therefore is important that this budget makes sure that the Abuja Declaration is implemented in the letter and spirit in which it was adopted by all Head of States, including our own Head of State Mr. Speaker Sir; 15% without fail.

We do not want any negotiations, 15% of the US$5.7b which is our budget this year must go towards health – [HON.

MEMBERS: Hear, hear.]

– Our maternal mortality rate is 960 out of 100 000 live births.

Meaning that about 15 women die every day while giving life.
Mr. Speaker Sir, this must come to a stop and women are even detained because of failing to pay user fees.

Mr. Speaker Sir, when women are giving birth they are performing a national duty and therefore they must not be punished for that.

So, women must not pay a cent for performing a national duty.

This must not remain on paper Mr. Speaker Sir.

It must be done on real terms because we do not want it to remain on paper.
Cancer has become a leading epidemic, it is a silent killer and it is killing many people Mr. Speaker Sir.

It has become so fatal than HIV.

People are dying because they do not know they have cancer.

In Africa and in Zimbabwe, people discover they have cancer when it has reached stages three and four.

These are advanced stages and very little can be done.
Therefore, this Budget must ensure that there are screening facilities everywhere and that cancer treatment is available and is accessible because we have got two hospitals which deal with cancer, that is Mpilo and Parirenyatwa hospitals.

Cancer treatment must be decentralised; it must be everywhere so that everybody has access to that.

Mr. Speaker Sir, education is the foundation of any country because if you want to build a strong house you must build it on a strong foundation.
I have seen pictures of school children sitting on the floor with no textbooks, with nothing.

How do you expect to build your house on a foundation which is weak?

These days it is weak because children are not learning.

In early Childhood Development, children have a teacher to pupil ratio of 1:80; one teacher is supposed to teach 80 children.

Mr. Speaker Sir, they are no longer teaching but they are babysitting because there is no way you can teach 80 children.
So, this Budget must make sure that education is catered for and the Dakar Declaration must be implemented.

On production, this country requires money Mr. Speaker Sir.

Money will not flow from heaven when this country is not producing.

The manufacturing sector, the agricultural sector, the mining sector must produce and export so that we get the much needed foreign currency.

Right now, Zimbabwe is highly informalised with more than 5.4 million people in the informal sector.
We are not producing anything Mr. Speaker Sir.

The informal sector in its current form does not facilitate capital accumulation.

So for you to think that the informal sector will do miracles, it will not happen.

The informal sector right now is a supermarket of other countries.

We want the informal sector to start operating so that the informal sector becomes a supermarket for the formal sector.

This is what our mothers used to do.


My mother used to go to Merlin to buy towels, Cotton Printers to buy bed sheets, National Blankets to buy blankets.

She used to sell those blankets to Botswana.

She would come back with Pula, take the money to a bank and be given equivalent Zimbabwean dollars and this is how this country generated foreign currency.

The informal sector cannot operate without the formal sector.

It has never happened.


They must complement each other and therefore it is important that the formal sector starts operating so that the informal sector also becomes a giant in this country.

Otherwise Hon.

Minister, there is no way the informal sector can operate without the formal sector.

They are buying things from outside the country and they are taking money outside the country and not bringing money into the country.
They must go and buy their products from the formal sector and then sell those products to other countries and bring foreign currency.

That is the new money we are talking about.

Lastly, Mr. Speaker Sir, I want to talk about Government.

Government must learn to live within its means.

Hon.

Minister, you must eat what you kill, you have been killing a rat and yet you have been eating an elephant.
It does not work, you cannot kill a rat and eat an elephant, and this is why our budget deficit is very high.

Let us learn to live within our means.

Finally on corruption, charity begins at home Hon.

Speaker Sir.

Let us not talk about what is happening these days, looking for small monies, arresting small fish; please give us a break.

We want big fish to be investigated, the US$15 billion - charity begins at home.
It must begin in the Cabinet because that is where most of the culprits are in the Cabinet.

For diamonds they are there, gold they are there, they must be investigated.

We want that money.

Like I said earlier on, this budget is a cake and this cake must be shared equitably amongst all the 13 million Zimbabweans.
Every Zimbabwean must get a fair share of their cake and it can only happen when they go and get all the monies that disappeared in thin air and plough them back to the communities Mr. Speaker Sir, I rest my case – [HON.

MEMBERS: Hear, hear] – HON.

DR. MASHAKADA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir.

For the purpose of the Minister of Finance and the Deputy Minister of Finance, I will raise the following issues in my debate.
I will start to talk about the theme of the budget, after that the macro-economic framework, the fiscal framework, the economic and public financial management, policy issues, policy clarity, policy consistency, policy coherence and I will also touch on the challenges of implanting this budget.

Mr. Speaker Sir, I think you will agree with me that this budget, compared to other budgets that were presented in the past is far much improved.
There is a huge improvement in this budget and I must comment the Minister and the Deputy Minister for trying their best to come up with a far, far much improved budget than in the past.

