PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Thursday, 9th July, 2015
The National Assembly met at a Quarter-past Two O’clock p.m.
PRAYERS
(THE DEPUTY SPEAKER in the Chair)
MOTION
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
MRS. CHIKWAMA: I move that Orders of the Day, Numbers 1 and 2, be stood over until the rest of the Order of the Day have been disposed of.
- MPARIWA: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
MOTION
REPORT OF THE DELEGATION ON THE HIV/AIDS LEARNING
AND EXPOSURE STUDY VISIT TO KARNATAKA STATE, INDIA DR. LABODE: I move the motion standing in my name that this
House takes note of the Report of the delegation of the HIV/AIDS
Learning and Exposure Study Visit to Karnataka, India, 10 – 14 November, 2014.
- MUSIIWA: I second.
DR. LABODE: 1. INTRODUCTION
The HIV/AIDS Learning Exposure and Study Visit took place from 10 to 14 November 2014 in Karnataka State, Bangalore, India. The study visit was organised following an initial exposure visit by officials from National AIDS Council, Centre for Sexual Health and HIV AIDS Research (CESHHAR) and other Ministry of Health and
Child Care Officials. The Study visit was sponsored by United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) country office and the delegation was hosted by the Karnataka Health Promotion Trust (KHPT).
2. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY VISIT
The objectives of the study visit were:
- To understand the scale up strategies and experiences of implementation of targeted interventions with Key Affected
Populations (KPAs) in partnership with Community Based
Organisations (CBOs); ii. To understand and experience the various programme components of targeted Interventions and observe programme implementation through field visits.; iii. To understand modes of engagement and critical success factors for KHPT’s work with police and judiciary and how key population benefited from this initiative; and iv. To understand how Karnataka Health Promotion Trust is building capacity for sustainability (programming for Sex Workers by Sex Workers, including community mobilization as well as formation and maintenance of support groups).
3.0 PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE DELEGATION
3.1 The Parliament of Zimbabwe delegation comprised:
- Ruth Labode, the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Health and Child Care
- Aldrin Musiiwa, Member of the Portfolio Committee on
Health and Child Care
- Edna Mafuruse was the Secretary to the delegation
3.2. OTHER DELEGATES
- Kuchasaraani Marumura - Officer from the Judicial Services
Commission
- Clancy Nyamkure -Assistant Commissioner of the Zimbabwe
Republic Police
- Getrude Ncube -The National Director for the Ministry of
Health and Child Care, AIDS and TB Unit
- Raymond Yekeye -The National AIDS Council Operations
Director
- Tendai Mbengeranwa -National AIDS Council KAP
Coordinator
- Dagmar Hanisch - UNFPA Representative
- Sibongile Mtetwa, Ms. Loice Ngwenya and Ms. Bathabile
Nyathi -CESHHAR (2 staff and 1 Sex Worker representative).
4. METHODOLOGY
The Exposure visit embraced a variety of methodologies that included: Conference Room based presentations, Discussions and
Dialogues as well as Field Visits and interactions with Community Based Organisations staff and Sex Worker communities. The visit also included direct interaction with the Judiciary Services Commission of
India and the Police.
4.1 DAY 1: MONDAY, 10 NOVEMBER 2014
4.1.1 OVERVIEW OF THE HIV EPIDEMIC IN INDIA
4.1.2 The first HIV case was identified in 1986, in India at Chennai
4.1.3 India has an estimated number of 2.39 million People Living With
HIV.
4.1.4 The epidemic is concentrated among the high-at-risk groups
(Female Sex Workers (FSWs), Men who have sex with Men
(MSMs), Transgender (TG), Intravenous Drug Use (IDUs) and
clients of FSWs) and prevalence is higher in these groups compared to the general population.
4.1.5 National AIDS Control Organisation was created by the Government of India to prevent, control the HIV epidemic and monitor the different programmes in the country.
4.1.6 Major route of transmission is through unprotected sex. While Injecting Drug Use is the predominant route of transmission in North-eastern states, it accounts for 1.7% of HIV infections nationally.
4.1.7 The estimated number of new annual HIV infections had declined by more than 56% over the past decade
4.1.8 There was steady decline in the annual AIDS deaths since the roll out of free ART programme in India in 2004.
4.1.9 The round of estimates has confirmed the decline of HIV prevalence among FSWs at national levels and in most states. However, the evidence shows that IDUs and MSMs are more and more vulnerable to HIV with increasing trends in many states.
4.1.10 According to Michel Sidibe, Executive Director of UNAIDS, India's success comes from using an evidence-informed and human rights-based approach that is backed by sustained political leadership and civil society engagement.
4.2.2 Government of India's response to the HIV epidemic
Three key programmes are to reckon with here and are as follows:
- National AIDS Control Programme Phase I (NACP-I), which focused on blood safety and raising awareness ii. National AIDS Control Programme Phase II (NACP-II), which focused on behaviour change, and iii. National AIDS Control Programme Phase III (NACP-III), which aims at halting and reversing the HIV epidemic in India 4.2.3 National AIDS Control Programme Phase (NACP) III adopted the following:
- Targeted Interventions for High Risk Groups (Female Sex Workers (FSW), Men who have Sex with Men( MSM) ,
Intravenous Drug Users (IDU), Truckers & Migrants)
- Link Worker Scheme for rural population
- Prevention and control of Sexually Transmitted Infections
- Information, Education and Communication (IEC), Social
Mobilisation and mainstreaming
- Condom promotion
- Blood safety, and
- Counselling and Testing Services (Integrated Counselling and Testing Centre (ICTC), Prevention of Parent to Child
Transmission (PPTCT)) and HIV-TB Co-infection Targeted
Interventions)
4.2.4 Other key issues for successful programme implementation observed
- The understanding by the community that sex work is to some extend its creation as most women are driven into the industry due to death of spouse, deception by spouse and being dedicated to gods of lust.
- The importance of working with High- at -Risk Group (Female Sex Work). It is critical to work with a person from the affected community and one who is acceptable to the community.
- Sensitisation of the police and the judiciary is an important component in Sex Workers programming.
- Issuance of the Identity Cards to the Female Sex Workers (FSW) and Peer Educators to protect them from police harassment during their work.
- Legal empowerment of the FSW through paralegal training; FSW trained as paralegals are recognised by the judiciary system and issued with Identity Cards, conferring status and protection;
- Crisis management access through telephone hotlines and snowball systems provides support to KAP in need.
4.3 THE RESPONSE: AVAHAN COMMON MINIMUM
PROGRAMME
4.3.1 In 2003 the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation began its large
HIV prevention program, the India AIDS Initiative, later called Avahan, to help curtail the spread of HIV in India which at the time was predicted to suffer from a massive epidemic if measure were not taken fast and effectively.
The foundation has three primary goals for this initiative:
- Build an HIV prevention model at scale in India ii. Catalyse others to take over and replicate best practices iii. Foster and disseminate lessons learned within India and worldwide
4.2.2 Avahan is a focused prevention program, reaching High-at – Risk-Groups and bridge populations in geographic areas most affected, with a proven package of prevention interventions. 4.2.3 The Avahan package of prevention interventions is designed to address both proximal and distal determinants of HIV risk.
4.3.4 Proximal determinants of risk include factors such as presence of sexually transmitted infections (STIs), condom use, type and frequency of sexual activity and type of partner. Prevention services such as outreach, behaviour change messaging on safe sex, free or socially marketed condom distribution, syringe and needle exchange (for injecting drug use) and treatment of STIs address proximal determinants
of risk.
4.3.4 Distal determinants include stigma, violence, legal environment, medical infrastructure, mobility and migration, and gender roles. They are addressed through structural interventions and community mobilization aimed at reducing stigma, violence, and barriers to accessing entitlements.
4.4 PRESENTATION FROM THE ZIMBABWE
DELEGATION ON COUNTRY PRIORITIES AND
CHALLENGES
The following salient points were raised:
4.4.1 Zimbabwe's HIV prevalence is generalised and homogenous unlike India where the epidemic is concentrated among the FSW, IUD and MSM. During the presentation it was highlighted that for a generalised epidemic like Zimbabwe there is need for focused interventions not targeted interventions like in concentrated epidemic. The province with the highest prevalence and lowest prevalence were highlighted and there was a discussion on what contributed to such a high prevalence compared to less than 1% HIV prevalence for India
4.4.2 The drivers of HIV transmission in Zimbabwe were highlighted as multiple concurrent partnership and 94 % is through heterosexual unlike in India were IUD and MSM as well as FSW are the groups that spread the HV infection. Zimbabwe highlighted that the epidemic has a feminine face as more women were affected than men
4.4.3 The priority intervention strategies of the Combination HIV prevention were highlighted and similarly India has the combination
HIV strategy which guides The implementation of their activities
4.4.4 The current sex worker programme for Zimbabwe was discussed. It was mentioned that the programme is implemented by Nongovernmental organisations. The aims of the programme were highlighted as follows: reduction of HIV acquisition among sex workers, reduction of HIV transmission to their clients and improvement of rights of sex workers. India has similar aims but they have gone further to creating an enabling environment for sex workers by integrating the judiciary and law enforcement agents in the programme.
4.4.5 The service delivery models for the sex worker programme were also highlighted which included static and mobile services. The use of drop in centres just like India were discussed
4.4.6 The challenges of the sex worker programme in Zimbabwe were highlighted which included among others criminalization of sex work and limited understanding of the rights of sex workers, limited collectivization and programme leadership by sex workers as well as the high HIV prevalence among the sex workers.
4.4.7 The Zimbabwe and shared their expectations of the visit and they included knowledge sharing, information on empowerment of sex workers and also increased country ownership of the programme
4.4.8 The presentation was followed by a lengthy discussions and recommendations that included conducting size estimates of the key populations and also mapping of hot spots for key population.
4.5 Key Lessons:
4.5.1 India implements targeted interventions to combat a concentrated epidemic
4.5.2 In-depth information on vulnerable groups is key for successful programming
4.5. 3 Size estimation of KP can be carried out through community involvement including micro mapping of hot spots
4.5.4 Government in India was willing and has resources to scale up successful interventions.
5.0 DAY 2: TUESDAY, 11 NOVEMBER 2015
5.1 Community Mobilisation
Mr. Ramachandran Rao shared with the delegation, 3 main topics namely:
- The approach to strengthening outreach, monitoring and ownership of programmes by key populations
- Best Practices/ Success for Mobilization and Collectivization among FSW and Non Brothel Based Sex Workers
- Income generation activities for positives and collectives
- An overview of the link workers scheme
5.2 Approach to strengthen outreach
The session focused on how outreach activities are strengthened for KAPs. Other key points touched on the priorities of Sex Workers
(SWs) themselves, why SWs are vulnerable, and the typology of Sex Work in India. It was also stated that Sex Workers are directly involved in running self-help groups, crisis management system and social entitlements.
5.3 Crisis Management System being run by the sex workers themselves
5.3.1 Sex Workers have developed a crisis management system whereby if any one of the SWs is faced with a crisis for example violence by a client, or is arrested, they call a hotline number and help is guaranteed within 24 hours.
5.3.2 The hotline numbers are those of fellow sex workers who will link up the sex worker to the relevant assistance or at times they can physically attend the scene where the incident is or has occurred.
5.3.3 This system is meant to build string social cohesion among sex workers as well as protect each other from possible violence that may occur.
5.4 BestPractices success for mobilization and collectivisation among FSWs
There is need for programmers to first of all gain the confidence of the community for successful implementation. This involves communications with the community leaders as well as other influential or key people within that community to discuss and get important feedback regarding that community. In addition, there is need to engage the already existing stakeholders within the community for possible integration and cooperation
5.5 Income generation activities for positives and collectives Sex Workers are running the Income Generating Projects (IGPs) themselves and this involved a lot of commitment. IGPs involve savings and microfinance schemes that rely on regular contributions.
5.6 INTERACTION WITH JYOTHI MAHILA SANGA - A
FSW CBO IN BANGALORE
5.6.1 The delegation had an opportunity to interact with 2 FSWs who came to share their experiences as sex workers in Bangalore. They shared details of their lives and what pushed them into sex work.
5.6.2 It was interesting to note that the reasons for going into sex work are similar to our Zimbabwean context. Jyothi shared that she was divorced with two children and needed to look after he children as the husband was not supportive. At some point she was homeless, faced violence from clients and police including her ex-husband until she was introduced to the sex work programme being implemented by KHPT.
5.6.3 Through programme interventions, both sex workers were now empowered, have secured employment with the programme and are able to look after their children as well as being aware of their rights, how to keep safe and healthy as a sex worker.
5.7 EXPOSURE TO A COMMUNITY LED HIV/AIDS
PREVENTION RESPONSE WITH FSW- VISIT TO VMS DROP
IN CENTRE
5.7.1 Ms. Geetha & Mr. Parameshwara Holla shared with the delegation on the process of scaling up targeted interventions with FSW in Bangalore city focusing on the following processes:
- Planning outreach and using micro planning and monitoring tools
(Site Validation , Service Uptake, Line Listing)
- Addressing needs of the community beyond condoms and STI services
- Facilitating meaningful involvement of SW at all levels of the intervention program and building trustful relationships with public health programme
5.7.2 The delegation later visited the VMS sex workers drop in center where the project coordinator shared with the delegation on their programme and what they do. A question and answer session followed with the Zimbabwean delegation asking for further clarifications on how the sex workers managed to create a bank account that lends cash and how they have been able to sustain it. VMS staff explained that the association made it possible to open a communal bank account, which individuals had previously been unable to do due to lack of
Identification papers and other restrictions. In addition, members of VSM have access to the government-supported soft loan scheme and other social benefits. All members of the association regularly contribute small amounts from their income (on a weekly basis). These funds are used for loans to members of the association. Training in essential business skills is also offered to members to prepare them for opening their own small businesses. VSM has successfully established a catering business run by its members.
5.8 Key Lessons
5.8.1 Community consultation and recognition of their most important needs, as well as inclusion of those into programme design are essential for successful engagement of KAPs in Health & HIV programmes.
5.8.2 Community needs include housing, school fees, and reduction of violence.
5.8.3 Despite high poverty levels, it must be recognized that KAPs have some resources and are willing to contribute towards goals that they recognize as important – this enables economic empowerment through microfinance schemes & state-supported soft loans.
5.8.4 Self-help systems can be established and successfully run by the community such as crisis hotlines.
6.0 DAY 3: WEDNESDAY, 13 2014
Day 3 of the exposure visit was mainly conference room based learning and covered the following areas:
6.1 Enabling Environment and Advocacy
This session was facilitated by Mr Mahapat shared with the delegation his experience in the advocacy work. Part of his background included that he had worked both in NGOs and in Government and this gave him good experience to engage both NGOs and Government when they were starting the programme.
6.2 Rebranding Sex Work
He acknowledged the value the preliminary studies helped to give them an idea on where and when to target. He also emphasised on the need to know your epidemic before deciding on a response. He also confirmed that the epidemic in India was concentrated and it was largely sexual driven and had the face of a FSWs. He also expressed the importance of knowing the type of sex workers (Typology) as all this epidemiological data helps programmers with key ideas on what should guide them as they programme. The first task undertaken by his team included rebranding of FSW after realising that most of them would naturally not have taken to sex work but rather circumstances had forced them into sex work. As such as a program realised that FSWs were ‘Women subjected to atrocities’ .His team realised that there were so many forces at play around sex workers once they got in they could not get out.
They also realised that HIV was very little of medical but mainly a social and economic problem within the FSWs communities. As such they designed an all-inclusive integrated programme that addresses medical as well socio-economic issues around FSWs and their children.
6.3 Opportunities for partnerships
The facilitator also shared that as an organisation they also realised that government had a lot of authority while NGOs had no authority while NGOs where islands of excellence (as they work outside the system). Government in turn provided a good platform for scale up of the same best practice within the system. This, according to Mr. Mahapat provided the opportunity for collaborative partnerships and building synergies between government and NGOs and further strengthens trust and mutual understanding that in turn helped with advocacy efforts.
6.4 Advocacy Efforts with the Police
6.4.1 Interaction with the FSWs also helped to reveal the level of association and levels of abuse of FSWs by law enforcement agents. The Programme Team struggled at length with Police who finally agreed to work with COD. One of the researches done showed high level of HIV in the police almost matching levels in FSWs. This evidence was used in the advocacy efforts to ensure that the police are also targeted in the interventions, particularly on access to information on HIV and provision of ART to the Police force that test positive. In the process a partnership was established between the Police department and CBOs
6.4.2 These advocacy efforts paid off with the Government of Karnataka agreeing to include in the pre-service manual for Police cadets, a module added on Gender, HIV and Marginalised Communities. It was also reported that since these mainstreaming efforts started, FSWs reports of perpetrated Gender Based Violence had fallen from about 20 % to about 7 % from the Routine data sources from the CBOs working with Karnataka. Emphasis was also put on the role of CBOs in carrying out the training of the gender sensitive manual. The FSWs champions working the various CBO become the trainers and share their lived experience in the hand of the law enforcement agents with the Police Cadets.
6.5 Advocacy Efforts with the Judiciary
The same level of advocacy was targeted to the Judiciary system as most of the FSWs lamented the level of stigma and discrimination they suffered at the hands of the Judiciary system. Some of the complaints included: Delays in getting their cases heard and Judges showing attitudes the when they hear it’s a FSW. This resulted in mainstreaming of gender HIV and handling of marginalised communities in the Court System. It also resulted in the training of FSWs as Paralegals Cadres that link the community with the Judiciary system in Karnataka. These paralegals will also be used to as trainer for the HIV component on the Judge and Prosecutor pre-service trainings in the same way as with the police.
6.6 Clinical Services
The presenter also shared how they were using syndromic management of STIs among sex workers and how they had devised a colour coding system to help practitioners with the dispensing of medication. The colour coding has made the system simpler and more user friendly for the health practitioners that dispense the medicine. It was interesting to note that the effect of STI trainings on practices was limited: While between 70-80% of practitioners could correctly describe the required treatments, only around 30% treated patients according to protocols even after the training. This was established using mystery clients, and helped in informing a tight Monitoring and Evaluation system which all practitioners have to adhere to.
In India, the majority of health care is supplied by the private sector – only around 30% of the population access health services through the public sector. KHPT built partnerships with the private sector based on which facilities were frequented by FSW – the information was gained from micro-mapping and community assessments.
6.7 Meeting with Justice Kumar (sitting high-court judge and former director of the judicial academy) at the Judicial Training
Academy
The delegation met with Justice Kumar and a team from the academy including the current director. After a brief sharing of the delegation’s experiences and impressions so far, Justice Kumar explained the initiative in the judicial system:
6.7.1 It transpired that the legal code in India contains the exact same provisions as are present in Zimbabwe – selling sex is not illegal, but loitering with intent, soliciting, and living of the proceeds of sex work are illegal. The judge explained how these provisions were meant to protect women from exploitation as well as protect the public, and intended to be used against owners of brothels and traffickers but were often misinterpreted.
6.7.2 In his previous capacity as the director of the judicial training institute he had introduced training on the correct use of the existing laws in the context of sex work into the curricula for all judges and prosecutors in training.
6.7.3 In addition, the academy also introduced mandatory training sessions on weekends for Judges and Prosecutors already active in the system. All personnel were obliged to participate in these sessions, which were facilitated through KHPT and involved sex workers as co-
facilitators.
6.7.4 This resulted in a general attitude change among these cadres from seeing sex workers as criminals and offenders to perceiving them as victims of poverty and societal strictures.
6.7.5 The entire initiative appeared to have resulted from the
Justice’s personal conviction and change of mind after having had interactions with KHPT where the organisation presented him with evidence of the mistreatment of sex workers by the judicial system.
6.7.6 The meeting validated KHPT’s explanations during the morning session and stressed the need for interactions by advocates with high-level officials, based on sound evidence and using personal connections to advance the programme.
6.8 Interaction with Karnataka State Police
KHPT invited the delegation for a formal dinner which included a personal interaction with Mr. T.S Ramesh, the recently retired former Director General of the Karnataka State Police. Due to the setting in a dining room the interaction with Mr. Ramesh was limited to Dr. C. Nyamkure, Ms. D. Hanisch, and Ms. S Mtetwa. Mr Ramesh related how he personally took an interest in the unjust and essentially illegal discrimination which sex workers often experienced from police officers. He stated that due to his interactions with KHPT, he initiated police trainings on managing key populations. In some instances, police officers who had sexually abused sex workers were identified and prosecuted. Overall attitude change in the police force was observed, substantiated by data related by KHPT during the morning presentations.
The delegation requested information on work in and with prisons – Mr
Ramesh explained that HIV information, as well as HIV testing and ART, had been made available in the prisons in Karnataka for inmates and staff. Condom distribution, however, could not be introduced. When asked to explain the reasons, he reiterated that since inmates are supposed to be supervised in a controlled environment, the distribution of condoms would have been tantamount to the authorities admitting that they had failed in their duties of controlling inmates’ interactions with each other. This precluded the introduction of condom distribution to inmates.
6.9 Key Lessons
- 9.1 KHPT managed to engage both Police and Judiciary in a productive manner, resulting in
- pre- and in-service trainings for both sectors with the effect that the actual experience of sex
- workers in their interactions with police and judiciary significantly improved over a four year period.
6.9.2 A crucial point was raised by KHPT in the necessity to engage police and judiciary at the highest level for programmatic change to move forward.
6.9.3 From insights shared by KHPT, personal contacts in combination with the gathering and sharing of sound evidence facilitated engagement of police and judiciary at the highest levels.
6.9.4 Training of sex workers as paralegals, and involvement of sex workers in the trainings of police and judiciary, contributed significantly to the substantial improvements with relation to police violence and court treatment of sex workers.
7.0 DAY 4: THURSDAY- 13 NOVEMBER 2014
7.1 The planned programmes for day four were as follows:
- A visit to Chickballapur for the delegates to have the opportunity to interact with the various stakeholders at state level that include District Judiciary Personnel; the police, prosecution and health officials.
- A visit to Soukhya Sanjeevini Samsthe, a Community Based
Organisation (CBO).
7.2 INTERACTION WITH STAKEHOLDERS AT
CHICKBALLAPUR
7.2.1 There was a rousing welcome of the Zimbabwean delegation at Chickballapur. Most of the government departments at state level were represented at the meeting that was held in a court room at Chickballapur District Court. The judicial personnel, the police, prosecution, and health officials were in attendance. The Indian counterparts were led by the District Judge.
7.3 Address by the Zimbabwean delegates on their experiences in India:
The Zimbabwean delegates were able to brief the Chickballapur community on the useful insights they got from the learning visit:
7.3.1 That the multi-sectoral approach to implementation of HIV/AIDS programmes in India is encouraging. This will enhance collaboration in Zimbabwe since the National Aids Council has already taken steps to mobilise all stakeholders in all sectors in the fight against HIV/AIDS in the country;
7.3.2 that the targeted approach in the fight against HIV/AIDS that focuses mainly on key drivers such as sex workers has helped reduce the rate of infection and prevalence in Kartanaka State;
7.3.3 that Zimbabwe will utilise some of the insights learnt in India to launch its own targeted approach that will also include sex workers; and
7.3.4 That Zimbabwe has appreciated the similarities between the Indian jurisdiction and the Zimbabwean Jurisdiction in that both do not criminalise the selling of sex but they criminalise the soliciting for sex.
7.3.5 That India has effectively dealt with the negative perception towards sex workers in the Judiciary and the Police through training and development of the Judges, Magistrates and the police officers.
7.3.6 That a sex worker is no longer treated as a criminal in court but as a victim of sexual violence whom the court depends on as a witness in the provision of evidence.
7.3.7 That there is a vibrant crisis management mechanism in which the sex workers, peer leader and the police cooperate when there is a distress call from any sex worker being abused.
7.4 Address by the Chickballapur leaders on their role in the fight against HIV/AIDS:
7.4.1 that India has put in place laws that prohibits woman trafficking and sexual abuse of women and children;
7.4.2 that the judiciary’s role is also to popularise moral life and marriage institution;
7.4.3 that the Judiciary’s role in punishing sexual offenders has reduced
violence against sex workers, women and children;
7.4.4 That the community has now appreciated that the sex worker is not to blame because the reasons to be sex worker is to be blamed on the community itself, poverty and tradition. Therefore, the community should take the lead in the rehabilitation of the sex workers.
7.4.5 that the focus is not only to teach people about HIV being spread by sexual contact but to also teach both urban and rural people that it is also spread by other means such as drug abuse, blood transfusion, tainted/unsterilized blades and syringes etc.;
7.4.6 that the model of targeted approach to HIV prevention in India that focuses on sex workers and involving all groups in the communitypolice, courts, hospitals, village heads and NGOs can be reciprocated in any developing country such as Zimbabwe;
7.4.7 that the targeted approach does not only seek to impart knowledge for sex workers to prevent spread of infections but it has brought about the provision of other services to sex workers such as HIV testing, medical treatment to those with STI, access to counselling and HIV Antiretroviral tablets to those who are HIV positive; and
7.4.8 That the condomization of sex is being popularised.
7.5INTERACTION WITH COMMUNITY BASED ORGANISATION, SOUKHYA SANJEEVINI SAMSTHE
7.5.1 After the meeting with the district court and other stakeholders the delegation toured Soukhya Sanjeevini Samsthe, a CBO in the rural community. The meeting was held with the leadership of the CBO.
7.6Main points from the presentation of the CBO activities
The delegates appreciated the level of financial and technical support from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Karnataka Health Promotion Trust (KHPT). The CBO made a presentation on its activities to the Zimbabwean delegation. The following were some of the critical messages from this interaction:
7.6.1 The CBOs are formed by sex workers themselves to help them achieve self-reliance and sustainable socio-economic and educational development;
7.6.2 The CBO’s aim is not only to create HIV awareness to the sex workers themselves but to also bring about change for the sex workers to live a dignified life as human beings who deserve respect as other people in their profession;
7.6.3 The management and administration of CBO is conducted with the framework of recognised corporate governance ideals that call for the setting up of a Board of Management and an implementation arm for operations.
7.6.4 The CBOs have been effective in ensuring the reduction of infection rate in Karnataka State through the provision of other health related services to sex workers and their families e.g. access to medical, HIV testing, condoms and counselling at the Drop in Centre.
7.6.5 The sex workers have set up their micro-finance facilities through their own Cooperative Banks where members contribute money to a central pool and lend money to each other at the rate of 18% per annum;
7.6.6 Through the soft loans sex workers have opened successful businesses such as tailoring, handcraft and tuck shops; candle producing and cow rearing businesses;
7.6.7 The CBOs have facilitated training of sex workers to acquire various skills such tailoring, candle making and business management;
7.6.8 The CBOs have exposed some sex workers to paralegal training so that they can be able to assist in the provision of legal aid to fellow sex workers.
7.7 Key Lessons
7.7.1 Opinions expressed by the district team testify to significant positive changes in attitudes towards sex workers but indicate that a lot of advocacy is still required to achieve acceptance of sex work and sex workers at a societal level. This appears to be linked to broad societal norms and values.
7.7.2 CBO’s are sex worker run, intimately involved in programme design, planning & implementation and capable of carrying on the programme with limited technical support after the initial set-up phase where KHPT provided substantial guidance.
7.7.3 Economic empowerment is key to long-term and fundamental improvements in the situation of sex workers.
8.0 DAY 5: FRIDAY, 14 NOVEMBER 2014
8.1 This was the last day of the Learning and Exposure Study Visit. The day was short and had two main sessions which covered
KHPT’s Monitoring and Evaluation system as well as a discussion on the way forward for the Zimbabwe programme after the visit. M&E content is presented below in tabular form in detail. The key issues on Monitoring and Evaluation included the following:
8.1.1 In-depth information gathering before programme planning, involvement of communities already at the baseline & planning stage
8.1.2 Use of national data—India runs national Integrated Behavioural and Biological Assessment (IBBA) studies on a regular basis which Zimbabwe does not do.
8.1.3 Design of a stringent and grass-roots based monitoring and data collection system
8.1.4 Ongoing programme evaluation through community assessments, surveys, and qualitative instruments
8.1.5 KHPT used polling booth surveys (PBS) to improve reliability of KAP surveys – this involves substitution of an interviewer with a polling booth system.
8.2 Key Lessons:
8.2.1 Disaggregated and up-to-date data on size & distribution of
KP communities needs to be
8.2.2 obtained, involving KPs as well as key stakeholders at community level in the exercise
8.2.3 KAP study methodology can be modified to obtain more reliable results – PBS
8.2.4 It is possible to use CBOs to collect monitoring data electronically
9.0 SIMILARITIES AND DIFFERENCES BETWEEN
INDIA AND ZIMBABWE
During the interaction, the delegation noted some similarities and differences as tabulated below.
SIMILARITIES | DIFFERENCES |
1. India is also a former
British Colony
|
1. India has double number of People Living with HIV compared to Zimbabwe
|
2. Response operation under repressive legal framework like
Zimbabwe
|
3. India’s epidemic is concentrated in SWs, IDUs and MSM
|
4. National AIDS Control Programme was also
established to assist Government of India |
2. India response is based on evidence, and a Human Rights based approach |
with managing the response
|
|
5. Steady decline in the prevalence for over a decade
|
3. India’s response is sustained by political leadership
&strong CSO engagement
|
4. India has a strong M&E
&Coordination System
|
10.0 WAY FORWARD AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Judiciary & Police
10.1 Seek high-level engagement with Judiciary and Police based on insights from the visit to
- advocate for the inclusion appropriate modules dealing with key populations in pre-service
- (and in-service, funding permitting) trainings for all relevant cadres.
10.2 In order to achieve the above, pursue further engagement especially with Justice Kumar and
- Mr Ramesh to interact with Zimbabwean counterparts from Judiciary and Police.
10.3 At community level
10.4 Explore the possibilities of micro-financing to foster incomegenerating projects for KAP in
- Zimbabwe, taking into account the different economic realities between India and Zimbabwe
10.5 To this end, facilitate interaction between sex workers in
Zimbabwe and India to share
- experiences using the facilities of the Bridge Project (e.g. skype conferences)
10.6 Micro-mapping could aid in generating a reliable size estimation of key populations
- nationwide
10.7 Promote community involvement in planning through microplanning of interventions based
- on site-specific micro-mapping
In India, Madam Speaker, we were told about a god where young girls are dedicated and he lives in a special place where man when they want sex, they go and sleep with those girls. So, it is evident that when that girl runs away from there she is going to be a sex worker and that for me is demonic. But there are those sex workers who are out there because they have no jobs; they have nothing else to but to do that. My experience talking to the sex worker we traveled with, who was very empowered and clear about it. She said she would make something like US$100 a day, so whatever job she would need would have to provide that for her. She was amenable if organizations out there or if Government would put seed money targeting them, she would respond
to that.
One of the recommendations we came back with as a team from Zimbabwe was that we would set up a technical working group that would meet every month with UNFPA to look at where we can find money to start working with sex workers. We have since identified that ILO has actually started on income generation in Beitbridge for sex workers and that programme is going on very well.
We also visited one of the cooperatives in India where sex workers have come up contributing money and they now have a small SME bank where they borrow money and start tuck shops and things like that. So it was an experience and one of the resolutions we reached while we there was that when we come, we shall invite an all stakeholder conference or workshop on HIV and the sex worker. Madame Speaker, we have since done that.
The other resolution was that we start lobbing for decriminalisation of loitering that has been taken over by events. So, we have actually achieved our three objectives that we decided when we went to India that we will have to come home and implement.
Madam Speaker, Sex workers are our children, they are our sisters and let us not frown against the sex workers because one cannot have sex without a man but with somebody. So, there is a sex worker man and a sex worker woman, if we look at it that way then we will endeavor to control the epidemic. Thank you.
- MUSIWA: Thank you Madam Speaker. I am also one of
those who attended the exposure visit. The India experience - India is that it is a Commonwealth country and is a former British colony like us. It is one of the countries that were devastated by the HIV/AID at the beginning of the pandemic. They have achieved certain goals in reducing the incidence and the number of people living with HIV. Now, as a model State in India Karnataka, the National Aids Council of Zimbabwe so it fit to send a delegation of Zimbabweans to go and learn from their experiences, to see how they have controlled this epidemic. The studies in India identified that there were key affected populations in the HIV. In layman terms, key affected populations are groups of people who are affected more than the general population. So, these that were identified were mostly sex workers, men who have sex with men, truckers and intravenous drug users.
The Government of India, because of limited resources adopted what is known as a targeted approach. With the limited amount of money available, they wanted to target the group where the Aids infection was highest. So, the female sex workers realised that they have contributed to the spread of infection because of their multiple partners. So, a study was done that involved the Government of India, the University of Manitoba from Canada, Bill and Melinda Gates
Foundation to form what was known as the Karnataka Health Promotion Trust. Its main thrust was to rein in the work of sex workers. They realised that as much as people do not like sex workers, they were contribution to the spread of HIV. So, they decided to target them.
What they have since done is to educate them by bringing peer educators, train them and then opened clinics where the sex workers are examined for STIs and HIV infection. These clinics are free. The high rate of STIs is contributory to HIV infection. They have since graduated them to form projects where they are able to make contributions. They have actually established a bank from which they can borrow money to start small businesses. Some of them have stopped being sex workers and for those who are still working as sex workers, they told us that because they were now economically empowered, they have got a choice.
Condom promotion is also very important in India. From the testimonies that we got, the sex workers told us that when they are hungry and men came to them, they did not have a choice on whether to go with a condom or without one. Now that they are now empowered and have got money, they are not hungry and can therefore choose to decline.
One other very important issue that we also learnt from India is the issue of blood. Free blood is one component of the Indian policy. Blood transfusions in India are free. It is one very important message we took home. In this country a pint of blood costs $135. For a lady who is going for a cesarean section probably would need three pints and that will cost about $500. This is also contributory because if we do not have blood that is free from HIV, we will not be able to control HIV/AIDS.
- J.M. GUMBO: I move that debate do now adjourn.
MR. MUKWANGWARIWA: I second
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Tuesday, 14th July, 2015.
MOTION
HARMONISATION OF THE MINES AND MINERALS ACT AND
THE LANDS ACQUISITION ACT
- NDUNA: I move the motion standing in my name that this House:
MINDFUL that Government, through its Land Reform Programme
undertook an agrarian revolution to address the colonial and historic land imbalances and foster ownership by the formally marginalised black majority;
COGNISANT that one of the four pillars of the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation blue print is anchored on food security and that agricultural land is the key enabler in this matrix;
FURTHER ACKNOWLEDGING that Sections 29 – 38 of the
Mines and Minerals Acts of 1951 gives the right to miners to displace farmers from agricultural land in order to exploit mineral deposits and can thereby create value for mineral rights;
CONCERNED that agricultural land is still being treated as though it is for subsistence only and of no value commercially and that this negates the gains made under the land reform programme and denies the new farmers the opportunities to use the value of the land as collateral for loans or as a means of realizing the value of their farms when they wish to dispose of them.
NOW, THEREFORE, calls upon the Executive to:
- Expeditiously harmonise the Mines and Minerals Act and the
Lands Acquisition Act to bring them to parity and conformity with
each other so that farmers and miners have the right to establish ownership of the resources they are using for productive purposes;
- Grant both farmers and miners secure rights to the resources they are using so that they can be valued and sold at market prices and used as collateral for the purpose of raising funds for productive enterprises; and
- Urgently bring before Parliament amendments to the Land Acquisition Act and Mines and Minerals Act, clearly detailing the amendments and changes that will promote and facilitate the secure usage of the of the land by farmers for agricultural purposes and by mining either individually or in joint venture partnership between miners and farmers on the same land.
- MUKWANGWARIWA: I second.
- NDUNA: Madam Speaker, at independence, Zimbabwe inherited a racially skewed agricultural land ownership pattern where white large-scale commercial farmers, consisting of less than 1% of the population occupied 45% of agricultural land. Seventy-five percent of this is in the high rainfall areas of Zimbabwe, where the potential for agricultural production is high. Equally significant, 60% of this largescale commercial land was not merely under-utilised but wholly utilised.
Agrarian reform in Zimbabwe therefore, revolves around land reform where the systematic dispossession and alienation of the land, from the black indigenous people during the period of colonial rule, are adequately addressed. The Zimbabwean agrarian reform involves restructuring of access to land, and an overall transformation of the existing farming system, institutions and structures.
I preface my debate also by saying it should include access to markets, credit, training and social developmental and economic amenities. It seeks to enhance agricultural productivity, leading to industrial and economic empowerment and macro-economic growth in the long term.
How then can resettled farmers have access to credit if there is no security of tenure? How then can the resettled farmers be given loans by commercial banks if at any given time you can be removed from the land because a mineral has been discovered where a thriving commercial farm exists? –
- ZVIDZAI: My point of order is though the member is debating a very important subject but he seems to be continuously referring to his notes by never raising his head. He is reading Madam Speaker.
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon. member, please just refer to
your notes. Please proceed.
- NDUNA: Madam Speaker, by not giving ourselves security
of tenure and security to the resettled farmers, the black farmer marginalised majority we are shooting ourselves in the foot, not only as farmers or as individuals but nationally.
In the same vein, we are violating the Constitution, Section 289 on Principles Guiding Policy on Agricultural Land. In order to redress the unjust and unfair pattern of land ownership that was brought about by colonialism and to bring about the land reform and equitable access by all Zimbabweans to the country’s natural resources, policies regarding agricultural land must be guided by the following principles.
