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SENATE HANSARD 5 FEBRUARY 2013 VOL. 22 NO. 06
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Tuesday, 5th February, 2013
The Senate met at Half-past Two O’clock p.m.
PRAYERS
(MADAM PRESIDENT in the Chair)
ANNOUNCEMENTS BY MADAM PRESIDENT
MDC-T CHANGES TO THERMATIC COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP
MADAM PRESIDENT: I wish to advise the Senate that the
MDC-T Party has nominated Hon. Senator Masara to serve on the HIV/AIDS and Indigenization and Empowerment Committees. The same Party has also advised of the change in Committees in which Hon.
Senator S Ncube serves. She moves from the Thematic Committee on Peace and Security to the Thematic Committee on Human Rights.
ZIMBABWE WOMEN PARLIAMENTARY CAUCUS STRATEGIC
PLANNING WORKSHOP
MADAM PRESIDENT: I wish to inform the Senate that all members of the Zimbabwe Women Parliamentary Caucus are invited to a strategic planning workshop to be held from the 8th to the 11th of February 2013 at Kadoma Hotel and Conference Centre. The bus leaves Parliament Building at 0900hrs on Friday, the 8th of April, 2013.
SWITCHING OFF OF CELLPHONES
MADAM PRESIDENT: May I remind hon. senators to switch off cellphones or put them on silent.
VISITORS IN THE SENATE GALLERY
MADAM PRESIDENT: I am pleased to recognise the presence
in this gallery of the students and teachers from Mabelreign Girls High School, you are most welcome.
MOTION
PRESIDENTIAL SPEECH: DEBATE ON ADDRESS
First Order read: Adjourned debate on motion in reply to the
Presidential Speech.
Question again proposed.
SENATOR MAKUNDE: Thank you Madam President. First of
all, I would like to say compliments of the new season to all members of the Senate including you Madam President. Since it is the beginning of the year, there is not much to talk about, but there is a Presidential
Speech in front of us and I think I will also add a few comments on it.
Let me begin by thanking you for allowing me this time to address the Senate. Madam President. My speech will rather be a short comment on a few issues in response to the historic speech that was delivered to this House by His Excellency, The President Cde R. G. Mugabe on the occasion of the Official Opening of the 5th Session of the Seventh Parliament of Zimbabwe.
Madam President, His Excellency raised some issues in his address but the first one was an acknowledgement of the work done by our Select Committee on COPAC. In his address, he said the growing mutual collaboration is commendable. The togetherness that was shown by the team that worked on the Constitution should be a role model to all Zimbabweans. I want to thank the Inclusive Government as a whole on this job well done and if other members were from this Senate, it means they also represented us all. It makes us the heroes of our time. I also want to personally share with all Zimbabweans across the political parties that what we have witnessed during the process of the
Constitution making should be maintained and continue to build upon.
I want to thank the COPAC Select Committee and all those who gave them advice and moral support, even if I know it was a tough task. His Excellency also talked about the forthcoming core-hosting of the 2013 United Nations World Tourism General Assembly which will take place on our Zimbabwean soil. Madam President, this event will not only be happening in Victoria Falls, Victoria Falls will only be a venue for the conference, the visitors are going to spread into the country. It will be a time for us as Zimbabweans to prove to the visitors and to the whole world that Zimbabwe is one, peace loving and a development loving nation.
I hope even those who go to churches must pray for this congregation. It is time that the bad propaganda that has been preached across the world is proved to be nothing. If we managed to pull together during these three years of the said COPAC, a long journey of negotiations and compromise, can we not allow this historic event to go on peacefully and happily? We are the makers of our own history. I want to quote the words of His Excellency, the President, Cde, R. G.
Mugabe when he addressed the House, he said “This auspicious world event, should also provide fresh impetous to the growth and development of our tourism industry, I want to hope that everybody looks forward to the successful core-hosting of the event.”
Now I move to agriculture, as usual His Excellency discussed about it as our leading economic sector in Zimbabwe, contributing 15- to 18 per cent of the gross domestic product. He said that this sector will need priority treatment in terms of planning and the provision of resources. Indeed I want to thank the Inclusive Government on this agricultural season. I witnessed this Senate agreeing to give money to banks for agriculture and to recapitalise Agri-Bank and some few banks that deal with farmers. I want to thank them for that move. The President went ahead to say that it is a deliberate move because this is our greatest sector in our economy, it should be a deliberate move for the Government to put resources to that sector.
I want to continue pressing responsible ministries, departments and banks to have fore-sight and focus on the strength of our banks in their support to farmers and the agricultural sector. I want to talk about the small scale farmer who is in the village, these farmers are well organised and they have their village heads, headmen and chiefs. I want to urge the Government to continue supporting these people. My constituency is Murehwa and they grow maize, we have a history of producing a lot of maize and this maize comes from small scale farmers. I want to repeat again, our Government should continue to support these small scale growers because they send all their produce to the Grain Marketing
Board.
Madam President, His Excellency also discussed service delivery by Government, parastatals and local authorities. Service delivery is a key sector that should be looked at. We must have the capacity to generate power. As the President said, we must not only look at the big hydro schemes, we must also start to look at the reports that were made and several researches including solar power irrigation and other purposes. We should focus on those smaller hydro powers so that they become useful.