May be as the Minister said, it was because of a new economic order which was riding on the euphoria of a new political dispensation.

So, I think that buoyed the Minister to improve in this Budget preparation.

I must comment on the theme of the budget which is the new economic order.
The new economic order is premised on the new political dispensation and I want to say that if the new economic order is going to succeed, Government must avoid the mistakes of the past.

This Government must copy good things and abandon those bad things that were happening during the previous Government if this economic order is going to prevail.

What are those things which Government must throw into the bin in order to give this budget a breathing space?
The first thing is what I call State-party conflation.

Under President Mugabe, it was no longer possible to differentiate party with Government business.

There was a lot of party-State conflation.

Birthday bashes, rallies and other party programmes dipping into the Treasury and fiscus.

That causes a fiscal nightmare for the Minister of Finance.

So, in the new economic order which is the theme of the budget, such practices have to be abandoned.
The issue of clientelism and patronage, partisan distribution of inputs and food aid, selective application of the law, stalling of economic and political reforms, democracy, good governance, human rights and so on; are the things which the new Government should improve on to underpin the new economic order which the budget is talking about.
I am already disappointed by the fact that whereas the old Government did not want to implement the Constitution, the new dispensation also is averse to the implementation of the new Constitution.

The Minister of Finance categorically stated that it was expensive to implement the new Constitution.

I think that will be a bad start.

That statement should be reviewed and the new Constitution be adhered to.

Issues of devolution, provincial councils and so on, those things you cannot negotiate them.
They are non-negotiable and the Constitution has to be followed to the letter and spirit and you cannot say because of costs.

In law, there is this term which they call progressive realisation.

You cannot say you do not want to implement the Constitution totally but you must progressively implement those things that are agreed to in the Constitution.

So, I beg the Minister to come back to the issue of implementing the Constitution in its entirety.
Therefore, the new Government must capitalise on the political goodwill that has been existing in this country.

There has been a lot of political goodwill which must be harvested and in order to instill the confidence that is necessary, we have to put Zimbabwe first.

We must identify ourselves as Zimbabweans first not the old dispensation where you had to have a ZANU PF card to be a Zimbabwean, no.

We are all Zimbabweans first before we go to our political parties.
I was encouraged by President Mnangagwa’s visit to see the MDC President.

That is ubuntuism and what we expect as a country working together and respecting opposition leaders and the opposition.

That is very important.

The swearing in speech, the SONA and budget, all said good things in terms of the economy and these are the things that we have been saying all over again.
The issue of indigenisation – I have been standing on this platform Mr. Speaker, talking about indigenisation that it does not work in the then current form.

I called for the review of this legislation and finally I am glad that sense prevailed and the law has now been reviewed to only apply to the platinum and the diamond sectors.

This is as it should be because investors do not want a red flag.

They want to come, have control and ownership in viable and productive sectors.
So, the review of the Indigenisation Policy is a positive thing which we have always said and now it has been followed.

The issue of the land tenure and compensation issue which are contained in this budget should be attended to as a matter of urgency.

The problem Mr. Speaker Sir is that land has been a dead asset because the land market has not been functioning because of the issue of tenure.

Let us not be just rhetoric about restoring the land market.

Let us do it.
Let us do it.

Give title deeds to farmers so that they can use that as collateral to gain access to funding from financial institutions.

The issue of compensation of those erstwhile farmers should be expedited because that is something that is affecting confidence in the agricultural sector.

The issue of corruption, I cannot dwell on that because it has been adequately emphasised.

The issue of investor protection is very important.
I was encouraged in the budget that the Bilateral Investment Protection and Promotion Agreements are now being honoured.

We owe a lot of money to BIPPA arrangements so we must honour that in order to reinforce the confidence that is required for the economy to kick-off.

The issue of engagement should actually be speeded up.

It is a step in the right direction.

As I said, I wanted to comment on the theme of the budget … THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Order, Hon.

Member.

Hon.
Member.

Hon.

Members, there are two vehicles which are blocking other vehicles; AED 1069 and ADI 9129.

If the owners are in this Chamber, may they please go and remove them and let other people drive through.

HON.

DR. MASHAKADA: That was my first quick reaction to the theme of the budget, just to say we do not want to see new wine in old bottles.
There has to be a complete paradigm shift if issues of budgetary and economic management are going to succeed, economically and politically as I have commented.

Now, departing from the theme of the budget, I go on to talk about the macro-economic framework which I think is what the Minister is keen to hear.

This budget correctly identified five economic ills.
It identified low export volumes, low production, corruption, low FDI and of course policy inconsistencies and the budget deficit funded by Treasury Bills and other quasi-fiscal operations.

So, there were about five key things this budget identified.

I was shocked to learn that quasi- fiscal operations are still happening.