The land tenure system must promote increased productivity and investment by Zimbabweans in agricultural land. There are a few points that I want to bring to the fore for hon. members and House to take cognisant of. These are the following points:
A system that gives precedence to a mine over ownership of agricultural land surely does not promote increased productivity and investment by Zimbabweans in agricultural land;
A system that gives first preference to a mine over investment in farming surely does not exhort investment in food production, good health and nutrition.
You know in our ZIM ASSET agenda, food security is one of the key pillars. If we do not promote security on our land for the resettled farmers, we are not giving precedence to food security as enunciated in the ZIM ASSET agenda.
A system that gives priority to a mine over a farm especially without adequate exploration to determine the quantity and mineral resource surely does not encourage investment in farming but in mining only. What will happen when you destroy a thriving farm only to discover that the mineral ore will disappear just as soon as you have discovered?
I need to also bring to your attention that a system that upholds the superiority of a mining concern over a farming concern surely is not interested in protecting and conserving the environment for future generations as so eloquently espoused in our Constitution. Look at the once thriving agricultural rich land of Kitsiyatota which is now riddled with gullies. To understand what I am talking about, spare a thought for Gift Gariya of Battlefields in Kwekwe whose maize crop was wiped out by a gold miner. Spare a thought for Chinhoyi road on the left and on the right, the road is riddled with pot-holes. This was once a thriving citrus plantation but because minerals have taken precedence over the land ownership or agricultural land, that land is now riddled with holes that are being exploited by miners at the expense of the resettled farmer.
How do we address this one? We also want to empower the farmer using the mineral resources that are under the ground that the resettled farmer has been allocated land to. Hon. Anastancia Ndlovu will testify…
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order. Order. Hon. members, I am appealing to you that you lower your voices when you are whispering to each other. If you cannot, please leave the House. Hon. member, can you please proceed?
- NDUNA: Hon. Anastancia Ndlovu will testify how the once beautiful and majestic scenery of Shurugwi has been rendered unsightly by mining over the usage of that land by the resettled farmer or landowner for productive purposes…
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon. members on the front bench, you are making a lot of noise. Hon. Porusingazi, we mean business when we are in this House. Can you please proceed?
- NDUNA: We will never regain our status as the bread basket of Africa if our policies do not reflect our endeavor to revive the agricultural sector. How do we revive the agricultural sector? By making sure that what security the miner has over land using the Minerals Act of 1951 also cascades down to the land owner. An example will be this one; if the miner gets mineral rights to land that is already owned by a resettled farmer, the Mineral or the Mines Act should come to parity with the Land Act so that whatever accrues to the mineral owner or the miner accrues to the land owner. This does not leave the landowner out in the cold as the mine owner now flourishes using the minerals that reside in the same land where the resettled farmer now owns.
The lofty objectives of the land reform programme will remain but high sounding unachievable ideals if we do not walk the talk. We are trying to empower the former marginalised owners of this country by empowering them using the affirmative action of the Agrarian Reform
Programme. In the same vein, we should empower them when a miner comes and starts exploiting or identifies the same land of having minerals residing in it.
I went to Mutoko recently to conduct elections for Chairmanship of Mashonaland East Province which was then won by Hon. Biggie Matiza. What happens in Mutoko is sad in that even those people that do not have security of tenure to the land that they are in, the communal farmers and those that have been resettled in the A1 farms and in the A2 farms have now been displaced by people that now are exploiting the granite rocks of Mutoko. How can they benefit from the exploiters of this mineral resource?
If we bring to parity the Mines and the Lands Act of 2000, we will make sure that the landowner who came in before the miner gets to benefit in the same vein. What then happens in terms of exploitation of the granite? The money that accrues to the miner should first accrue to the land owner. The worst case scenario should be a joint venture formulated by the land and communal owner and the exploiter of the mineral wealth. This should then come to the executive just for harmonisation but the joint venture partnership should start at grassroots level without disenfranchising the land owner or the resettled farm owner or the owner of the communal set up.
Our farmers are millionaires in their own right and it should come out in the open that the land owner whom we have designed an affirmative action and empowered should not be dis-empowered using the Minerals Act. I speak so eloquently, voluminously and vociferously about the bring to parity of these two Acts before our people are disenfranchised before our people are dis-empowered or go down to the doldrums of Zimbabwe’s economy. This was a bold step to empower our people. This House should say and rise with one voice to say where the miner is, the same place the land owner should benefit from that.
Recently, we heard from the Deputy Minister of Mines that the Act provides for the land owner not to be infringed upon on his rights in terms of the proximity to which a miner can peg – whether close to his property or otherwise and the size of the land which a miner is allowed to peg on or to do exploitation of mineral worth, but how many of these principles are being adhered to? You will find that a miner or a commissioner of mines gives authority to a miner to go and exploit minerals at a land which is less than 100 hectares which goes against what is in the Mines Act.
The Deputy Minister alluded to the fact that as long as the land that is owned by the land owner is less than 100 hectares, there should be consensus between the land owner and the miner in terms of exploitation on that land owners land, but this is not being adhered to. There is a lot of criminality, corruption and underhand dealings where the commissioners reside in terms of advancing the causes, ethos and the riches of the miner at the expense of the land owner.
This should be brought to a stop and how is this brought to a stop? This House, according to Section 117, makes laws. It crafts laws for the good governance of society and it should be noted that this is the House that has the power to bring parity to the issue that has to do with the Lands Act and the Mines Act. How do we do that Madam Speaker? If we conduct ourselves according to Standing Order 50, where are we supposed to see and interrogate the way the Executive carries out its mandate? We will see that our people are now downtrodden because of the laws that we pass or because of the historic laws or the colonial imbalances that were there and that also comes out in the Acts that we designed way back in 1951.
So, we should stand up and make sure that we are not reversing the gains of our independence. The gains of our independence are premised on giving land to the formerly marginalised black community. In the same vein, let us empower them and enrich them with the same minerals that reside in that land by changing laws in this House for the betterment and empowerment of our formerly marginalised black majority.
Madam Speaker, I want to say having been given land where we formerly never used to have, it should not be a death sentence. It should not be merely rural to urban migration. It should be a tool of empowerment and enrichment. We want to now derive wealth from that land that was given to us to address the imbalances of the colonial past.
When we talk of land in the same vein, we should talk of the minerals.
When we talk of land, in the same vein we should talk of the industrial establishment by the formerly marginalized black community. When we talk of land, we should talk of good health because it comes out of the mineral wealth of our nation. As we exploit our mineral wealth, we are not ploughing back that mineral wealth into those quarries that are left open.
A case in point is Mutoko. Those granites will never go back to those quarries. They are being transported day in day out. We got on to this road which was written, ‘No through road, mining in progress.’ As long as you are not a miner, and that was being pointed out on that sign post, you were not allowed to go into that road but that road resides in the same place where the land owner occupies that land. So, this is a case in point. This is a very simple example of being disempowered in our own land. We can empower our people by harmonising these laws and there is no reason why we cannot harmonise these laws because those people, part of them that were empowered during the land reform programme are in this House. They are now the law makers. There is no reason why they cannot make laws for the good governance of the society.
Madam Speaker, I conclude by thanking you for giving me this opportunity. If I had not been given this opportunity, my point would not have been well ventilated. I ask hon. members to stand up with one voice and to come up and agree with me that we need parity of the Lands Act and the Minerals Act in order to empower the formerly marginalised black community. I thank you.
- CHIMANIKIRE: Thank you Madam Speaker, for giving me this opportunity to basically oppose what the last speaker was advocating for. Madam Speaker, yes it is a fact that this Act was passed in 1951. However, where mining is conducted nowhere in the world does farming take priority over mining. This Government in Chiadzwa moved out farmers into a different area in order to give priority to diamond mining. It is the yield that you get out of mining in terms of benefit to the nation that influences the laws that were put in place to ensure that maximum benefit to the nation is actually achieved through exploitation of minerals.
While we are an agro based economy in Zimbabwe, we should not actually lose sight of the fact that Zimbabwe has over 60 minerals. For your own information, Madam Speaker, the only place that took precedence over mining is the National Sports Stadium because where it stand right now, there is a gold deposit that was exploited some years back which could not be reversed when the National Sports Stadium was put up. However, to equate the Land Reform Act so that it actually distributes wealth equally with mining is not logical because in terms of reward we will lose out. In fact, the current law provides that any farmer whose operations are disrupted by his area being pegged by a mine or a claim being put up can be resettled in areas where the land is almost equivalent to where he would have been displaced from and we
see this as befitting.
Interestingly enough, the last speaker stood up last week to say that
2 500 jobs had been created in Chakari, which is the area he represents and he said that these workers are actually makorokoza. I am just wondering why today he is coming back and saying those 2 500 jobs should be lost and priority given to farming. So, he is contradicting himself and I think it is not fair to ask this House to support him when last week he was actually…
- NDUNA: On a point of Order Madam Speaker, I did not contradict myself I am trying to bring to parity the land…
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: What is the point of order hon. member?
- NDUNA: The hon. member said that I am calling for the
eviction of 2 500 artisanal miners. I did not call for the …
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order hon. member, can you take your seat. Order! Hon members, hon. member you have moved your motion, allow hon. members to debate on that motion, at the end – Can you take your seat – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – Order! Hon member order! I am talking to the hon. member, allow hon. members to debate on the motion, at the end when the motion is being adopted you will have a chance to close your motion.
- CHIMANIKIRE: Thank you Madam Speaker. I was
referring to ...
- MANDIPAKA: On a point of order. Thank you Madam Speaker. I stand guided by principles and ethics; it appears no one is seconding the motion.
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Whenever anyone stands up to
debate on that motion, it is allowed. Can we proceed please?
- CHIMANIKIRE: Thank you Madam Speaker. As I pointed
out, it is not to the benefit of our country to prevent mining to actually progress if not faster than the rate that we are currently undertaking. I recall that this country became the bread basket of Africa when we had no mining rights. For us to try and blame mining as impeding farming,
it is not correct.
In my opinion I do believe there is no need to reconcile the two pieces of legislation because by the end of the day we stand to benefit if they are allowed in the status quo that we currently have. In fact, while there has always been, from my experience, conflict between a miner and a farmer, these conflicts have been amicably resolved. In most cases it is a win win situation where a farmer is actually resettled in an area where they have better soil than where they were operating from.
I heard him quoting the Mutoko issue, in 1976, the granite stone was declared as a mineral. Prior to that, chiefs and sub-chiefs would actually dish it out to whoever was interested in cutting the stone and taking it away. I believe yes, we need legislation to ensure that locals in Mutoko are protected from certain types exploitation that disrupt their normal daily living and also disturb their traditional way of life. I am aware that in the Mutoko area, we have a situation where hyenas have shifted from the mountains and are now living together with people and are attacking their livestock. That cannot be allowed. In areas like that mining has to be regulated and controlled to the benefit of the locals without necessarily having them exploited.
The first miners in that area, I am aware, were cutting stones and leaving without rehabilitation of those particular areas but now the law requires that if you have carried out any mining in an area, there should be restitution in restoring the land to its former origins by planting grass and planting trees. It is not a question of saying reconcile the farmer and miner in Mutoko, it is a question restoring the land to almost what it was prior to the exploitation through mining.
Madam Speaker. In my own opinion I stand not to support what the mover of the motion has moved for. Thank you.
- HOLDER: Thank you Madam Speaker. I would like to thank Hon. Nduna for airing his views to this motion. Those are his views. His Excellency, the President, made a Presidential Speech and said that the mining department plays an important role in the recovery of this economy. Yes, the Mines and Minerals Act was made in 1951 but we all know that this country was colonised by British people. Land was taken away from people, people were moved. This is what caused people to fight, to get the land back. Now that we have got it back, the problem we are facing is that the Mines and Minerals Act states clearly that mining takes precedence to all the other laws.
The farmer has the surface rights but the miner has mineral rights. The problem that we are facing is that when a person gets a piece of land and finds out that someone was mining there for years, he becomes selfish and greedy and says this is my land and you need to move. The minerals belong to the person who was authorised by the Government to mine. The Mines and Minerals Act clearly states that, if a person has more than 150ha, you notify the current owner of the land to say that you will be prospecting for this mineral. When it is less than that, the new Statutory Instrument states that you need to first get permission from the person who is occupying that piece of that land. When you get permission, there are so many procedures, the council is involved, the chief, the community and the owner is involved to grant you permission. The Ministry of Mines and Mining Development does not just say go to Hon. Maridadi’s farm and start mining. He has the chance to object if
he has programmes or plans for that piece of land.
The only problem here is that miners have a one size fit all policy. We are trying to regularise, this is why in all our Committees, Mines and
Energy Committee we keep asking when is the new policy coming up. is it a one size fit all? What is the story? How do we justify a small, medium and large scale miner? For us, we need to make sure that we harmonize these laws but people need to be educated, especially those that have received pieces of land and those that were resettled. They need to understand the difference between surface rights and mineral rights. The hon. member did mention that Marange and Murowa people were moved. The reason why they were moved is that - imagine where you have a community where you have a precious mineral that is being mined and you have these diamonds flowing within the community, yet our country needs these diamonds in order to recover the economy.
What should happen is that the Ministry of Mines and Mining
Development needs to make a policy, maybe a mining stock exchange because when a person comes and invests in this country, he invests knowing what is there. What we know is that in this House we keep asking what the quantities of minerals are? The hon. member did mention that there are over 60 minerals that are being mined, but how do we quantify that? That information is there but the problem is that nobody has access to it.
The small farmer needs to be supported. What we need to do is that we need to find a system where Government can also subsidise the farmer. How do we do that? Before he even grows his produce, we know Mr. Dube is growing wheat, Mr. Hlongwane is growing tobacco and we know exactly how many farmers are growing a particular produce. The problem here is when farmers grow these produce, they do not have a proper marketing system and the markets are flooded. When one grows tomatoes, everyone grows tomatoes and so, the market is flooded. So, if we have a marketing system where Government can also subsidise, that will be good. That is how we can support the agricultural land.
When we talk about mining, there is a lot that has to be considered. Nothing underground is good there without benefiting the Government, people, the country and the economy – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] – We need to make sure that these resources are mined and mined in an environmentally friendly way. We are happy that the Mining
Development Section - [AN HON. MEMBER: ZMDC!] – not ZMDC, the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development is actually working on restructuring the system. We used to have what we call Mining Commissioners, now we have Mining Directors. We used to have provincial different structures where now the mining districts run parallel to the political districts, which means there is some sort of movement and development that is going on in that sector.
Madam Speaker, we need to understand that as we are proceeding and as the Mines and Minerals Act is being amended, we need to make sure that it is aligned so that we do not interfere with the environmental aspect. The mining sector has a problem where it adheres to say 14 different taxes and 22 Acts of Parliament. You have got the Explosives Act, now when you look at the Explosives Act, for you to acquire a licence to purchase explosives, you need US$2 000.00, just for that licence. Another US$1 000 just for another licence to look after the explosives that you have acquired and yet the small scale miner only uses US$100 to buy maybe 50 fuses or 10 fuses, 10 emulites and so he has got to spend US$ 3000 before he can spend a US$100, it becomes a challenge. So, we need to try and see how the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development measures itself with a way to say that mining has been a success in this area. Do we measure it from the revenue that is collected or do we measure it by the magnitude of mines? This is where people need to see that Government needs to be a facilitator. We need to make sure that some of the things that we are putting in place are in line with what our people can afford and what people can do. We talk about regularizing small scale miners, we talk about regularizing makorokoza but even when we talk about people who were resettled, some of us use the wrong word and we say there are some squatters, which is wrong.
What we are saying is that these things need to be regularised in a way where people can be taught how to farm, how Government can subsidise and what is good for them to farm, whether it is small grain or different grain. In the mining sector, we need to make sure that there must be two different types of policies. We can never say high school, primary school and university is the same. There are different measurements and we are being treated as one
So, Hon. Nduna did mention and kept complaining about the mining sector. I feel that those that are interested in mining need to go and visit the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development and understand the Mines and Minerals Act properly. Those that are into farming need also to understand - go and see madhumeni and they will teach you what needs to be done.
Madam Speaker, with these few words – [Laughter] – I do not want to lose it, as I always say to the hon. members - blessed are the short speeches for they shall be heard. Thank you Madam Speaker. *MR. MATAMBANADZO: I thank you Madam Speaker, for the
opportunity that you have given me to add my voice to the motion that was raised by Hon. Nduna of miners and farmers. There is a conflict between these groups. He is saying the farmer should get everything from farming as well as mining rights. I think we need to assist each other. It is a good idea that you have brought in this House to guide each other on how to develop our economy in this country. I was thinking that we have farmers who are into agriculture and then there is a miner who extracts minerals. These two are different but are in the same country here in Zimbabwe. These are different fields that are being encouraged by the President and supported to develop the nation. Once we say one is good and the other is bad, we are going against what the President requires. Yes, the legislation that you have been talking about, I was able to understand it because I was once a gardener. A farmer, Madam Speaker, is a person who has been given an offer letter, a certificate and land allocated to him. The law says that he is supposed to farm on top of the soil; he is not allowed to go underground.
On the issue of the miners; what is in our legislation is written in English but when I read it, it was quite clear. How could you not understand it when I did? A miner is allowed just to extract minerals, do mining activities and not to engage in agriculture. So I fail to understand where the conflict is coming from.
In this House, we should help people not to engage in conflict between the miners and the farmers. The legislation says the farmer should engage just in farmingactivities and should not be involved in mining because it is a crime. If you are a farmer and you engage in mining, you are going against the law. You cannot change a mining claim into farming land. I think that is well balanced.
I want to talk about the issue that the President said that this country would be resuscitated economically by gold mining. In Zambia, the economy is based on copper mining. If the country fails to produce copper it will fail economically and that is what will happen here as well. This is what is probably causing the conflicts between the miner and the farmer, they are caused by us the Members of Parliament. We should go and intervene, ensure that there is no conflict between the farmer and miner.
I want to tell you that Zimbabwe, like what the President says, its economy is based on gold, and even anyone can understand that it is so simple. For a miner to be given laws by a farmer, we would have failed. So, the miner should be given an opportunity to mine. Mining does not take a lot of land. A person is given 10 hectares of gold and on that claim, he can realise billions and billions of dollars. However, on those 10 hectares, he is not allowed to engage in farming but can only drill a tunnel that he can use to go underground to extract gold in the various tunnels that have gold.
Honestly, how can someone be in conflict with someone who is deep underground and yet as a farmer, he is only supposed to be working on the surface, using the top soil. So, I think we should be able to make our people understand that a miner should mine and the farmer should use the top soil, engaging in farming and not mining. Now, if a farmer wishes to engage in mining, probably they would have been told by their ancestral spirit that there is gold in this area, they can sit down and come up with a syndicate which is the merging of the licences. The miner writes a letter informing the owner that he has found gold, and then they will get into an alliance whereby he seeks the authority to mine on the farmers land. So, they would have to sit down and come with an agreement to engage in mining activities. They can also agree to engage in farming. There are actually two types of agreements that I want the House to understand. There is agreement on one certificate and another agreement that is based on the band of available gold. Both of you can get individual certificates and can engage in mining. So, you need to go and conscientise your constituents like what I am doing in my constituency.
If you look at Kwekwe, yes, it is not a lie that there are so many tunnels because Kwekwe is the only town whereby gold is found along First Street. So, it is not surprising really to come across different trenches along First Street. We decided that we plant trees 200 metres from the street and we have told people that they are not allowed to go beyond that. So, we allowed them to drill a tunnel and extract gold from underground, hence there is no problem in Kwekwe. We have addressed the issues and it has produced a lot of gold. The trenches that you used to see, we gave syndicates and now our people have certificates. There are no longer gold panners in Kwekwe but syndicates.
There are over 6000 people who are engaged in mining at Globe and Phoenix Mine. This is a mine that we negotiated with the white man. We told them that we would take it by force if they refused to share. The area that is being mined by 6000 miners is only about 20 hectares. So, it is impossible Madam Speaker, to tell the people to stop mining. I thank the President because he had foresight that our country can develop through gold mining. Therefore, we should unite and support this motion because it is a positive one. Thank you.
*MR. MUKWENA: Thank you Madam Speaker for the
opportunity that you have given me. I have stood up to support the motion that was moved by Hon. Nduna. He has moved a very good motion which touched on legislation that was put in 1951 concerning the Mines and Minerals Act which should be aligned to the Constitution. This legislation was enacted by the white men and they were doing it for themselves but Zimbabwe is now a people-centred country and these laws should be ensuring that everyone benefits.
Again, on the issue of farmers that he talked about, as Zimbabwe we are known as being very good farmers, as a bread basket of Africa meaning that the issue of agriculture should be protected and farmers should be protected. Land reform means that if we fail to support the farmers, we will have regressed. Zimbabwe is known in the SADC region as the bread basket of Africa. So the issue of agriculture; I believe farmers should be fully supported.
Our plea is that our Government should go back and look at what the whites were doing. Mkwasine and Hippo Valley were opened. I think the people from my area are the ones who opened those estates. The white man was given a loan for four years. The fifth year, they were able to pay the first quarter. The sixth year, they would pay the second quarter. The seventh year, they would pay the third quarter and the eighth year, the fourth quarter to clear his loan. That is what we request from our Government that it should support the farmers. Yes, we applaud the land reform programme but they should be supported.
So on the issue of mining legislation and on farming, it is impossible for a miner to go and remove a farmer. If you want to engage in mining and you want to go on land that was given to a farmer, then you have to go and talk to them, and talk in good faith. If a person has a farm and you do not agree on his requirements, there are so many areas where mining can take place. Gold is found where there are mountains.
Where agriculture should take place, let it be agricultural based.
We need to align our legislation and ensure that it protects everyone. We do not want the poor to sideline or disadvantage them because a poor person is also a human being. We do not want a situation whereby the country is owned by the rich. The country and land is ours. This House is ours. Let us sit down and come up with legislation that protects both sides. We do not want anyone who oppresses another. We need to speak with one voice. I thank you Mr. Speaker Sir.
- MUKWANGWARIWA: Mr. Speaker, I move that the
debate be adjourned.
- MUDARIKWA: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Tuesday, 14th July, 2015.
On the motion of MR. MUKWANGWARIWA, seconded by MS.
MPARIWA, the House adjourned at Twenty Minutes to Four o’clock
p.m. until Tuesday, 14th July, 2015.
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Wednesday, 8th July, 2015
The National Assembly met at a Quarter-past Two O’clock p.m.
PRAYERS
(THE ACTING SPEAKER in the Chair)
- MUTSEYAMI: On a point of order. I realise that in the House, as we speak, we hardly have a Cabinet Minister. Today, is purely business to ask Ministers important questions for the country to move on. I recommend that probably, we need to put our foot a bit higher than we have done before, by postponing this process so that Ministers appreciate their responsibilities.
MOTION
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
- GUMBO: Madam Speaker, our usual plea to you that
Ministers are not available for question time, we move and agree from both sides that we give them time to come. We will try and use other methods to call them to the House. In the meantime, we move that Answers to Questions Without Notice and Order of the Day, No. 1, be stood over until Order of the Day, No. 2 has been disposed of.
- MUKWANGWARIWA: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
- CHAMISA: On a point of order. Madam Speaker, we are conscious of the fact that this is probably our third or fourth time making a statement to our esteemed Cabinet Ministers. This is our third or fourth time, stating and restating that Parliament cannot afford to wait for Ministers. Instead, our Ministers have to wait for Parliament. Parliament is the supreme organ that is responsible for oversight in this country but we continue to see this lackadaisical approach by our Ministers. They approach this House with utter disdain, wanton contempt. What we have to do, Madam Speaker, is for you to help us in making a determination today and now that this is the last time we are communicating to Ministers, to make sure that they respect Parliament.
In fact, I communicated through my mechanisms, having been former Minister, I am actually told that the President himself is not happy with the conduct of Ministers. This current crop of Ministers has to be brought to book. Madam Speaker, we would want you to make sure that you send a clear communication. Thank you very much –
[HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Order! order hon. members. Hon. members from my right, order! I have noted with concern what you have said. Parliament will take measures on Ministers that do not attend Parliament without apologies. That would be looked into. For the sake of business of this Parliament, we are now going to consider what the
Chief Whips have agreed to and move with the business of the House.
*MR. CHINOTIMBA: On a point of order. Madam Speaker, we have questions that we would want to pose to Ministers that are here, like the Minister of Tourism and Hospitality Industry who is here. Should I not ask questions to the Minister who is present in the House because today we should start with question time? – [HON.
MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – Yes, I must respect but should not be barred. – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –
*THE ACTING SPEAKER: Order hon. members on my right! Order Hon. Chinotimba! Hon. Chinotimba, I have heard what you have said but as I have earlier on announced, I made a ruling that the Whips on both sides of the House agreed. I put the question to the House and no one had a different opinion in as far as the Standing Rules and Orders of this House are concerned. So in terms of the rules, we are proceeding.
- MARIDADI: On a point of order! Last week we came up with a determination that a communication would be sent to Ministers. We are coming up with the same determination this week. Madam Speaker, we must agree on the course of action that must be taken. We need that course of action to be outlined and to know when it shall be effected. Thank you.
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Hon. Maridadi, the Speaker has
already given a ruling on the matter that you are addressing.
MOTION
PEOPLE-CENTRED DEVELOPMENTAL POLICIES AND
MEASURES ON IMPROVING DOMESTIC PRODUCTION
AND FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT
- MASHAKADA: Madam Speaker I move the motion standing in my name that this House:
CONCERNED by the deterioration in the social and economic conditions in the country which is a direct consequence of economic melt-down, lack of market confidence, corruption and poor revenue inflows from taxes and the mineral sector;
NOTING that there are no immediate signs of economic recovery contrary to the objectives of ZIM ASSET;
WORRIED about the looming food shortage in the country as a result of poor agricultural performance and the limited resources to import maize and other cereals;
ALARMED by the number of companies that are closing and retrenching employees almost on a daily basis thereby increasing the rate of unemployment;
FURTHER ALARMED by the collapse of the formal sector and its
substitution by street vending and informal trading;
NOW, THEREFORE, calls upon Government to start dialogue with all national stakeholders and the international community and come up with people centered development policies and effective measures to:
- Stop corruption and foster inclusive economic growth which is, inter alia, underpinned by the mobilization of domestic resources;
- Increase domestic production;
- Improve domestic and foreign direct investment; and (d) Prepare a sustainable debt management strategy.
- MARIDADI: I second.
- MASHAKADA: Good afternoon Madam Speaker. As I
stand before you this afternoon, I want to remind this House that we only have one country and it is called Zimbabwe. We must be patriotic and it means we must love our country and make sure that the country is able to look after its citizens. We must look after our economy because it is not there just for us here; it is there for the posterity, our children and for the next posterity. Therefore, we have got a heavy responsibility as a generation across the political divide to make sure that our economy is looked after.
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Hon. Mupfumi, please behave in the
House.
- DR. MASHAKADA: Madam Speaker, the people who have
elected us want us to discuss the socio-economic problems that they are facing on a day to day basis. They want us to come up with long lasting solutions to our economic hardships.
Madam Speaker, some of the hon. members here might be sitting comfortably in this House. They might be happy that they are privileged to be in this House, driving Ford Rangers or Mercedes Benz but the ordinary man and woman in the street is suffering.
- NYANHONGO: On a point of order! I am very much surprised to hear the hon. member talking about the socio-economic problems that our people are facing, yet it is from that side that – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]- That have caused the economic hardships of this country. They were caused and created by those on that side, so they should not talk about it.
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Order, order hon. members. Hon.
Musundire and Hon. Chinotimba order!
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Hon. Nyanhongo, there is no point of order. From what you have said, there is no point of order. You were just deliberating. So, Dr. Mashakada, you may continue with your debate.
- DR. MASHAKADA: Madam Speaker, the ordinary tax payer is looking for leadership. They are looking up to us to provide solutions to their day to day economic problems. Madam Speaker, as I am talking to you, the suffering that is visiting our people is of gigantic proportions.
People are going without meals and there is this talk that people are now doing zero, zero, one, which means no breakfast, no lunch, but only have dinner. This is happening in this country. Children are dropping out of school because their parents cannot afford to pay school fees. The situation in our hospitals is critical. There is a critical food crises in this country and we cannot afford to be casual about the economic crisis that we are confronting as Zimbabwe.
Madam Speaker, I just want us to begin by analysing the reason why we are where we are, what has led us to be where we are and what are the fundamental problems affecting Zimbabwe as an economy? If we do not appreciate the magnitude of the macro economic problems that we are facing, we cannot come up with a solution. We cannot come up with long lasting and sustainable solutions.
The first critical thing we are facing in this country is that the economy is not growing. We can try all sorts of policies but the bottom line remains that we need growth in the economy. If the cake is not growing, we cannot share it. Workers cannot get enough income, employers cannot get profits, and Government cannot deliver public services because growth is declining.
Madam Speaker, you reckon that between 2009 and 2013, our economy grew by an average of 7, 5% but to date, our economy is now growing at between 3 and 3, 5% because our productive sectors are not performing very well. So, we need growth in this economy and we need to come up with policies that foster growth so that we can alleviate the problems and hardships that we are facing but I just want to address why we have not had growth in the past three or four years.
The first problem is that our national servings as a country has collapsed. We are living from hand to mouth, whether it is the private sector, Government or individuals. The level of national savings has declined to 5% of GDP, yet the benchmark for savings that can be mobilised for national development all over the world is 30% of GDP. Imagine the decline from 30% to 5% of GDP savings. It means we do not have the critical mass of bankable resources that can be used for onlending to individuals, private sector and Government. Without sustainable savings, our growth will falter.
The other problem that is compromising our growth is that expenditure is very low in the economy. Government is not spending because it has no capacity. The revenues are very low, so Government is not spending. Individuals are not spending because aggregate demand is low. Firms are not spending because of the liquidity crisis. So without visible expenditure from Government, companies and individuals, how do you generate economic activity? Where do you get growth in the economy? That is a problem affecting our growth as a country.
The other problem affecting growth as a country is lack of investment. Investment levels have dwindled to very critical low levels in this country. If you compare Zimbabwe with other SADC countries, we are receiving investment to the tune of $500 000 000 a year whereas other countries are now receiving investment levels of $1, $2 billion and so forth. Without investment we cannot talk of sustainable growth because we are choked of capital that is required to grow the economy.
The other problem is that while we do not have growth, our productive sectors are not doing well. We can talk of agriculture, manufacturing, mining and the commercial sector, they are all not performing well and that is compromising our growth. I am just touching on growth as a critical factor for us to move out of this economic quagmire.
I have talked about production as a critical factor which is an albatross for growth. One of the sectors that have suffered from low production is the manufacturing sector. Zimbabwe held a SADC summit just recently, I think two or three months ago. The theme of the summit was industrialisation which means that SADC and Africa as a whole, emphasised the theme of industrialisation but in the case of Zimbabwe, our situation is very bad. I will tell you that in the year 2000, our employment level was two million people. Around 1998, 1999 to 2000, the formal sector employed about two million people. By 2009, employment had declined to 900 000 people because no new jobs were created.
As I stand here Madam Speaker, we have de-industrialised to an extent that the total labour force in the formal sector is only around 700
000 people employed in the whole country. Yesterday, the Portfolio Committee on Industry and Commerce visited factories and one shocking example was the textile sector. They were told that at its peak, the textile sector employed 54 000 people but as of now, they are now employing 3 000. Just look at the level of decline in just one sector. I have not touched the clothing, transport and other sectors. We have gone through massive de-industrialisation as a country.
The effects of de-industrialisation are there for us to see. One of the most manifest effects of de-industrialisation is the vending that we are all battling to control. Remember when an economy collapses, it goes into phases. The first phase, the economy moves itself from formal to informal. The informal sector is what we are all familiar with and it is better because you can regulate, incentivise or you can try to make it more formal. But when you go beyond the informal sector, it becomes a street economy. Vending becomes the order of the day. Those are signs of de-industrialisation.
The problem with vending is that the moment you try to control it, you actually multiply the problem. Somebody said vending can be compared to the hyper-inflation years when we removed the zeros and the following week, you got more zeros than you had removed – [Laughter] – That is the problem and that is the reality. Vending is a problem that we have to deal with but it is not their problem because there are no jobs. So people have to come into the streets to look for money for food, education and hospital bills because the industry has closed – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – Madam Speaker, our industrial areas are now museums.
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Order hon. members on my left side.
You are always speaking and you are disturbing him. Let the hon. member be heard in silence.
- MASHAKADA: Our industrial areas are now like museums.
If you go to the heavy industrial sites, like the Coventry area here in Harare, you find that people are now selling sadza from factory warehouses. In Bulawayo, some of the industries are now being used by churches as places of worship. Gweru, Mutare and so on, have deindustrialised. As legislators, we have to come up with solutions on how we can turn around our economy because we have got only one country to live in and that is Zimbabwe.
Madam Speaker, linked to industrialization is the question of unemployment. The level of unemployment in this country is shocking. I am surprised when we get figures to the effect that unemployment is 12%. I ask where these economists live. How can you talk of 12% level of unemployment in this country? We have got graduates coming out of our tertiary institutions; some of them are selling airtime and some working as petrol attendants. You will be lucky because at least you have got a job but you talk of engineers, accountants and economists, jobless. The other problem of de-industrialisation is the worsening balance of payments position…
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Hon. Mashakada, please speak to the
Chair.
- MASHAKADA: Madam Speaker, the balance of payments is the ratio between imports and exports. Because of deindustrialisation, we are not producing anything – we have become a supermarket economy. The level of exports to imports is shocking –[AN HON. MEMBER: Tuck-shop economy]- My colleague is saying a tuck-shop economy. We are now importing almost everything. We are importing goods and services to the tune of US$8 billion and we are only exporting about US$3 billion worth of goods.
Therefore, there is a wide margin between your exports and your imports just because we are not producing. If you look at capacity utilisation in the manufacturing sector, most firms are operating with excess capacity. The capacity utilisation is now around 35%. It is even alleged that even blue chip companies like Econet are actually retrenching and they have cut wages by 35%. Telecel is also cutting wages …
*MS. R. MPOFU: On a point of order, the hon. member has forgotten that the British imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe so that the country would collapse. Secondly, if they are aware that they are not the ones who are supporting the British, why is it that they are not calling for the removal of sanctions in Zimbabwe? Thirdly, -[HON.
MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections]- I have not finished.
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Order! Order!
*MS. R. MPOFU: I have not finished Madam Speaker -[HON.
MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections]-
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Order! Order hon. members! Order! Hon. members order!
Hon. Mpofu, when the time comes, I will give you an opportunity to debate the motion. So there is no point of order right now but I will give you the time to debate your points. Hon. Mashakada you may continue-[HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections]-
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Order! Order! Order! Hon. members
order! Your points of orders should be related to the Standing Rules and Orders. If you want to state your point of order may you start by stating the rules in the book -[HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear]-
- NYANHONGO: We now have a sizeable number of ministers here, can we now pose questions without notice.-[HON.
MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections]-
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Order! Order hon. members! Can
Hon. Nyanhongo repeat his point of order?
- NYANHONGO: I am just saying, we now have a good size of Cabinet ministers here, maybe we should now pose questions without notice -[HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections]- we have a lot of questions that we would like to ask Cabinet ministers –[HON.
MEMBERS: Hear, hear]-
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Order! Order hon. members on my
left side! Order hon. members! I will accept the point of order raised by Hon. Nyanhongo after Hon. Mashakada finishes debating his motion.
On a point of order, I am rising to bring to your
attention that Hon. Mpofu has just broke down as a result of the motion being debated….-[HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections]-
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Order hon. members! Hon. Mutseyami! Order hon. members, I will not hesitate to exercise my authority in this House. ….-[HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections]- Order hon. members! Hon. members order! I have given Hon. Zindi the floor.
- ZINDI: As I said, my point of order as our Speaker, I would like to bring to your attention that Hon. Mpofu –[AN. HON. MEMBER:
Which section?] just broke down as a result of the motion by Hon.
Mashakada ….-[HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections]-
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Order! Order hon. members! Hon. members order! Let her finish ….-[HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections]- hon. members on my right side! Hon. Chibaya! Hon. members, may you allow the hon. member to state her case then I will give a ruling.
Thank you Madam Speaker for your protection –
and also to ask Hon. Chibaya to withdraw his statement referring to the statement that Hon. Mpofu broke down as a result of a demon-[HON.
MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections]-
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Order hon. members! Order hon. members! It is very touching that someone has broken down because of the debate that is going on -[HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections]- we are very sorry. Order hon. member on my right! We are very sorry about that but we are going to allow Hon. Mashakada to continue with the debate –[HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear]-
Order, order hon. members! Order! Order! On a second note, Hon.
Chibaya; it is very wrong and unparliamentary to use such language.
May you please withdraw what you said.
- NYANHONGO: Thank you very much Madam Speaker. I did not say such words. Thank you very much.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: On the issue raised, I will
check with the notes and then I will give a ruling on it.
On a point of order Madam Speaker –[HON.
MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections] -.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Order, order! Hon. members.
Order hon. members on my right. Order Hon. Zindi. At this juncture I will not allow any point of order.
- NDUNA: On a point of order Madam Speaker. I think it is very important. Allow me to speak Madam Speaker – [HON.
MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections] -.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Order Hon. Nduna, order. I
will not hesitate to give another ruling if you do not obey the rules of the House.
- NDUNA: Madam Speaker I think I need to say something…–[HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections] -.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Could you please escort Hon.
Nduna out of the House.
- NDUNA was consequently escorted out of the House by the
Sergeant-At-Arm –[HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections] -.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Order hon. members from my
left side. Hon. members on my right side, order.
- MASHAKADA: Madam Speaker we cannot afford to be
lackadaisical about the problems that our country is facing. Let us concentrate and really come up with solutions. I was talking about the gap between imports and exports as only a symptom showing that our economy is not in a productive mode therefore, we have been reduced to a supermarket economy. We are importing almost everything from South Africa and that is not healthy. We have to take corrective measures and recommend to the Executive not to relent but keep on putting measures like controlling dumping of foreign products. We need to protect our companies from unfair competition from cheap products and so on.
Madam Speaker, the impact of deindustrialisation is that we are losing a lot of our fixed capital stock. It is not easy to build industries and allow them to collapse while we watch. If you look at the state of the NRZ, ZISCO and CSC for example, all that capital that has been invested is now going to waste. There is a lot of depreciation and devaluation of fixed capital formation and it is not easy to rebuild those companies. If you go to ZISCO Steel, the level of decay is really worrying and it will take a long period to rebuild the capital stock that we had put in place.
I am aware that companies cannot grow because to the liquidity crunch. I am aware that Government started ZETRAF, DIMAF and all other initiatives, but these have not been able to turn around the companies as Government had wished and we still remain with that challenge. I have talked about deindustrialisation as a problem that manifests itself as causing low growth.
The other area related to growth has to do with the agricultural sector. This economy is agro based. If there is no growth in agriculture everything grinds to a halt because all industries and other sectors there is a direct supply chain or value chain with agriculture, so we have to make sure that our farmers grow, are supported and capacitated so that they can feed the nation. As I am talking to you right now the Strategic Grain Reserve should be maintained at 500 000 metric tonnes. We were talking to the GMB in our Committee, only to learn that the level of Strategic Grain Reserve has gone down to 118 000 metric tonnes instead of 500 000 metric tonnes. This is what we must worry about about as Members of Parliament because food security is important. We cannot represent hungry people.
The other problem affecting agriculture is that there has been an influx of contractors. These contractors are taking our farmers for a ride. They are paying low prices to farmers, be it in the tobacco or cotton sector. Our farmers are being exploited by these contractors and that is affecting productivity. Madam Speaker, even in the just ended tobacco marketing season some farmers were being offered prices for a bail of tobacco as low as R2. We have got farmers here, they can attest to that. That is not logical. We have to support our farmers through irrigation, livestock development.
The other problem is that in agriculture we have to appreciate the impact of climate change. Climate change is affecting agricultural production in this country because our farmers need training on climate change so that they know when to plant because the weather patterns have really changed. This country needs to import food. We have a serious food deficit. The country needs to import between 400 000 metric tonnes to 500 000 metric tonnes to feed the nation.
I go on to mining. The problem affecting our mining sector is lack of capital. In order for our mining sector to recover they need at least US$3 billion to rise to the 1998 levels. So the mining sector is affected by lack of capital. The other challenge is beneficiation. We continue to produce, but we are not beneficiating our mining products. Right now Government has removed the ban on the export of chrome, but it is saddening because we know that a lot of our people depend on chrome production. As a strategy we cannot continue to export raw chrome forever, we have to put a time frame by which chrome companies establish smelting plants.
The other problem with the mining sector is a question of revenue. Most countries in Africa which are endowed with mineral resources are benefiting from royalties and other mining revenues. In the case of Zimbabwe, we have not yet enjoyed the full benefits of discovery of diamonds and other minerals. Our artisanal miners still do not have enough equipment. They are producing under unsafe conditions and yet artisanal miners especially in gold, contribute a lot to production in that sector.
Madam Speaker, I now go to touch on what I call the fiscal policy crisis and this is very important, the fiscal policy crisis that our country is going through. We have experienced macro-economic instability in the past and everybody knows that the macro-economic instability that we experienced was characterised by hyper inflation. You would put your money in the wheel barrow and put what you buy in the pocket.
That is a sign of hyper inflation. Now we have a different king of crisis.
It is no longer hyper.
The new crisis that we are suffering from is what we call fiscal policy crisis. Fiscal policy crisis means that the instruments of fiscal policy revenue generation, we have a challenge. The State does not have enough revenue streams to go into the consolidated revenue funds. It is a fiscal policy crisis. The other fiscal policy crisis is that, because of the lack sustainable revenue, lack of fiscal space, we cannot fund all our expenditure as a Government. From both an expenditure and revenue point view, you have got a fiscal crisis.
So far Government has borrowed from the domestic money market to the tune of a US$1 billion. That is a deficit because how will Government fund that US$1 billion that they borrowed from the domestic market through Treasury Bills, Institutional Arrangement with NSSA and other companies. This debt creates a hole in the fiscus and it will still need to be financed. That is the fiscal policy crisis I am talking about.
The other problem is that of debt sustainability. Last week the
Minister of Finance and Economic Development introduced a Public Debt Management Bill to try to manage and contain the levels of indebtedness but if we do not resolve the debt crisis, it means we cannot have access to new money and international finance capital because we will still be owing all that money.
The other problem we are facing in this country is that a country is managed by a lot of policy instruments. You need monetary policy to manage the economic, you need official development assistance or ODA to manage your economy, you need multilateral lending and bilateral assistance to manage your economy but we are only standing on leg of macro-economic policy which is fiscal policy. That is making our economy very difficult to manage. We cannot resolve the fiscal space.
I come to corruption as a cancer affecting the economy. Madam Speaker, if you read the report of the Auditor-General, you get concerned by the level of decadence in the management of public finances. All is not well in the management of public finances. There is fraud, corruption, under utilization of resources, improper management of public asserts and so on. Corruption is a cancer which we have to confront head-on as a society, and as a country. There is one classical case, in the first quarter of the year we had a Government delegation going to China to negotiate mega deals. When the Chinese delegation was sent by their Government to follow up on the implementation of the mega deal, they were deported at the airport. Our institutions have to be serious.
We have a problem of infrastructure and one of our perennial problems is the energy crisis that this country is going through. We all know that in the sub region, in the Southern African Power Pool we are suffering from energy deficit but in the case of Zimbabwe we have issued licences to new investors to produce electricity using coal. We have issued prospecting orders for coal deposits in Hwange and Gokwe five years ago but these investors are still not doing anything to invest in power generations. I come to sanctions…
- HOLDER: My point of order is in the Standing Rules Orders Number 60, limitation of speech. I think 20 minutes have already
passed.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Order hon. members. I would
like to take this opportunity to educate the House that those who present motions in the House are not restricted to time. Thank you.
- MASHAKADA: Madam Speaker, I now come to sanctions. Zimbabwe is a sovereign country. We have to take charge of our destiny and our affairs as a country. We cannot continue to mourn and groan about something that has already taken place. Let us take charge of our country. How have other countries managed to overcome the challenges of sanctions. How did Smith under Rhodesian sanctions manage to build a robust manufacturing sector? Big companies like
ZECO established during sanctions, ZISCO Steel, Hwange Power
Station, let us think outside the box as Zimbabwe and be revolutionary. We cannot continue to mourn about these things because we have a country to run and manage. In any case Madam Speaker, those western countries, as long as we owe them money by way of debt, they will not even give us a penny, because they will still say you owe us so much, settle your arrears, settle your debts. It is high time we leverage our own natural resources and human capital to make sure that we overcome whatever challenge that we are facing as a country.
Madam Speaker I come to ZIM ASSET, it promised 2.2 million jobs and it promised a growth rate of 7.2% of GDP but clearly you can see that these targets have been ostensibly missed. What is the problem? The problem is that of funding, a plan is as good as funding behind that plan. You can have a wonderful plan but without the requisite resources that plan remains academic. The other challenge with ZIM ASSET is that we have got a plan there but in reality we are managing this economy through the budget. The budget has replaced the plan as an instrument of macroeconomic management. So, it does not matter how many plans you can have, as long as you do not articulate your budget but in terms of your plan, you are not going anywhere.
Our budget is committing 90% of resources to recurrent expenditure, leaving just 10% for capital projects and there is no way you can say you can execute ZIM ASSET with that kind of structure of a budget. So, there is a challenge there, the relationship between the budget and the ZIM ASSET has to be revisited.
The other problem is that in development terms, you need a plan then you need a vision, then your budget is a rolling plan for executing your targets, but right now we do not have an agreed national vision as a country. I am happy that we have got a Ministry of Finance and Economic Planning once more that has been reinstated; they must come up with a consultative framework so that this country develops a national vision so that we can have a head way and a target with a trajectory which can be followed by our plans and budgets.
Madam Speaker, the other problem we have in this country has to do with policy or policies. If for once we were going to have that growth and so on, we need the right policy mix to make sure that our policies translate into development benefits for the poor. The ordinary people feel the impact of policy or Government policy. Investors feel the positive impact of policy, the highlights of our policies from investors’ point of view is that our policies are unclear, ambiguous and they are not consistent. We have to address that policy gap, we have to make sure that our policies are consistent and they are clear so that we do not just change course along the way.
The other problem we have to focus on is the pricing model in this country and again it is under the ambit of policies. People might say we do not have inflation in this country, yes because you will be looking at food inflation. When you talk of other baskets that comprise the consumer price index, you find that there is latent inflation; for example, how can you have a private school in Zimbabwe charging US$8 000 per term; that is latent inflation. If you look at the housing market, we have got houses costing a million dollars in this little economy. We have rental accommodation costing US$250 a room that is inflation. So, when we talk of inflation, you are not only talking about food inflation which is negative at the present moment. Let us talk about the holistic specter of inflation in this country. I put it to you that there is latent inflation in this country and that people are adopting inflationary pricing models especially in services and utilities and that is an area which touches the livelihoods of the people. Government must do something to make sure that service sector inflation is nipped in the bud because people are suffering.
Madam Speaker, at the end of the day, we have got a crisis of incomes, I have talked about crisis for prices but we have got a crisis of incomes. Zimbabweans, 80% of them, I am talking of the rural area, are living on less than a dollar per week not a day. That is a crisis of incomes. The UNDP talks about poverty as a situation whereby a person lives on less than a dollars a day that the UN benchmark, I am talking about less than a dollar per week. Our people are suffering from excruciating poverty. Most companies are in arrears, six months wage arrears, people go to work six months you are not paid especially parastatals. How are these people surviving when they are going to work and they are not paid?
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Order. Hon. Mashakada, speak to the
Chair
- MASHAKADA: At the end of the day, I have said we have only one country, one Zimbabwe, let us focus our minds on the economy. Let us lower the volume on politics and put more attention on the economy. When all is said Madam Speaker, the motion is calling upon Government to initiate dialogue with all stakeholders including Member of Parliament. Dialogue with the private sector, dialogue with civil society and put Zimbabwe first so that we can resolve our macro economic difficulties.
Madam Speaker, as I am talking to you now the burden that is weighing heavily on Government is unthinkable. Government is broke, Government insolvent, if it was a private company it could have been liquidated. Government owes everybody monies and that is affecting the fabric of the whole economy. So at the end of the day, we still talk politics but in this generation, we want bread on the table, that is what the people are concerned about; bread and butter on the table. You can win an election but you can fail to deliver. Winning an election is a social contract with the people.
Madam Speaker, I am appealing to this House that we put our heads together and resolve the macro-economic problems. Thank you.
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Order, order, order!
MRS. MISIHAIRABWI-MUSHONGA: On a point of order!
Madam Speaker, I rise on a matter of privilege. We have noticed that when you are in the Chair, the level of abuse that comes up is unacceptable. We want to arise this as a matter of privilege. It is unfortunate that your ruling was only to get Hon. Nduna out; we think he should have been taken in, on an issue of contempt of privilege because they cannot behave the way they have behaved with Hon. Adv.
Mudenda, the Speaker.
THE ACTING SPEAKER: I think the Speaker had already
given a ruling on that, so I do not think the point of order still carries any
weight.
- GUMBO: Madam Speaker, as we have agreed we will
continue the debate after reverting to the Orders of the Day. Therefore, I move that this debate be temporarily shelved so that we can continue after Questions Without Notice.
- D. SIBANDA: I second.
ENG. MUDZURI: Madam Speaker we only have 3 Ministers
here, it will not make a meaningful debate. So can we continue with the debate. I object that we have Questions Without Notice.
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Order, hon. members. Before we
moved on to the Business of the House, we had agreed with the Chief Whips from both sides of the House. So, I think if we may be honourable enough to respect our first decision and continue with Questions Without Notice.
MOTION
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
- J. GUMBO: I move that the debate on Hon. Mashakada’s motion, Order number 2 of today’s Order Paper, be shelved and debated after we have disposed of Questions Without Notice and Questions With Notice. Thank you.
- D. SIBANDA: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
ORAL ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
- MUDARIKWA: Thank you Madam Speaker. My question
is directed to the Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development. Hon. Minister Sir, Good afternoon to you. Minister, may you update the august House on the progress made on dualisation of HarareNyamapanda road.
THE ACTING SPEAKER: The question is specific and you can
put it in writing on Questions With Notice so that the Minister can give a detailed response.
*MS MAHIYA: Thank you Madam Speaker. My question is
directed to the Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development. In 2013, I talked about the roads and bridges that were damaged as a result of Cyclone Eline. What is Government policy as regards to this entire infrastructure that was destroyed in Gokwe-Gumunyu as a whole?
*THE ACTING SPEAKER: Hon. Mahiya your question requires
a specific answer. Can you please put it in writing so that the Minister can equally respond?
*MS. MUZONDIWA: Thank you Madam Speaker. My question
is directed to the Minister of Home Affairs. May I know if the money that is obtained from fines by the police is submitted to the Treasury and who accounts for that money? Thank you.
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS (MR.
ZIYAMBI): Thank you Madam Speaker. This question has been asked over and over again in this House and we have consistently answered that we collect on behalf of Treasury. I thank you.
- PHIRI: Thank you Madam Speaker. My question is directed to the Deputy Minister of Home Affairs. What is your Ministry’s strategy in the curbing of drug abuse which has grown amongst our unemployed youths. Drugs from hospitals and also those that are being imported from South Africa which are being abused, what strategies does the ministry have?
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS (MR.
ZIYAMBI): The control of drugs rests with the relevant ministry. Our duty as the police is just to enforce the laws, so maybe if he can put the question in writing and we clearly look at it. If need be, then we can refer it to the Ministry of Health and Child Care for further consideration.
- LABODE: My question to the Minister of Tourism and
Hospitality Industry is, Hon. Minister Mzembi I would like you to just give this House your progress or plans for the hosting of the ICASA HIV Conference.
THE MINISTER OF TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY
INDUSTRY (ENG. MZEMBI): The hosting of the ICASA AIDS
Conference is a very important milestone in the history of the country. Firstly, by way of bringing the spotlight on Zimbabwe as the platform on which many resolutions and positions are going to be taken with regards to AIDS as a pandemic or endemic. Secondly, to the extent that the scale and size of the conference itself brings to Zimbabwe arguably, the largest conference that we have hosted as a country with anything between 5 000 and 7 000 delegates expected to descend on Zimbabwe, in Harare for this conference. It then poses a challenge to us the Ministry of Tourism and Hospitality Industry as to how we are going to host, accommodate and provide for these delegates.
I want to share with this House an immediate empowerment opportunity beyond the structured and graded hotels that we have, which will not host anything more than 2 500 delegates, that this conference presents an opportunity for a product that I have spoken about before called Home Hospitality. I am saying therefore, that for the benefit of Members of Parliament and the constituents that you represent, we will very soon be reaching out to you and your constituencies in Harare to register homes that can accommodate delegates during the conference. We will grade and record them accordingly so that when delegates
come, we will direct them to be hosted by citizens of Zimbabwe. So it is a tremendous opportunity for home in Harare.
Secondly, we also are very excited about the supply management opportunities for the hospitality sector, especially those that are within the proximity of Harare - especially vanoita mavegetables, onions and such other food crops that there is an opportunity to supply the industry going forward. So we are very excited about this development.
- MUDEREDZWA: My question is directed to the Minister of Tourism and Hospitality Industry, Hon. Mzembi. Hon. Minister Sir, we used to have South Africa visitors or tourists coming for visits and then taking Victoria Falls as one of the destinations. They would go to South Africa, visit certain places then they would come to Victoria Falls, spend a day and go back to South Africa. Is this trend still taking place and if so, what is it that Government is doing to make sure that these people when they come to Zimbabwe, they actually leave some dollars.
THE MINISTER OF TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY
INDUSTRY (ENG. MZEMBI): Let me just share with Parliament that South Africa is a source market for Zimbabwean tourism and in fact,
70% of visitors into Zimbabwe actually are derived or come from South
Africa, whether by extension because they have visited South Africa or South Africans themselves. South Africa in itself is a 70% source market for Zimbabwe.
Having said that, let me also hasten to say that there is no sovereignty of products in the tourism sector. In fact, what we encourage is regional packaging and integration. We derive more value in packaging products together. We are too small a tourism product at this juncture to pose competition to South Africa. So we can only derive maximum benefit by packaging the Victoria Falls together with the Vilanculos in Mozambique and Table Mountain in South Africa but what is critical is to make sure that we have an accounting system which attributes earnings that are akin to Zimbabwe to Zimbabwe.
I am happy to share with Parliament that we commissioned two weeks ago a visitor exit survey that is a beginning of a process to consummate a tourism satellite accounting package for the country and the region. When we do that, it will not matter who is has come and visited the Victoria Falls from which source as long as they visit the
Victoria Falls. That income will be attributed accordingly to destination Zimbabwe. What I bemoan though is that during apartheid South Africa and Rhodesia’s time, we had a stronger and highly bonded relationship between South Africa and Zimbabwe in terms of tourist arrivals.
I am hoping that going forward; with the efforts that we are putting in place we can begin to bring back that symbiosis between the South
African and Zimbabwean product in post independence Zimbabwe and South Africa. I am yearning for that day but we are confronted with challenges and I think at an appropriate time I will probably come to Parliament and present.
The major challenge now between South Africa and Zimbabwe is actually the weakening Rand against the US$, which is making our destination uncompetitive. In the last two years, we have suffered 15% successive declines in arrivals from South Africa because of currency imbalances between the Rand and US$. We will be coming back here to present a statement to Parliament going forward on what we think we should do with tourism because that is your painkiller for this economy that ex-Minister, Hon. Mashakada was talking about. I thank you.
MRS. MANGAMI: My question to the Minister of Sports, Arts and Culture is, Minister what is the Government policy regarding the funding of sports which are run by NAPH and NASH in the schools?
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF SPORTS, ARTS AND
CULTURE (MRS. KANENGONI): Thank you Madam Speaker and thank you hon. member for that question. NAPH and NASH are groups that are organised under the Ministry of Primary and Secondary Education. So that does not directly fall under the purview of our ministry, but we do work with them to try and make sure that we assist as far as national teams are concerned when they are traveling representing Zimbabwe.
- MUTSEYAMI: Thank you Madam Speaker for giving me
this opportunity. My question is directed to the Leader of the House.
Madam Speaker Maâm…
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Order. There is no Leader of the House.
- MUTSEYAMI: I believe at every given juncture in terms of the Standing Rules, we ought to have a Leader of the House.
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Order. Order, Hon. Mutseyami. If
you do not have a question to the Ministers that are here, I am afraid I will not allow you to continue.
- BUDHA: My question is directed to the Minister of
Transport. What is Government policy with regards to the establishment of urban toll gates?
THE MINISTER OF TRANSPORT AND
INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT (DR. MPOFU): There is
no specific policy on urban toll gates. We have got a national policy on toll gates which will include the urban areas, highways and all other areas that require that facility to be installed.
- ZINDI: When I am looking at toll gates, particularly in the urban areas, what is the guiding principle? Is it revenue generation, traffic control or traffic decongestion? What exactly is the policy when we are looking at setting up toll gates in the urban area? What is the motivation behind that?
- MPOFU: It will cater for all the issues that she raised; decongestion in the urban centres, improvement of services within roads in the areas that the toll gates have been installed and as part of the entire objective of tolling. There is a myriad of objectives that the initiative has been implemented. From the experience we have had or we are having now, that is the only way to improve our road network.
- MATANGIRA: My supplementary is, where we say the
Minister of Transport; Government policy - we have got a stretch in
Bindura from the town to the hospital; the road belonging to the Ministry of Transport is in a very bad state. A patient comes and is supposed to leave….
THE ACTING SPEAKER: What is your question Hon.
Matangira?
- MATANGIRA: My question is, can the Minister allow us to surface that road as a Ministry or maybe the local authority or municipality – [HON. MEMBERS: Haaaaaa!]-
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Order, the supplementary does not
arise.
- MUCHENJE: My question is directed to the Minister of Tourism. What are your policy measures on the Members of Parliament regarding their eviction in the African Sun Hotels, for example Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza and Cresta Oasis?
THE ACTING SPEAKER: The question does not arise as it will be addressed by Parliament and not the Minister.
- MANDIPAKA: My question is directed to the Hon. Minister of Home Affairs. I notice the Deputy Minister Hon. Ziyambi is here.
Given the necessity for police officers to carry out road blocks as routine, I would like you to clearly explain what Government policy is in terms of replenishing road block equipment that officers use, moreso when we notice that at night, you cannot clearly see police officers manning a road block and they risk being run over.
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS (MR.
ZIYAMBI): Indeed, some of our police officers do not have adequate equipment at road blocks especially at night. This is something that we are looking into with a view of taking corrective action.
+MRS. MISIHAIRABWI-MUSHONGA: My question is directed to the Minister of Tourism… –[AN HON. MEMBER: Inaudible
interjection]- Did I hear you correctly that you said I should not speak in Ndebele?
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Order Hon. Misihairabwi. You can
only speak to the Chair but I would want to appeal to you to speak in
English as the Hon Minister is not versed in Ndebele and I know that
you are able to speak in all the languages. May you ask your question in English so that the Minister can understand your question?
MRS. MISIHAIRABWI-MUSHONGA: I will do so Madam
Speaker, but I think that he should be able to understand Ndebele. I think he said he understands Ndebele.
+I would like to ask the Minister of Tourism why when investors come to Zimbabwe face visa problems. How do you work with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs so that when investors come in, they do not have problems? Some Chinese were chased when they came here. What are you doing to rectify that matter?
THE MINISTER OF TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY
INDUSTRY (ENG. MZEMBI): Madam Speaker, I am born to a Ndebele mother and a Karanga father. For the benefit of the greater audience because her question is really international. I would plead that she just recasts it in English and I know that the Ndebele audience from my mother’s side will benefit from the answer in English. So, may I plead with the hon. member to just recast it in English.
THE ACTING SPEAKER: I thought I had already given a ruling on this issue. Hon. Misihairabwi, can you please assist the Hon.
Minister because he does not understand the language.
MRS. MISIHAIRABWI-MUSHONGA: It is interesting that born of a Ndebele mother he still cannot speak Ndebele. The question really related to the issuance of visas, particularly for tourists and investors because clearly, they are having problems in our embassies that are outside when they are trying to come into the country. Some are actually being deported at the airport when they are here, when they are supposed to be given visas at the airport. What are you doing between yourself and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to ensure that we facilitate for people to come into this country because it has become a problem.
THE MINISTER OF TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY
INDUSTRY (ENG. MZEMBI): Thank you Madam Speaker. I think I
will take advantage of the hon. member’s question to just cast our vision and wish list in tourism regarding free and open travel. It is premised philosophically by a very ancient profit, Profit Isaiah in the Bible. He says in Chapter 60 verse 11 and I am happy that verse actually speaks to a nation that is about to rise and shine, so it is an arise and shine chapter.
Verse 11 says, “Keep thy gates open. Do not close them during the day nor during the night so that you may enjoy the wealth of the Gentiles with their kings and procession”.
Today, the UNWTO, where I sit as Co-President, we have translated this verse to mean a modern day palentis; open borders, open skies and ideally, if you want to enjoy tourism income you must stretch your arms and welcome the world. The only impediment to welcoming the world which regulates entry is the visa system. Now, those countries that have migrated to excellence in terms of openness, countries like Malaysia and Seychelles which are purely and absolutely tourism economies, they have actually diversed completely with the visa. In other words, they process people on entry.
So, if we want to meet the US$5 billion tourism economy that I have sign posted for the sector going forward to 2020, we have to review very vigorously this aspect of regulation of entry through visas. May I just remind hon. members because I know they travel a lot that what we dream for Africa in Vision 2063 is what we are pursuing, which is an African schengen where, if you enter the Cape you have entered Cairo; free movement. We do not wish to see an Africa that respects the boundaries that were imposed on us by the partitioning of Africa because what it does, is just to limit the free movement of people and in movement of people that is where the revolution is. There are only two revolutions of our contemporary times because the radio, telephone and others have been discovered; ICT and travel.
Going forward, I dream of a future where London would be to Harare, not what we have out there. I saw something which says London-Harare nonstop, not in 2015. I dream of a future where we can, through rocket science, shorten the distance through ICT and development of rocket science to five hours. Now, tourism will only happen then, because her question is very important, when we are able to admit as many people into our country as possible. Our policies must speak to each other.
The Minister seated on my right, Minister Mpofu is doing a fantastic enabler job for tourism, through the Victoria Falls Airport. It is going to be the game changer for tourism going forward, but if we do not assist the good work that he is doing by opening up, on the paper side, the processing of entries into the country, then we are rendering his very beautiful project into a white elephant. So, the policies must speak to each other. We must have mega airports, port of entries and hubs, but they must be facilitated and they must be enabled in terms of translating them into dollar value through basically, the waiving of visas.
We have one war that we have not won Madam Speaker. We have won the ICT war. In the year 2000 when the electronic tickets started, it was almost like a joke because you were used to taking paper tickets to the airport and presenting them. Now we just walk through and we present our passports. That is electronic travel. Now, in Minister
Mpofu’s re-arm, by year 2020 the International Civil Aviation
Organisation (ICAO) has stated that we will have electronic boarders.
Now, you cannot access an electronic boarder with a manual paper. So it means we will have electronic boarders, electronic passports and electronic visas by year 2020. So, the question she asks is so important to the extent that we must see that future which will not require us to process visas otherwise, we create a queue at our ports of entry when the whole world would be admitting people freely.
So, in short Madam Speaker, we are going to waive this dispensation of visas going forward and it has started with our own pilot project with Zambia. If you are in Victoria Falls and two other port of entries, you can now only deal with one visa between the two countries.
The second pilot project in our region will involve three other countries, Namibia, Angola and Botswana. We go to phase 3 which will be the entire SADC region. So we will not have a visa in SADC, but it will not just be this region; it will be all the regions in Africa. The consolidation of which will be a visa less or visa free Africa, but we must win the security war. It is the security people who have restraints about free movement of people. We must convince them that it is possible to process people on entry, but terrorist threats in the world are not helping this fight. So you find where we have made sufficient progress like in the East African Community, Alshabab threat to Kenya has forced them in the last fortnight, to reverse those gains that they had registered in the last five years. They cannot just admit people freely anymore because of the terrorist and security threat. So we have to make a balance of things and at the end of the day, it must be a win/win for both security and free movement of people. I thank you.
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Hon. members, I will not allow hon. members to abuse this platform and score certain languages that are not allowed in Parliament. Hon. Chamisa, words that you were speaking against the Hon. Minister and another Minister is not right in this
Parliament. Can you please withdraw what you said about Hon.
Minister Mahofa.
*MR. CHAMISA: I just asked if Hon. Mahofa was aware of what is happening –[HON.MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]-. *THE ACTING SPEAKER: Hon. Chamisa, I am asking you to withdraw your statement.
*MR. CHAMISA: I withdraw my statement. I thank you.
- WADYAJENA: The Hon. Minister is speaking of very great ideas, 5 billion tourism, open skies and open airs, I want to find out, South Africa recently enacted some regulation to the travel of minors, how is it affecting the 5 billion tourism to Zimbabwe? Thank you.
ENG. MUZEMBI: I want to thank the hon. member for a very
related question. As we sign first the 5 billion tourism economy, the recent promulgation of New Passport and Documentation Act by South Africa which was adopted on the 1st of June is actually posing a threat to the regional dream on free movement of people, not just Zimbabwe. What the law basically says is, and hon. members must listen to this one very careful because we require your lobby as well to the South African Parliament, because that is where it was enacted. It basically says, is you are travelling with children under the age of 18 years, that child must produce an unabridged birth certificate provided she is accompanied by both parents. If he or she is accompanied by one of the parents, the one that has stayed behind must furnish the one that is travelling with the minor with an affidavit that demonstrates that this child is theirs together. In the event that one of the parents is deceased, the surviving parent who is travelling with this minor must carry a death certificate to prove that the unaccompanied minor was sired together with the deceased and surviving parent. The documentation basically is being compelled on the travelling public to meet a new threat in South Africa on child trafficking. You have child trafficking on one hand that they want to mitigate but they have then come up with a plethora of documents that will inhabit free movement of people and travel.
In response to the hon. member’s question on what we are doing about it, in the first instance, it has affected South African tourism itself. South African tourism is US$13 billion; we generate US$1 Billion with tourism. It is likely and it has already resulted in a 30% decline in performance of the South African tourism economy. South African tourism is fighting in our corner. It is fighting together with us to convince their Government to review this battery of laws that have been placed on the travelling public this new demand on travel documentation which obviously will be a burden to many people.
I am happy to share with you and Parliament that on the occasion of Sanganai about three weeks ago, the chief guest from our 118 VVIPs who visited Zimbabwe was the South African Tourism Minister. I did communicate to him about the negative impact of this requirement on the travelling public in Zimbabwe and the region. I can share with you now that we are going to escalate our protest on this matter to the SADC Committee of Tourism Ministers at the end of this month so that we deliver a resolution not just by Zimbabwe but by SADC on the unintended consequences of this anti-child trafficking law which is now inhibiting travel. Something is being done and I want to assure the hon. member that when is come back from Angola, where I will Chair the meeting as SADC Chairperson for the Committee of Ministers, will bring back a resolution that we will arm Parliament with, so that you can also lobby your counterparts in addition to the work that we will doing in the Executive. I thank you.
- MPARIWA: Thank you Madam Speaker my question is directed to ……
- PHIRI: I have a point of order. Comrade, not comrade but Dr. Mashakada.
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Hon. Dr. Mashakada.
- PHIRI: Hon. Dr. Mashakada debated, lambasted
Government and ZANU PF and it was covered live. The ZBC guys want to go out, it is going to be very unfair for ZANU PF to debate because the whole nation heard what Hon. Dr. Mashakada said. It was debated live – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]-
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Order, order. ZBC order, ZBC. ZBC
as you can see hon. members that they are now leaving. I have tried to call them back but they are still leaving. In relation to my work as the Speaker of Parliament, we will speak to the Minister of Information, Broadcasting Services Hon. Minister Mupfumira about this issue. It is very disturbing. Order, it is very disturbing that our ZBC is doing this at this stage. We will make sure that we communicate to the responsible authorities about their behaviour here in Parliament.
- MPARIWA: Thank you Madam Speaker my question is
directed to The Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development. What policy measure has the Ministry put in place to ensure that people with disabilities access public transport using their assistive devices? We have close to 2 million people with disabilities in Zimbabwe. Thank you.
THE MINISTER OF TRANSPORT AND
INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT (DR. MPOFU): I want to
thank the Hon. Mpariwa for raising that very important question. I think it has been the wish of Government that the facilities that are used by the public including our physical disabled communities are able to use those facilities. I have taken note of what she has said I will be communicating this to those that provide those facilities which facilities are not user friendly to the disabled members of our community. I just want to assure her that this is an area where we should be sensitive to and we are going to do something about it if nothing has been done yet.
I thank you.
*MR. CHINOTIMBA: Thank you Madam Speaker. My question
was going to be directed to the Minister of Sports and Culture. I have heard your response response about live coverage. I was going to make a request that, would it not be possible that we abstain from debating so that we also have live coverage on responses of that debate – [Laughter]
-
*THE ACTING SPEAKER: Order hon. members on my left
side, can you please behave. Hon. Chinotimba, you should not be in contempt of Parliament or break the rules of this House. If you want to raise an issue you should have said that. You have taken an opportunity to pose a question by raising a point of order. Tomorrow, it will be the first on the Order Paper that ZBC should come back and cover this issue. I therefore ask you to pose your question.
*MR. CHINOTIMBA: My question is directed to the Deputy
Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture. I want to find out what is your policy as a Ministry as regards the national team. What are you doing about the assignments of the national team as a ministry because we hear that individuals are now funding the national team? We have a budget as a Ministry that is specifically for the Ministry of Arts, Sport and Culture. What are you going to do to ensure that our national team is not going to be disgraced as it goes about conducting its national duty? I thank you.
*THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF ARTS, SPORT AND
CULTURE (MS. KANENGONI): Thank you Madam Speaker, thank
you Hon. Chinotimba. As a Ministry, we are not duty bound to pay for all the expenses of the national team. Our policy is that we should ensure that there is an enabling environment for people that are willing to assist our national teams. As a Ministry, we can contribute towards the travel of that team. In the recent past, when the warriors went to Malawi and when Comoros also came to Zimbabwe, the Ministry helped the national team on its travel during the difficult times.
We know that there are others who are willing to assist our national team. We urge those that would want to assist our national team to come forward and assist. They should come to us as a Ministry and tell us the amounts that they want to give to the national team so that we are able to ensure that there is transparency in the manner in which these amounts are spent. When our team went to Malawi, we were unhappy that they travelled by road yet we had paid their airfares as a
Ministry. We had also assisted with the payment of the allowances but ZIFA decided, in their wisdom or they wanted to do other things to demotivate the players and as a result, they ended up travelling by bus. At the moment, they have put in place an ad hoc Committee to look into the issues of ZIFA so that we may have evidence as regards this management that may be in ZIFA and that we can take concrete steps using the evidence. We expect that all sporting disciplines in Zimbabwe are handled in a proper, fair, transparency and accountable manner such that stakeholders can pour in their monies freely.
*MR. CHINOTIMBA: My supplementary question is, all
Government departments or ministries have a budget for specific duties. Where is your budget as a Ministry of Sport, Arts and Culture being channeled to if you are not assisting the national team? I have heard the Minister saying that they have no money to assist the team.
*THE ACTING SPEAKER: May you please pose your question?
*MR. CHINOTIMBA: My question is that Government allocates
a budget to the Ministry of Sport, Arts and Culture, what are they using that amount for, when they rely on borrowing or from begging from well wishers. What are they using this budget for?
*THE ACTING SPEAKER: Hon. Chinotimba, the question that
you posed has been adequately answered. I want to remind hon.
members that when you shout as you are doing in Parliament, it is not allowed, it is unparliamentary and should end now.
*MR. MARIDADI: Thank you Madam Speaker. Hon. Deputy
Minister, we know that when our national team went to Malawi, the Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture promised the Zimbabwean warriors coach that salary arrears would be paid upon the coach’s return from Malawi. We also found out that before they left for Comoros, he had threatened to resign because he had not been paid. Did the Minister mislead us as a nation? Thank you.
*THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF SPORT, ARTS AND
CULTURE (MS. KANENGONI): Thank you hon. member. I believe
that the reluctance by the coach to go to Comoros did not have a bone to chew with the Government. He was reluctant to do that because ZIFA had failed to pay him and furthermore, ZIFA was failing to ensure the smooth preparations of the players for these matches. Minister Hon. Langa did not mislead the coach. He is the one who discussed with the coach and we are aware that Pasuwa is doing a good job. We want the management of football issues by ZIFA to be looked into properly and as Government, we are trying to put in place measures to ensure that our teams perform well. I thank you.
*MR. MANDIPAKA: The Hon. Minister did speak in parables. Can she be clearer, she said she once gave out money when she was responding to Hon. Chinotimba and now, you are saying ZIFA did.
What they did, what do you mean by that utterance?
*MS. KANENGONI: On that issue, I did explain that the Sports Commission is carrying out investigations to look into how that fund was disbursed so that there can be questions of accountability.
- T. DUBE: Madam Speaker, my question is directed
- MAONDERA: Thank you Hon. Speaker. My question is directed to the Deputy Minister of Home Affairs, Hon. Ziyambi. Is it now Government policy that as Members of Parliament we are now allowed to train militias, like what we recently witnessed in Gokwe, where Hon. Wadyajena was training militias who might end up terrorising people or bashing people. Is it now Government policy because if it is now a policy, then all of us can train militias? Can you clarify that?
- WADYAJENA: On a point of order! The hon. member is misguided; it just shows that he does not think! - [HON. MEMBERS:
Inaudible interjections]-
THE ACTING SPEAKER: I will not allow Members of
Parliament to exchange words across the floor. I think I will give the
Minister an opportunity to respond to the question – [HON. MEMBERS:
Inaudible interjections]-
- MAONDERA: On a point of order! With all due respect
Madam Speaker, I find it repugnant that a whole Member of Parliament spooz bunglingly like what he is saying. Can he please withdraw his statement? He said, I do not think.