Still on service delivery Madam President, I am disturbed by the lack of water supply systems in most of our urban areas including small towns and growth points. One of these places is Macheke where I stay. Macheke is in Mashonaland East and is in Murewa constituency and that is where I come from. The water reticulation system that is in Macheke was meant for the small elite group of about fifty whites who came to settle in Macheke. Up to this time, that is the capacity of water we have. The town plans are now bigger, the population is growing bigger. There was one business man during that time and there was one post master during that time but now the population is big. Using that small water pump and small water reservoir is not sufficient. This is not only in Macheke but I think it is across Zimbabwe. We need to manage water systems in towns as these are the causes of diseases as well I cannot over emphasize about their dangers.
In conclusion Madam President, I want to thank our President on his Speech when he said he was willing and he was pushing for the government to introduce e-learning programmes to the rural areas. We remember it was launched at Chogugudza in Goromonzi and e-learning was also introduced and launched at Landa J. Nkomo High School in Tsholotsho. I only want to say the spread of learning is welcome to our society and to our children. May the responsible ministry continue to facilitate our schools with teachers for the betterment of our society. I thank you Madam President.
THE GOVERNOR FOR MATEBELELAND NORTH: I move
that the debate do now adjourn. Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Wednesday, 6th February, 2013.
MOTION
ABOLITION OF THE DEATH PENALTY
Second Order Read: Adjourned debate on motion on the death penalty.
Question again proposed.
SENATOR RUGARA: Madam President, I would like to take part in this debate and only perhaps echoing some of the sentiments that were raised when it first came to the House. Death sentence, should it be repealed or should it continue? I want to premise my remarks on the fact that killing is killing. When you kill as a person you are a murderer and when you kill as a government or an organized group you do not want to call yourselves murderers but you are.
Really, some of the killing is organized and organized killing is what we see when we have on our statutes an eye for an eye, that is, if you kill you better be killed too. What I say, murder therefore is not a form of any punishment because I know for sure that punishment should not be the very final thing you do. You punish to educate, you punish to make someone better for today but can anybody in this House tell me what happens when you have exercised you death penalty. How does a dead person learn? It says for one, either you do not know what you are doing or you do not see the implications or you simply want to exercise your prerogative of punishment and punishment just for punishment’s sake without any implication and without any realization that this one is final punishment, this person’s life is terminated.
I believe we are not here as a society to be an agency of murder or the agency of killing. Therefore, I would like to think enlightened governments have moved away from the death sentence. They have done so because they realize it is wrong. How do two wrongs make a right? They do not. The murderer is himself a wrong doer but then whoever kills him is also a wrong doer of the same type of crime in fact although some of it is organized. Madam President this House or this nation better be enlightened enough to see that death sentence is a primitive way of punishment. Let us live further out of the mud and consider things like permanent residence in confinement. Whereas you keep the murderer away from the society but life termination should be avoided. With these few words Madam President, I would like to ask, plead with this House that if we thought an eye for an eye was an answer, we were wrong, it is like saying two and three make four.
Madam President, I beseech you to move with my kind of thinking and join the rest of the enlightened world where death sentence does not exist. Thank you very much.
SENATOR HLALO: Thank you Madam President, I would also
want to add my voice to this debate which is very pertinent especially this time when we look at ourselves as being in a reconciliation in this country. I will start by saying that as we are a circular Christian country, Zimbabwe should also do what Christians do, and Christians normally forgive others as we all pray every Sunday that we should forgive those who trespass against us.
Part of the speech not recorded due to technical fault
MADAM PRESIDENT: I wish to remind Hon. Senators that our
rules indicate that you may not debate twice on the same motion and Senator Hlalo you actually seconded this motion. So please those who contributed to it give a chance to the others so that we also hear what they have to say on this motion. Thank you
SENATOR MUCHIHWA: Thank you Madam President. I
would like to congratulate this House for meeting in 2013, despite all the challenges we were facing, especially with the loss of Vice President John Nkomo, I would like to say peace to all of you and also our Deputy Minister Seiso Moyo.
Referring to the death penalty, it is very painful when we look at how this law came into our midst. But now that we are civilised, long ago things were just being imposed on us. Even this House was not ours, it was for settlers. Those people would put rules that were good for them in trying to make us suffer as Zimbabweans but looking at how the law was put into place, it was to make us suffer as black people. But now we are civilized, we can stay in this House but we find that we are also putting that law into practice because what you do is what you get as well. Even musicians sing that, which means that God has got his own laws. We know that there are murderers where we grew up in the rural areas, there were so many forests there but you would find that as time goes on you will find that those places were no longer scary because those murders would have met their justice. But I also think that when we look at this law, we see that all the nations in the United Nations agreed that this law is not applicable anymore. Yes there are issues which are very bad, but I think that it is only the Lord who can bring justice. Even if a person kills 20 000 people; that person will meet his own time as well because we all have our time to live on earth. We cannot live forever. So let us bear in mind that it is only God who can revenge.
If one is convicted and proved to have murdered people, I think there should be a place for those people (murderers) where they should be send and they will be quarantined until they meet their time through the Lord who will bring justice on them. This is what I just wanted to say in adding my voice on this motion. Thank you Madam President.
THE GOVERNOR FOR MATABELELAND NORTH: I move
that the debate do now adjourn.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Wednesday, 6th February, 2013.
On the motion of THE GOVERNOR FOR MATABELELAND
NORTH, the Senate adjourned at Fourteen Minutes past Three O’clock p.m.