You remember Mr. Speaker Sir, the RBZ Act had vaccinated the country against quasi-fiscal operations but the Minister admits that they are still alive and kicking.
I think this is something that he has to address urgently.

We cannot continue to have quasi-fiscal operations again having gone through the pains of 2008.

We cannot go back to an era where the RBZ indulges again in quasi-fiscal operations and I think the Minister must address that fast.

Here are the following macro-economic issues which I want to flag.

First is the issue of rates.


It does not make sense for depositors to get a rate of between 1 – 6% but when you go to borrow the money, you are charged a rate of 12,5% or above, it does not make sense.

That arbitrage is not good because it kills on lending for production and also discourages savings.

We are worried that we do not have enough liquidity in our banks, but how do we have liquidity; how do we have people depositing their monies at 1% and when you want to borrow it, you have it at 12½%?
Unfortunately, moral suasion is not held.

The Minister has been talking about this issue as long as he was Minister of Finance but moral suasion has not worked.

I think it is time enough Minister and Deputy Minister, you really crack the whip to make sure that arbitrage on interest rates is arrested and arrested like yesterday.

The second issue on macro-economic framework is the inflation.

Mr. Speaker, we have started to see price levels rising at a worrisome level.
The key driver of inflation has been the Treasury Bills (TBs).

The issuance of TBs into the market has been a key driver of inflation and Government is culpable.

It is guilty of this sin and the Minister admits that surely they are guilty as charged.

What has been happening is that TBs have been issued and I think now the TBs that are in the market are in excess of $2 billion.

Instead of Government redeeming those TBs, they have been rolled over.

So, those people holding those Bills need cash.


They were holding a paper hoping that Government was going to take it back.

Now, Government keeps on rolling the maturity of that paper.

What they are doing is to re- discount those TBs and sell it on the money market thereby introducing virtual money on the market through RTGs, Econet platform and other forms of virtual money.

This virtual money through TBs which are discounted is not equal to the actual or the physical balances that are in the banks.
This is putting pressure on foreign currency holdings in the economy, hence premium parallel market rates are emerging.

When retailers and wholesalers get the money with a premium on the black market, they pass on the cost to the consumer hence the price level is increasing and increasing very badly because of the issuance of the TBs and borrowing from the Reserve Bank.

That is one issue in terms of inflation.

What needs to be done to arrest the inflation; we need three things to contain inflation.
The first thing is obviously to crack the whip and you know it does not work.

Crack down does not work; I am really hesitant to recommend that.

The second issue in my view is to decommission the bond note.

The bond note is not serving a useful purpose.

Apart from causing these distortions, I want to know really what useful economic value we are getting from the bond note.
When the bond note was introduced, I said the following; it would not be at parity with the United States Dollar; it will not be one is to one and it did not happen.

I also said it would not boost exports because it was said to be an export incentive; it did not boost export.

I said it was not going to cure the liquidity crunch and it did not cure.

So, what useful value are we still retaining the bond?
We all do not have the bond note in our pockets, so why do we need it apart from it just creating unnecessary parallel market because when you have a basket full of a weaker currency, you are creating a parallel market because one currency is weak and the others are strong.

With due respect, it is time for Government to reflect on the bond note because it is not serving its useful purpose.
We do not have it in the banks; it is not curing the liquidity crunches; it is not boosting the export, what is it doing?

It was going to be useful if Government still has the leverage to print but now you cannot print it.

So, we would not resolve our deficit by retaining the bond note.

If we remove the bond note, then we address other confidence issues to make sure that people have got confidence and the US Dollar still stands in the banks.

That is the second recommendation.


THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER (HON.

MARUMAHOKO): Order, order Hon.

Member, if you can wind up you are left with five minutes.

HON.

DR. MASHAKADA: The third recommendation is that, let us temporarily lift import duty on basic commodities, food stuffs and other basic commodities so that artificial shortages will not be created when these measures are implemented.
On the GDP growth forecast of 4.5%, I agree it is achievable if we do the right things because right now we are talking about 3.7% by end of December, 2018.

So, 4.5% is not out of the ball mark, it can be achieved but we have to look at the drivers of this growth.

Where are we going to get the 4.5% growth rate because agriculture is still the mainstay of the economy if we do the right things.
If we sort out financing issues, marketing issues, confidence issues in the farm sector, tenurial issues, agriculture can still drive this economy.

Beyond agriculture, we need to go into agro-processing so that we add value to agricultural produce.

That would kick in into our GDP or our national accounting system because manufacturing itself will take time to recover.

So, we have to take the agro-processing element of manufacturing to cover up for the weak manufacturing pace.
We can meet the 4.5% target.

Mining can also contribute because mining is a game changer but the problem with mining is that we have got to address those transparency issues so that revenue goes into the Treasury.