THE ACTING SPEAKER: I think I have to make a ruling on
this. In the first place, Hon. Maondera posed a question in a very unparliamentary manner as well. As much as the hon. member has responded with a point of order that is unparliamentary, so both Members of Parliament are going to withdraw what they have said. Hon.
Maondera, you are going to withdraw on issues of militia and Hon.
Wadyajena, you are going to withdraw on your point of order.
- MAONDERA: I had asked a question, so are you saying my
question does not arise?
THE ACTING SPEAKER: I did not say your question does not
arise, but the word militia does not arise.
- MAONDERA: With all due respect Madam Speaker, maybe
you can guide me on the proper word which I should use instead of militia.
- J. GUMBO: Madam Speaker, I think Hon. MisihairabwiMushonga did stand up and said that we should respect your Chair. I was going to ask the Leader of the Opposition to please bring some sanity in the House. She is very senior; so that we respect the House and the nation.
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS (MR.
ZIYAMBI): Thank you Madam Speaker. I would like to thank the hon. member for the question. The hon. member has made an allegation of training of militias. May he furnish us with more information about the training, where and how it was conducted for us to act as a department.
Thank you.
- MAONDERA: On a point of order! I would like to assist the
Minister because it was on the National Television where we saw Hon.
Wadyajena at a pass-out parade.
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Order, what is your point of order Hon. Mandipaka?
- MANDIPAKA: Madam Speaker, I think we need to respect
our nation and this House because what he is alluding to never occurred at all. He never trained any militia and his question should be disallowed.
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Order, I think I have given a ruling.
As to the response of the Minister, he said he needs evidence. So, if Hon. Maondera can put his allegations in writing so that the responsible ministry will take action.
- GAVA: I think the hon. member missed it on television.
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Order. Hon. Gava, I recognised you
to pose a question to the Ministers.
- SHAMU: My question is directed to the Deputy Minister of
Sport, Arts and Culture. What is Government’s policy with regards to the holding of the Festival on Arts and Culture which the OAU then launched in Senegal in 1966?
Madam Speaker, I am asking this question because Zimbabwe is the current Chairperson of the OAU through His Excellency, the President and this festival is but part of the programmes of the OAU. I thank you.
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF SPORT, ARTS AND
CULTURE (MS. KANENGONI): Thank you Madam Speaker and the
hon. member. I would like to request the hon. member to put his question in writing so that I can go and get accurate information in order for me to respond.
Questions Without Notice were interrupted by the ACTING SPEAKER in terms of Standing Order Number 34.
ORAL ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS WITH NOTICE
- CHAMISA: On a point of order Madam Speaker, it is very
clear even looking at the bench where the ministers sit that there is something that is wrong with our ministers. The fact that you went all the way deferring questions because the ministers are not available – I know that you have made a ruling but I hope that this ruling is going to be obeyed. As Parliament, we have the powers to deal with ministers who choose to absent themselves from Parliament. Among those who were here some of them have actually left yet this is a very serious issue. Nowhere in the world would you find Parliament being treated with the contempt that we are seeing. We urge finality to this matter because we cannot have a situation whereby the Constitution calls on Members of
Cabinet to be in Parliament and they choose not to be. Standing Order Number 63 also speaks to issues of contempt so on this matter we really want to call on you Chair to put finality to it. We just have two ministers who are punctual but most of them have chosen to truant.
- GUMBO: Whilst I concur with Hon, Chamisa I also want to
add that it is not only ministers but our members are also not in the House and that is why questions have been handed in. So I think we must also add that even members have to be in the House. I have got a list of ministers who are out of town on Government business. After we discussed the issue earlier on I went on to make sure that we get from the secretary of Cabinet a list of where the ministers are, so I have a list of apologies which had not come in time. So, it is a few of them who are absent now and they have left answers but our members are now not in the House. So, let us rein our members to come into the House.
WRITTEN ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS WITH NOTICE
PLANS ON DECONGESTING THE DENSELY POPULATED
GOKWE-NEMBUDZIYA CONSTITUENCY AND GOKWE
NORTH DISTRICT
- MR. WADYAJENA asked the Minister of Lands and Rural Resettlement to state the plans the Ministry has put in place to decongest the densely populated Gokwe-Nembudziya Constituency and Gokwe North District in general, considering the absence of commercial farms for resettlement in the district.
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS (MR.
ZIYAMBI) on behalf of THE MINISTER OF LANDS AND RURAL RESETTLEMENT: May I start by thanking Hon. Wadyajena for asking the question. Since the inception of the Land Reform
Programme, the Ministry has always been aware that there are a number of districts across the country which do not have commercial farms for resettlement purposes, for example, Gokwe North and Chivi among others. As a result, Government issued a directive to all Provincial Lands Committees affected by the above situation to liaise with their respective districts so as to accommodate the affected districts in their allocation schedules in the sister districts.
Prospective farmers are also advised and encouraged to apply for land in any province of their choice, even outside their home area. The land reform applies to the whole country and does not consider a person’s origin. As a matter of record, a number of people in the Gokwe district at large, have been successfully resettled in other districts in the
Midlands Province and some have even been resettled in Mashonaland West. I thank you.
POLICY ON THE ACQUISITION OF FARMS IN AREAS WHERE
LOCAL COMMUNITIES ARE UNDERTAKING PRODUCTIVE
PROJECTS
15. MRS. MISIHAIRABWI-MUSHONGA asked the Minister
of Lands and Rural Resettlement to explain the policy on the acquisition of farms in areas where the local communities are undertaking productive projects with the farm owner and where communities dispute the acquisition, as provided in Section 18 of the Zimbabwe Constitution.
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS (MR.
ZIYAMBI) on behalf of THE MINISTER OF LANDS AND RURAL RESETTLEMENT: The acquisition of land for resettlement purposes is one of the key ways of ascertaining that local communities are given equitable access to resources to promote their development. Once such land is acquired, it is then allocated according to the recommendations which would have been made by the local District Lands Committee which comprises of members and representatives from all the stakeholders on land who include the local headman. As a matter of fact, even the acquisition of such land is done at the recommendation of the District Lands Committee. It is therefore, my submission that where a decision is taken to acquire any such land, it is for the benefit of the local community. I thank you.
POLICY REGARDING HOLDERS OF A2 OFFER LETTTERS
- MR. S. NCUBE asked the Minister of Lands and Rural Resettlement the policy regarding the holders of A2 offer letter where white farmers do not want to vacate.
THE MINISTER OF LANDS AND RURAL
RESETTLEMENT (DR. MOMBESHORA): May I start by thanking the Hon. Member Mr. Ncube for asking this question. The offer letter issued by the Minister to the A2 farmer is lawful authority to occupy acquired State land. The same offer letter gives the holder the power to institute any legal procedure to ascertain his/her rights to occupy, use and possess his/her allocated subdivision. As such, the offer letter holder should approach the courts of law seeking an order of either the Magistrate or High Court to evict the former farm owner or illegal occupant of his allocated farm who does not have lawful authority.
It is recommended that offer letter holders pursue these applications through the Civil Court than Criminal Court. The reason against the Criminal Court route is that it takes too long and it is subject to appeals from the accused hence lengthening the time before one vacates the farm.
The Supreme Court in the Commercial Farmers Union, Case SC31/1, stated that offer letter holders have the power and authority to institute eviction proceedings against illegal occupants on their farms in their own right. Thank you.
TAKE-OVER OF UNDER-UTILISED TOURIST FACILITIES
SUCH AS KARIBA LAKE VIEW INN HOTEL AND OTHERS
OWNED BY SABOTEURS
- MR. MACKENZIE asked the Minister of Tourism and
Hospitality Industry to explain the Ministry’s policy regarding the takeover of underutilized tourist facilities such as Kariba Lakeview Inn
Hotel, Sanyati Lodge, Kippling Lodge Furthergill and Spurwing island Hotels owned by saboteurs, some of whom left the country a long time ago.
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF TOURISM AND
HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY (MR. KANHANGA): The Minister of
Tourism and Hospitality Industry would like to inform members of the House that the issue of dis-investment in the tourism sector came as a result of negative perception of our destination, hence, tourism business went down forcing companies to close down. The current tourism policy seeks to protect the tourism industry from dis-investment and promote investment in the sector by locals. The Ministry is currently lobbying for the development of a Tourism Revolving Fund to support players in the tourism industry and ensure they remain in business, even during difficult times. Hotels which were abandoned by foreigners who left the country provide an opportunity for local entrepreneurs to engage the owners so that they can sell or lease the properties; for example, Hotels and Lodges Association (HALA) has embarked on an exercise to recover abandoned tourist assets through resuscitation of hotels and lodges in the country. To date, they have resuscitated Chimanimani, Karoi and Cecil Hotel in Bulawayo among others.
Zimbabweans must thus, be more enterprising and negotiate for take-over or management contracts with the former owners.
INVOLVEMENT OF MOSI-AO-TUNYA DEVELOPMENT
COMPANY
However, hon. members would want to be informed that my
Ministry has formed a Special Purpose Vehicle, Mosi-Oa-Tunya
Development Company. The company whose board was approved by His Excellency the President, will also be able to negotiate at Government level for the takeover of such idle assets.
In addition, it will be a platform to shore up investments in the sector and attract Foreign Direct Investments and foreign partnership. To date, the immediate focus for Mosi-Oa-Tunya development company is the modernisation of Victoria Falls.
However, nothing will stop the company from spreading its wings to other areas outside the geographic space of Victoria Falls. All projects will be analysed on a case by case basis to establish going concern.
To wind up the answer, it must be crystal clear to the august House that in Zimbabwe, tourism is Government led and private sector driven.
INSTALLATION OF BOOSTERS IN BULILIMA WEST
CONSTITUENCY
- MR. NLEYA asked the Minister of Information
Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services when boosters will be installed to improve network coverage in Bulilima West Constituency.
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF INFORMATION COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY, POSTAL AND COURIER
SERVICES (MR. MLAMBO): The question asked by the hon.
member is too broad. This is because Bulilima West Constituency, like all other constituencies is a wide area. The hon. member therefore, needed to pinpoint the specific area or areas where coverage is absent and the specific network that may also be absent in the area of interest. In the absence of this specific information, allow me to provide general mobile network coverage information for Bulilima West Constituency.
NetOne has one booster at Dombodema. The operator has however done some surveys in the constituency and is currently mobilising resources to install a boosters at the following sites:
Madlambuzi, Malalume, Mbimba, Mayithengwe and Ndolwani.
Econet also has one booster at Mpohoengs in Bulilima West constituency.
The other operator, Telecel Zimbabwe, currently does not have network coverage in Bulilima West Constituency. Nevertheless, according to their work plan, booster will be installed in the Constituency as per the following schedule:
Ndolwane 2017
Malalume 2018
Mayithengwe 2018
The inadequate number of boosters in Bulilima West Constituency is noted. The three mobile network operators have plans to improve the coverage in Bulilima West Constituency. Some of these plans have already been cited in this response.
MOTION
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
THE ACTING SPEAKER: As we had agreed before with the Chief
Whips from both sides, we now revert to the motion presented by Hon.
Mashakada and on the …
MOTION
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
- J.M. GUMBO: Madam Speaker, by consensus we have
agreed that Order of the Day, Number 2 be now adjourned until tomorrow.
- MPARIWA: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Thursday, 9th July, 2015.
On the motion of DR. J.M. GUMBO, seconded by MS.
MPARIWA, the House adjourned at Thirteen Minutes to Five o’clock p.m.
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Tuesday, 3rd March, 2015
The Senate met at Half-past Two o’clock p.m.
PRAYERS
(MADAM PRESIDENT in the Chair)
ANNOUNCEMENT BY MADAM PRESIDENT
CAPACITY BUILDING SEMINARS
MADAM PRESIDENT: I would like to inform the Senate that
Parliament is conducting a series of seminars that are meant to capacitate Members of Parliament in the conduct of committee business. In this regard, members of the Thematic Committee on Gender and
Development are invited to attend the capacity building seminar that will be convened in the Senate Chamber on Wednesday, 4th March, 2015 at 9:00 a.m. All committee members are expected to attend the seminar.
MOTION
BUSINESS OF THE SENATE
SENATOR MOHADI: I move that Order of the Day, Number 1
be stood over until the rest of the Orders of the day have been disposed of.
SENATOR MATHUTHU: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
MOTION
PRESIDENTIAL SPEECH: DEBATE ON ADDRESS
Second Order read: Adjourned debate on motion in reply to the Presidential Speech.
Question again proposed.
*SENATOR MANYERUKE: Thank you Madam President for
giving me this opportunity to debate on the Presidential Speech which was delivered on the occasion to mark the Second Session of the Eighth Parliament. I want to thank the President for the speech that he gave because he encouraged us as members of the Upper House to continue aligning the laws of the land with the new Constitution. I want to thank him for the words that he gave us that we should continue to do our work as a country. He mentioned a lot of things that touched on our country which included farming, education, mining and all our resources in this land.
We want to thank him so much because our agricultural season is not that good because we had a challenge with GMB that failed to fulfill the wishes of the farmers. Other areas did not get adequate rainfall while in other areas such as Muzarabani, there was rain here and there and others flooded, especially Muzarabani North. So, the season is not so good. We want to thank him for encouraging us to continue working hard. Madam President, I realise that we are doing our work as a united people and in the right manner.
In 1980, the President gave us an opportunity for all children to go to school without paying any fees. In Muzarabani, we had blessings of children who went to school during this period. After acquiring education at Muringazuva School they remembered their area, Muzarabani, and they managed to give back to the community by building a school, installed electricity and fenced the area. Prophet Makandiwa opened the school and handed it over to Bishop Muzenda who belongs to the Methodist Church. This gives us pride as people of Muzarabani because we now have a school that is well developed with good infrastructure and good school furniture for the children.
Although there are other things that are lagging behind, we realise that the development we talked about in 1980 is actually being improved upon and we see the light shining. We want to thank the President because he is the one who gave the vision that children should go to school and also realise the dream that the President had. We should always be cognisant of where we are coming from and where we are going so that the future can be bright.
Time permitting we will be able to get computers so that our children can be well versed in modern technology and that will alleviate this burden of us being a backward constituency. I also want to appreciate the fact that the President this year reached 91 years and our prayer is that God should continue to bless him so that his vision can continue to inspire and lead towards the development of the country. It has brought unity and development. We also want to thank the President and congratulate him for being the Chairperson of the African Union – the continent that was known as the “dark continent”. Because of independence that we have we now call it, the ‘light and independent’ continent which is being led by President Mugabe. We want to thank the Lord for giving us President Mugabe and for the strength that he has given him for us to live in peace and tranquility. We also want to thank him for the encouragement that he gave for us to continue working together for the development of Zimbabwe.
Madam President, I want to thank you for the time that you have given me to debate on the speech. I thank you.
*SENATOR MURONZI: Thank you Madam President. Firstly, I want to congratulate Senator Mutsvangwa, Senator Mupfumira, Senator Muzenda and Senator Mahofa for their ascendency to the Executive.
Secondly, I want to thank Senator Mupfumira for bringing the motion. I
was born and bred in the rural areas and farming is what I look up to. It is agriculture that has developed this country and I also enjoy it. If there is no funding, it is not possible to engage in farming. My request is that our Government should avail inputs towards agriculture.
We have realised that our agricultural yield is going down. It is actually on the decline. When we started in the 1980s, people were given loans. For us who lived in the rural areas, we organised ourselves into groups that were able to go and borrow money and these funds would be availed in August because a farmer needs to be well prepared for the season. Fertilizer should not be availed in December or January because no farming will take place. So, my request is that the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development if possible, should avail inputs such as seeds, fertilizers and all other farming inputs to the farmers in August.
Secondly, the issue that I am talking about here is the issue of the resettlement programme that happened either in 1983 or 1985. I was pleased with this programme. This programme actually came to the rural areas looking for farmers and it came with research specialists who knew where to get the good farmers. These people completed forms and they were resettled. The people were known by the village head and the research specialists to be good farmers. If only the Government could engage the same programme because I have realised that there are challenges that came with the land reform. There are others that benefited and acquired land yet they are not farmers and have no interest in farming. When I was growing up, my father used to say that if you date a man who has a plough and cattle, do not deny him the right to marry you because he could engage in agriculture. I am a farmer. If you get married in a family where there is no plough and cattle, you are assured of poverty because there is no starting point. Those people who benefited from the land reform - some of them did not even have ploughs, cattle or even dogs. This is what has led to the decline in our agricultural yield. I think this programme needs to be re-engaged, it should go to the village heads and the research specialists who know the farmers in various areas and they know where these farmers are found including us. I went to war.
Thirdly Madam President, I want to talk about the inputs that are beeing distributed in the rural areas. A person gets 10kg of maize, one bag Compound D and one bag of Top dressing. I remember last year when we invited Hon Minister Dr. Made and people were talking about the inputs that people are getting. Hon. Dr. Made said that hon. senators who are in the areas need to go and observe how these inputs are being distributed. There is a lot of corruption that is associated with this distribution. I went and observed. Mostly, the councilor acquires so many and those people with high offices are taking so many inputs and yet the disadvantaged and the elderly are not getting anything. That is a painful sight. I was deeply concerned when the councillor of Ward 25 were I stay makes sure he registers his wife, daughter and son. He requested that I carry their fertilizer to their homestead. I transported their fertilizer so that I could talk about it, the elderly are not getting this fertilizer. My request is that, if only the Government could desist and engage the old system they used during the resettlement programme. They should subsidise farming inputs and these should be sold at outlets at an affordable price because others are benefiting at the expense of the disadvantaged. These should be made affordable so that people can buy for themselves at subsidised prices. Madam President, inputs are not being fairly distributed and I observed it myself.
On the issue of education, I went to Marondera where my daughter is married, I was deeply concerned because the white men who were there did not built any schools. Let us not say the whites did not build any schools, they will look at us and say what are you doing since you took the land. Let us show and prove ourselves and build those schools
– [AN HON. SENATOR: On a point of order!]-
*MADAM PRESIDENT: Did I not call the senator to order, are you objecting to my calling the Senator to order? [AN HON. SENATOR: To the speech.]- Please know the rules of the Senate. My order was to appeal to the hon. senators. You are making noise and those taking notes are now unable to hear the hon. senator who is contributing. Please do not make noise. People want to hear what is being said. Hon. Senator Musaka, you can not object to someone who is debating, the best is for you to also debate and put your views across.
*SENATOR MURONZI: Thank you Madam President for protecting me…
*MADAM PRESIDENT: Order, let me explain to Hon. Senator Musaka, the hon. senator did not use unparliamentary language. She has not insulted anyone and so you cannot stop her from debating. That is not in the Standing Orders.
*SENATOR MURONZI: My granddaughter informed me that
she was afraid that the dilapidated tobacco barn they were using as classroom would eventually collapse on them as it had cracks all over. Let us stop mourning that the Government is not doing anything because it has no money. Let us be pro-active as leaders. In my ward where I stay we have managed to build five blocks of classrooms. Every parent had to supply 500 bricks and the fees that we pay is what we used to buy other material and pay the builder. A builder from the community provides the labour and we managed to build a school. I hereby do urge all of us here to go back to our constituencies and identify such challenges and assist our community instead of complaining about the Government not having any money. – [HON. SENATORS: Hear,
hear.]-
I have been moving around, there are some places that are painful to imagine children learning from bans. Children that learn from the barns end up not interested in learning. I am encouraging the hon. senators that where you stay, go with what I have said and not wait for Government. The Government is saying it does not have money what will happen? – [HON. SENATORS: Hear, hear.]-
I now come to the issue of peace, the truth must be said. People do not want to talk about the truth.
Madam President, lastly, I am grateful that the year 2013 elections were held in peace. I want to thank the people of Zimbabwe for their maturity, knowing that when we talk of politics and elections, we do not need to engage in violence. For that reason, there was no violence. I want to thank you Madam President.
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF ENERGY AND POWER
DEVELOPMNT (SENATOR MUZENDA). I move that the debate do
now adjourn.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Wednesday, 4th March, 2015.
MOTION
FIRST REPORT OF THE THEMATIC COMMITTEE ON HUMAN
RIGHTS ON THE STATE OF THE JUSTICE DELIVERY SYSTEM
IN ZIMBABWE
SENATOR NYAMBUYA: I move the motion standing in my
name; that this House takes note of the First Report of the Thematic Committee on Human Rights on the State of the Justice Delivery System in Zimbabwe.
SENATOR CHITAKA: I second.
SENATOR NYAMBUYA: Thank you Madam President.
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 As part of its oversight role, the Thematic Committee on Human
Rights conducted an inquiry into the state of the justice delivery system in Zimbabwe to better understand the policy and legislative framework that governs its operations, and to provide concrete recommendations to improve the situation.
1.2 The inquiry was undertaken in the context that a fully functioning and effective justice delivery sector is the foundation for the rule of law in
Zimbabwe.
2.0 OBJECTIVES
In its inquiry the Committee was guided by the following objectives;
2.1 To ascertain the policy and legal objectives underpinning judicial reforms in Zimbabwe;
2.2 To understand the state of the justice delivery system in Zimbabwe and challenges thereof, if any;
2.3 To assess the levels of public confidence in the country’s justice delivery system.
2.4 To appreciate the challenges being faced by the Judiciary in the execution of its mandate, if any; and
2.5 To make appropriate recommendations in respect of possible solutions to the challenges identified.
3.0 METHODOLOGY
3.1 In order to fully appreciate the subject under consideration, the Committee invited the following stakeholders to provide both written and oral submissions:
- The Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs
- The Prosecutor General’s office
- The Judicial Services Commission
- The Zimbabwe Republic Police
- The Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Service Commission
- Law Society of Zimbabwe
- Zimbabwe Association of Crime Prevention and Rehabilitation
- Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights
4.0 COMMITTEE’S FINDINGS
4.1Alignment of laws impacting the justice delivery system with the Constitution
4.1.1 The Committee was informed of the need for the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs to align a number of laws impacting on justice delivery, with the Constitution that came into force on 22 May 2013.
4.1.2 Some of the priority laws include those that are related to criminal procedure, prisons, as well as the codification of crimes in the
Constitution. Of particular concern is the fact that the Constitution now offers additional rights to accused people that have to be respected by law enforcement agents.
4.2 Role ofZimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS) in the justice delivery system
4.2.1 The ZPCS is an important and integral part of the justice delivery system. It is the responsibility of ZPCS to ensure that the accused persons attend to their trials. At the end of the justice delivery system, prisons become very important because they are mandated with ensuring that persons sentenced to custodial sentences are secured in prison for the duration of the sentence.
4.2.2 There are 46 prisons and 23 satellite prisons around the country that have a holding capacity of 17000 and any figure above this would be overcrowding. As of September 2014, there was a prison population of 17 318 comprising 14 462 convicted and 2866 unconvicted while 80 were juveniles and 308 females. Therefore, the prison population as of September 2014 reflected that the prisons were overcrowded, meaning inmates’ rights to proper shelter was already compromised.
4.2.3 The second schedule to Section 50 (a) of the Prison (General)
Regulations (1996) sets out the inmate’s diet. The socio-economic challenges of the past years that bedeviled the nation did not spare ZPCS and resulted in its inability to provide the right type and quantity of food.
4.2.4 The ZPCS has 23 prison farms around the country which could produce food for inmates assuming the weather conditions are favorable and inputs are availed on time.
4.2.5 Inmates are entitled to clean water and proper sanitation. Unfortunately, the prevailing situation is pathetic. This is as a result of water cuts and rationing by ZINWA and local authorities. Chikurubi Complex has been the hardest hit as it was reported that it has gone for more than 10 years without tap water.
4.2.6 Special categories of inmates include: women in general, women with children, pregnant women, mentally retarded and juveniles. Women inmates have their prisons but there is still a challenge in the provision of prenatal and post natal care and upkeep for children who are in prison with their mothers. ZPCS has no dietary scale for children accompanying their mothers in prison as gazetted in the Prisons
(General) (Amendment) Regulations, 2014 (No.12).
4.2.7 It was submitted that to successfully accomplish its mandate, the ZPCS needs adequate and consistent funding. It requires rations for inmates, fuel for operations, medical suppliers and services, among other critical needs. Monthly the department would require US$1, 400 000 in total as expenditure target. According to the statutory dietary requirements, US$1, 100 000 is needed for inmates rations; from the beginning of the year 2014 to September 2014 they received US$ 1, 976
- The prisoners’ rations remain a challenge owing to the erratic release of money from Treasury.
4.3 Role of Zimbabwe Republic Police in the justice delivery system
4.3.1 The Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act gives the Police powers to arrest, detain, search and seize. In the exercise of these powers, the Police are at all times required to act on reasonable grounds.
4.3.2 Suspects should be brought to the courts within 48 hours, regardless of public holidays and weekends. The rule is that if not taken to court within the 48 hours, the suspect should be released according to section 50 of the constitution. The Police submitted that the 48 hours rule is difficult to implement in respect of rural and remote areas.
4.3.3 The Committee was informed that Police may also be appointed to appear as prosecutors in the inferior courts. The Police Prosecutor however can only exercise the powers of prosecution on written authority from the Prosecutor General.
4.3.4 The challenge of shortage of resources has hindered operations of the ZRP. Sometimes Police attend scenes without the necessary materials to collect evidence and samples, such as chemicals or rape kits. Most criminals are identified through fingerprints. Unfortunately ZRP is still using the manual system, which is unreliable, outdated, slow and laborious, thereby prejudicing the entire criminal justice system.
4.4 Role of Judiciary in the justice delivery system
4.4.1 Backlog of Cases
The Committee was informed by some stakeholders that the Judiciary was facing a critical problem of a huge backlog of cases pending before the Courts, which must be expeditiously tackled with tenacity and innovativeness. In some cases, pending judgments and rulings before a number of judicial officers had remained as such for long periods of time, resulting in the denial of justice to a segment of litigants and accused persons.
4.4.2 Public Perceptions of Incompetence, Political Interference and Corruption in the Judiciary,
The Committee gathered that there are continuing and persistent perceptions among the members of the general public that incompetence and corruption had permeated the judicial system. Issues had therefore, been raised, relating to the accountability of the Judiciary to the public, the quality of decisions passed by the Zimbabwean Courts and generally about the integrity of those that were entrusted with the responsibility of administering justice in the country. Further, concerns were expressed about political interference in the performance of duty by judicial officers in certain instances.
4.4.3 Procedural barriers to access justice
Some stakeholders submitted that there are no clear timelines of when urgent applications must be set down for hearing and finalized (with a ruling being handed down). In some cases, urgent applications have been heard and the ruling has been reserved, thereby defeating the whole purpose of filing the urgent court application.
4.4.4 Defiance of court orders
The Committee was informed of the defiance of court orders which is perpetuated by the weak contempt of court procedures. Defiance of court orders undermines the independence of the judiciary and erodes protection of the law, which the judiciary gives effect to in rulings and judgments.
4.4.5 Delays in justice delivery
Stakeholders voiced concern on the delays in justice delivery. They argued that, there are a number of court cases that have been pending for over six years. This has negatively impacted on the right to access justice for citizens and has also contributed to overcrowding in prisons.
5.0 COMMITTEE’S OBSERVATIONS AND
RECOMMENDATIONS
Based on submission from various stakeholders, the Committee wishes to make the observations and recommendations set out hereunder:
5.1 Alignment of laws with the Constitution
The Committee felt the immediacy of aligning laws with the new Constitution. It is however a mammoth task given the current challenges of inadequate resources faced by the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs. The Committee recommends that the Government should urgently align the laws with the new Constitution.
5.2 Access to Government legal aid services
The Committee observes that the Legal Aid Directorate is inaccessible to many as it is only located in Harare and Bulawayo. It therefore, recommends the Government to decentralize the legal aid services down to provincial levels.
5.3 Appointment of the Attorney-General
The Committee observes the delays in appointing an Attorney- General in terms of Section 114 of the Constitution as it is compromising the independence and efficiency of the Prosecutor
General who is doubling up as the Acting Attorney-General and the Prosecutor General. It therefore, recommends for the urgent appointment of the Attorney-General.
5.4 Composition of the National Prosecuting Authority
The Committee remains concerned at the continued engagement of police prosecutors in the justice delivery system. This compromises the independence of the NPA as police are members of the Executive, who as law enforcement agents, are tasked with investigating the same crimes that they then prosecute as police prosecutor.
5.5 Case management
The Committee is encouraged by steady flow of cases to the Constitutional court. It however, observes the need to provide court registries with adequate equipment. The Committee urges the
Government to expedite the construction of courts, as well as equipping the courts with relevant tools of trade to increase access to justice for citizens.
5.6 Conditions of service
The Government must improve conditions of services for all state institutions in the justice delivery system, which would help to minimise institutional lethargy, motivate employees, promote greater effectiveness and efficiency, and reduce corruption.
5.7 Resource mobilisation
There is need to increase funding on the part of Government to the correctional services and police so that detention facilities’ infrastructure could be upgraded, provision of adequate nutrition, clothing and other social amenities could be enhanced so as to meet humane standards of treatment for prisoners and detainees. Mr. President, I thank you.
SENATOR CHITAKA: Thank you Mr. President. First of all, I would like to thank Hon. Senator Retired General Nyambuya for ably presenting this report on behalf of our Committee. I would like to highlight on a few points.
The first point being on the alignment of laws - it has been stated in the report that the committee was very worried by the apparent lack of progress in the alignment of laws to the new Constitution of Zimbabwe. While the Minister responsible has been making a lot of pronouncements to the effect that it is being done, we have not seen tangible progress on the ground. So, I urge the Executive to expedite this so that at least this Senate can start seeing some laws passing through here.
The second point that I would like to highlight pertains to the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services. The number of farms that are allocated to the Zimbabwe Prisons are some of the most fertile and potentially very lucrative farms available in the country. They just require a little bit of financing to ensure that these farms are operational – [HON. SENATORS: Hear, hear.] – The presentation from the Commissioner General was that, if these farms had sufficient inputs, the prisons would be able to feed and clothe all the inmates including members of staff without any support from the Government. So, which is more expensive, to buy rations or inputs for the farms?
So, I think, the Government must be urged to seriously consider this issue because it is not a lot of money that they require to buy inputs for the prisons. It is very little money compared to what they need to buy rations. Can the relevant Minister consider this very seriously?
Lastly, it is the Legal Aid directorate. It has been highlighted in the report that it should be decentralized and capacitated. I am now appealing to the Executive to take advantage of our newly reconciled friends from the European Union to finance the Legal Aid directorate so that it is effective. We are now in a situation whereby if you do not have money, it is very difficult for you to get real justice. So, if we have people who are working on voluntary basis or maybe being paid by some European Union donor or even our Chinese friends at least we can say, justice is being delivered to all the people who need it.
*SENATOR MACHINGAIFA: Thank you Mr. President. I also want to thank the Chairperson of the Thematic Committee on Human Rights, Rtd. General Nyambuya. Before I go on to the report, I also want to thank the leaders of this Senate that you are doing well because we see senators ascending to higher positions. My congratulatory sentiments go to Senator Mahofa for being elevated to the post of Minister. It shows that the leaders in this Senate are doing a good job because senators are being elevated.
I am a member of the Committee on Human Rights and it is my second Committee after the Committee on Peace and Security. I am also the second person to debate in this Senate which is quite pleasing. The Committee received a number of people who came to give oral evidence and informed us of the challenges that they were facing. We were happy when they informed us that the prisons have always been there whereby people were told to get fourteen pound hammers to crush stones but now, inmates are going through counseling for them to be re-admitted into society. There are people who came from the prisons who performed certain acts of entertainment. When the audience realised that this person was a prisoner, they raised the sentiments that, if only this person could be freed. This shows that the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services have made people realise that a person can rejoin society after paying for his mistakes.
The other challenges that the prisoners faced were those of shortage of clothing and food. If the Zimbabwe Prisons and
Correctional Services have lost a book, they should look for it because there was once a system whereby they used to engage in the farming of vegetables and the money would be used to buy clothes and vegetables. They also used to engage in farming, livestock rearing, a piggery project as well as a poultry project.
As has been alluded to by my predecessor, the farms that were allocated to the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services are very good farms. Those who can fund the farming activities should engage in contract farming and give some of the produce to the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services.
Mr. President, on the issue of the law, it was stated that there are some who engaged in misbehaviour. This has resulted in the number of prisoners remaining very high. This time, I would like to thank the
Chairperson for bringing this report on the work that we did as a Committee.
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF ENERGY AND POWER
DEVELOPMENT (SENATOR MUZENDA): Mr. President, I move
that the debate do now adjourn. Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Wednesday, 4th March, 2015.
MOTION
FIRST REPORT OF THE THEMATIC COMMITTEE ON
INDIGENISATION AND EMPOWERMENT ON THE
OPERATIONS OF THE COMMUNITY SHARE OWNERSHIP
TRUSTS AND EMPLOYEE SHARE OWNERSHIP SCHEMES
SENATOR CHIZEMA: I move the motion standing in my
name that this House takes note of the First Report of the Thematic Committee on Indigenisation and Empowerment on the Operations of the Community Share Ownership Trusts and Employee Share Ownership Schemes.
SENATOR MAVHUNGA: I second.
SENATOR CHIZEMA: First and foremost, Mr. President,
I am now going to present my report.
1. 0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Under indigenisation and empowerment, Government focuses on broad based economic empowerment to ensure the majority of Zimbabweans are integrated into the mainstream economy and that they become drivers and beneficiaries of the economic activities in the country.
1.2 Some of the vehicles that are being used to achieve broad based economic empowerment are: Community Share Ownership Trusts
(CSOT), Employee Share Ownership Schemes (ESOS, Direct Equity
Participation, Procurement and Youth Development Fund among others.
1.3 Pursuant to its oversight role over the Executive, the Thematic Committee on Indigenisation and Empowerment resolved to undertake an inquiry into the operations of the Community Share Ownership Trusts and Employee Share Ownership Schemes in order to assess the progress made towards the implementation of these schemes in accordance with the requirements of the indigenisation law. This report is a summary of the Committee’s findings, observations and
recommendations on the same.
2.0 OBJECTIVES
The objectives of the enquiry were:
2.1 To understand the operations of both the Community Share
Ownership Trusts and Employee Share Ownership Schemes;
2.2 To assess the extent to which the programmes have been implemented;
2.3 To appreciate challenges that may be hindering the implementation of these schemes; and
2.4 To recommend strategies that may enhance the successful achievement of indigenisation and empowerment.
3.0 METHODOLOGY
To gather information on the implementation of the Community
Share Ownership Trusts and Employee Share Ownership Schemes, the Committee held oral evidence meetings and received written submissions on the same.
3.1 Oral Evidence Sessions
3.1.1 On behalf of the Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment, Mr. Sigobodhla, the Director of Indigenisation and Empowerment in the ministry, unpacked the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act [14:33]. This was done in order to enhance the Committee's understanding of the indigenisation and empowerment legislative framework.
3.1.2 The National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment
Board, Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Gwatiringa briefed the Committee on the achievements and challenges that the Board is faced with in various sectors in as far as the implementation of the indigenisation programmes is concerned.
3.1.3 The Committee received oral evidence on the operations of the following six Community Share Ownership Trusts:
- Bindura Community Share Ownership Trust; ii. Mhondoro-Ngezi-Chegutu-Zvimba Community Share Ownership
Trust; iii. Uzumba-Maramba-Pfungwe Community Share Ownership Trust iv. Gwanda Community Share Ownership Trust;
- Umguza Community Share Ownership Trust; and vi. Bikita Community Share Ownership Trust.
3.1.4 The Committee also received oral evidence on the operating modalities of the Employee Share Ownership Schemes of the following three companies: Meikles Limited, Schweppes Zimbabwe Limited and
Delta Corporation (Pvt.) Limited.
3.1.5 In addition, the Committee received written submissions from all the witnesses that appeared before it to give oral evidence on Community Share Ownership Trusts and Employee Share Ownership Schemes.
4.0THE COMMITTEE FINDINGS
4.1 INDIGENISATION GENERAL COMPLIANCE
4.1.1 As of February 2014, the National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Board (NIEEB) had processed the following indigenisation plans submitted by companies in different sectors of the economy:
Mining – 464, Manufacturing – 401, Finance and Tourism – 218, Other – 376, bringing the total to 1 459.
4.1.2 Challenges encountered in pursuing compliance include a misunderstanding of the programme, resistance by some companies, intransigence, avoidance and politicisation of the economic programme.
4.2 COMMUNITY SHARE OWNERSHIP TRUST
LEGSLATIVE FRAMEWORK
4.2.1 The Community Share Ownership Trust is established in terms of Section 14B of the General Indigenisation Regulations of 2010 and registered by the Registrar of Deeds.
4.2.2 This scheme is a Government initiative under the indigenisation programme aimed at ensuring that communities have shares in companies that exploit natural resources in their areas and use the proceeds from the shareholding to fund developmental projects in their communities.
4.2.3 Foreign-owned mining companies operating in Zimbabwe are compelled to dispose of 51% shareholding to locals and at least 10% of this equity is seeded towards Community Share Ownership Trusts which are reserved for the local community in which the firm operates.
4.2.4 The pledge is a donation to the trust in order to enable it to start functioning. It is also important to note that advance dividend was also accepted as initial capital to kick start the activities of the Trusts.
The seed capital amounts have been given by businesses according to the capacity of such businesses. However, there is no legal instrument to enforce pledges, hence the Ministry of Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment and the board rely on persuasion or the good will of the companies to ensure that the companies honour their pledges.
4.3 COMPLIANCE
4.3.1 Not all Community Share Ownership Trusts have received seed capital. Only those with operating and compliant companies exploiting their natural resources have received seed capital. By March 2014, only 16 Community Share Ownership Trusts out of the 61 that were registered throughout the country were operational as some companies were yet to pay seed capital. A total of $116.4 million was pledged to the trusts by several companies across the country and of that, about $30 million was paid to the Trusts by March 2014.
4.3.2 BINDURA COMMUNITY SHARE OWNERSHIP
TRUST
Freda Rebecca Gold Mine pledged US$10 million to Bindura
Community Share Ownership Trust. The arrangement is that Freda
Rebecca Gold Mine will disburse US$1 million per year to the Bindura
Community Share Ownership Trust for a period of 10 years. As at March 2014, the company had disbursed $1 million towards seed capital and an additional $1 million through an advance facility,
4.3.3 MHONDORO-NGEZI-CHEGUTU-ZVIMBA
COMMUNITY SHARE OWNERSHIP TRUST
Zimplats pleged $10 million to Mhondoro-Ngezi-Chegutu-Zvimba Community Share ownership Trust and had disbursed the whole amount as at March 2014. The $10 million was to be shared equally among the three districts which are Mhondoro-Ngezi, Chegutu and Zvimba. The Pan African mines are among companies that are reluctant in terms of compliance,
4.3.4 UZUMBA-MARAMBA-PFUNGWE COMMUNITY
SHARE OWNERSHIP TRUST
Larfage pledged US$1 million to Uzumba-Maramba-Pfungwe
Community Share ownership Trust. The agreement is that Larfage will disburse the money in three installments of US$333 000.00. As at April 2014 the company had disbursed $326 000.00. Other companies operating in this community but are not compliant include; Rock Lick, Sullage Gold Mines, Natural Stone, Black Granite, Ground Rock Gold Mining and Light Weight Gold Mining, (see annexure 3).
4.3.5 GWANDA COMMUNITY SHARE OWNERSHIP
TRUST
Gwanda Community Share Ownership Trust had four qualifying companies that made pledges as follows: (i) Blanket Mine—US$1 million and disbursed the whole amount plus $4 million advance dividend loan. (ii) Pretoria Portland Cement—US$1.5 million and disbursed $1.4 million, the remaining $100 000.00 was being held by the company pending subscription agreement certificate from the
National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Board. (iii) Farvic
Mine—US$180 000.00 and disbursed $30 000.00 (iv) Jasmine Mine— US$500 000.00, and disbursed $250 000.00 as at April 2014.
Vumbachikwe Mine had not complied with the indigenisation law.
4.3.6 UMGUZA COMMUNITY SHARE OWNERSHIP
TRUST
Pretoria Portland Cement pledged US$1.5 million to Umguza Community Share Ownership Trust and had disbursed US$1 399 700.00 as at April 2014. The outstanding amount of US$ 100 300.00 was to be disbursed upon the finalisation of subscription agreement documents.
4.3.7 BIKITA COMMUNITY SHARE OWNERSHIP TRUST
Bikita Minerals made a pledge of US$1 million to Bikita Community Share Ownership Trust and had disbursed US$50 000.00 as at April 2014. Other non-compliant companies that are operating in the area are Bayrich Mine/Nan-Jiang African Resources and the Conservancy.
4.3.8 Of the six Community Share Ownership Trusts that appeared before the Committee, only Gwanda Community Share Ownership Trust had received, in addition to their seed capital, dividend arising from their 10% shareholding in Blanket Mine. Bikita Community Share Ownership Trust received the least amount of US$50 000.00 towards seed capital compared to the other five that appeared before the Committee.
4.4 FINANCE
4.4.1 Section 17 of the Act provides for the imposition of “one or more levies on any private or public company and any other business operating in Zimbabwe” for the funding of the National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Board's mandate.
4.4.2 Though National Indigenisation and Economic
Empowerment Board made proposals and submissions on the levies, it still does not have the Statutory Instrument to collect the levy. Hence, the board depends on fiscal budgetary allocations since inception with the result that the programme has been grossly underfunded. In 2014 national budget, National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Board was allocated $2.6 million against its request for $10 million.
4.4.3 The provision of financial assistance to business start-ups, rehabilitation and expansion as well as management buy-outs has been adversely affected by the perennial lack of financial resources. Thus, the National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Board has been redirecting some of the loan applications for business start-ups to financial institutions such as CABS and STANBIC, but has no power to approve on who should get and who should not.
4.5 ATTAINMENT OF THE 10% SHAREHOLDING
4.5.1 Of the six Community Share Ownership Trusts that appeared before the Committee, only one Community Share Ownership Trust, namely Gwanda had attained the 10% shareholding with Blanket Mine and has a member who sits on the board.
4.6 YOUTH EMPOWERMENT IN THE COMMUNITY
SHARE OWNERSHIP TRUSTS
4.6.1 Community Share Ownership Trusts are required to ensure that all infrastructure development projects engage youth through providing jobs. However, there remains a gap in Community Share Ownership Schemes to effectively address youth socio-economic needs. According to the written submission from the National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Board, as of March 2014, Zvishavane Community Share Ownership Trust was the only Trust that was proactive in ensuring that youth in the local communities of Zvishavane were employed.
4.6.2 Circular No. 1 of 2013 of the Ministry of Youth,
Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment outlines that a quota be set aside, such that at least 10% of the budget for all Community Share
Ownership Trusts is for youth empowerment programmes. Only two Community Share Ownership Trusts out of the 6 that appeared before the Committee had complied with this requirement. These are Bindura— US$100 000.00 and Gwanda—US$250 000.00.
4.7 EMPLOYEE SHARE OWNERSHIP SCHEME LEGAL
FRAMEWORK
4.7.1 The Employee Share Ownership Scheme is established in terms of Section 14A of the General Indigenisation Regulations of 2010.
The regulation provides that at least 5% shareholding in a company shall be considered as compliance by a company establishing an Employee Share Ownership Scheme. The purpose of this scheme is to ensure broad based economic empowerment by ensuring that the workers participate by way of having direct equity participation in the companies they are working for. It was envisaged that this will indirectly lead to the increase in productivity levels in the companies and low employee turnovers in companies that have implemented the scheme as employees derive job satisfaction and thus resulting in stable employment.
4.7.2 It is important to note that Employee Share Ownership Schemes are only established by means of moral persuasion. Companies have a legal leverage not to implement Employee Share Ownership Schemes especially when they have used other entities to achieve full indigenisation.
4.8 COMPLIANCE
4.8.1 Meikles Limited had not empowered its employees through the Employee Share Ownership Scheme. The Company borrowed US$1.4 million from the Pensions Fund of its workers to establish the Employee Share Ownership Scheme. The Committee was also informed that Government owed Meikles Limited US$90 million. Of this amount, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe had given Treasury Bills worth of US$49 million to Meikles Limited as at August 2014.
4.8.2 Schweppes Zimbabwe is performing very well business wise.
However, employees got US$240.00 as dividends for the years 2010 and 2011, thereafter, they did not get them due to the US$12.1 million outstanding balance of the US17.5 million loan that the company had borrowed from the local banks as capital injection. Employees expressed dissatisfaction over the group certificate that they own compared to individual certificates that the middle management of 6 people have.
4.8.3 Delta has issued a total of 120 million shares to staff under the share schemes since 2009 but has no control on how the employees deal with the shares they would have acquired through the Employee Share Ownership Scheme, resulting in most of them preferring to sell the shares for cash to fund their personal needs.
4.8.4 The tax legislation regards the capital gain arising from the share schemes as taxable income which is subject to Pay As You Earn.
4.8.5 When Zimbabweans buy shares from the foreigners in existing companies, this amounts to disinvestment by the foreigners and money leaves Zimbabwe within 7 days of the transaction; the end result is capital flight.
4.8.6 Non-managerial employees received shares for free while managerial employees bought shares through the Share Option Schemes.
4.8.7 Delta has 2 employee share schemes namely:
1(a) The Share Participation Scheme (established in 1990). The employees have since received a net of US$150.00 each per year in dividends in the last few years. The Scheme has about 14 million shares currently valued at US$20 million and has 2 450 participants.
1(b) Empowerment Scheme— 20 million Delta shares were allocated to permanent employees in Grade E and below in 2008 with each getting 5000 shares. The scheme matured in September 2013 and the bulk of the employees opted to cash in. A total of 14 million shares were sold for US$18 million with each getting a pay-out of about US$5 800.
(2) Share Option Scheme-Managerial employees participate in this scheme. They are offered to purchase a given number of shares at a price fixed on the grant date. The employee can walk away from the arrangement if the prices are not attractive. The Share Price is only payable on maturity after a minimum vesting period of 3 years. Currently, PAYE is payable on the discount offered by the company arising from the share options or the capital gain over the vesting period.
4.10.8 Delta also empowers sorghum and barley farmers through contract farming which it funds to the tune of US$60 million per annum.
5.0. COMMITTEE OBSERVATIONS
The Committee observed that:
5.1 The Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment programme is grossly underfunded resulting in some empowerment programmes e.g youth and women empowerment programmes, failing to take off.
5.2 The collection of levy is the only legal source of funding available to the National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Board, but does not have the Statutory Instrument to do so.
5.3 Some legislative and bureaucratic issues are hindering the smooth implementation of the indigenisation programme. These include among others:
- Lack of clarity on the Indigenisation and Economic
Empowerment Act;
- the misinterpretation of the Act and regulations by the majority of people in the country;
- the disparity between the Indigenisation Act and other laws.
For instance, the Ministry of Youth, Indigenisation and
Economic Empowerment has to rely on other ministries to
ensure compliance, e.g. the Ministry has to get the Ministry of Industry and Commerce to assist them in as far as canceling licenses with Zimbabwe Investment Authority is concerned; and
- the delays by the Ministry of Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment in processing the subscription agreement documents that ensures the attainment of the 10% shareholding by the Community Share Ownership Trusts.
- The apparent reluctance of most companies to allocate value to employees and to honour their pledges is a clear indication of the limits of the Act in dealing with broad based empowerment.
- There is communication breakdown between the Ministry of
Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment and the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development in terms of disseminating information regarding the mining companies that are operating in the country.
- Sitting allowances and other related allowances of the Community Share Ownership Trusts board members are not standardised.
- Failure by some companies to declare dividends due to debts that they need to offset first.
- Lack of understanding of the Employee Share Ownership
Schemes by the employees.
- Lack of trust between the employees and management.
- Employees cease to benefit from the Employee Share
Ownership Trusts upon retirement, death or when one resigns.
- Zimbabwe Institute of Public Administration and
Management training courses are expensive.
- Non-compliance by the qualifying companies, for example, Pan African Mines, Rock Link, Bayrich Mine/Nan-Jiang African
Resources among others.
- Poor investment portfolios as in the case of Gwanda Community Share Ownership Scheme which had its US$2 million locked in MetBank due to liquidity challenges.
- Capital flight negatively impacts on the successful implementation of the indigenization programme.
6.0 RECOMMENDATIONS
The Committee recommends that:
6.1 Government must allocate adequate funds and disburse it timeously to the National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Board in every national budget to enable it discharge its mandate.
6.2 Government must put in place the Statutory Instrument that enables the National Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Board to collect levies by June 2015.
6.3 Government must ensure that the misconception or misinterpretation of the indigenisation and economic empowerment is cleared immediately to allay fears to enable all concerned stakeholders to participate.
6.4 Government must immediately come up with a piece of legislation that requires companies to contribute a certain percentage towards the seed capital of the Community Share Ownership Trusts; and which also gives powers to see that the requirement is enforceable by June 2015.
6.5 Government must come up with another piece of legislation that provides for the application of punitive measures to those who fail to meet the requirements; this also applies to Employee Share Ownership Schemes by June 2015.
6.6 Effective information dissemination by the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development to the Ministry of Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment on all the mining companies that are operating in all the provinces in the country, is paramount to ensuring total participation by these companies in the indigenisation and empowerment programme.
6.7 Ministry of Youth, Indigenisation and Economic
Empowerment must standardise the sittings, sitting allowances and other related allowances of the Community Share Ownership Trusts of board members.
6.8 Ministry of Youth, Indigenisation and Economic
Empowerment must expedite the processing of subscription agreement documents to ensure the attainment of the 10% shareholding by the Community Share Ownership Trusts 2015.
6.9 Effective communication in companies is vital to ensuring that employees understand the Employee Share Ownership Trusts and are kept abreast with developments in the company in order to avoid mistrusts and misunderstandings between the management and the employees.
6.10 Companies in every sector of the economy should, where they are profitable, declare dividends to Employee Share Ownership Trusts for employees to benefit from the proceeds of the companies that they are working for.
6.11 The Ministry of Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment should consider institutions other than ZIPAM that will offer the training courses of the Community Share Ownership Trust board members at a reasonable cost.
6.12 Capacity building for the Community Share Ownership Trust board members should be an on-going process.
6.13 There is need for Government to strike a balance between owning business and creating new value and attracting foreign direct investment to address the issue of capital flight.
In conclusion, the Committee notes with concern the failure by Parliament to provide funds for the Committee to undertake fact finding visits to some of these Community Share Ownership Trusts. The Committee therefore, urges Parliament to put more effort in the provision of funds for Committees’ activities.
*SENATOR MAVHUNGA: Thank you Mr. President, I want to
support the report that has just been presented by the Chairperson of the
Portfolio Committee, Hon. Senator Chizema. The gist of the report is the emancipation of the once opposed majority so that it can emancipate itself. It is an issue which is of paramount importance to the majority the people of Zimbabwe, in terms of the means of production which was in the colonisers’ hands in a bid to empower the black majority. President Mugabe started with the Land Reform Programme and we now have the indigenisation which has a major thrust on the Community Share Ownership Trust as well as the issues relating to the shares that are going to be owned by the employees of these firms or companies. This programme needs to be treated with the respect that it deserves or it needs to be looked in depth.
Mr. President, yes, our Thematic Committee went on the lookout of the majority of the Zimbabwean people as well as players in the
Community Share Ownership Trusts who then gave evidence before the Thematic Committee. The evidence was deduced into a report which was presented by Senator Chizema. We hope this Government programme will come to fruition. It can only be achieved if there are good laws that support indigenisation. If such good laws are not in place, this will be treated as child play.
Community Share Ownership Trusts are different to people who were allocated a piece of land which they are now putting to use for sustenance of their families. By virtue of the definition, community is for the entire community. It will be looking into issues such as roads, provision of clean water, skills, hospitals and a lot of community projects that will enhance the livelihood of the same community. Some of these infrastructures being put in place are going to be enjoyed by the next generations. This is also coupled by the proceeds from the Sovereign Community Fund. As the august Senate, we should strongly support the drafting of laws that ensure the work of Community Share Ownership Trusts are carried to even greater heights. There should also be paper work to support this.
I urge that there should be a law that holds to account the contract that comes in between NIEBB, the companies and the Community Share
Ownership Trusts. If the majority of the people are not educated by
what we are discussing here, they will not take this issue seriously and there will not be any ownership of this project. If it were possible, we urge the Government to conduct more public education outreach programmes to companies so that the ordinary people, members of the community are able to follow it up with the organisations so that they know what is needed from them.
The same commission that we are making reference to, which we call NIEBB does not have enough resources and you then find corrupt tendencies crippling in between the NIEBB officials and the companies.
I reiterate once again that there should be proper funding for NIEBB.
Mr. President, I urge all senators to support this noble idea and that it is a means of bringing good living to all us as members of the community because these are community based initiatives. I thank you.
SENATOR CHITAKA: Thank you Mr. President. I rise to make
a few comments based on what I have heard from the report. It is clear that the Community Share Ownership Trusts and the employee share ownership scheme do not seem to be working as expected. Listening to the senator presenting the report, it appears that the problem stems mainly from the regulations and law. For example, when you start enforcing pledges, I hear there is the word-pledge, pledge, being quoted all over. For example, such and such a company pledged US$10 million, and such and such a company pledged so and so, but very little was ever brought forward. This is the problem with trying to collect pledges. We cannot run a scheme like this based on pledges, it has to have a legal basis because if we are relying and depending on the goodwill of the person who is supposed to give the money, haisi church ka iyi,this is business. In most cases, we are actually to arm twist these companies to play ball and then we allow them to make pledges. Of course, they will give you pledges of US$10 million with absolutely no intention of paying a cent. So, the law should be cleaned up to do away with these pledges, seed capital, et cetera.
The other point I would like to make is, we need a more quantifiable method of measuring what the contribution should be. How do we measure what this mine should provide compared to that mine?
We need a more transparent and quantifiable method so that a similar mine in Mutare can be compared with the one in Gwanda, that will be doing the same thing and they should contribute similar amounts. Now, you get a situation where a big company says it has pledged US$10 million and we all cheer and a small company pledges US$1 million; it pays up the US$1 million and you think you are doing very well. That US$10 million, if you had a quantifiable way of measure, you may find that a company which was supposed to contribute US$50 or US$100 million but because we were relying on tipeiwo, mafunga kutipei gore rino, we never get there.
Mr. President, so urgently, I think the Committee did mention recommendations on things that need to be changed to the legislation but
I think this is the core. The legislation and regulations must not be based on someone’s benevolence. You want money from me and you think I will just give it to you, no.
Finally, I would urge the Committee to do a follow up assessment on a lot of this. I will not touch on the Meikles issue because it is coming in the lower House. But the way you spoke about Meikles, the fact that workers are being allowed to sell their shares; employees should never sell their shares. The shares of employees are held in trust. You only benefit as long as you are a member of that company and when you leave, you leave the shares there, what you benefit every year is the dividend. I have never heard of employee share scheme where the employees sell their shares. That is absolutely wrong because you are killing the scheme. If I am an employee of Meikles today, if I see that the shares are okay today, I sell the shares and still continue working as an employee but I have killed the scheme. The idea was the workers as a collective, not Senator Chitaka, as a collective must continue to benefit from the activities of the company. We are shareholders and shareholders get paid through dividends. So, I think maybe NIBB should be the one who are pointing this out but you tell me they do not even have a bicycle to visit these companies. So, whether we are going to empower any National Indigenisation Economic Empowerment Board or a special unit under the Ministry will need to tidy up our paper work.
I thank you.
*SENATOR MAKORE: I thank you Mr. President for affording
me this opportunity to add a few words. Firstly, I would like to thank Senator Chizema and Senator Mavhunga for giving us a very good report from their Committee. What I like most about the presentation that we got is that we would like to know what exactly happens in these companies, especially when it comes to employee share ownership trusts. What we want in these companies is that the employees should benefit, we want to know what exactly goes on there. Mr. President, it is true that laws should be made and people should understand what it means. The problem is things are presented to the people, yes people might accept what has been presented but now knowing how they can
benefit.
I would like to thank Senator Chitaka for what he has just said because things should be made clear for people to understand what goes on in these companies. There is some politicization that goes on in such issues, especially money issues, owners of companies think that people are taking things away from them and yet things have changed, people should benefit as well. The other thing is that we are not aware of statistics. This is because of ignorance, and they want to keep people ignorant so that they never get to know what exactly happens. People should know about what happens especially when it comes to dividends. I agree with this research, it is true that it is not being politicized. This is changing because people never used to benefit from the companies but now they are, they have to benefit. People have to know about the benefit that they must get, and they must understand what indigenisation is all about. It is not that they should benefit from the share ownership trusts only, no, not that all those who run companies should benefit, but the whole idea is for everyone to benefit and that people should also develop economically.
I would like to thank this Committee, especially on the issue of communication, not only communication amongst the companies themselves but amongst employees that they should know what is happening. It is very important. Yes, I understand there are so many delays, when people started this thing just as I have alluded to what Senator Chitaka said. At times people do not get information in time and at times they do not get the results within a specified period but if the Government prepares and monitors these things in companies; not that they should start threatening people but they should start by creating good rapport.
We do not want to get to them as if we are fighting them but people should follow the law. People should just follow the law and benefit what they are supposed to benefit in good time. Mr. President, I just added a little to what has been presented by the Committee and I also want to thank the Committee for a good job. I was just trying to explain so that this can be adopted so that things can be rectified because
I think it is very important for laws to be aligned to the Constitution. We have a very good Constitution but if we do not use it adequately, things will continue moving in the wrong direction. I thank you very much Mr. President.
SENATOR CHIEF CHARUMBIRA: I move that the debate do
now adjourn.
SENATOR MATHUTHU: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Wednesday, 4th March, 2015
MOTION
REPORT OF THE DELEGATION OF THE 65TH SESSION
OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE AND THE 37TH
CONFERENCE OF THE AFRICAN PARLIAMENTARY
UNION
SENATOR MAVHUNGA: I move the motion standing in my
name that:
This Senate takes note of the Report of the delegation to the 65th
Session of the Executive Committee and 37th Conference of the African
Parliamentary Union held from 29th October to 2nd November 2014, in Rabat in Morocco.
SENATOR CHIEF CHARUMBIRA: I second.
SENATOR MAVHUNGA: Thank you Mr. President. The
President of the Senate, Hon. Edna Madzongwe led the Parliament of Zimbabwe delegation to the 65thSession of the Executive Committee and the 37th Conference of the African Parliamentary Union (APU) which was held in Rabat, Morocco from 29 – 2 November 2014. The delegation was made up of:
Hon. Monica Mavhunga Senator
Hon. Watchy Sibanda Senator
Mrs. R. D. Makoni Director in the President of Senate’s Office
who was also Secretary to the delegation
Mr. G. Chinyemba Security Aide to the President of Senate.
At the outset, I would like to congratulate the President of Senate Hon. Edna Madzongwe for having been re-elected for a second consecutive term to the position of Deputy Chairperson of the Executive
Committee of the African Parliamentary Union (representing Southern
Africa).
Hon. Donatille Mukabalisa, Speaker of the Rwandan Chamber of Deputies who is also current Chairperson of the APU Executive
Committee chaired the opening of the 2014 Session. She was assisted by Hon. Rachid Talbi Al Alami, Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Parliament of Morocco, Hon. Mohamed Cheikh Biadillah, President of the Chamber of Counsellors of the Moroccan Parliament, Mr Azoumana Moutaye, Rapporteur of the Executive Committee and Mr N’zi Koffi, Secretary General of the African Parliamentary Union.
Delegates who participated were from the Parliaments of Algeria,
Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Gabon,
Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Kenya, Mali,
Morocco, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Senegal, Sudan, South Sudan, Togo and Zimbabwe. This turnout represents 65% of the membership.
Also present at this session, invited as observers, were representatives from the Parliaments of the Comoros, Eritrea, Swaziland and Tanzania as well as representatives of organisations such as the World Bank, Arab Inter-Parliamentary Union, the Consultative Council of the Arab Maghreb Union, Parliamentary Union of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the Inter-Parliamentary Committee of the West
African Economic and Monetary Union and Mr. Martin Chungong, Secretary General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
THE 65TH SESSION OF THE EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
OPENING SESSION
The Official Opening of the 65thSession of the Executive Committee was conducted by the host Hon. Mohamed Cheikh Biadillah, the President of the Chamber of Counsellors of the Parliament of the Kingdom of Morocco.
In his address, he commended the efforts of the APU, its Chairperson and General Secretary, who have continued to work assiduously to strengthen coordination and cooperation among African Parliaments at the continental and international levels. This, he added, will enable legislative assemblies in Africa to improve their work and strive towards entrenching democratic values, principles of human rights and good governance while ensuring sustainable development for their countries and Africa.
He further highlighted the relevance of items on the agenda of the 65th Session of the Executive Committee and the 37thConference. These include terrorism and sustainable development issues that are currently very topical and have caught the attention of Africa and the rest of the world.
He pointed out that the political and security situation in most parts of Africa, was worsened by the proliferation of terrorist groups in regions across Africa, the rise in ethnic and religious conflict and the development of transnational criminal networks involved in arms, drugs, illicit goods and human trafficking as well as maritime piracy.
Hon. Mohamed Cheikh Biadillah added that considering the aftermath of the Arab spring in some African countries and the effect of epidemics such as malaria and ebola, it is imperative for African countries to create a global and integrated African strategic partnership to strengthen peace and provide the needed stability for sustainable socio-economic development so as to ensure the respect of state sovereignty.
He further observed that, African countries, with their vast natural resources and young population are capable of achieving sustainable development and realising the dreams of progress, development and a decent life for their people.
He also highlighted the importance of the public-private partnership and the involvement of civil society in formulating effective development policies to ensure sustainable development while maintaining the rights of future generations. He went on to call on all African countries to face the future with a lot of determination and optimism and use all they have to fight underdevelopment, poverty and exclusion.
On her part, Hon. Donatille Mukabalisa, Speaker of the Rwandan
Chamber of Deputies and Chairperson of the APU’s Executive
Committee, in her address indicated that deliberations of the session would focus on the implementation of decisions and recommendations taken at previous meetings, the annual programme of work and finally, funding for the Union’s activities for 2015.
The Chairperson added that members of the APU must remain committed to efforts aimed at creating a stronger and more representatives A.P.U., which would bring together all the national parliaments in Africa. She called for a more visible Union of African Parliaments that would be a dynamic tool for inter-parliamentary cooperation for the benefit of national parliaments across Africa in the face of the numerous political, socio-economic and environmental challenges facing Africa and the World.
Speaking on the outbreak of the ebola epidemic that is raging in some countries, the Chairperson re-echoed the observation made by Margaret Chan, Director-General of WHO, that "This is not just an epidemic. This is not only a public health crisis. It is a `social, humanitarian and economic crisis and a threat to national security that goes far beyond the affected areas."
The business of the 65thSession of the Executive Committee ran from Wednesday 29th to Friday 31st October 2014 and its outcomes were presented and adopted by the 37th Conference of APU at its sitting of 1st to 2nd November 2014 as now presented.
- The Conference noted that the Union had not received any membership application even though efforts are being made to attract new member states.
- Members of the Conference reiterated the need for member countries to pay their subscriptions so as to provide the Union with the needed funds for its activities. It was also indicated that henceforth National Groups would be required to submit annual
Parliamentary activity reports to the General Secretariat of A.P.U.
- The 37th Conference agreed on the need to review the Plan of Action and Institutional Capacity Building Strategy of the Union of African Parliaments. Hence, it was agreed that the “vision” and “mission” statements of the APU must be reformulated, by including key objectives and identifying actions that would make the Union more effective.
- On reviewing the annual programme of work, members emphasised the need to organise thematic conferences that would provide Parliamentarians the platform to deliberate and share ideas with experts in special fields. With regard to the venue of meetings on the annual programme of work, members of the Executive Committee commended the proposals to host made by the following countries:
- Djibouti will host the 2ndAfrican Parliamentary Conference on
Migration in 2015;
- Guinea Bissau will host the 67th Session of the Executive
Committee and the 37thConference in November 2015;
- Cote d’Ivoire will host the 14thAfro-Arab Parliamentary Conference in 2015.
After the presentation of the proposed budget for 2015 by the
Secretary-General, members approved the proposal to adopt the
Euro as the currency in which subscriptions would be paid. This was seen as a measure to guard against United States Dollar fluctuations.
Members of the Conference then called on all member states to endeavour to honour their financial obligations towards the Union so that it can effectively carry out its activities.
Zimbabwe has outstanding subscription contributions, with arrears dating from 2012 to date accumulating to a total of US$84,082. While we appreciate the economic situation that our country is in, we urge the Minister of Finance and Economic Development to consider offsetting this debt, even in part. This is in consideration of the fact that Zimbabwe was once more elected to be Deputy Chairperson of the Executive Committee of A.P.U. It will be embarrassing for Zimbabwe as Deputy Chair to call on other members to honour their contributions while we owe for three consecutive years.
A.P.U’s proposed budget for 2015 amounting to One million, ninety five thousand, two hundred and seventeen Euros
(€1,095,217) was approved.
The Conference also renewed its confidence in the audit carried out by Algeria and Ethiopia for 2014.
- The issue of renewing the mandate of the Secretary-General was presented. Based on the endorsement it had given at its last session in Luanda, the Executive Committee reiterated its proposal to renew the mandate of the current Secretary-General Mr. N’zi Koffi for four years in accordance with the Statutes of the Union, this proposal was approved by the 37th
- Since no member country had as yet offered to host the 66th
Session of the Executive Committee, the Bureau and the GeneralSecretary were tasked to contact the various parliaments so that the
66th Session can be organised around May 2015.
The 37th Conference of APU was opened on Saturday 1st
November 2014 and its business ran according to the adopted agenda.
All three reports, (a) report of the Chairperson of the Executive Committee,(b) report of activities by the Secretary-General,(c) report of the Committee of Women Parliamentarians as well as the plan of action and institutional capacity building for the A.P.U which were presented to the 37th Conference by the 65th Executive Committee were duly adopted.
- Report of the Committee of Women Parliamentarians Election of the Bureau.
The Committee of Women Parliamentarians reported that at the 2014 Session, as required by the statutes, they had elected for two years a new Bureau made up of the following members:
Chairperson :Angola
Vice Chairperson : Senegal
Rapporteur : Morocco.
Committee of Women Parliamentarians Programme of
Activities for 2015
The Committee called for the revitalisation of its activities so as to make it more visible. This will be achieved through, the amendment of Article 33 of the Rules of Procedure in order to enlarge the Bureau of the Committee of Women Parliamentarians to include a committee member in its bureau. The Women’s Committee also called for the implementation of a special stand-alone budget drawn out of the main budget to enable the committee to carry out its activities.
The Programme of activities for 2015 was drawn as follows:
- Representation of the committee at parliamentary and international meetings to which the APU has been invited;
- Meetings between women parliamentarians at the national and subregional levels with partners of their choice and various institutions of the United Nations;
- Holding of forums of women parliamentarians on peace, democracy and security in Africa.
Item for Debate and Resolution
The Committee of Women Parliamentarians debated an item on Micro-finance as a means of fighting poverty in Africa and promoting the economic empowerment of women. Intense debate and fruitful discussions on the theme focused on the fact that micro-finance started as a poverty reduction effort designed to provide sustainable financial services to people, mostly women with no access to mainstream banks for their economic activities and help them create wealth.
It was reported that close to 3 billion people in developing countries remain unbanked, mostly women, they do not have access to mainstream financial services, which could otherwise help them increase revenue and improve their livelihoods. Access to various micro-financing services (savings, loans, money transfer) would enable poor families to invest in businesses, improve the quality of their nutrition and channel more resources towards the education and health of their children. It was agreed that Micro-finance has what it takes to be a strong catalyst for the economic empowerment of women. Consequently, the committee of Women Parliamentarians came up with a resolution that called on African Governments to among other issues (for full list of resolutions see Annexure 1);
Consider that the economic empowerment of women is a prerequisite for instituting sustainable development and growth, with a view to reducing poverty and achieving the Millennium Development Goals,
Be Aware that gender equality, as stipulated in our Constitutions, emphasises women’s empowerment as the opportunity for women to fully exercise their fundamental rights and elimination of poverty as factors that determine economic and social development. More of the resolutions are on Annexure 1.
The Committee of Women Parliamentarians Recommended:
- The introduction of appropriate government policies, the adoption of a comprehensive approach and commitment by all development stakeholders;
- More equitable access to resources and services, such as land, water, health services, education, technology, innovation, credit and banking services, to enhance the rights of women, increase agricultural productivity, reduce hunger and improve economic growth;
- The designing of infrastructure programmes that would enable people to benefit fully from the road network, transport services, telecommunications, energy and water, thereby contributing to poverty reduction;
- Ensuring access to markets for women;
- The emergence and expansion of an African middle class (not only individuals) to enable women to move out of the cycle of poverty.
2. REPORT OF THE FIRST WORKING COMMITTEE
The first working Committee set up by the 37th Conference of the APU met on 1st and 2nd November 2014 to examine and prepare a draft resolution on “African countries build national capacities and promote international cooperation to combat terrorism in all its forms.”
Members of the Committee included representatives from the following countries: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Kenya, Mali, Morocco, Niger, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Senegal, Sudan, South Sudan, Chad, Togo and Zimbabwe.
The First Committee, in which Hon. Senator M. Mavhunga participated, adopted the draft resolution which it presented to the 37thConference and it was adopted. Amongst others the following resolutions were presented (for full list of resolutions see Annexure 2):
- Considering that terrorism, in all its forms and manifestations, continues to be one of the most serious threats to global peace and security, and that all acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable,
- Considering, also, that terrorism must not be confused with legitimate struggles for liberation,
- Noting with concern that in the past decade, the threat of terrorism in Africa has worsened, where entire regions are targeted by these terrorist groups,
Aware that combating terrorism entails mobilising all African countries and the entire international community by involving
Governments, parliaments and civil society,
- Convinced that parliaments have a major role to play in combating terrorism and eliminating its deep causes,
- Recalling all the relevant instruments of the United Nations and the African Union and other regional and international organisations on preventing and combating terrorism, in particular the 1999
Algiers Convention and its 2004 Protocol, adopted by the African Union, United Nations Security Council resolutions 1267 (1999) and1373 (2001), the 8th September 2006 United Nations General
Assembly resolution and action plan on Global Counter-Terrorism
Strategy, and African Union Security Council resolutions 256
(2009) and 1904 (2009) on terrorism financing,
Calls on African States to cooperate through coordination with various security organs of countries across Africa in order to strengthen cooperation, mutual assistance and improve the effectiveness of Africa’s collective action to counter terrorism, and encourage the various regional and sub-regional communities to cooperate more in this area.
3. REPORT OF THE SECOND WORKING COMMITTEE
The second working Committee met on 1st and 2nd November 2014 to examine and prepare a draft resolution on " Achieving sustainable development in all its dimensions, as a major goal for peace, security and social and economic progress in African countries ".
Members of the Committee included representatives from the following countries: Algeria, Angola, Benin, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Equatorial
Guinea, Kenya, Mali, Morocco, Niger, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Senegal, Sudan, South Sudan, Chad, Togo and Zimbabwe.
The Second Committee, in which Hon. Senator W. Sibanda participated, presented its report that was adopted. Amongst others the following resolutions were adopted (for full list of resolutions see
Annexure 3):
Recalling that if sustainable development is to address current needs without jeopardising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, it has to be rooted in three inter-dependent and synergistic pillars, namely economic development, social equity and environmental sustainability,
- Noting that in the past decade, Africa achieved an average sustained growth rate of over 50% per annum, positioning it among the most dynamic regions in the world, and concerned by the fact that despite the great strides made to reduce the number of people living in extreme poverty, this growth has not been inclusive enough to wipe out the inequalities, poverty and hunger besetting the continent, or to improve access to energy,
- Aware that economic marginalisation, illiteracy, poverty, hunger, disease, unemployment, particularly among the youth and women, inequalities and the feeling of unfair distribution of wealth are sources of conflict and a serious threat to peace, security and social progress,
Concerned by signs indicating that the manner in which the continent’s economy is growing cannot be sustained in the medium and long term, because it is based on exports of natural resources, which are not inexhaustible, and is not enough to create jobs, as the value added to the basic commodities being exported is woefully inadequate,
- Affirms that for African countries to consolidate their growth potential without excluding sustainable development, resources and appropriate policies, there should be good governance, transparent and responsible institutions, sound management of public finances and development of human capital, particularly in education and training;
- Reaffirms the importance of the role played by parliaments in formulating government policy and calls for all government policies on sustainable development to have concrete time-bound goals to ensure effective action and tangible outcomes;
Calls upon African Governments to table before their parliaments, an annual report on the measures taken to follow up on socioeconomic and environmental objectives, and commits parliaments to ensure that society forges gradually ahead towards the achievement of sustainable development;
- Commits parliamentarians to undertake systematic reviews, in their respective parliaments, of the implementation of regional and international agreements on sustainable development and apply all relevant provisions within their remit;
- Calls upon developed countries and development partners to keep to their commitments by providing technical and financial support to African countries, as well as transfer of existing technologies, to enable them to adapt to climate change; and also by facilitating access to various environment and climate funds;
- Recommends that Governments introduce a policy on the equitable distribution of wealth and revenue, in an effort to combat poverty, illiteracy, social inequalities and also to create jobs, especially for the youth.
DECLARATIONS
The 37th Conference issued two declarations;
- On its concern about the ebola epidemic which was presented by
Hon. Senator W. Sibanda on behalf of the Conference and
- On the Conference’s concern about the situation in Burkina Faso.
Closing Session
The 37th Conference was closed at 1800hrs.on 2nd November 2014, by Hon. Mohamed Cheikh Biadillah, the President of the Chamber of Counsellors of the Parliament of the Kingdom of Morocco. In his closing address he called on all African countries to face the future with a lot of determination and optimism and use all they have to fight underdevelopment, poverty and exclusion.
He also called for African countries to be united and support each other as brothers. The President of the Chamber of Counsellors of the
Parliament of the Kingdom of Morocco concluded by calling on Western Countries to remove all sanctions against Zimbabwe.
SENATOR CHIEF CHARUMBIRA: I move that the debate do
now adjourn.
SENATOR MATHUTHU: I second.
Motion put and agreed to
Debate to resume: Wednesday, 4th March, 2015.
MOTION
BUSINESS OF THE SENATE
SENATOR MUCHENA: I move that Order of the Day, Number
6 be stood over until all Orders of the Day have been disposed of.