As long as transparency issues in the extractive industries are not addressed, forget about the contribution of mining into the GDP.

The one important sector which will contribute to the 4.5% growth is the consumer sector; the commercial sector.

[Time Limit.]

HON.
[Time Limit.]

HON.

D. SIBANDA: I move that the Hon.

Member’s time be extended.

HON.

NDUNA: I second.

THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: You are awarded five more minutes.

HON.

DR. MASHAKADA: Let it be 10 minutes.

The consumer sector is the fastest growing sector which we must continue to harness in order to kick in our 4.5% growth rate.

On the fiscal framework, the first issue under fiscal framework is the revenue.
If we do not pay attention to revenue raising measures, the gap between expenditure and revenue will continue to grow.

I have identified about eight revenue raising measures which can be investigated or pursued.

The first thing is to cast the revenue net wide.

There are a lot of economic players Minister Mukupe, who are excluded or are out of the revenue net.
For many years, some of these people were excluded from the revenue net because of political connections; not paying taxes, not registering their entities just because of political connections.

They were not paying tax or evading tax for that matter, so let us cast the revenue net wide and collect.

This includes new companies that have graduated from incubation as informal operators to formal operators; those must now be captured in the tax net drag.
Secondly, the presumptive tax - this has not been followed or implemented methodically.

If we implement the presumptive tax methodically, we can raise more revenue than we have been doing in the past.

Tighten our porous borders, there is a lot of smuggling there.

People are bringing in goods without paying duty and we must tighten our borders.

We must address factors that affect the capital account of the balance of payments – the confidence issues to make sure that money flows into the budget.
Harvesting Diaspora remittances is one way to boost our revenue coffers and of course, here are other measures to stimulate the economy so that it grows and then we can collect more.

Otherwise, if these measures are not followed through, it will be very difficult to meet the revenue target.
I now go to expenditure management which is key and I think that the Government has highlighted several issues which need to be done to reduce Government expenditure and I will not belabour on that because of time problems.

I now go to the capital budget - $1.7 billion capital budget is nothing because infrastructure is an enabler to growth.

So, if you do not have Public Sector Investment Projects because the money is not adequate, you are not doing anything.
If you compare $1.7 billion given to capital projects, compare it to $3.3 billion employment costs, it does not make sense.

We are putting much of our resources towards consumption expenditure rather than to productive expenditure.

On the budget deficit, as I highlighted, the issue of vaccinating the economy against Treasury Bills (TBs) and the Reserve Bank overdraft needs to be attended to expeditiously to content the budget deficit.
On economic and public financial management - those issues which the Auditor General has been mentioning like poor financial accounting and management systems, weak controls, poor management of public assets, fraud, embezzlement of funds and corruption – these malpractices affect public financial management and the PFMS has to be improved so that as an accounting system, it produces the correct results.
Year in year out, the Auditor General says, bank reconciliation statements do not compare well with what is in the system.

So, it is important to revisit the PFMS.

On policy consistency, clarity and coherence Hon.

Minister, policy consistency is very important.

In your budget, you highlighted that there were some sectors that needed some funding and one of those sectors was Parliament, the other one were chiefs and the other sectors that had approached you with your request.
This is what you said in the budget and I quote, “Clearly the fiscus cannot sustain the above demands if we are to achieve the objectives towards a new economic order, hence the 2018 budget took account of the value for money and affordability as a guiding principle in the allocation of resources and is unable to provide for the above vehicle requests”.

That is what you said but what we saw happening is a different story.
I am not saying it is wrong, it is not wrong but as long as you budgeted for it, then you will be consistent with your policies.

There are other issues like the health sector budget which needs to be reviewed; the Vote of Parliament which needs to be revised and I still do not know why the amendment of the Act of the indigenisation is done under the Finance Act.
It is clumsy because a Finance Bill deals with tax revenue issues and other non-tax revenue issues but to sit the amendments on indigenisation into a Finance Bill is a bit clumsy.

You could bring it as a separate amendment or under the General Laws Act – it can sit there properly.

In conclusion, in order for this budget to succeed, there has to be implementation and six months remaining before elections will pose a big challenge for implementation.
But most importantly, timeous disbursement of the funds to ministries and mobilisation of off-budget resources to supplement the budget will be critical.

Of course, monitoring of the performance of the budget based on Results Based Management (RBM) will be key.

I thank you very much.

*HON.

MAPIKI: Thank you Hon.

Speaker for giving me the opportunity to make my contribution.
Firstly, I would like to thank the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning for the work done because in the past days when they had done some good work they would find things changed again.

So we thank them for the work they did but the problem that I see here is on corruption.

I think we need a special court for corruption although it was mentioned that it will be done and also to have an auction that should be conducted even at night.
If a person defrauds the State, his property should be taken to the auction and he should be taken to court.

All those who are going to be arrested on corruption should have their property quickly sent for auction and this will assist us a lot.

I am in the Public Service Committee and the Public Accounts Committee – there is evidence and you do not need investigations to take place.

Even my fellow MPs like Hon.


Matambanadzo can be given that information, include it in a report and the issue brought to rest.

For us to look for evidence is a waste of time.

If you go to the Auditor-General’s office, Mrs. Chiri’s, you will realise that there is a lot of evidence.

If a person is arrested and sent to court, if found guilty his property must be auctioned.

I think on such issues, we need to fast-track such issues.
Others have said that there are others who are now part of the Cabinet but are also corrupt.

They should also be brought to book.

If they are found guilty, their property should be auctioned and the money returned to the State.

The other issue is that of the illegal selling of gold.

I think that the law is favourable to the Chinese.

The Chinese are looting our gold.

They are bringing in gold to the mills and many kilogrammes are being lost daily.
The Chinese are like a man who wants to be my friend and wants to take control of everything including fooling around with my wife.

The Chinese have destroyed this country.

In Shamva, there are police who have been deployed there.

If you look at the gold that is taken to Fidelity, there are only a few kilogrammes that are sent there because of these illicit gold dealings.

So, the Chinese are looting our gold.

Hon.


Minister Chinamasa, I think that we need to consider this issue of the illegal selling of gold.

If we go to Shamva or Kwekwe, if you see the bundles of US dollars that private buyers have for buying gold of which they were given permission by Fidelity Printers – they buy something like 80 kilogrammes but only remit one or two kilogrammes to Fidelity Printers, the 79 kilogrammes are sold illegally.
The police who were deployed there are corrupt and are in cahoots with the gold dealers.

So, what we need to do is to come up with a system of accountability.

I think this is an issue that should be considered under the budget.

We need to come up with a mechanism to see how gold can be sold.

There is a challenge - in Shamva, the cross rate for Bond to US dollar is $100 to $105.

Gold is not finding its way to Fidelity because they are not paying cash.
Fidelity is paying $35 per gram and private buyers buy at $40 per gram.

This means that gold is being sold illegally so I think it is an issue that we need to work on.

The Chinese are looting our resources.

We need to come up with legislation to ensure that we arrest this matter.

If you go to the Chinese shops, they do not want to use swipe machines, they want cash.

I think what they are doing is, they are taking over everything that we own.

It is now difficult because the money is not available.
The law is very clear that people should be allowed to buy using either Ecocash or swipe machines, but in the Budget, if we do not address such issues, this can give us challenges in future.

The councils need to be given instructions that every Chinese should allow trading using, either the swipe or Ecocash.

The Chinese and the Indians are the ones with money and we are the ones suffering, so we need legislation to ensure that this does not happen.

There is also an issue on Statutory Instrument 64.


This has given the middlemen advantage because people are buying goods from South Africa and they rebrand and put a Zimbabwean label.

It can be National Foods, Zim Gold or whatever.

This should be considered.

I have realised that the ban was lifted but I think we have so many items coming from outside.

It is good because our prices will go down.


It is like buying things from Croco Motors but you will see that vehicles are taken from the border, coming here and they are labelled that it was made in Zimbabwe.

Why do we not bring those goods here so that they flood the market and prices go down?

Many people are going to Musina to buy cars, why can we not say, those selling cars in South Africa bring them to Zimbabwe and set up garages and the forex stays here in Zimbabwe.
These are things we should consider in the Budget in order to alleviate the challenges we are facing.

I think the SI64 needs to be interrogated seriously because it is not bringing in any joy.

The other issue we need to consider is the production of fruits.

In Zimbabwe, there is only one company left in Beitbridge that produces oranges.

That has resulted in us importing fruits.


There are some places that we have build that we thought Zimbabwe would benefit from beneficiation such as making juices and other goods.

Government should consider this issue.

We also have money that has gone to other buildings nationwide.

When they thought of using Jatropha, there was so much infrastructure that was built and it has become white elephants.

Government should sit down and ensure they dispose of these buildings because they are not helping us.
They wanted to do cutting and polishing of diamonds, but nothing has been done.

Currently, that infrastructure is lying idle and that should be considered.

I do not know if the Minister will consider this because he is also liaising with his counterpart.

If he were to listen to some of these issues, this would assist us.

THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Order.

Hon.

Minister, both of you are talking, who would listen now and capture the important points debated.

*HON.

MAPIKI: Thank you Mr. Speaker.


The issue of production of fruits is that we have one farm in Beitbridge that is producing fruit, mainly oranges.

There is nothing in Mazowe anymore.

What I am saying is, we need a budget for the production of fruits such as oranges, mangoes.

It is not difficult because what is needed is to come up with the good seed and each household can be given the seed.

You will also have to provide market for the mangoes or oranges.
We have machines in Norton that produce orange and mango juice.

That will assist us not to continue importing these products.