SENATOR MUMVURI: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
MOTION
PROVISION OF FUNDING TO THE DISTRESSED AND
MARGINALISED INDUSTRY FUND
Seventh Order read: Adjourned debate on motion on economic challenges resulting in individuals and companies being heavily indebted.
Question again proposed.
SENATOR CHIEF CHARUMBIRA: I move that the debate do
now adjourn.
SENATOR MATHUTHU: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Wednesday, 4th March, 2015.
On the motion of SENATOR CHIEF CHARUMBIRA, seconded by SENATOR MATHUTHU, the Senate adjourned at Five o’clock p.m.
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Tuesday 3rd, March, 2015
The National Assembly met at a Quarter-past Two O’clock p.m.
PRAYERS
(MR. SPEAKER in the Chair)
ANNOUNCEMENTS BY MR. SPEAKER
CAPACITY BUILDING SEMINARS
- SPEAKER: I have to inform the House that Parliament is conducting a series of seminars that are meant to capacitate the Members of Parliament in the conduct of Committee business. In this regard the following Portfolio Committees are invited to attend the Capacity Building Seminar that will be convened in the Senate Chamber on Wednesday, 4th March 2015, at 0900hrs in the morning.
The Committees are as follows;-
- Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology;
- The Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare;
- Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development; and
- Local Government.
All Committee members are expected to attend the seminar and the
Chairperson should endeavour to make sure that the members do attend
NON ADVERSE REPORT RECEIVED FROM THE
PARLIAMENTARY LEGAL COMMITTEE
- SPEAKER: I have to inform the House that I have received a Non-Adverse Report from the Parliamentary Legal Committee on the statutory instrument published in the gazette during the month of December 2014 to January 2015.
VACANCIES IN PARLIAMENTARY SEATS
- SPEAKER: I would like to inform the House that on the 19th of February 2015, I was notified by the Zimbabwe African National
Union Patriotic Front ZANU PF, that both honourable Didymus Noel
Mutasa, Member of Parliament for Headlands and Hon.Temba Peter Mliswa, Member of Parliament for Hurungwe West have ceased to be members of ZANU PF party and therefore, no longer represent the interests of the party in Parliament. Section 121(1) (K) of the
Constitution of Zimbabwe provides as follows:-
“That the seat of a Member of Parliament becomes vacant if the member has ceased to belong to the political party of which he or she was a member when elected to Parliament and the political party concerned, by written notice to the Speaker or the President of the Senate, as the case may be, has declared that the member has ceased to belong to it”
With regard to the same matter, I must also notify this House that I have received a letter from Mr. D. N. E Mutasa, in which he indicated that his expulsion from ZANU PF party was not warranted as due process was not followed in terms of the internal party democracy. This raises the issue pertaining to the expulsion of the member, a matter that I do not have the mandate to pursue.
It is vital that at this point, I mention that the notification to the Speaker by the party, that a member has ceased to represent its interest in the National Assembly and Parliament is all that is required at law to create a vacancy and for the Speaker to declare the seat vacant. The duty of the Speaker after receipt of the notification was clearly explained in the case of Abednigo Bhebhe and others versus the Chairman of the National Disciplinary Committee (MDC- Party) HCB 85/2009 by
Justice Cheda, that upon receipt of the notification, the Speaker of the National Assembly is constitutionally bound to declare the seat in question as vacant. Hon. members, to that extent the position of the Constitution is unambiguous regarding the declaration of a vacant parliamentary seat.
Consequently, vacancies have arisen in Headlands and Hurungwe West Constituencies by operation of the law. The necessary administrative measures will be taken to inform his Excellency, the
President of the Republic of Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) of the existence of the vacancies in line with Section 39 (1) of the Electoral Act Chapter 2:13 as amended.
MR. SPEAKER’S RULINGS
HON. MARIDADI’S POINT OF ORDER ON MEDIA ACCESS TO
INFORMATION IN PARLIAMENT
- SPEAKER: On the 18th February, 2015, a point of order was raised by Hon. Maridadi on whether the instruction given to journalists to switch off their recording devices by security officers of Parliament was in accordance with the Standing Orders and whether such an order was not in violation of the Constitution, in particular, Sections 61 and 62 which provide for the right to freedom of expression and freedom of the media and the right to access to information respectively.
The Chair promised to look into the matter and make a ruling. In coming with this ruling, I met with the journalists concerned and the Director of Security. In terms of Section 62 (1) of the Constitution, the right to access to information is stated as follows: “Subsection (1) – Every Zimbabwean citizen or permanent resident, including the Zimbabwean media, has the right of access to any information held by the State or by any institution or agency of Government at every level, in so far as the information is required in the interest of public accountability”.
This right has been interpreted to mean the right to know and have facts made available to the public. It is a right which covers the media and allows them to provide correct information and accurate reports. It is a right that is interdependent on the right of freedom of expression and freedom of media enshrined in Section 61 of the Constitution.
In the case of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and
African Charter on Human and People’s rights, the right to access is guaranteed as a component of freedom of expression. In other words, access to information as a right, gives meaning to freedom of expression. It is common cause that people express themselves more competently when they are well informed.
At this juncture, it is vital to turn to Section 61 of the Constitution, in particular Subsection (1) (A), which states as follows; “Every person has a right to freedom of expression; which includes, a) freedom to seek, receive and communicate ideas and other information”. The right can be interpreted to mean, the right to express views and opinions freely without intervention. It must be highlighted that, the rights are an important basis for the principle of democracy. These rights bring about openness, accessibility, transparency and hence in full support of the good governance system as is set out in the Constitution’s Section 3 (2) (G).
Be that as it may, every State needs limitations to some rights which may be prone to abuse. Such limitation has been provided for in Section, 61 (5) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, which states as follows: “Freedom of expression and freedom of media exclude; incitement to violence, advocacy of hatred or hate speech, malicious injury to a person or reputation or dignity or malicious or unwarranted breach of a person’s right to privacy”.
In South Africa, in the case of trustees for the time being of the
Biowatch Trust, versus Registrar Genetic Resources and others, citation SALR (2) 2005 at page 135, as last modified on 22nd August, 2012; the rights discussed herein were upheld but in consideration of limitations. In a Kenyan case namely, Nairobi Law Monthly Company Limited Vs Kenya Electricity Generating company and others, 278 KC 2013, it was ruled that there is need to show that the information is required for the exercise or protection of another right, as a basis of challenging the need for the right.
As such, the above discussed rights are constitutionally protected rights extending even to the journalists that they have access to information using the tools which are permitted for use in the recording and disseminating information. If need, there was any misconduct by the journalists or any other person attending a sitting of Parliament, the
Sergeant-at-Arms has the power to remove them in terms of Standing
Order No. 171.
However, our Standing Orders as they exist, are silent on the use of electronic gadgets and as such are not in tandem with the technological developments in the media sector. Journalists are no longer dependent on pens and their not pads only, but are also using electronic gadgets such as electronic notepads and cellphones as tools of the trade. Same electronic gadgets have made it possible for journalists to file their stories from wherever there is internet connectivity. There is need therefore, for Parliament to make provision for these developments in the Standing Orders, to enable journalists to practice their profession efficiently and without hindrance.
However, the journalists are also agreeable that there is need to balance their need to access, record and impart information using electronic gadgets with the need to protect the decorum of the House and security of members and Parliament Building. As an interim measure and taking cognisance of the need to balance these competing interests, journalists will be allowed to use the tools of their trade, including cell phones and Ipads as they conduct their business. However, they should refrain from using such devices in a manner that interferes with the proceedings or adversely affects the decorum of Parliament. This should include among others, ensuring that their electronic gadgets are on silent at all times. Additionally, they shout not be taking pictures from the Press Gallery in a manner that attracts the attention of members on the floor of the House. These measures are in line with the provisions of Section 141 (C) (II) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe and I recommend that the journalists and Members of Parliament read the whole of Section 141 of the Constitution which allows Parliament to regulate public access, including the media, to its sittings and that of its Committees. This requirement is not unique to Parliament of Zimbabwe as in Parliaments like Zambia, journalists are not allowed into the House and can only follow proceedings from a Press room where they file their stories.
Let me also applaud the journalists for going a step further in forming a Committee that will be liaising with officials from Parliament on these and other related matters. This should go a long way in ensuring that the interests of both parties are catered for.
Thus, in conclusion, administrative measures shall be put in place to ensure that the rights of the media as enshrined in the Constitution are realized and clarity is given through the responsible directorate in regard to the manner in which journalists are permitted to access and transmit information pertaining to the proceedings of Parliament to the public of Zimbabwe. Our Standing Orders, which are in the process of revision and alignment to the Constitution, will take into account the dynamic influences that have come with the constant development of technology, thereby facilitating the work of the media in Parliament. In addition, the proposed new Parliament Building will have structures that will take into account the concerns of the media and will also conform to media facilities as obtaining in other jurisdictions.
- GONESE’S POINT OF ORDER ON VOTING ON THE RBZ
(DEBT ASSUMPTION) BILL
- SPEAKER: The ruling by the Chair on the interpretation of
Standing Order 102 of the National Assembly:
On the 19th of February 2015, Hon. Gonese raised a point of order in respect of the meaning of Standing Order 102 (1) of the National Assembly, which he views as barring Members of Parliament who allegedly benefitted from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Farm Mechanisation Programme from taking part in the debate and voting on the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (Debt Assumption) Bill (H.B. 7, 2014). Hon. Gonese also requested that a list be availed of all the beneficiaries of the RBZ programmes. It was asserted that the list will help identify those with a pecuniary interest in the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (Debt Assumption) Bill, (HB7, 2014). It was further raised that those who benefited are excluded from the voting process should we proceed to a division of the House, in respect to various provisions of the Bill. I wish to highlight that Standing Order 102 provides as follows:
“A member shall not, in or before the House or any Committee, vote upon or take part in the discussion of any matter in which he or she has a direct pecuniary interest.
- Any member who acts in contravention of this Standing Order, maybe adjudged guilty of contempt of the House.
- The provisions of this Standing Order shall not apply to any vote or discussion concerning any remuneration or allowance to be received by members in their capacities as such or to any interest which a member may have in any matter in common with the public, generally or with any class or section thereof”
Further to the above, I wish also to reiterate that the provisions of Section 17 of the Privileges, Immunities and Powers of Parliament Act, [Chapter 2:08], which reads:
“ Member not to vote on matters in which he has a direct pecuniary interest.
- Subject to subsection 2, a member who in or before Parliament or a Committee votes upon or takes part in the discussion of any matter in which he has direct pecuniary interest, shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding level 6 or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year or to both such fine and such imprisonment.
- Subsection 1 shall not apply to
- Any vote or discussion concerning the remuneration or allowances or other benefits to be received by members, in their capacity as members or
- Any interest which a member may have in any matter in common with the public generally, or any class or section of the public”
In view of the above, the Chair hereby rules that the point of order raised by Hon Gonese does not have any merit at law, as sub paragraph 3 qualifies the application of sub paragraphs 1 and 2. Sub paragraph 3 of Standing Order 102 annuls and limits that application of sub paragraphs 1 and 2, in matters where Members of Parliament share common interest with the generality of the public. It is common cause that the RBZ programmes benefitted the generality of the population to the extent that excluding beneficiaries from the debate and voting on the said Bill may constitute unfair discrimination.
I wish to conclude by stating that when interpreting Standing Orders or any statute, members must apply a systematic approach and read all the provisions holistically.
MOTION
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
- J. GUMBO: Mr. Speaker, I move that Orders of the Day,
Numbers 1 to 3 be stood over until Order of the Day, Number 4 has been disposed of.
MISS. ANASTANCIA NDHLOVU: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
- ZWIZWAI: On a point of order Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker. The last two weeks, I raised a point of order that the continual absenteeism by Ministers in this House which leaves the House being run by backbenchers is totally unacceptable. As you would know Mr. Speaker, the Government Ministers – [HON. MEMBERS;
Inaudible interjections.]-
- SPEAKER: Order, order. Can the hon. member be heard in
silence and can you be brief.
- ZWIZWAI: The Government Ministers in general and the
Leader of the House in particular, is the responsible authority to move the motions and adjournment of the same. You have reprimanded the Ministers on not less than two occasions Mr. Speaker Sir and it appears as if your words are falling on deaf ears. We have been promised that it is not going to be business as usual; Ministers are going to be more responsible and more responsive to their duties but it appears this issue is continuing and you have assured the House that if this continues, you are going to take this matter to the highest office in the land. I thank you - [DR. J. GUMBO: Is that a threat?] – No, it is him who said it.
- SPEAKER: How many Chairs are there? Order, I agree with Hon. Zwizwai. There is also what we know as the reasonableness of the situation. Today is Cabinet and in terms of our Rules, Constitution and practices, Tuesday is the day for Cabinet and for that reason, I am sure if Cabinet is not through, they normally would come in and respond. I am hoping that the Ministers responsible will be back in time to attend to these issues. Yes, Hon. Zwizwai is whispering to me here in a loud voice and he says there are Deputy Ministers. Can I assure you that on Order
Number 1, Minister Chinamasa has no deputy at the moment and
Number 2, the Acting Minister of Gender has no deputy at the moment. We are hoping that once the process is concluded, the deputies will be available – [MR. MAHLANGU: Langa is no longer there.] – Do not presume Hon. Mahlangu. Point taken Mr. Zwizwai and perhaps Cabinet
will finish earlier.
MOTION
FIRST REPORT OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON
TRANSPORT AND INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT
ON CAUSES OF ROAD CARNAGE
- MIDZI: Thank you Mr. Speaker. I do stand here to move the motion standing in my name;
That the motion on the First Report of the Portfolio Committee on
Transport and Infrastructural Development on Causes of Road Carnage (S. C. 1, 2014) which was superseded by the end of the First Session of the Eighth Parliament be restored on the Order Paper in terms of Standing Order No. 43.
- NDUNA: I do second Mr. Speaker Sir.
- MIDZI: Mr. Speaker, taking into account that there is an unmitigated tragedy on our roads and that there is horrendous pain which is experienced on a day to day basis by families, relatives and friends and competitively by the nations, therefore it was taken into account by your Committee that the motion on the First Report of the
Portfolio Committee on Transport and Infrastructural Development on Causes of Road Carnage (S. C. 1, 2014) which was superseded by the end of the First Session of the Eighth Parliament be restored on the Order Paper in terms of Standing Order No. 43.
As a Committee, we decided that we make this recommendation so as to give opportunity to those hon. members who have not had a chance to debate and also to give the Chairman of the Committee after the intervention by the hon. members to wind up and after which the Hon.
Minister would then respond. I thank you.
- NDUNA: Thank you Mr. Speaker.
- SPEAKER: Can I guide you? I hope you are supporting the motion, without debating.
- NDUNA: I am supporting the motion during my debate Mr.
Speaker Sir.
- SPEAKER: No more debate, thank you.
Motion, with leave, adopted.
MOTION
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
- GUMBO: I move that Orders of the Day, Numbers 5 to 10 be stood over until Order of the Day, Number 11 is disposed of because it is a significant one for the International Women’s Day.
- SPEAKER: I need to qualify that. The motion by Hon.
Marumahoko is also significant. I think what we should say is that
Sunday is the International Women’s Day. So the mover has requested, not necessarily that his motion is not significant.
MOTION
COMMEMORATION OF INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
- KHUPE: I move the motion standing in my name that this House:
MINDFUL of the significance of the International Women’s Day commemorations on the 8th March, a day when more than a century ago courageous women took to the streets demanding better working conditions, peace and bread;
AWARE that the 8th of March is a global day celebrating the economic, political and social achievements of women, past, present and future;
CONGISANT that one of the milestones of the 20th century in the struggle for women emancipation took place at Beijing Women’s Conference, 20 years ago where there was a declaration that “women’s rights are human rights”
REALISING that International Women’s Day is a day to celebrate and glorify the importance of women and womanhood;
NOW THEREFORE, calls on this august House to urge the
Executive to declare the 8th of March as a national holiday to commemorate womanhood and women’s rights which are human rights.
- MPARIWA: I second.
- KHUPE: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. Thank you for
allowing us to debate this motion today, since the 8th of March is the International Women’s Day. Allow me to begin by giving a brief background of the International Women’s Day.
In 1910, a meeting was held in Copenhagen. This meeting established a Women’s Day to honour the movement for women’s rights and to establish the support for achieving universal suffrage for women; that is, votes for women and opportunities for women to vote. During that time, women were not allowed to vote but women wanted to be given an equal opportunity, just like men to exercise their democratic right to vote. The first International Women’s Day was held on the 19th of March, 1911.
This day was held in countries like Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, with rallies and meetings being held in these countries. The 19th March was chosen because the Prussian King had promised to introduce votes for women. Unfortunately, he did not keep his promise.
In 1913, the date for International Women’s Day was changed to the 8th of March because when the King promised to introduce votes for women, it gave hope for equality but because he failed to keep his promise, the date was changed to the 8th of March.
The 8th of March is a day where women from all over the world sit down to celebrate the achievements, economically, politically and socially. This year, the theme is “make it happen”, encouraging effective action for advancing and acknowledging women. It is now 104 years since the concerns of women took global stage. It is now 35 years since we got our independence in Zimbabwe. The big question to ask is what is it that the women of Zimbabwe have achieved economically, politically and socially. I would first of all like to interrogate what the women of Zimbabwe have achieved economically.
Women constitute 52% of the population. Women contribute more than 80% to the Gross Domestic Product. Half of the food consumed in this world comes from the women’s hands. Women work 10 times harder than men and they are creators of wealth - [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections]- The sad reality is that their contribution always goes unnoticed and I would like to substantiate why I am saying their contribution always goes unnoticed Mr. Speaker Sir. In 2006, 2007 and
2008, when things –
- SPEAKER: Order, order, we are all born of women – [HON. MEMBERS: Yes!] – So you must listen carefully. Let us honour our women – [HON. MEMBERS: Yes!] – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear].
- KHUPE: Thank you very much Mr. Speaker Sir. I will explain to the House how important the women are later. I was saying I would like to substantiate why I am saying the contribution by women always goes unnoticed. In 2006, 2007 and 2008 when things were really bad, the women were the ones who crossed borders to buy food, fuel and everything that was not available in this country. The women were the ones who kept this country going.
As we speak right now, Zimbabwe is highly informalised and who is in the informal sector? More than 70% of the people in the informal sector Mr. Speaker Sir are women. Women are crossing borders everyday to South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and you name it. Mr.
Speaker Sir, when they come back, ZIMRA officials will be waiting for them at the border to collect money. ZIMRA is collecting money from women every day.
As we speak right now, if the Minister of Finance and Economic Development was sitting here, he would be telling us that this country at the moment is being sustained by women. This is because Mr. Speaker Sir, the formal sector is not operating. Very few companies are open and therefore, Government is collecting little from the corporate sector. The women of this country are the ones who are sustaining this Government but my disappointment Mr. Speaker is that, I do not here a thank you. It is important that each time the Minister of Finance and Economic Development speaks, he must always thank the women of Zimbabwe because they are the ones who are keeping this country going – [HON.
MEMBERS: Yes!] –. I would also like to take this opportunity Mr. Speaker Sir, to thank my fellow women for ensuring that this country is kept going. I think my hon. members will assist me to do that – [HON.
MEMBERS: Hear, hear].
Mr. Speaker Sir, I now want to move to what women have achieved politically. When it comes to elections, the women are the ones who are asked to run around and do door-to-door campaigns. They run around and mobilise people to go and vote. Come voting day, the women are the ones who vote more than men and statistics have shown that Mr. Speaker Sir. If there is anyone who thinks I am not telling the truth, they must go to any election and witness, you will see that most of the people on the queues are women – [HON. MEMBERS: Yes!] –.
So what happens Mr. Speaker Sir? After electing the leaders into positions, when it comes to appointments, you hear men saying oh, we want women of quality but when we were doing door-to-door campaigns, no one asked for quality. When we were voting for them, no one asked for quality Mr. Speaker Sir – [MS. MPARIWA: Chero C.V chaiyo] -. Right now, look at our Cabinet, how many women do we have? Three out of how many? Mr. Speaker Sir, we had a woman Vice
President and she was removed as if there was nothing wrong with that.
As women, as we think we are moving forward, we are taken ten steps backwards. Instead of us going forward, we are now going backwards –
[HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear] – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible
interjections.] –.
Look at Parliament Mr. Speaker Sir, we have not yet reached the threshold of the African Union and SADC which says, 50% – [HON.
MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –
- SPEAKER: Order, order.
- KHUPE: In Parliament, we have not yet reached the threshold of the African Union and SADC which calls for 50% representation of women in decision making bodies at all levels. In
Zimbabwe, we are less than 35% and I would like to thank the women of
Zimbabwe for fighting during the constitutional making process to have
66 women added to this House and to have a zebra system in the Senate. This is the reason why our numbers are a little bit better but Mr. Speaker Sir, we have not reached the threshold.
If you look at our Constitution, the preamble talks about women’s equality. The founding values and principles talk about women’s equality. If you look at Chapter Four which talks about the Declaration of Rights, it has so many rights about women Mr. Speaker Sir, but the issue here is that, the granting of those rights is empty without the corresponding ability to exercise those rights. You can have or grant as many rights as you can but as long as you do not have a corresponding ability to exercise those rights, those rights are empty and it is as good as we do not have any rights.
Now I want to move to what the women have achieved socially Mr. Speaker Sir. Women continue to die while giving birth. Our maternal mortality right now is 960 out of every 100 000 live birth meaning to say, 15 women die every day in this country while giving births, Mr. Speaker Sir. Women are still giving birth from home yet we are talking about an AIDS free generation. It will be almost impossible for us to achieve an AIDS free generation as long as women are still giving birth from home because these women cannot go to a hospital because of user fees.
So what happens? They do not attend antenatal clinic and are not checked for anything. If this woman is HIV positive, she will then transmit the virus to the unborn child and this is why I am saying we will never achieve an AIDS free generation. It is important that every woman gives birth from a clinic or hospital if we are to achieve an AIDS free generation because they will go for checkups. If they are HIV positive, they will be given ARVS so that they do not transmit the virus to the unborn child. Mr. Speaker Sir, HIV wears the face of a woman. Out of the 1, 2 million people who are living with HIV Zimbabwe, more than 60% of those people are women and about 200 000 are children.
Mr. Speaker Sir, women in the rural areas do not have water and electricity. As we speak right now, on a day to day basis, women in the villages wake up as early 4 o’clock in the morning. Either this woman is carrying a baby on her back or she is pregnant or it is both. She will go to the fields to till, cultivate and grow crops using unmechanised and primitive tools in the deep heat of Zimbabwe Mr. Speaker Sir.
Afterwards, she comes back to the village, carries a bucket of water, walks 4 km to look for water, comes back and goes to look for firewood. She comes back to prepare the fire and whilst the fire is being prepared, she pounds the maize and prepares a meal for her children and husband. This woman sleeps for less than four hours on a day-to-day basis. This is what our women are going through in the rural areas.
Mr. Speaker Sir, women are still victims of violence, with rape and domestic violence being the cause of disability and deaths amongst women. Having said this, women’s rights are supposed to be treated as human rights once and for all. This is the reason why I am calling on this august House to urge the Executive to declare the 8th of March as a national holiday so that every Zimbabwean is given an opportunity to stay at home so that they celebrate and glorify the importance of women and womanhood.
I want to demonstrate how important women are by unpacking the word ‘woman’ Mr. Speaker Sir. ‘W’ stands for workers. Women are workers. They are workers in their homes, fields, industry and everywhere. Like I said earlier on that half of the food consumed in this world comes from a woman’s hand. Right now, we are saying we have grown a lot of tobacco and tobacco is giving us income; where is that tobacco coming from? It is coming from the women because they are the ones who are working on those fields.
‘O’ stands for organisers; women are organisers. They are organisers in their homes, political parties and at work. Come to elections, women are the ones who organise people and they vote more.
‘M’ stands for managers; women are managers everywhere. Look at any institution that is managed by women or at any country that is managed by a woman; I always give an example of Liberia. When Madam Sirleaf Johnson took over that country, there was absolutely nothing. She lifted that country from the dust to be where it is right now. That is the power of women management Mr. Speaker Sir. If you look at any company that is being managed by women, those companies are operating very well because women are not corrupt; women always ensure that they put people and companies forward.
‘A’ stands for advisers; women are advisers. We advise all of you, we advise everybody else but the problem that we have is that the advice that we give goes in through one ear and comes out through the other ear. This is why we have got so many problems because you do not want to listen to us – the women.
‘N’ stands for nation builders; Mr. Speaker Sir, we carry babies for nine months, give birth to them and nurture them to be who they are.
Hon. Joram Gumbo, you are who you are today because of your mother. Dr. Joram Gumbo, Chief Whip of the Zimbabwean Parliament because of your mother. Deputy Ministers, you are Deputy Ministers because of your mothers. Hon. Speaker Sir is Hon. Speaker Sir because of his mother; Advocate Mudenda, Speaker of Parliament. I am who I am today because of my mother; Leader of the Opposition in Parliament,
Vice President of the Movement for Democratic Change, Deputy Prime
Minister of the Republic of Zimbabwe because of my mother – [Laughter]- Hon. Chinotimba, you are who you are because of your mother. She carried you for nine months and gave birth to you. You are who you are today because of your mother. –[AN HON. MEMBER:
What about my father?]- Fathers do not carry babies for nine months. They do not nurture or give birth to them. It is us women who make us who you are today.
This is why we are saying the 8th of March must be declared a national holiday so that we stay at home and glorify the importance of women, celebrate and thank our mother for bringing us to become the persons we are today. So it is very important.
I would like to conclude by sharing with you this story I heard from elsewhere. When God created Adam, I am told that God realised that this man had so many defects. He tried to correct those mistakes by patching him and doing everything else. This did not work. God then said, what am I going to do with this man with all these defects. God decided to create another person and he molded this person to perfection and he took his time. This person is a woman. Women are perfect and special people. This is the reason why they are supposed to be treated with dignity and respect just like any other human being.
Finally, I would like to call upon this august House to urge the Executive to declare the 8th of March as a national holiday so that the women of Zimbabwe will say at least our contribution has been noticed. At least we are now enjoying our sweat as women and our Government is appreciating our contribution economically, politically and socially. I hope and trust that we are going to speak with one voice in urging the Executive to declare the 8th of March a national holiday so that we sit at home, glorify the importance of women, celebrate and thank our mothers for bringing us to become who we are today –[HON.
MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] –
- SPEAKER: There is a Ford Ranger, registration number ADI 9395, black in colour that is blocking other vehicles. This also applies to a Prado Land cruiser, silver in colour, registration number ABL 4898. If these vehicles are not moved out in the next five minutes, we will get them clamped. Thank you.
*MS. MPARIWA: Thank you Mr. Speaker for giving me the opportunity to make my contribution. I would like to start by congratulating the hon. member for raising this motion. We also thank you Hon. Speaker and Hon. Gumbo for giving us the opportunity to have this motion in the House.
Every person in this House is born of a woman and we appreciate that you made the value of women. If we look at what is happening in the country; all people are born by women but these people have different opportunities. They do not have equal opportunities, safety or equal value.
As stated by Hon. Khupe, the work done by women is looked down upon. Very few people appreciate that. We are saying as women, we no longer want to celebrate this day like any day being at work. We would like this day to be declared a public holiday so that we celebrate this day partying with our grandchildren, friends and family. In this way, we will have elevated the status of our country in the world.
Countries of this world celebrate New year and Boxing holidays just like we do in Zimbabwe. As Zimbabwean women, we are now saying Zimbabwe is the Chairperson of SADC and Africa, hence the need to lead by example. In the SADC community, we have 7 out of 15 countries which celebrate the Women’s day through holidays on the 8th of March. One of these countries is Seychelles which has elevated this day to a public religious holiday. This holiday has been combined with the Women’s International day where businesses are shut down and women celebrate their day with their families at home. People can only observe such a day if it has been designated and declared a state holiday.
Out of these 7 countries, which recognise this day as a holiday, Zimbabwe is not one of them. In moving this motion, hon. Khupe touched on a lot of ideas and I am only filling the gap in calling for this day to be declared a national holiday. Zimbabwe is the Chairperson of SADC and the Africa Union and cannot just stand by and watch these other 7 countries celebrating this day as a holiday. There is an English proverb which says charity begins at home. Zimbabwe should declare this day a public holiday and all the other countries will follow their leader.
If we declare this day a holiday, as women, we will feel very much honoured and as a country, we will be proud of our country which will be counted as one of the few countries which recognise the importance of women in this world. We will have fulfilled our constitutional obligation on the importance of women and we will be able to celebrate this day enjoying our jam, margarine and peanut butter with our families.
My last contribution Madam Speaker is that, no country can celebrate its independence when women are oppressed. Therefore, following our Constitution, we need to declare the 8th of March as a Public holiday so that in 2016, this day will be celebrated as a holiday and we will have led by example. On this day, both men and women will celebrate this day with their families. I therefore, I appeal to both women and men in this House to support this motion so that the 8th of March is declared a Public holiday in recognition of the importance of women in our lives and country. It is my appeal Madam Speaker, that we recognise the importance of women in that the 8th March be declared a Public holiday.
*MR. MANDIPAKA: Thank you Mr. Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to make my contribution on such an important motion raised by Hon. Khupe. There are very few men who do not recognise the importance of women in their lives. Women are very important. As we make our contributions in this House, regardless of our stature, we were all born by women. Thanks to the Lord above who bestowed the power of creation upon women so that they carry babies for 9 months.
Madam Speaker, despite the above accolades, I have a problem in supporting the motion of declaring this day 8th March as a public holiday. I have been looking at our calendar. We have a lot of holidays; therefore if we declare this day a Public holiday, we will disturb the production process of our country and national economy.
I was looking at countries like Japan and China who work for 24 hours in their industries; hence, they develop their economy. So, as
Zimbabwe, if we add one more holiday Madam Speaker, we will disturb our processes of production. If we declare this day a holiday we will have set precedence in that the youth will also want a holiday, as well as men, hence these many holidays will disturb the country’s production.
Men will also say they want to declare Fathers’ Day a holiday.
Regardless of what I am saying, this does not demean the value of the
Women’s Day because when you are talking of independence, it is so important. When we were under slavery, under foreign rule, we did not have this independence. I worked as a police officer. Before independence in the 1973s and 1974s and we had very few women in the force. Most of these people were men and women and they were very few. But, at independence in 1980, the number of police officers in the force increased, hence, we have to thank our Government which showed the importance of women and equality of gender in affording women to get into the posts which they were denied during the colonial rule.
Madam Speaker, before independence and in the colonial era, women could not sit in the seat where you are seated and we have to thank our Government for giving such independence and equality of sexes. We have about 18 laws which were aimed at the elevation of women in whatever sphere of life. We now have Chief Executive Officers who are women and even our Government ministers, we have women. On the proportional members to the population, the point is, we still have room. I went to Madagascar and we asked the number of women who were there, we were told that about 15% were women. But, in Zimbabwe, women now occupy 35% of the proportional seats in our Government.
Therefore, we should praise our Government for taking such a step in elevating the status of women in the country. When we talk of women’s rights, they are human rights because women are very precious in our lives and in our country. We have women making their contribution because they also go out of the country and they are expected to import goods for the progress and growth of the economy of our country. We need to continue with the progress which is in our country.
In Zimbabwe, when we went to do the land distribution programme, women were also beneficiaries of this programme because we realised that they were enablers of the growth of our economy and that they have the potential to lead to the growth of the economy of the country. Hence, the direction which is being followed by Cde. Robert
Mugabe’s Government is that women have the ability and the capability to lead to the growth of our country and we need such leadership which shows that women are very precious. We need to support such a leadership which recognises that women are very precious. At one time, Zimbabwe was one of the few countries which had a woman Deputy President. We love this day and we appreciate it. I am saying, we need to celebrate this day whilst we are working for the progress of our country. I thank you.
- MUDEREDZWA: Thank you very much Madam Speaker,
for giving me the opportunity to make my contribution. I would like to appreciate the mover of the motion, Ms. Khupe and the seconder, Ms. Mpariwa for coming up with such a motion.
Madam Speaker, every man who is where he is, is there because that person is coming from a woman and the importance that we need to attach to women is very great. The role of a woman in a family unit is very pronounced and important. For someone to get parental guidance in a family unit, there has to be a mother. Families that are without mothers usually do not come up with people who are well mannered or people who observe the norms of society holistically. So, the importance of mothers is an important issue that we should look at and consider seriously without political persuasion.
Madam Speaker, I look at the African woman from a historical perspective. You will see in the communal lands, in the rural areas, an African woman with a child on her back and some load on her head.
Usually, they are closer to the interests of the family more than the fathers and all these things that they are doing, they are doing them simply because they would like to have a successful family.
Madam Speaker, I would like to say, there is a song that is authored and played by Torky Vibes and he talks about chitsidzo changu naamai. If people listen to that song, you will see that there is a relationship that is very close between the mother and the child. Indeed, maybe it is because of the umbilical cord that traditionally binds them together. The idea of coming up with a day to respect mothers in my view is not a bad one. I do not want to be taken along political persuasions but, I want to relate according to how I relate with my mother. I grew up in a family where I was parented by my mother more than my father but, look at where I am. I have a history that is traceable and very illustriously in a way. It is my mother who managed to do that for me.
Madam Speaker, there are many days that we waste during the course of the week, if you go to a workplace, there are many hours that are wasted that cannot be compensated by one day that can be given to our mothers as a way of respect. I am saying this because I was touched by the motion and I thought that as Zimbabweans, let us do something original. I am happy that this new Parliament, the Eighth Parliament of Zimbabwe is coming up with new ideas. These ideas aim to change the face of how we think and the way the laws in this country exist. I will be coming up with a motion that is also along the same lines, that is looking at changing the laws that currently exist. I would like to believe that if we seriously consider this motion as an African nation and we give respect to 8th March of every year, you will then see other nations also trying to address their situation.
I thought it important for me to make a contribution with an independent mind because the importance of the mother in a family unit is great. I am in support of the prayer of this motion and as we deliberate, let us consider the importance of the mother figure in a family unit. I appreciate what Government has done in terms of supporting women. Our Government has moved miles in supporting women and we applaud that. It is the Government of our President that realised that women need to be given recognition. That recognition was given but we are saying let us move further and take women in their respective positions in life such as in the areas of education and employment. In other areas we have really followed that route and appreciate and value what has happened. With these few remarks, I would like to say that I strongly support this motion.
+MS. L. SIBANDA: Thank you Madame Speaker for giving me the opportunity to say a few words on this motion. I would like to thank the mover of this motion Hon. VP and Hon. Mpariwa who seconded it.
*MR. MASHANGE: On a point of order Madam Chair, we heard the speaker saying we have the Hon. VP present, can she please explain what she means by that.
+MS. L. SIBANDA: Madam Speaker, I would like to apologise. It is Hon. Khupe. We know that women constitute 52% of the population in Zimbabwe. In the family, women are the ones who take care of the children. They look for money and look after the children. When there are orphans in the family, they assume the task of looking after those children. During funerals, women are the ones who do most of the work. They comfort those who will have lost their loved ones while men will be drinking beer.
The 8th March should be an important day for women and should be made a holiday. Women are very brave regardless of the men that they have, who could be drinking beer or smoking mbanje. Women are prepared to marry that particular man and they make sure they care for the family. In addition, another fact about women is that they are able to keep secrets. If they do not do that, there will not be peace in any nation. There will be so much insecurity.
I also want to say that a woman is an important person. You can see a pregnant woman, carrying a baby on their back and also carrying a heavy load on their head while the man will be carrying an axe and not helping the wife. If you also look at our Cabinet, there are only 3 women there and that translates to the fact that the problems being encountered by women are not well represented. Therefore this day should be viewed as very important and Government should look into it and make it a holiday for women.
- CHIDAVAENZI: I would also want to thank the mover of this motion. Men acknowledge and will always appreciate mothers’ love and care. It is for that reason that every male, whether human or animal is trying to be with or within the woman. Given and if permitted, the desire will be ultimately to go back into the mother’s womb. It is a natural phenomena created by God, hence it is only natural that men support mothers and the day of the mother. Let us find each other, love each other and respect each other because mothers mould and drive character, morale and development of the family and the nation at large.
Women, be assured that men love you. Never feel inferior because we are one and we are meant to complement each other. Holiday or no holiday, I love you sweet mother. I thank you.
*MS MAKONYA: Thank you Hon. Speaker, I would like to thank Hon. Khupe for the pertinent motion. As women, we are very important because without women we would be nobodies. When we look at our lives, if someone is hurt – [MR. CHIMANIKIRE: Shut up.] –
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, hon. member, I do not think we can be shouting “shut up” to another hon. member. Will you please withdraw your statement?
- CHIMANIKIRE: Madam Speaker, I withdraw but the hon.
member was shouting “Tsvangirai”, who is not in this room.
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Unfortunately, I did not hear that but I heard what you said. Can you please take your seat – [AN HON. MEMBER: Inaudible interjection] – Order, order, can we have order in the House. Hon. member, can you please proceed with your debate.
*MS. MAKONYA: Madam Speaker, when I look at our lives, looking at men and women, you will find that if a man gets ill, there is no way he calls for the father but they call their mother despite their age. Which means that mothers are very important. If someone gets to a home and finds a man there, if she asks if there are people there, the fathers will say there are no people even if the father is around. The reason why they say there are no people when they are there is that, they cannot cook and entertain visitors like women. So a person who is more important in a homestead is a woman.