We would not say we cannot import anything because we need to survive.

It is an issue that needs consideration.

On the issue of the health budget, the amount allocated is very little.

We did not put much money towards research.

The medication that we are buying is very expensive but we are buying medication that is produced from the raw material from Zimbabwe.
For example, the BP medication is produced from garlic.

We have so much garlic here in Zimbabwe but for us to allocate money towards research to see how we can package this garlic and see how many grams a person should take, there is no money.

When we import this medication, it is very expensive.

My request is that we put more money towards research.

Hon.

Minister, I also want to talk about the issue of blood.

There was $4.8 million that was allocated to the Blood Transfusion Services.
The National Blood Transfusion is a private company.

The board of directors head became the chairperson of the board in 1977.

For him to bring new strategies on the money that was allocated by Government, I do not think anything can come out.

I was thinking that if the $4.8 million had been taken to the hospital, it would have been good to get a company that would screen the blood and this would reduce the price of the blood from $40 to $2.

Right now, the blood costs $120 and they say it is cheap.
When I look at the money that was allocated to a private profit making organisation by the Government, I do not think that will alleviate our problems.

That money should have been allocated to our Government institutions to come up with our own screening machines to screen the blood.

I ask myself, what happened for that money to be given to the private sector?

Are there others who are benefiting in receiving kickbacks?
I was thinking that if we come up with companies that do the screening, that are public entities, the Government can alleviate the challenges in the health sector.

I was also thinking that, with the economic challenges that we are facing, let us not have sacred cows.

We should treat everyone equally.

I think if there is an opportunity for us to report each other and if anyone has engaged in corruption, that person should be brought to book.

That is what we call suicide dive.


For now, let us dive and save the ball like the goal-keeper.

That way we will save the nation because some of these corrupt activities happening will continue to under develop our country.

I think that is an issue that we need to consider.

Some of the money should have been channeled towards research but has gone to corrupt individuals.
If you look at the Chinese, they are getting garlic and ginger from here and they are making medication, but we are failing to fund our research institute.

We even do not have institutional memory on the different herbs that are used.

We are getting medication from other countries to treat snake bites and yet, if you find out from the traditional healers and other people, we can get our local medicines to treat such diseases.
In the Ministry of Health there is a desk that is solely for research such that if a person is bitten by a snake, that person can be treated and go back home.

So, I think we need to consider what we can do for us to survive, to ensure that we do not procure our medicines from outside.

THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER (HON.

DZIVA): Hon.

Member you are left with four minutes and so, may you wind up your debate.

*HON.

MAPIKI: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir.


In rural areas there is an issue that I think needs to be considered and this is the issue of hospitals.

The hospitals that have been built by parents are facing challenges in terms of opening because there are so many papers and challenges that have led to the operationalisation of these hospitals.
On the issue of education, I think more should have been allocated because with the new curriculum, the textbooks are not available and most schools do not have books for the new curriculum.

So, I was thinking that the money that was allocated for CDF, we are now being forced to buy books for the new curriculum because when the programme came, they were no books to cater for the new curriculum.
The resources for the new curriculum need to be considered as the books are not available, especially in schools that are in resettlement and rural areas.

I think that should be considered and more should have been allocated to the Ministry of Education.

Lastly, I want to look at the issue of the wage bill, the issue of the youth officers and the research extension officers.

You removed the research extension officers but you have not really done justice to the issue in agriculture.
You cannot say 2% of the $15 million will benefit.

One agricultural research extension officer can cover a number of areas.

In my area, I had eight agricultural research extension officers and then you ask yourself where the money is going to.

I think that what you did last time Hon.

Minister for you to remove the research extension officers, the A2 farmers as well as the A1 farmers, they are already agricultural research extension officers because they already know when to apply their ammonium nitrate.
That will encourage people to work hard because if people are settled in an area, they can be assisting each other.

If you look at the projects, they are all doing gardening and the youth, coordinators and other people.

The only report that is being talked about is that of coming up with gardens.

So, I think the numbers that you reduced is a challenge.

If a person goes to Chibero College, a person is taught everything on irrigation and agriculture, but now you have the Ministry of Mechanisation etc.
If you ask me, I know what to do in terms of irrigation.

I was thinking that that should be considered taking into consideration what you have already done.

I think more people should be removed because if we require political will, there is no need for political will.

These people should go back home.

That is all we want to ensure that the wage bill does not balloon.

Sometimes the Ministries are overstaffed and you do not understand what they are doing.
So when it comes to Government workers, you need to reduce the number of people in Ministries.

It is better that we add more levies for the teachers, but for us to consider whether we should remove the agricultural research officers or not, that is an issue that cannot be discussed.

If we do not do that, people will continue to say the Government is not doing much.
Mr. Speaker thank you for the opportunity that you have given me, but the issue of illicit gold flows is an issue close to my heart and we should ensure that tonnes are not sold illegally.