Madam Speaker, if we look closely, as women, we find that we are very important even in our political parties. Political parties are strengthened by women and the parties get their support from women, so we are very important. Even if you go to churches, you find that women are more in churches than men. Which means that women are very important. When they are not there, that man is not complete. Even if you look at widowers, you will find that a widow can live much better than a widower because if a man remains with children at home, it is very difficult and there is a great deal of difference between a man who has lost his wife and a woman who has lost her husband.
Madam Speaker, if there were no women giving birth in the world, one of the speakers said that if they were to spend eight years as women without giving birth, it means that, that country will not be in a good standing. There will be no more children in schools because the women will not be doing their job. People will be extinct in the world.
Madam Speaker, women are very important because if we look at widows living in Zimbabwe, a lot of the people engaged in vending are women. Women can survive without men. Even if you look at it where women lose their husbands, they are not quick to look for other husbands but they control their feelings as women. Men cannot control their feelings as women.
Madam Speaker, what I want is that the Constitutional provisions should be practiced, that women should give birth without any penalty because they are doing a national duty. They should not be detained in maternity hospitals. It is enacted in our Constitution but it is not being practiced. We should be discharged from maternity hospitals even without paying hospital fees. Our rights as women should be exercisised when it comes to that. Madam Speaker, I am saying, as a Government, this day, the 8th of March should be recognised as a national holiday so that we rest as women to show that women in Zimbabwe have favour bestowed upon us – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]- and to show that we have been remembered as women due to our hard work as we do our national service which we do in Zimbabwe. Thank you Madam Speaker for according me this opportunity.
*MS. NKATAZO: Thank you Madam Speaker for according me this opportunity to add my voice on this motion. I would want to thank Hon. Khupe and Hon. Mpariwa for bringing such a pertinent motion into this House. I am so happy that women are rising up for the betterment of other women. A woman is very important in the country, in the home, at work and in everything. They are important. Worldwide, women are important.
Secondly, if there is no mother at a homestead, you can notice the difference. I experienced it when my mother passed away that a woman is very important because my father remained as an orphan. A woman knows how to feed the family and how to look after the family as well as the various chores that everyone should do at home. So we want to thank our President because he is aware that there are women. Firstly, after attaining our independence in 1980, he recognised women and secondly, our President Cde R. G. Mugabe was aware that women could not get into Parliament because of the unfair political ground so that he gave us a quota as women through the quota system.
We can speak a lot about a woman. A woman on her own at home and even at work, you will find that as we are talking, good ideas come from women but what I see is that as women, we support our women’s day but I think it is good for us women to congregate on that day and discuss about what we can do and engage so that we do not make it a holiday. If we turn it into a holiday, the men will also demand holidays as well as the youths and we will end up all of us not going to work because of so many holidays – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible
interjections.]-
We are aware that as women, men may not say it but they really respect us. Even if we are not there, our men speak highly of their wives in our absence. They know that most of the achievements are there because of women. For us to come up with a holiday on Women’s Day, I do not think it is necessary because it is known that we are valuable. We can just recognise the day, not as a holiday. It does not mean that for us to be recognised we need to lazy around on that day. We can celebrate even at work as we have done before. We can move around making awareness in our districts, wards and constituencies. Probably, most of us were not recognising this day before. In my constituency, we really recognise this day without it being a holiday.
Madam Speaker, I would like to thank our male counterparts for realising that women are important. – HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible
interjections.] –
*THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, order, if a member debating
has not said what you want, you will get an opportunity to debate so that you can air your views because some of this noise does not earn us honour.
*MS. NKATAZO: Thank you Madam Speaker for protecting me.
It does not mean that because we are saying women are important in every nation, this day should be declared a holiday. What we are saying is women are important in every area. Thank you Madam Speaker.
+MS. MKANDLA: Thank you Madam Speaker. I would like to add my voice on this motion which was moved by Hon. Khupe and seconded by Hon. Mpariwa. I would like to say that a woman is important to each and everything in this world. A woman is a way to life on earth, a teacher to everyone especially the fathers. I would like to say, we have heard that there are single mothers in the world but there are no single fathers. Single parents are only women. I am saying this because farms were given to single women but if you give a farm to a single man there would not be development. Even the rains would not come in that particular year. Thirdly, women are the greatest Christians. They constitute most of the churches. A woman leads a family to go to church so that the children grow up in the right ways.
A woman is important in each and every nation so that a family can grow up knowing how to respect elders, that is if the woman respects herself in whatever she does. We have orphans in our homes who have parents who died because of HIV/AIDS. There are no males who are taking care of those children; it is the grandmothers who are taking care of these children. It has been said before that we thank our President and the Cabinet. Today, as women we stand as Members of Parliament and we are respected from where we come from. With these few words, may women be respected and may their day be honoured?
MRS. MISIHARABWI-MUSHONGA: Firstly, let me thank the
mover and seconder of the motion. Basically, let me start by something that we do not usually do in this House, which is to salute at least some people who sit in the gallery. Mr. Speaker, I am disappointed that when we are debating such an important motion, we only have one journalist who is a male. I want to thank him for being here. I had thought that this gallery would be full because like my colleagues have said, we are all born of women. Whether you are a journalist or sitting in the House, today would be a day where you want to celebrate and say to yourself, I am not only celebrating my being alive but I am celebrating the mother who took time to bring me to life. So I want to celebrate the gentleman who is sitting here today – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] –
When Hon. Khupe moved her motion, she said something about how courageous women are. She referred to the Bible and I want to go back to the Bible. When Jesus was crucified, his disciples went and hid in a house. The three people who went to look for Jesus were women. I think that speaks to the courage that women have about themselves and what they do.
As I said, I only have four points to make. Madam Speaker, I am saying this with humility. Sometimes if you look in a monster’s eye for too long, you can become a monster. On this particular day, when we speak about the importance of us women, we also need to have introspection about ourselves as women. Sometimes we begin to behave as men against each other. I think that we need to underline because if we are not careful we will turn out to be men and become people that work against themselves. As we celebrate, let us also look at the fact that sometimes we may actually begin to mimic the male behaviour and men will not find anything to celebrate in us because what they see us doing to each other is not worth celebrating.
The second point that I want to raise is the issue that speaks to – and forgive me the mover of the motion, I wish you had told us that we were going to move it today because one thing that has taken the world over is that issue of the woman who was stripped naked by vana hwindi. Today, if we had known we were going to have this motion, in order to make it as clear as possible, we probably all as women would have come dressed in miniskirts only to show that a woman has a right to dress. So I am a bit disappointed that you did not warn us early and we would have done that – [MR. MHLANGA: You can do it tomorrow.] – No, tomorrow the motion would be done.
The third issue that I want to raise is the fact that I hear and it is disappointing, that some of our colleagues are speaking about not having a holiday because I think the essence of this motion is not about celebrating women. Women are celebrated every day. It is unfortunate that sometimes in the courts of law when you read about divorce, a woman does not get anything because the judge says she was not working and yet we know that for that man to be clean, for all these men that are sitting in this House with beautiful ties, some woman somewhere, whether she is a small or big house, woke up in the morning and made sure that you are looking good this morning. When the judges make their judgments and are dividing issues, they will say to you we are not going to give you so much because you were not going to work.
They forget I carried the baby; I bathed the baby, waited for him to come and gave him more food later in the night which he may have demanded, any kind of food which you can find in any way you want to describe it.
What I want to say to Hon. Khupe is that if there is any Parliament that has raised women’s issues, it is this Parliament and I am proud of that, but the unfortunate thing is that we have no motion out of those that have carried the day. It does not matter whether it has been about women vendors, sanitary wear, child marriages or inheritance; we have not carried the day and perhaps we need to begin to be radical because if we are not radical, we are not going to get what we need.
I am going to make a suggestion which is radical which will make people mad. If you think the 8th March should not be a holiday, then perhaps we should say no holiday no sex so that at the end – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – of the day there is a rest for women because every man would want to have sex on the 8th March – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – and you do not think that we have a right to be waking up nice in the morning so that when you want to get whatever you want, – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – you are going to get it to me while I am relaxed and happy, – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – then it is fine. So if you do not give us 8th March as a holiday, then you are not having sex – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]. I thank you
* MR. CHINOTIMBA: I want to support the mover and seconder of this motion concerning women. Even if we disagree here and there but the motion which has been raised by Hon. Khupe is an important motion. A woman is very important on earth. A woman should be respected not only on the streets but even in the homes we should respect women. Even on their own, women should respect each other because if we go back to the Bible, Proverbs 14 from verse 1 says, a wise woman builds her home but a fool destroys it with her hands.
We see the same qualities in women; they can build or destroy their homes using their own hands. What they were talking about, you can find on both sides. If you look closely, Hon. D. Sibanda is not here and if you ask where she is, she will tell you that she is not well but we know that she was beaten because of other women – [HON.
MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –. So women on their own do not like each other. I always talk about these issues of women even at church. Women sometimes forget that they are women. You find that these women behave differently towards each other. A woman who gets married into a family easily forgets that the mother-in-law is also a woman and she will not give her groceries. She forgets that as time goes on, she will also be a mother-in-law.
If a woman who joins me in my family is stingy when it comes to my mother which means when I am working I have to buy two groceries, one for my mother and the other for my wife which is impossible. My wife is supposed to look after my mother but we know that these two women cannot get along and she forgets that for her to love me it is because of the mother. I also have a right to look after her mother. So a woman should not steal from me because I support her mother as well while she looks after my mother. What I am saying is that women can build or destroy their homes using their own hands.
This issue of respecting women is simple, women are respected in a number of ways, not only in this House but as husband and wife. They can respect each other in their home and we can also respect women as we move about. So the most profound respect should come from the husband. There is no one who can respect women in general but husbands should respect their wives in their homes because they bore them children and cook for them. When we talk of respecting one another, someone respecting someone where there are no attachments is very difficult. In my case, I respect my wife because she bore me children and I do whatever she wants.
Where I think we need to change in our Shona culture is on matters of lobola. We bear children together with my wife but when lobola is paid; a woman is given only one cow, which I think women should be up in arms when it comes to that. If there is love in that family, if the father charges ten cows for his daughter; it is for the mother and father because the mother is also a partaker in the inheritance.
Our women are very courageous; when there is a funeral, they sit in the room where there is a coffin unlike men. Even if the body goes bad, women will be there singing. Women are very brave; if you see a woman with grey hair, they will be referred to as witches. Even a daughter in law will accuse her mother-in-law of witchcraft. Women should talk about their problems with their children.
There is a story behind this in the Bible; this might have caused the problem of calling women witches. When the daughter of Herod danced, her mother instructed her to ask for John the Baptist’s head; which means that women create problems for themselves. That daughter approached Herod and said I want John’s head. That is the beginning of witchcraft for women. Up to now, no one knows where the skull is.
Maybe it is in the granary.
I am trying to say that women are important and they can destroy all that because all that we are saying is that we should come up with a holiday on that day; if we do that – it is not surprising that even the youths will say that for women to be there, she starts as a youth. Even for them to be adults, they start as youths. They will say that they are important. Even for me to be able to have a family, I should get a day of
rest.
Also, men can also come and say that without a man, no one can conceive. That is why our President does not support homosexuality. So the respect of women comes because of men. If there is no man, a woman cannot bear children. If bulls stay in their kraals, there is no reproduction. Even if cows stay in their kraals, there will be no calves. Women are very important but they are important through their husbands.
This issue of setting aside a day, yes we have agreed that women should be respected but there are some men who beat their wives like school children in these homes. That is very bad. There are also women who are bad. Right now there is a story in the paper about a
Chitungwiza woman who killed her husband using three knives. That is not a good spirit. We urge women that they might be hurting or this might be self defence, but when this self defence comes to our culture, it is bad because it will end up as an avenging spirit. The respect that I will ask from women is that there be love between husband and wife. If you love each other in the home; it can be remembered.
If there is anyone who does not have a husband, there is something wrong either because of disease, being widowed or they cannot stay with a man in the home. That is why you see some women run shebeens.
I know people may laugh at me as I speak but I am a pastor and that is the word that I preach every day that husband and wife should love each other. You should not fight; you should be transparent in your homes. Everything should be transparent even your finances. I support this motion. We should respect our women but I do not agree that a holiday should be declared.
Mr. Speaker, we had this man; I have forgotten his name – he would come into this House. He would move around writing letters and giving to women; that idea of someone coming – I know in other countries it is done. There are some things that we want to take as
African countries. If you go to America, there is homosexuality but here we do not agree. We should not follow some of these things. We have our own day when we remember women. For example, we have our
President’s birthday on the 21st of February but he did not celebrate it on that day; he celebrated it on the 28th. So, if women want to rest, we can look for any other day where we can all go to church, celebrate the women’s day whilst praying, giving thanks to the Lord, fellowshipping and kissing our wives. Mr. Speaker, I am sorry I thought that I was in church preaching. So with these few words, I want to urge all the men here, that you should stay with your wives and give them what is due to them; that is my gospel. In the book of Deuteronomy, there is a verse which says, if a woman is not given what she is supposed to be given, she has a right to go elsewhere and the husband cannot say she has committed adultery because he would not have given her what she is supposed to have. So, women should be respected in the houses where we are staying and they should be given a day of rest.
*MRS MATIBENGA: Thank you Mr. Speaker for according me
this opportunity so that I can add my voice on this motion before us. My debate is going to be different so that we really table how women are important because the speakers before me have debated a lot about it . It is really amazing; it looks like we just dropped from heaven like people who do not have a history. Our culture has always given the same opportunity to men and women, when we grew up everybody would wake up and fend for their families then meet again in the evening. As a woman, I would be having my vegetables, mushrooms and all the other things that a woman can pick from the forest. On the other hand, the father would also go into the forest and would come with rabbits and we would bring those things together and greet each other.
However, the differences between women and men came through industrialisation when a man would come home holding an envelope with money, hence it would look as if the woman was doing nothing yet the home and children would be clean. I am saying this to remind people that we should not forget our background because our culture used to give us equal opportunities. So, what we are saying today is that we just want to have equal opportunities because men and women were separated. Men came to town, staying in compound or hostels whilst the women remained at home. We should learn about that so that we understand when it comes to this issue of equal opportunities in order to operate from the same level. If we look at our languages, we say that we have seen a person. If you really want to go further, then you can say it was a woman; so we refer to a person not gender. As the people of Zimbabwe, we should be able to stand by the truth instead of discriminating each other; it is foreign in our country, we never used to have it, and we had our life which was equal to all people.
Mr. Speaker Sir, this is an issue which we should all talk about together as men and women because I really get worried when a motion is taken lightly and some things are brought in so that the motion would be watered down. People have spoken; I do not have any words when it comes to the importance of women. However, there are women who are vending in the streets. Where we come from, they are also there vending. Their rights are not being looked at, that is the only thing that I can add because all the speakers who spoke before me have touched on all the areas concerning women and they have talked about the importance of them.
I want to take this opportunity to say that this day, I know that the Minister of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development has got plans each and every year. This year it is going to be celebrated on a Friday and if it is under the umbrella of the Government, it should be held apolitical so that all the women will receive it. The spirits of the politician will come out when we celebrate in our party regalia. I would like to use this opportunity that the Ministry should speak about it and invite women from all walks of life that it is a women’s day for everyone despite their political affiliation.
On political affiliation, it should not be politically aligned because there, there are some spirits which rise and we do not understand them.
On the same issue, when it comes to this Women’s International Day; in the rural areas, we once visited one constituency and we were given fuel but when we got there, we discovered that everything there was not good. I think that everything should be held under the banner where everyone would be inclusive so that we would all be free because we would be celebrating our day which is important to us as women. I thought I should just add my voice and I support this motion that this day should be declared a holiday. You find someone sitting down thinking about this day to be declared a holiday, he or she would have done a research or investigations. They would have looked at the pros and cons of that day and weighed them and that is the reason why it should be declared a holiday. If it has been declared a holiday, people celebrate in various ways.
People fend for their lives in various ways but if my employer knows that it is a holiday, I would have an opportunity and probably that is the day that I would want to engage in those extra-activities, it is up to me. It gives me the freedom to celebrate this day without any pressure from work or these other duties.
Let me conclude by saying, if we finish this debate without thanking the Seventh Parliament of Zimbabwe, we would not have done justice. The Seventh Parliament Started in 2008 to 2013. They were able to fulfill a thing that was not being able to be fulfilled since independence, which is coming up with the Constitution of Zimbabwe; it is the Constitution of women. We want to acknowledge what transpired in the Seventh Parliament that now we have writings which talk about the rights of women. What is now left is for us to take steps so that we fulfill the Constitution. I would want to thank those who were in the Seventh Parliament for coming up with the Constitution of Zimbabwe which brought up the importance of women. Also, the Eighth Parliament, if they can go a step further to make sure that the issues in the Constitution are fulfilled. I thank you.
*MRS. THEMBANI: Thank you Mr. Speaker. I would want to thank Ms. Khupe and Ms. Mpariwa for coming up with this very important motion. I think, long back when we were young, there was a song which used to be sung about women carrying pregnancies while men do not. Women give birth and you do not sleep because you will be looking after the children. The husband can even leave the room.
When it is time for the children to go to school, they would run back home when they have been sent back home from school because they do not have a pencil. As a mother, you have to look into it and see that the child gets the pencil and also that the family has food on the table. If the family does not have food, it is the fault of the mother. The motion is very important. Yes, men also have some work to do but when you weigh it on the scale, you will find that women do a lot more than men.
Someone has talked about the Seventh Parliament and it all came from people who respected us. The Government is also respecting us. Long back, if a girl child was impregnated, she would be chased away from school and the boy child would remain in school but, the President has said, we do not want bulls. If a boy impregnates a girl, he should pay. That is why he came up with the issue of maintenance. I once went into a maintenance office and I came across this huge man who was very angry because he was supposed to pay maintenance. So, our
Government really thinks of us.
There are also issues about inheritance. As women, it used to happen that if the husband dies first, you would not be allowed even to pay your last respects to your husband because you would be in trouble. People would be after you because they would think that you have money somewhere else but the Government has seen that as women, we should also pay our last respects to our men. So, we should observe this day and take it further as women.
We know that there are also some NGOs which are helping us and we are on another stage. Women were the first ones to unite. So, I think that as women, we should unite and celebrate this day despite our political parties. Thank you.
+MS. R. MPOFU: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I would like to thank the mover of the motion Ms. Khupe and the seconder Ms. Mpariwa. I am also one of those who would want to support this motion. It is a very important motion that makes us feel special as
women.
Mr. Speaker Sir, I believe that worldwide, there is no one who is bigger than a woman. When I look at it properly, every living person or creature, whether it is an animal or even a goat, for it to come to this earth, it has to pass through a women’s womb. Therefore, I believe that a woman is very important in this world. If only men could realise that when a child is born, it becomes a lot of work. When a child is born, they cannot even walk for themselves and they cannot speak nor even know anything that happens in this world. However, a woman keeps a child from the time that they are in the womb until the time when they crawl.
Mr. Speaker Sir, I find this motion very important for us as a nation because each and every one of us comes from a woman’s womb. We realise that a woman has a lot of work in the nation. When children are born, they do not know whatever is happening around them. However, a woman can tell from signs what the child wants. When a child is crying, they can tell if the child is hungry and when a child begins to crawl, it is a woman who knows. You would not even know what you are or where you are going but, the mother knows.
Mr. Speaker Sir, I hope that we make this day very special as a nation. In 1980, when we got independent, women were not given that special status. We were not even called by our names. When you died, it would be like the death of a dog. Women were not referred to by their names but by the names of their children. For that reason, I would like to say this is an important day for women. I would like to thank the President of this nation. He saw it fit when he started ruling this nation as a person who came from a woman’s womb, to make women special.
We would like to unite as Zimbabweans and make important the life of a woman because a home with no mother is not a proper home. In that case, you will find the home very untidy because the father is not meant to do the duties performed by a mother. When a mother dies in a family, the father becomes an orphan. You can even tell from the way the man dresses that the woman is not around. They will try to dress themselves up but because they are not created for that reason, they cannot manage it. For this reason, I would like us to unite and speak with one voice on the issue of the women’s day. On this day meant for women, it does not matter which party you belong to but it means that this day is our day as women. We need to make this day important and not think about our political affiliation. As women, we need to come together and speak about our problems. We should also tell the men that when married to a woman, they are not married to an animal. They should not beat them up or be violent against them.
Though the men may not respond, they would have heard you and they will go and spread the word to other men. There are men who do not know that women are their friends. Of course, in the Bible they say that we came from a man’s rib. So, how would you feel if your rib is not comfortable every day? As women we may do wrong but as a man, there is need to understand that a woman, is your greatest helper. For that reason, great importance has to be attached to the women’s day.
Others are saying that the women’s day should be made a holiday and as this day approaches, as women, regardless of our political affiliation, we should come together and speak of our problems. We are here today as women because of the quota system. The President realised the importance of women and I would like to give a round of applause to His Excellency and wish all men were like him. They need to realise the importance of the women that they live with.
There are some men who come home late from beer halls and find the woman already asleep. They want that woman to wake up and give them food but they do not know how to knock and wake the woman up properly so they can be served food. Others just kick the door and get in, thereby scaring the children. Men should pass the word. As we speak about this day, all the men in this august House should understand the importance of this day. If there are men who were beating their wives, they need to question themselves. There are some women who become uncomfortable when their husbands come back home. However, it is important that as we live in our homes, we need to understand each other and live amicably together. We need to know what our partners like and dislike. There should be love between the two.
One cannot survive without love. You are so much in love before you marry each other but when you are married, you get used to each other. So, it will be better for us as Zimbabweans to unite and make the women’s day an important day. As women, we need to remind our men about this day. On women’s day, I do not wash any plates though I can do it because my husband says it is my day and he will do it for me. I feel the importance that I have on this day and all men need to know that women are very important. I have said enough, I thank you.
*MR. MACHINGAUTA: I would also like to make my
contribution on this important motion. I will start by supporting this motion raised by Hon. Khupe. She has called for the declaration of a public holiday on 8th March. I have heard people who were opposing this declaration but when we fought our war of liberation, women were involved. If the women such as Cde Joyce Mujuru and Hon.
Muchinguri did not give maximum support, would we have won that war? The leadership of Cde. Tongogara and Cde. Mujuru was successful because of the support, they got from the women. The other reason why I am supporting the declaration of a public holiday is that it will be a time for every one of us to look back and celebrate the importance of women. Our Constitution also states the importance of women and equal opportunities as it says, they should be given access to all facets of production. However, it is not every one of us who gets the time to read through the Constitution and understand it. When looking at the implementation of this policy, we only have about 3 or 4 women in Cabinet and this is 17% of all the Cabinet Ministers.
When looking at our MDGs, there are some aspects which talk about the importance of women. We then need to ask ourselves whether we are following what we agreed upon. Therefore, if we declare this day a public holiday, we will be given the chance to meditate upon the importance of women. As I make my contributions, I am not worried about partisan politics, where we talk of ‘gamatox’ or the pests but I am talking about the recognition of women as important people in our lifetime.
As I make my contribution, I do not want to be too verbose or make unnecessary contribution, but all I can say is to ask all of the hon. members in this august House, to support the motion raised by Hon. Khupe, to have the 8th March declared a public holiday so that we have time to meditate on the important contribution made by the women in our lives.
*MR. MAWERE: Thank you Mr. Speaker for affording me the opportunity to make my contribution on a motion raised by Hon. Khupe and seconded by Hon. Mpariwa. In the beginning God created Adam and gave him the power to name all the things on this earth in giving them names but he had nobody to communicate with and that is why he created Eve. That is why when we talk of the language, we talk of the
‘mother tongue’ because Adam had somebody to communicate with. In whatever rhetoric or communication we are doing, we are communicating in the ‘mother tongue’ so that we are able to communicate effectively. During death ceremonies when our departed have gone and we make our speeches, it is made in the ‘mother tongue’ so that even the departed spirits may understand what we are saying.
The Bible also talks about the protection of widows and orphans and these ones we have supported. When we talk of orphans, we are talking of everybody but when we look at women, we are saying they are the most important. When we look at the mother and child reunion, there is great happiness and there is great joy because people have met and whenever we are involved in a catastrophe, accident or where someone has been hurt, they cry in the name of the mother showing that mothers or women are very important in our lives. Therefore, because of that, I am calling for the need to declare this day a public holiday so that people will talk about the importance of women in our lives and also in the African culture.
Another issue is that we should talk to our traditional leaders the chiefs so that they understand this issue. What we call the chiefs to do is to declare a sacred day which is called chisi to recognise the contribution of women. Thank you.
- CHIRISA: First of all, I want to raise a complaint. Every time when we are discussing issues that touch on women, most of the male Members of Parliament leave this House. It happened again when Hon. Majome was debating on the 16 Days of Activism and today it has been the same. I think we should start with this House when it comes to talking about how important women are so that we understand it here as the House before we go out there.
Having said that Mr. Speaker Sir, I also want to add my voice on this debate. Most of the things have been said but I want to stress the issue of the holiday. It is officially a holiday in countries like Armenia and Belarus but coming to Africa, we are talking of Madagascar, Uganda, South Africa and Zambia. So why should Zimbabwe not have a holiday for this special day? We are the head of SADC as well as the head of African Union at the moment. I am surprised some of the
women here are against this holiday, to just recognise the importance of women and that they are also part and parcel of this society.
The theme for 2014 Mr. Speaker, was - ‘Equality for women is progress for all’. This year’s theme goes further to say, ‘Make it happen’. But who is going to make it happen if not us? So this should
start from this House.
Mr. Speaker Sir, if we are talking of celebrating the International
Women’s Day, things happen in different countries and celebrations are at different levels touching on issues that are important to those countries. In Zimbabwe we are saying, let us highlight the women oppression and inequality. We are saying let us lobby and advocate for more women to be in decision making positions. We are demanding for better working conditions for women and by that, we are honouring women’s achievements Mr. Speaker.
We want to campaign against the wars in other countries affecting women and children and also to express our women’s solidarity with those people on that day. We also want to advocate for gender equality and women’s empowerment. These are some of the issues that we would want to celebrate on the International Women’s day and also somebody mentioned it that this is a day that we should be blessed with or whatever. I am saying, it is a day that men of quality should spoil their women; to give them coffee in bed and to prepare lunch for them – [Laughter] – Mr. Speaker, people might laugh but this is to show appreciation. If the women can do it to give the men coffee in bed, why cannot they give us coffee in bed?
Mr. Speaker Sir, we are saying it is so unfortunate that as Zimbabwe, we have not met the 2015 deadline on the 50% women in decision making. We have missed that deadline and yet we are a signatory to the AU and SADC protocols. We are also a signatory to the
United Nations Convention that promotes women’s rights. Mr. Speaker Sir, we have tried as Zimbabwe to achieve some of these things and we are saying we have the Legal Age of Majority Act that promotes women. We have a whole Ministry although it has no resources Mr. Speaker, but that Ministry is meant for us, for our activities and programmes but it lacks resources. That shows how the Government views us as women because it is not giving this Ministry enough resources to carry out its activities. So sometimes we feel we are being let down.
Government in partnership with UN agencies have tried by all level to make sure the issue of gender based violence and domestic violence are reduced but it looks like it is getting worse and out of hand. I have always said in other debates, it needs all stakeholders. The traditional leaders, the men themselves who are the perpetrators of violence and also the political heavyweights should be involved in the gender based violence issues.
Mr. Speaker, if you remember it took time if not a decade, for the Domestic Violence Act to be put in place because some of the men in this House were against it because they are also perpetrators of violence. Mr. Speaker, I think we should put our heads together and make sure that we protect our women. They are doing a national duty by giving birth, in agriculture and in mining and they must also be recognised. I think most of the things that I had planned to say have been said by others but let me say thank you for giving me this opportunity.
+MR. MAHLANGU: Thank you very much Mr. Speaker Sir. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Hon. Khupe and Hon.
Mpariwa for bringing this motion to Parliament; this motion on women.
I would like to say I have also stood up to second the Women’s Day and also second that there be a holiday for women so that we celebrate them on their day. Mr. Speaker Sir, I have a complaint especially on women in Parliament who have spoken before me who were complaining that there should not be a day for women.
My question is; when women meet as women’s caucus, do they not speak about supporting each other as women? When it comes to them being uplifted, it seems like there are some women who go against others. I find that very thing bad, especially when done by other women.
We would expect that to be done by other honourables like Hon. Chinotimba. We do not blame him because he is a man. It amazes us as men when a woman does such things and fails to support others.
Mr. Speaker Sir, I now come to the issue of the women’s day. I would like to say that this is a very important day because this is the day when we celebrate women, especially those women who liberated this country, including those who died in the war of liberation. There are also women who died for democracy. We all know such women like Susan Tsvangirai, Getrude Mtombeni and so many of them who died fighting for this nation. There are women who are still alive who fought for human rights. We have a woman like Hon. Khupe, the woman who brought this motion and her seconder Hon. Mpariwa, there are also women we have here who fight for human rights in this nation. I cannot mention all of them.
In addition, we also want to remember, those women who died during the Gukuruhundi in Matabeleland. We all know that during the Gukurahundi, there are women whose men were killed whilst they looked especially in Kezi. That is why I support the fact that this day should be declared a holiday because we do not only remember the women who are alive but also women who died for human rights, also the mother who gave birth to me. We have to remember those women who die while giving birth. We need to thank these women because they died on national duty, because when a woman dies whilst giving birth, they would have died whilst doing a national duty. It is a day that we are asking the Government to realise their rights, the ones that are in the Constitution that women be given their rights.
When we speak especially in politics, we say that – we know that a woman is an important person. When you hit a woman, you hit a rock. Unfortunately, my mother is late, however as a grown up man, I have come to notice the things that my mother did for me. I have met many challenges by not having my mother. It has led me to know that a mother is a very important icon in the family. Even if you grow up and become 92 years, you will realise that a mother is important. If you do not have a mother, which is why the older people say an orphan who has a mother is better than one with a father.
I have noticed that there are some of us here who do not have both mother and father and they have met many challenges because of that.
As a father, you would pray, it is better you die first and the mother remains with the children because you know that as a father, there is no way you can take care of the children alone. After your wife dies, you only look forward to marrying another wife. You do not care about the children. However, after the death of the father, a mother looks forward to taking care of the children.
In Zimbabwe, there is so much poverty. When I move around my constituency, in Nkulumane, most women are vendors and are abused by council workers. I feel that on that day, that is when we should look at the rights of women and those who are vendors. We should not speak against women’s rights. There is need to look at how women can be empowered. We need to look at how women can be employed in different industries. We need to figure out how women can be effectively attended at hospitals without any payment. We need also to look at how women can be uplifted in political arenas so that we close the gap between men and women. So many things have been said but what stands is that I have also stood to support women. Women should be at the forefront and men should follow behind. There are so many things that women do in our nations and we need to celebrate on their day. I thank you Mr. Speaker.
*MR. CHIBAYA: Thank you Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank Hon. Khupe the mover of the motion and Hon. Mpariwa the seconder of the motion for introducing such an important motion. Before I continue with my contribution, I would like to thank Hon. Damasane. I would like to propose that we clap hands for her because she is great. This motion which we are debating is related to her Ministry. Hon. Minister, you are going to respond to this motion in such a way that Zimbabwe would be greatly affected.
I will only raise one point. The point is why are we saying the 8th of March, the International Women’s Day should be declared a public holiday? It is because we want to celebrate the importance of women in our lives. Let me start from the beginning, when we talk about the war to liberate Zimbabwe, there were efforts which were made by women during those days. I have thought about the war of liberation as an icon and thus the name of Mbuya Nehanda Nyakasikana as was stated by the late Hon. Simon Vengesai Muzenda; this was in recognition of the importance of Mbuya Nehanda. She drove the war of liberation of Zimbabwe. When we are talking of the importance of women, we are not looking only at today’s women. We are even doing it in retrospect so that we can open our eyes to the fact that when we were under colonial yoke, there was a woman in front of that. We are celebrating what was done by our foremothers so that wherever their spirits are, they should realise that we, the living are recognising their efforts by declaring the 8th of March as a holiday as a way of honouring them.
I would have made my contribution proudly if this House was full. Unfortunately, most of the members have gone out. We realise that we were under oppressive colonial rule and we were liberated through the efforts and encouragement of Mbuya Nehanda. I know we would have moved in the same way because we share the same feelings and the other reason is why I am calling for the 8th March to be declared a public holiday.
I am fortunate that I was selected by my party MDC to be amongs the 23 people who were responsible for the compilation of the Constitution of Zimbabwe. We moved around the country and we realised that 97% of the contributions made by women showed that women were saying, as women of Zimbabwe we want to be recognised for our efforts in the development of the country. In order for us to have an additional 60 women in this House, it had been seen that we had very few women and needed to look for ways and means of increasing their number in Parliament. It shows the part played by women.
When we go to our different constituencies and ask people to get their opinion on the fact that we want to declare 8th March a public holiday, even if we were to go to Hon. Mandipaka and Hon.
Chinotimba’s constituencies and ask what the public say about this day being declared as a public holiday, most of the women will support the idea that this day should be declared a public holiday. If they hear that Hon. Muderedzwa, Hon. Mandipaka and Hon. Chinotimba are proposing that this day be declared a public holiday, they would be very glad that their leaders are moving in the right direction. If we declare the 8th March a public holiday, we are going to disturb Mbuya Nehanda who is resting in peace and she will be unsettled.
I will not make any further contributions on this but let me just quote the previous speaker who said women made a lot of contributions, especially during the war because women developed bald heads as they carried hot pots of food to give to the freedom fighters. That was a great job done by our womenfolk. Therefore, as stated by Hon. Machingauta, it means we have to support the idea that 8th March be declared a public holiday. I am sure that Mbuya Nehanda will recognise the important role she played in the liberation of the country and not only that women will be resting on this particular day, but men also will be resting. Therefore, we will be showing that we appreciate what was done by our women folk since time immemorial.
As I stand here, if we go to our constituencies, we will notice that we have people who are prepared to work hard during election campaigns moving door-to-door. The most hardworking people and most of the movers of this idea are women. They are prepared to go on a door-to-door campaign. If you go to men including the young men, if you go to somebody who does not belong to their party and ask for campaign material and they are chased from that home, they will declare a war. Men are impatient and will not stand somebody who opposes them. As a Member of Parliament for Mkoba, I declare openly that most of the votes that put me in this House are women and therefore, if the women of Mkoba hear me supporting this motion that 8th March be declared a public holiday, they will support me fully and everything will go smoothly.
To wind up my speech, when we go to our rural areas, our places are referred by our women’s names such as, we are going to Chibaya or
Marumahoko’s mother’s home because those are the people who are mostly known in the home. That is why in Zimbabwe we say, development can only be done by women and therefore, I say to the Hon. Vice President of our party and her seconder, that you have brought a valuable motion. I also praise the party that you belong because you have brought such an ideology of calling for a resting day whereby people talk about the greatness of women. I thank you.
+ MS. S. DUBE: I would like to thank Hon. Khupe and Hon.
Mpariwa for bringing this motion. I would like to say to this august House that a mother or woman is a more important person than anything else in this world. A woman is the one who brings life because both male and females are brought into this world by a mother. A mother is important because chances are that she could die during child birth. A child can even die in the womb and the woman can stay for days without knowing and the doctors would not even know how they would perform an operation but this is done by the grace of God.
Women are brave though things could become difficult, but they press on. During the liberation struggle, women suffered with the girls. They struggled a lot because the girls would be raped and that is something which was very painful. The mother would be violated. A woman is forgiving. When a man leaves a wife at home and when things become difficult where they are, they tend to remember when they are old. The woman remains at home and takes care of the children and sees that they go to school.
Later on, the man remembers the wife that they ran away from. That is why I say the woman is a forgiving person when that man comes back actually with nothing. The man who ill-treated her and left her with the kids for years is the very woman who embraces the man even though the children might not know their father. The woman welcomes the man back home. However, it is difficult for a man to accept back a woman who leaves him for years. Therefore, we realise that a woman is an important person because women are so brave and they are so forgiving. I do believe that there is need for a holiday that the 8th of March becomes the day when we celebrate the rights of women. We need to celebrate the women who die giving birth and those women who were raped during the liberation war and were ill treated. This day should be given a lot of honour and I am pleased that the Deputy Minister of
Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community Development is here seated and we are glad that she notices the importance of women. I thank you Mr. Speaker Sir.
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF WOMEN’S AFFAIRS, GENDER AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT (MS.
DAMASANE): I move that the debate do now adjourn.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Wednesday, 4th March, 2015.
On the motion of THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF WOMEN’S
AFFAIRS, GENDER AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT (MS.
DAMASANE), the House adjourned at Twenty Three minutes to Six o’clock p.m.
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Thursday, 19th February, 2015
The National Assembly met at a Quarter-past Two o’clock p.m.
PRAYERS
(MR. SPEAKER in the Chair)
ANNOUNCMENT BY MR. SPEAKER
NON ADVERSE REPORT RECEIVED FROM THE
PARLIAMENTARY LEGAL COMMITTEE
- SPEAKER: I have received a non adverse report from the
Parliamentary Legal Committee on the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (Debt Assumption Bill) (H.B. 7, 2014).