I thank you.

+HON.

D. SIBANDA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir for giving me the opportunity to make my contribution.

I am debating with a very heavy and painful heart.

I have been listening to the reports delivered by the different Committees and most of the people who were giving these reports were not very clear.
The only person who had a clear report was Hon.

Misihairabwi-Mushonga, who talked about the sanitary wear and we should know that we should be gender sensitive, and that women have a lot of needs which have to be taken care of.

The Ministry of Finance should be aware of the nature of women.

In many cases, women are not aware of how they can get enough money because at the moment, the amount that we are talking about is the amount from the national fiscus.
Since it is from the national fiscus, it should be distributed equitably to all the people so that they meet their needs.

All this will be according to the Constitution.

When we look at the business sector, there are very few women who partake in the businesses because they are not aware of what is required.

We have often asked for the money from the Minister to give us some funds so that women may establish businesses in Tshlotsho, Shamva and Dotito.
These women are not aware of what is happening in the financial world.

As a result, they do not involve themselves in established businesses.

So, what we are saying is that women would also want to get into the mining sector, but the fees and other monies required to run these businesses are so insurmountable that they cannot afford.

Therefore, they lose out.


We also find women who will be in the farms doing farming and they are mainly busy in the farms and yet they cannot access land because they do not have enough cash to get the inputs for a successful agricultural programme.

They cannot get fertilizers, equipment and whatever.
As a result, the Government is not clear on the allocation of funds so that they may say such an amount was allocated to men and such an amount to women so that as Zimbabweans, we are aware of the distribution.

I will now turn to health – this is not very clear because when you look at the funds allocated to health, it is a drop in the ocean.

There are many children who die in hospitals.

I was talking to Hon.


Khupe and we noticed that women who are on post-natal period do not receive enough care in these hospitals.

They need to receive enough care since their bodies will still be weak from giving birth and they would have lost a lot of blood.

As a result, the health sector should be allocated enough funds to meet the needs of the mothers in maternity.
You would find that if you compare ourselves with South Africa or Zambia, the allocations of funds in the health sector is very reasonable.

We can say their hospitals are similar to hotels.

We have also noticed that in the awarding of State tenders, the women are not given a chance to compete in these tenders yet women are known to be the best organisers and they are very reliable.

However they are not given a chance because the Ministry is not putting aside some funds for utilisation by the women.

Hon.
Hon.

Chinamasa, as Minister of Finance, we kindly ask you to establish a desk which is going to be a gender sensitive desk.

This desk will examine and allocate funds which should be set aside for women and men’s needs.

In the education sector, it should also check on the assistance given to both females and males and that should be explicit.

This should give the women folk assurance that they are taken care of.

Mr. Speaker, I have a lot of issues, I will now go to my second item.
I am a Member of the Committee on Defence and Home Affairs.

What really pains me is that as a Committee, we moved around the country on public hearings visiting police stations.

There is prevalence of sexual abuse of young children, they are being raped.

When we talked to the police men, they said they do not have enough vehicles to move to the crime scenes.

Even if the vehicles are there, they do not have fuel.

These police stations do not even have bicycles to travel to crime scenes.
It has also been noticed that there are some children who are as young as two years old who have been raped by adult people.

I am kindly asking the Minister of Finance to allocate enough funds to the Ministry of Home Affairs which is going to be allocated particularly to the police stations so that their presence will help in the maintenance of law and order, especially in the protection of infants from being sexually abused.
This is prevalent throughout the country, hence my call to the Minister of Finance to add more money to the Ministry of Home Affairs for the benefit of the police.

This is not a problem to the people out there only but also to us as Members of Parliament especially women.

As Members of Parliament, one of our representative functions is to protect the women and the children.
When a little girl has been raped, she would have been psychologically affected, hence lacks confidence in proceeding with education or whatever production they would want to partake.

Thus, Hon.

Minister of Finance, may you add more money to the Ministry of Home Affairs.

My third item and which is going to be the last.

If you can see, I am carrying a bag (a bag full of old notes); I was given by an old lady in my Constituency.
This old lady sold her cattle and she was paid using the money which was the last Zimbabwean currency in trillions, millions and quintillions.

After selling her cattle, she was hoping to pay schools fees for her children.

However, when she wanted to pay the schools fees, the money had lost value, it had just become useless, and this was in 2007.

This was because of the de-monetisation of the Zimbabwean currency.
This became a challenge to many people because they did not get a chance to hear the notices which were given by the Reserve Bank and the Ministry of Finance that the public should take their money to their banks in order for them to be compensated with the then current amount.

As you can see Mr. Speaker – [notes laid on the table] –this is a lot of money which was acquired after working so hard.

You can imagine that after working so hard, you are told that you are holding on to useless papers.
I am speaking about this representing the people in my constituency.

Hon.

Minister, this currency is still in the homes of people.

I am pleading with the Government to work out some means of compensating people who still have this old currency.

There were a lot of challenges; some gender based violence in the homes because people thought they had been given pensions by their companies yet when they wanted to use their funds, they were told that it was of no value.
Because of all these conflicts in the homes, some of the people had to go to the Diaspora and seek for greener pastures because they had paper bags and cardboard boxes of these notes which had lost value.

However, their hope is that one day; the Government is going to look for a way of compensating people who are still holding to this useless currency.

It is not only this old lady, Mrs. Dube who is still holding to this old currency but a lot of people.
I am pleading with the Minister of Finance to come up with ways and means of compensating people who still have these notes.

The point I am trying to put across, Mr. Speaker Sir, is that people still have hope and trust in their Government that now that we have a new dispensation, the old Government was not taking care of our needs, we now hope that there is going to be some means and ways of compensating us for the loss which we sufered.
Some people even went to the diaspora, left their bank books saying they have banked their pensions and insurance but when they went to inquire about their financial status, they were told that their savings were now useless.

As representatives of the people, this causes some illness such as high blood pressure, asthma attacks and heart attacks.

When these people fall sick, we advise them to take medication.

So, I am saying to the Hon.


Minister, in order for you to lead an exemplary life and be a leader with the people at heart, please have a re-think on the compensation on the demonitised currency and people will definitely pray for you and you will be blessed.

Mr. Speaker Sir, can you imagine some people were millionaires, billionaires and were reduced to paupers.

We are saying your good office Hon.


Minister is going to look at the ways and means of compensating these people who suffered, especially the women.

These women worked so hard in raising these funds such as selling cattle or vegetables like the lady I am talking about.

The child was unable to go to school and suffered because of the demonetisation of our currency.

At times some of these learners especially in Matabeleland ended up going to South Africa.

Life in South Africa is hard.


Every time you will be asking your child whether the permit has been renewed.

The children should know that when things have improved in Zimbabwe, they can come back to Zimbabwe and work hard.

I am begging and pleading with you Hon.

Minister to use your kind heart to compensate the people who lost out, who are still holding on to this useless currency.

We have a new dispensation which should look at the needs of the people.

People should not suffer heart attack.


People should not suffer from asthma.

People should not suffer from blood pressure but if you work on this, people will say you are the best.

We are saying Hon.

Minister because you have the capabilities, you have been retained by the new dispensation because some of the colleagues you had were removed from their posts and are now just ordinary Members of Parliament.

I thank you.

*HON.

R. N. S. MAWERE: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir.


I will just rush through and highlight a few issues on the Budget.

I want to talk about this Finance Bill before the House.

The issue ... HON.

MUTSEYAMI: On a point of order.

We are debating this important motion in this House and we hardly have Hon.

Members here.

I want to implore the Chief Whip to address this situation as a matter of urgency by calling all Hon.

Members to come back to Parliament before I move on to the next step.

I thank you.
I thank you.

THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER (HON.

MARUMAHOKO): Order, what are you implying Hon.

Member?

HON.

MUTSEYAMI: I have pointed out to the ruling party that there are hardly any Hon.

Members here.

We have no quorum as we speak.

So, I think the ruling party, which is the Government, should put the House in order.

Hon.

Members must be serious.


I propose that for now, since there is no quorum, it is better we break and the House puts everything in order and everyone comes to Parliament and be serious.

That is my point of order that there is no quorum in this House.

THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: If you are talking of no quorum, the Clerk will ring the bell.

[Bells rung.]
[Bells rung.]

An objection having been taken that there being present fewer than (70) members, the bells were rung for Seven Minutes and a Quorum still not being present, THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER adjourned the House without any question put at Twenty Minutes to Seven o’clock p.m. pursuant to the provisions of Standing Order Number 56.
NOTE: The following members were present when the House adjourned: Chamisa N; Chibagu G; Chibaya A; Chikomba L; Chikuni E; Chikwama B; Chinamasa P; Chitindi C; Chitura L; Chiwetu J Z; Dutiro P.; Gabbuza J.G.

; Gonese I.T; Gumbo E.l; Guzha N.K.


; Holder J; Hungwa G; Kachepa N; Kadungure D A; Kanhanga E W; Karoro D; Khupe T; Mahiya M; Majome F J; Mangwende S; Maondera W; Mashakada T; Matimba K M; Mawere M D V; Mawere M RN S; Mhlanga N J; Misihairabwi-Mushonga P M; Mlilo N; Mpala M.; Mukupe T.; Mukwena R; Munochinzwa M.; Musanhi K S ; Mutseyami P C; Ncube G M; Nduna D; Nyere C; Rungani A; Sansole T W; Sibanda D S; Sibanda K; Toffa J; Tshuma J.; Uta K.; Zindi I.