- MARIDADI: I rise on a point of order in terms of Standing Order No. 61 and I want to refer to the Constitution of Zimbabwe which allows me the right to raise a point of order while everybody listens.
- SPEAKER: Can you observe decorum. Why do you anticipate disorder when you say “everybody will be listening”. Can you withdraw that?
- MARIDADI: I withdraw. According to Section 62 of the
Constitution – “Access to Information”’ it says “(1) every Zimbabwean citizen or permanent resident, including juristic persons and the Zimbabwean media, has the right of access to any information held by the State or by any institution or agency of Government at every level, in so far as the information is required in the interest of public accountability”.
When there was a bit of disturbances here yesterday Mr. Speaker, we realised that members of the fourth estate were told to switch off their cellphones and gadgets and they were barred from taking feed from the House and also from taking pictures. I think it is an infringement on our rights as Zimbabweans because this is a public institution to which members of the public have access. Members of the public were not able to access information from this House because journalists could not use gargets in disseminating information to the public.
- SPEAKER: I wanted to find out who actually gave the order.
- MARIDADI: That is the point that I am trying to drive to. We want to determine who gave the order, using what authority because we have members who we do not know who went to the press gallery and ordered members of the fourth estate to switch off their cellphones and one journalist by the name Mangudya was forced out of the gallery because he refused to switch off his cellphone.
- SPEAKER: So you do not know the one who ordered?
- MARIDADI: This is what I want to know, that was it an order from the Speaker or the House. That is what we are trying to determine.
- SPEAKER: Did you get any order from the Chair then? Was
there any order from the Chair asking the journalist to switch off?
- MARIDADI: No, it was not an order from the Chair because the Chair was seated here and we were in this House. It happened within the House.
- SPEAKER: Do you have any journalist who can approach
the Chair at an appropriate time to testify to that.
- MARIDADI: Yes Mr. Speaker I have more than one
journalist who can approach the Chair and testify, including the one who was bundled out of the House.
- SPEAKER: Thank you for that point of order. The Chair
gives you the responsibility to look for the witness and I will then investigate - Tuesday at 09:30 a.m. in my office.
Mr. Gonese having stood up to debate.
- SPEAKER: I did not recognise you Hon. Gonese. You are moving to the microphone, you have said nothing.
- GONESE: I have not said anything.
- SPEAKER: So, if you can sit down, I thought you were taking the microphone.
- GONESE: On a point of order Mr. Speaker Sir.
- SPEAKER: Another point of order.
- GONESE: A different one Mr. Speaker Sir.
- SPEAKER: Can you be short and brief. Please take the podium.
- GONESE: It is in terms of the Constitution, Section 129 (k), that is a section which relates to the tenure of a Member of Parliament.
It is very clear, it says, sorry, it should be …
- SPEAKER: I think you are misquoting yourself.
- GONESE: I am not misquoting, that is the one to a person who was elected as an independent Member of Parliament. It is ‘l’.
- SPEAKER: That is why I said you are misquoting yourself.
- GONESE: It is ‘l’, it says, “if the member not having been a member of a political party when he or she was elected to Parliament becomes a member of a political party…” The point of order I am raising is that we are seeking for a declarator that the seat of the Hon. Member, I think it is Mudzi South, Hon. Jonathan Samukange was clearly elected as an Independent Member of Parliament and this is by operation of the law, there should be no other letter written because once someone was elected as an Independent Member of Parliament and that person becomes a member of a political party, the seat automatically becomes vacant and that is by operation of law. I believe that by the operation of the law, that seat has automatically become vacant. As a result, the hon. member has no right to be sitting in this august House purporting to be a Member of Parliament when that seat has fallen vacant – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] -
- SPEAKER: What I have before me is that Hon.
Samukange, Mudzi South was elected to Parliament as an Independent and until such time I receive communication to the contrary, then he remains so. The moment I receive that communication in terms of the point of order raised, certainly the Chair will declare the seat vacant and naturally there shall be a by-election.
- GONESE: I just want to seek clarification. The clarification I am seeking is as to who is supposed to be writing the letter. You are expecting communication from who, if I can have that clarity.
- SPEAKER: Firstly, the letter will come from the party where he is purported to have become a member. That party must write
the letter.
- GONESE: In the event that there is no such letter and…
- SPEAKER: Order, order hon. member, please sit down. Do
not crack your heads over nothing. Once I receive the letter, I shall declare that seat vacant and there shall be a by-election.
*MR. ZWIZWAI: On a point of order Mr. Speaker. My point of
order is that when political parties recruit people to join their parties, we cannot look forward to them writing to us as Parliament that Hon.
Zwizwai is now a member of the party. And then when we look at the issue that Hon. Samukange is now a stranger, we are taking advantage of two issues. Firstly, it is in the media that officially he has been readmitted into the ZANU PF party and then the other advantage is that he has not denied this, he has accepted readmission.
Secondly Hon. Speaker, is to take advantage that you are an advocate and as you sit in the Politburo which came up with this decision; so, the issue of a letter Mr. Speaker, is actually not relevant because you are a member of the Politburo who was at the meeting. What we as hon. members are after is that, we are after implementing what is in the Constitution. Mr. Speaker, what we request of you is to implement what is in the Constitution as an Hon. Speaker. Thank you.
- SPEAKER: Hon. Zwizwai, you have spoken well but what I know as a member of the party does not mean that I have to know that when I come to Parliament, so I cannot accept such a ruling as a ZANU PF member but I have to get a letter from ZANU PF whilst here at
Parliament. Thank you. – [HON. CHIBAYA: Inaudible interjections.] - Hon. Chibaya, the Chair is here, can you listen please.
COMMITTEE STAGE
RESERVE BANK (DEBT ASSUMPTION) BILL (H.B. 7, 2014)
First Order read: Committee: Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (Debt
Assumption) Bill (H.B. 7, 2014) House in Committee.
*MR. ZWIZWAI: On a point of order Mr. Chairman, we want to place on record the fact that, this morning Hon. Samukange called for a Parliamentary Legal Committee – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible
interjections.] -
THE TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON: Order, order I will give
you a chance.
*MR. ZWIZWAI: He called for a meeting of the Parliamentary Legal Committee that he chaired and there was a non-adverse report after he had been accepted in ZANU PF. He is now a stranger and we would want to put it on record that we will take this matter to court and if we win in a court of law, the Bill will be null and void. I thank you. –
[HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –
THE TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON: Order, order Hon.
Khumalo. Order, order Hon. Madzore, I am saying order, order and you are not taking heed. What are you doing?
- S. MADZORE: I apologise Mr. Chairman.
On Clause 1:
- GONESE: We want the House to be divided because we object to the whole Bill – [DR. GUMBO: To the whole Bill?] – Yes and in objecting Mr. Chairman, in terms of the Priviledges, Immunities and Powers of Parliament Act Section 17 Chapter 2:8 - in terms of that Act, any person who has got a pecuniary interest is precluded from voting on the Bill. In calling for a division, we ask that anyone who is a beneficiary from the Reserve Bank is not entitled to participate in the voting. We are calling for a division – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] - We cannot proceed to vote because we have not yet been informed of all beneficiaries – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]- No, no we are saying we cannot vote in the absence of information indicating the beneficiaries. On the beneficiaries, I quoted a section there of the Act – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –
THE TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON: Order, order let us
listen to what he saying please!
- GONESE: Let me articulate my point. I am quoting an Act
Mr. Chairman, if you look at the provisions of that Section 17, Chapter 2:8, it unequivocally states that anyone who has got a pecuniary interest; if you have sight of that section, it says anyone who has got a pecuniary interest is not entitled to vote – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –
THE TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON: Order, order! The hon.
member wants to be heard in silence. You may proceed.
- GONESE: I am saying that in terms of Section 17, anyone who has got a pecuniary interest is precluded from participating in the vote and unless we are furnished with information as to who the beneficiaries are, we cannot proceed because obviously if any voting takes place, those beneficiaries must be excluded from the proceedings in this august House – [AN HON. MEMBER: What is your proposal?] – My proposal is that we must be given a list of the beneficiaries then those beneficiaries are excluded.
THE TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON: Hon. Gonese, are you
debating on the Short Title?
- GONESE: No, no, I am saying that we want to vote on it but before we can do so, we need to have information relating to the section that I referred to.
THE TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON: Hon. Gonese, are you
responding to the Short Title?
- GONESE: We are objecting to it.
THE TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON: You are objecting to
the Short Title?
- GONESE: We are objecting to it.
THE TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON: Any further debate? –
[DR. GUMBO: Kana paita objection hapachisina debate] – No debate, Hon. Kereke.
- KEREKE: Just to assist so that as hon. members we separate issues. When we sit even as a Committee to approve, for instance the National Budget, we do not go to the extent of saying list and itemize the people who benefited – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – The issues of the lists are matters of verification.
THE TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON: Order, order please!
THE MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT (MR. CHINAMASA): Mr. Chairman, I propose
that Clauses 1 to 3 be put together.
- GONESE: Mr. Chair, we cannot proceed until we know the beneficiaries?
- CHINAMASA: Mr. Chairman, I moved that Clauses 1 to 3 be considered together. There was an objection and I moved for a division. Let us get a division.
- GONESE: On a point of order Mr. Chair. We have raised a point of order and in support of that point of order, I am even going to cite provisions of our bible, ‘the Green Book’ which guides all our proceedings in this august House. In terms of our Standing Order No. 102, Mr. Chairperson, if you have site of Standing Order 102, which I am going to read for the benefit of everyone, “a member shall not and underline the words shall, it means that they are preemptory - shall not in or before the House or any Committee vote upon or take part in the discussion of any matter in which he or she has a direct pecuniary interest”. What we are simply saying is that this is our ‘bible’ in terms of ...
THE TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON: Order, order!
- GONESE: I am still proceeding. All we are saying is that
…
THE TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON: Please take your seat.
- GONESE: I have not finished Mr. Chair.
THE MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT (MR. CHINAMASA): I move that we report
progress and seek leave to sit again.
THE TEMPORARY CHAIRPERSON: Hon. Khumalo, get out
of this House –[HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]- Order, order!
House resumed.
Progress reported.
Committee Stage: To resume later in the day.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Order, order. Hon. Madzore,
Hon. Madzore! Hon. Gabbuza, order!
SECOND READING
PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS AND AUDITORS AMENDMENT BILL
(H.B.6, 2014)
Second Order read: Adjourned debate on motion on the Second Reading of the Public Accountants and Auditors Amendment Bill (H.B.
6, 2014).
Question again proposed.
-[HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections]-
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Hon. Gonese! Hon. Gonese! Can you please behave yourself - [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible
interjections.]-
- CHIOTA: Madam Speaker, the key objective and core value
for standing in this House is to express sincere gratitude and appreciation to our Committee for the work they handled on the subject but it is very sad, unfortunate and disheartening that the information that they got to come up with a conclusive position is not acceptable.
I will highlight that they were challenging the possibility of having the IAC as a public accounting institution and they did not, as a Committee approve of that situation.
The IAC was established in Southern Africa in 1927. It has been operating for 88 years. In Zimbabwe, it came in in 1958. It has been operating for 57 years. When you go down to look at the credibility and integrity of working with other institutions, for example on exemptions, IAC gives CIS ten exemptions. CIS gives IAC ten exemptions. That situation alone is adequate to highlight that these two institutions are equal. When I address the issue of entry qualification to studying, IAC accepts five ‘O’levels and two ‘A’levels, CIS accepts five ‘O’levels and two ‘A’ levels. Again, that highlights the ability of the two institutions as being equal. When we address our higher and tertiary education, it equates the two institutions as being equal and yet we stand around the fire and say left is correct and right is not.
The frustrating situation is that when you address PAAB, it is the competition that comes up from the same institutions worrying about the market situation. They do not give the consumers of the services the opportunity to highlight which institution is credible and which institution is not. Now, before I conclude my address to this honourable House, the then Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs at that time, wrote a document to the PAAB, compelling them to accept IAC as a member of the PAAB and it is again, the same Minister who has now been moved from the Ministry of Justice, Legal and
Parliamentary Affairs to go to the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development, who has this paper before him to identify and give credibility to the institution that can operate.
Madam Speaker, I plead with the honourable House, including yourself, to see which institutions are acceptable and which institutions are not. We do not give the opportunity to individual providers of services to challenge other institutions. If it was an acceptable plea, the Minister of Finance and Economic Development must identify an acceptable committee and acceptable people to work as PAAB, as opposed to say IAC, CIS, CIMA, yet all those people have their personal interests in terms of communication and understanding. I plead with you Madam Speaker. Thank you.
- MARIDADI: Thank you Madam Speaker for giving me this opportunity to debate this very important Bill which is before this House. The hon. member who has just spoken, Madam Speaker, I want to put it on record that he is conflicted and that he is an interested party. He is the President of the Institute of Administration and Commerce and I do not expect him to have said anything other than what he has said.
Madam Speaker, he talks about entry qualifications into the Institute of Administration and Commerce and into ACCA, CIS for one to be a chartered accountant. I will give you an analogy. If you have two young people with three ‘A’ levels each, that is 15 points at ‘O’ level, they can all get into medical school. If one then chooses to get into the school of nursing and the other chooses to get into medical school, the one who gets into the school of nursing cannot then say because our entry qualification was the same I should also become a medical doctor if he has not studied medicine. So, the issue of entry qualification does not hold.
For one to become a chartered accountant, you must go under rigorous examinations and for one to become a member of the Institute of Administration and Commerce, all you need are five ‘O’ levels and you need to study for one or two years and become a member. In any case, members of the Institute of Administration and Commerce are not auditors; chartered accountants are auditors, members of ACCA are auditors and members of the Institute of Administration and Commerce, on their own admission, are not auditors. We must draw a separation between auditors and those that are not auditors. We cannot legislate for the lowering of standards in Zimbabwe in the name of indigenisation.
We cannot do that.
- CHIOTA: On a point of order, Madam Speaker. The issue comes out with clarity. It is Public Accountants and Auditors Board. Auditors are AIC, accountants are other institutions practicing in accounts as opposed to becoming auditors.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Hon. member, may you speak
to the Chair.
- CHIOTA: Madam Speaker, the hon. member is not bringing
clarity to two institutions. It is Public Accountants on the left and
Auditors Board on the right. You cannot twist those two issues. – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] - What is of clarity at this stage is to understand and appreciate that the whole address revolves around two areas. On the left, we address public accountants. CIS are company secretaries and they are not auditors. CIMA are not auditors –
[MR. CHIOTA: Inaudible interjections.] -
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Order, order. Order Hon.
Chiota. Hon. member, you are not allowed to debate for the second time but you can actually give your point of order in short. What is your point of order?
- CHIOTA: The point of order is that my learned friend is failing to understand the variance that exists between public accountants and auditors. Thank you.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: I would like to advice the hon.
member who is debating to stick to evidence and stick to the debate without contradicting or confronting the last speaker. Just give your evidence and your side of the debate.
- MARIDADI: Thank you Madam Speaker. I want to draw a distinction between the different accounting bodies that exist in the country. Madam Speaker, there are two superior bodies - the Institute of
Chartered Accountants of Zimbabwe and the Institute of Chartered
Certified Accountants (ACCA), then there is Chartered Institute of Secretaries and Administration (CIS) and there are other institutes like the Southern African Association of Accountants (SAA) and the Institute of Administration and Commerce (ICS), which is the one that we are discussing here.
Madam Speaker, when ICS was established in Zimbabwe, as the hon. member said, in 1923, it was there to train PAs, and I mean secretaries as in secretarial studies. Then they upgraded themselves and they started training people that do accounting. What we are saying here is that there are people that are trained in accounting that cannot do other accounting jobs because the level of training that they go through does not allow them to do that kind of training.
The Hon. Minister of Finance and Economic Development is here. We are having a problem in Zimbabwe at the moment with accounts that are prepared by ministries. There are only four Directors of Finance in this country who are qualified to occupy the position of Accountant General because people have qualifications like IAC, which does not allow them to be accountants in Government and the Minister here can vouch for me. There are only four people in the Government of Zimbabwe who are qualified to be accountants for ministries. The rest of Finance Directors in Government either hold a qualification like IAC and they cannot, according to the statutes be accountants.
Madam Speaker, what the IAC…
- CHIOTA: On a point of order Madam Speaker. We will place before the hon. House and yourself Madam Speaker, that when you address PAAB of South Africa, it is the IAC Institution of
Accountants…- [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Order, order! What is the
point of order?
- CHIOTA: The IAC are qualified members of the Public
Accountants and Auditors Board in South Africa. They are…
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: I would like to advise the
House that each and every member is going to be given a chance to debate in this House. It is about giving your position, what you want in the Bill and what you do not want. This is Hon. Maridadi’s opportunity and if you have contrary views, you will also get your opportunity to debate.
- MARIDADI: We understand that in South Africa or in any
other country for that matter, the Institute of Administration and Commerce could be accountants but Zimbabwe is a different jurisdiction. Zimbabweans are renowned for their level of education.
The reason why Zimbabweans are renowned for their level of education is that when somebody goes to a foreign country and they produce a qualification which says “economist”, they are given an assignment to do, they will acquit themselves with distinction because they have gone through a programme of study that allows them to be called an economist. We cannot in this House legislate for somebody with an inferior qualification to be called a public accountant because they are not.
I know people are saying because this is a foreign qualification and this is an internal qualification. I will give you an example of ‘O’ level. For somebody to write ‘O’ level, ZIMSEC or Cambridge, they need to go through four years of an approved programme of study for them to be able to sit for ZIMSEC ‘O’ level, just like Cambridge ‘O’ level. There is no debate on those issues. What I am saying is that the Institute of Administration and Commerce is not and I repeat, they are not public accountants because of the programme of study that they go through.
They might have five ‘O’ levels and 2 ‘A’ levels at the point of entry but the programme of study that they go through is different from the programme of study of those that study ACCA and chartered accountants.
I am going to rest my case and say this House cannot legislate for the lowering of standards in education. Education is our only pillar of hope in this country and we cannot tamper with it.
- KEREKE: I rise to confirm that the two Committees which presented that report on the Bill went through the rigour of meeting the experts in the field and at one point at the direction of the House, the two
Committees, one on Budget and Finance and the other one on Public Accounts had to sit as a joint committee to go through the proposed amendments.
There was concurrence that the proposed amendments are a necessary enhancement to fortify what Hon. Maridadi has eloquently stated that we need to be careful to get carried away, legislate the lowering of standards. The proposals as are in the Bill have gone through the mill of the players in the industry who concurred and we were very happy that
in its present state, the Bill meets the standards that we would want to see as a country.
I rise to say and urge hon. members that what you see here is the draft that has come from the melting pot of experts after a very long time and I urge you please, let us pass it as it is.
THE MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT (MR. CHINAMASA): I want to thank those who
have contributed in support of the Bill. First of all, I thank the two Committees for supporting the Bill. What I want to make clear is that these amendments have not come from the Ministry but have come from the professional bodies themselves. As you know, the accountants and engineers are governed under statutes basically to help them organise their profession but they decide for themselves what standards they want especially with respect to how they compare themselves with like professions outside our borders.
We got an approach from the Public Accountants and Auditors Board that they want to have associate professional members who are not at the same level but who have developed a skill in a particular niche like tax accounting. Tax accounting professional is precisely what it means. He has developed expertise in tax matters and he is not capable of course to do proper accounting jobs but only to look at tax accounting issues. Similarly, all these constituent associate bodies have their own niche which we have to recognise.
I want to say that the two Committees recognised the need for differentiation of qualifications, competencies and that is what this Bill is about. We cannot all be equal. Even if we take in the legal profession which I am aware, there are also people who are called para-legals. A para-legal is not a lawyer. There are also people who have graduated but have not gone that extra step to practice as a lawyer. I know they call themselves lawyers but they are not lawyers until they have been registered and admitted by the High Court. We need to keep that differentiation in order to enhance efficiency and integrity in the profession.
I must say that from the information that I have, we are doing very well in this area. We have had chartered accountants, people in various disciplines going abroad and occupying very high positions in London and New York. We need to maintain it like that. I want to thank the hon. members for supporting the Bill and therefore move that the Bill be now read a second time.
Motion put and agreed to.
Bill read a second time.
Committee Stage: With leave, forthwith.
COMMITTEE STAGE
PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS AND AUDITORS AMENDMENT BILL
(H.B. 6, 2014)
House in Committee.
Clauses 1 to 20 put and agreed to.
Second Schedule put and agreed to.
House resumed.
Bill reported without amendments.
Third Reading; With leave, forthwith.
THIRD READING
PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS AND AUDITORS AMENDMENT
BILL (H.B.6,2014)
THE MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT (MR. CHINAMASA): I move that the Public
Accountants and Auditors Amendment Bill (H.B.6, 2014) be now read the third time.
Motion put and agreed to.
Bill read the third time.
SECOND READING
ZIMBABWE GENDER COMMISSION BILL (H.B.8, 2014)
Third Order read. Adjourned debate on the Second Reading of the Zimbabwe Gender Commission Bill (H.B.8, 2014).
Question again proposed.
- MPARIWA: Thank you Madam Speaker, I understand that the Committee on Women’s Affairs, Gender and Community
Development are yet to carry out public hearings on this particular Bill, therefore, I seek leave of the Minister that the debate be waived to next week.
MS.THABITA KHUMALO: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Tuesday, 24th February, 2015.
MOTION
PRESIDENTIAL SPEECH: DEBATE ON ADDRESS
Fourth order read: Adjourned debate on motion in reply to the
Presidential Speech.
Question again proposed.
- CHIMANIKIRE: Thank you Madam Speaker. Indeed, this
is my maiden speech in debating the Presidential Speech since I came into this House ten years ago. For very authentic reasons, I had not –
[THE MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT: Inaudible interjections.] – Haa iwe, uchanzwa zvandicha taura manje manje so.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Order, order Hon.
Chimanikire, please speak to the Chair.
- CHIMANIKIRE: Thank you Madam Speaker but the hon.
Minister is heckling. First and foremost, I would like to convey my thanks to the President for having presented his opening speech to this House.
In his speech, on the first page, the President refers to his emphasis on the alignment of laws to the Constitution. I put it on record that the President presented his speech to this House yet we have gone for several months and not a single Bill has been brought before this House to align the laws to the Constitution – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] – This is cause for concern because some of the legislation that we are still using does not conform to the new Constitution that we approved more than two years ago. The President does stress that the realignment of these laws will lend support to the attainment of the goals of ZIM ASSET. So, we are off tangent in as far as this Government is concerned because we have not conformed to what the President was aspiring for in his speech.
There is a proposition for a new Income Tax Bill. When we look at the current taxation system and the proposals that are coming forward, we believe that the taxation in this country is leaving a lot of uncollected taxes simply because the laws are not in place. If you look at small scale businesses, some of them are being unfairly treated, some are not being taxed at all and in certain instances you will find that a lot of traders get away with murder without paying taxes to the fiscus.
The President then went on to deal with the issue of insurance and the losses that might have been incurred by people who had insured themselves when the United States dollar was introduced. However, it is important to note that this is too little too late because a lot of the insured people lost their insurance policies and as a result, may not have benefited at all when the new insurance policies were reintroduced with far reduced amounts of insurance as compared to what they had under the Zimbabwe dollar.
Madam Speaker, on the issue of pensions before this House, I think there have been from various Non-Governmental Organisations
(NGOs), advocacy for us to introduce The Old Peoples’ Pensions Act where the State assumes pensions to the elderly in this country. It goes without saying that during the period ensuing to the dollarization of our currency, a lot of people who were receiving pensions were doing so from companies that had since been shut. It is important that Government assumes its responsibility to look after the elderly in conformity with the provisions of the new Constitution. This is an area of concern again.
The Temporary Speaker having noticed an hon. member using
his/her cell phone.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Order, order, I would like to
advise members that the use of cellphones and texting messages is not allowed in the House. So, you can go outside if you want to use your cellphones. You may continue hon. member.
- CHIMANIKIRE: On the issue of agriculture - yes, I agree with the President’s advocacy that there should be an improvement for us to be able to secure food security. In his presentation, he also refers to the issue of livestock.
It is important to look at livestock in this country because the levels at which we are at the moment are critically low and we need to improve on that. It is also incumbent upon members of this House to take note that there has been a lot of poaching around the country to the extent that some of our grand children are not going to see what a hare kana kuti tsuro looks like. So, areas of conservation as advocated in the President’s speech – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] - THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Order, order may the hon.
member be heard in silence.
- CHIMANIKIRE: Areas of conservation need to be
addressed in this country because very soon, we may be forced to start importing wild animals as they are no longer there when you drive around the country. So, this area of exportation of elephants may be replaced by the importation of other wild animals into this country because they are no longer available in our surroundings.
Madam Speaker, yes it is correct to advocate for the growing of more tobacco but let us take note of the fact that there is the tobacco lobby which is advocating for banning of tobacco smoking. Unless we take note of some of these innuendoes, we may find ourselves producing something that may not have a market in the next 10 to 15 years.
Coming to mining, I recall the President almost four years ago, launching the New ZIM STEEL which was a replacement of ZISCO STEEL in Kwekwe. However, one observed that nothing has happened since the launch of the New ZIM STEEL. We were made to understand at the launching of the New ZIM STEEL, that Government had floated a tender and that this tender had actually been awarded to an Indian company called ESSAR. What is stopping Government from refloating that tender if ESSAR has failed? Is it the promised assumption of the US$750 million loan?
However, I think it is a challenge before this Government from what the President was actually advocating, that we should be able to retender the issue of ESSAR and also get a new company to come and revive the industry in Kwekwe. It has gone as far as even going to pray in the stadia so that ESSAR can start working. I do not think it is necessary for his country to ask for the Almighty to intervene on issues that can actually be made on ministerial decisions.
I remember in this House, when the Eighth Parliament was actually opened, the then new Minister promised us that by December, 2013, the New Zim Steel would be operational. This has not come to pass and up to today, we do not know when New Zim Steel will start operating.
Madam Chair, when it comes to global trends of growing involvement of the private sector in the provision of public infrastructure, the challenge in this country is that we look at parastatals like National Railways of Zimbabwe, Air Zimbabwe and Net One, these parastatals need to be privatised or to have strategic partnerships, so that we will be able to revive the infrastructure in the National Railways of Zimbabwe. I was part of the delegation that accompanied the President three years ago to China. The issue of National Railways of Zimbabwe was discussed at a dinner that he actually hosted, but three years down the line, there is no improvement on operations in National Railways of Zimbabwe, let alone part of my constituency, which is a dormitory for National Railways of Zimbabwe. The workers have not been paid their salaries for a period of over 18 months. This situation has to be addressed and unless we find strategic partners for the National Railways of Zimbabwe as well as Air Zimbabwe, operations and jobs in this country will continue to deteriorate or be none existent in the long term situation.
Madam Chair, when we look at the issue of indigenisation that the President referred to – yes, indigenisation but it is important to look at what is actually affecting foreign direct investment on the issue of indigenisation. We take note that loans for empowerment were given out to our youths, but some of them, according to the former Minister - I do not know whether there is a new Minister now, but the former Minister indicated that the youths who had been given loans had not repaid them. In an effort to track them and try to persuade them to repay the loans, they had changed their addresses and they were nowhere to be found. These are typical examples of where there is misuse and abuse of Government funds which are meant for a purpose that is supposed to have benefited us.
Talk about the issue of the 51/49 percent, wherever we have sojourned seeking for investors – I was one of those who went to Japan and Australia. There was one question which was posed in one meeting by investors; does it mean that if I come to Zimbabwe with US$100m you take US$51 million and I remain with US$49 million? We could not answer that question. We had to lie and say okay, we are looking at amending the laws in our legislature. That area Madam Speaker needs to be addressed and we appeal to the Executive to relook at the percentages so that they are favourable. For example in mining, if you invest in mining, it will take you anything between 20 and 25 years to start recovering and making a profit. It is not something that can be done overnight. So if you are looking at investment in mining, it has to be long term and at the same time the legislation or the law has to be amended to make it favourable.
We seem to have Ministers, including our Minister of Finance and Economic Development, who is actually apologising for that piece of law saying it is going to be negotiated. Why should it be negotiated? The law should be very clear about what we want to achieve and how to achieve it and not to say we are going to negotiate when it comes to mining.
Madam Speaker, the other issue that we should be looking at is the issue of value addition. I was surprised a week ago when the Minister of Mines and Mining Development, the President yes, advocated for an issue of ensuring that there is value addition, but the Minister of Mines and Mining Development just last week issued a statement that they are re-visiting that area, with the intention of allowing the exportation of raw chrome. We are going back to where we came from, where there is exploitation - the records show that when we actually banned the exportation of raw chrome, when we reopened some five years ago, China had 0.25% of the reserves of chrome ore in the world. By the time you allowed them to operate for five years, they ended up with 25% ore reserves in as far as world statistics are concerned. So, by the end of the day, when we look at mining in terms of exploration, if we do not use effective latest satellite technology, there is no way we are going to achieve the establishment of knowing what exactly we have underground in this country.
So the issue of exploration is very, very important, the President touched on it. However, what is discouraging is that as way back as
1987, the exploration company was established under the Zimbabwe Mines, ZMDC, but this company has been dormant on the shelves of various offices. There is now an attempt to revive it as if it is something new. If we do not do exploration, we might as well forget about improving mineral production in this country.
Madam Speaker, when it comes to the issue of implementation of ZIM ASSET on various issues, on power generation for example, this country has been fed on a lot of propaganda and not facts. There was a very good story in the Herald some 1 ½ years ago, which was talking about investment in solar energy in Bulawayo. When I drove to Bulawayo, I expected to see an area where there will be a big solar project establishment, but by the end of the day there was nothing.
However, it had been widely publicized.
In conclusion Madam Speaker, the issue of tourism; we are very hopeful that tourists are going to come into this country. Our biggest problem is our charges in hotels. What we are charging is too high. I remember on one visit to Victoria Falls, a group of Chinese visitors landed at Victoria Falls airport, drove across into Botswana and they were spending the evenings in Botswana and coming to visit Victoria Falls in the afternoon. Their reason was, Zimbabwean hotels were too expensive as compared to Botswana hotels. We tried to raise the issue with the Minister of Tourism and Hospitality Industry; this has not yet been addressed. Madam Speaker, we appeal to Government to re-look at the prices that we charge in our hotels and I believe whatever plans and hopes we may have in terms of tourism, we should be able to improve some of the facilities that we have in terms of cost to the visitors.
Madam Speaker, I rest my case on this debate on what the President presented to this Parliament.
*MS. CHIKUNI: Thank you Madam Speaker, for giving me the
opportunity to debate on the Presidential Speech. When the President made his Speech, what really was of interest to me was that he talked about agriculture. He mentioned that year 2013 and 2014 were years of good harvest. We sold our produce to Grain Marketing Board but right now, other farmers have not received their money. We have also realised that this season, the harvest is low because of the hot dry weather. So, what is needed is for us to ensure that there is food security to feed those in the rural areas because they will be hunger in those areas.
He also mentioned about tillage, that there will be organised tillage that will be done by tractors in the various districts but if we look at our areas such as Chimanimani, the tractors owned by DDF are not working and they need to be addressed mechanically so that they can do this. Still on the issue of agriculture, there are very few women who will benefit from the land reform process that will take place soon. What we are requesting is that the women should be allocated more agricultural land together with the young people.
The President also talked about the roads. Yes, the roads are being constructed and those who are doing the resurfacing are doing so. We are impressed by the work that is being done along Masvingo-Harare highway. But from Mutare, the Christmas pass needs attention in terms of resurfacing. There are so many heavy trucks that are coming from Zambia carrying coal and other things so they need to continue attending to this road. This has to be done professionally. If you go to Mutare, Chimanimani and turn to Birchenough, there are potholes that are so bad that the suspension of the car is affected. There is also a lot of vegetation that now disrupts the road sides and you hardly see them.
On mining, the President also said a lot about the extraction of minerals which we have realised is a topic of discussion. I do not know when this will come to fruition in terms of success for mining especially concerning the cutting and polishing of diamonds. As people from Manicaland, we are looking forward to the construction of an industry that will create jobs for the women and the youth. I thank you.
THE MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT (MR. CHINAMASA): Madam Speaker, I move
that the debate do now adjourn. Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Tuesday, 24th February, 2015.
MOTION
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
THE MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (MR. CHINAMASA): Madam Speaker, I move
that Orders of the Day Numbers 5 to 20 be stood over until Order Number 21 has been disposed of.
- GONESE: Thank you very much Madam Speaker. I think the Minister has not consulted. We have got Chairpersons of Committee who have got reports which have been pending before this august House for the last week who want to move those motions so that we can debate those reports. In particular, we have got Hon. Dr. Labode –[MS. ZINDI:
It is not only Hon. Labode. Takawanda.]- So for that reason, Madam Speaker, I believe that the Minister should be patient so that we go through this.
THE MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (MR. CHINAMASA): I only need ten minutes to
respond.
- GONESE: To respond only and then after that we go back to the Orders…
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Hon. Gonese, can you please
address the Chair?
- GONESE: The Minister has indicated that he only wants to respond for ten minutes and then after that we can then go back to Order Number 5, I then withdraw my objection.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Thank you Hon. Gonese.
MOTION
DEVELOPMENT OF SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONES
Twenty first Order read: Adjourned debate on motion on Special Economic Zones.
Question again proposed.
- ZINDI: On a point of order, I am objecting to that motion to be debated now because we have reports that have been pending since the beginning of the week and therefore, I am of the opinion that we should be given the opportunity to present and debate the reports.
Again, I need to point out that motion number 21 which we are having to bring up; Hon. Nduna stood over other motions the other day in favour of his motion. It was on question and answer without notice, I feel it is not fair –[HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]-
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Order hon. members. This is
the second objection so I think we have to go back to Order Number 5 as per our Order Paper.
MOTION
FIRST REPORT OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON HEALTH
AND CHILD CARE ON THE STATE OF AFFAIRS OF THE
HEALTH DELIVERY SYSTEM IN ZIMBABWE
- LABODE: I rise to move the motion in my name that this
House takes note of the First Report of the Portfolio Committee on Health and Child Care on the State of Affairs of the Delivery System in Zimbabwe.
- MUSIIWA: I second.
- LABODE:
- INTRODUCTION
As part of its oversight role over the Ministry of Health and Child Care, the Portfolio Committee on Health and Child Care resolved to enquire into the state of affairs of the health delivery system in Zimbabwe. The public outcry over poor health services and lack of access to the same led to the Committee's decision to conduct an inquiry into the management of the five central hospitals as a way of ensuring that the health provision as enshrined in the Constitution is upheld.
2.0 OBJECTIVES
The objectives of the enquiry were:
2.1 To understand and establish the state of the health delivery system in
Zimbabwe.
2.2 To appreciate challenges being faced by the Ministry of Health and Child Care in fulfilling its mandate.
2.3 To recommend strategies that may enhance the health services delivery system.
3.0 METHODOLOGY
The Committee used four methods of data collection namely: oral evidence, site visits, focus group discussions through workshops and literature review.
3.1 Oral Evidence Sessions
3.1.1 The Ministry of Health and Child Care, Chief Accounting Officer, Dr. Gwinji presented the ministry's 5-Year-Strategic Plan and the implementation challenges.
3.1.2 The Minister of Health and Child Care, Dr. Parirenyatwa, appeared before the Committee to clarify the misconception surrounding the policy on the user fees and to set the record straight on the disputed
Ekhusileni Medical Centre ownership.
3.1.3 The Committee received oral evidence from the board of the Zimbabwe National Blood Transfusion Service on the operations and challenges of the organisation.
3.1.4 The Premier Service Medical Aid Society management appeared before the Committee to clarify issues of poor access to health services for their members and maladministration of the subscriptions collected.
3.1.5 The Health Services Board, a board responsible for services, recruitment and promotion of health workers, also presented a paper before the Committee on the status of the establishment of health workers and the challenges faced by health institutions due to shortage of manpower.
3.2 Focus Group Discussions
This was done through workshops on targeted health issues.
3.2.1 Community Working Group on Health assisted the Committee on
Budget Formulation and Prioritisation.
3.2.2 National AIDS Council disseminated information on HIV/AIDS, Sexual and Reproductive Health, Cervical Cancer and the distribution of the Global funds by the Country Coordination Mechanisms.
3.2.3 The Disability, HIV/AIDS Trust sensitised the Committee on Sexual, Reproductive Health and HIV/AIDS issues in relation to the people living with disability.
3.2.4 The SNV (Stichting Nederlandse Vrijwilligers) or Netherlands Development Organisation, disseminated information on menstrual hygiene as an impediment to the empowerment of the girl child.
3.2.5 The National Health Care Trust disseminated information on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programme and the water situation in Harare.
3.2.6 Zimbabwe Women's Resource and Network Centre capacitated the Committee on budget monitoring and tracking.
3.2.7 The Ministry of Health and Child Care in conjunction with
UNICEF, capacitated the Committee on Child Rights.
3.3 Fact Finding Visits
The Committee undertook fact finding visits to the following central hospitals:
- Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals
- Harare Central Hospital
- Mpilo Central Hospital
- United Bulawayo Hospitals
- Ingutsheni Central Hospital Ekhusileni Medical Centre.
-Please note that the Committee took advantage of being in Bulawayo to also visit the hospitals in the vicinity like Esigodini District Hospital and Thorngrove Infectious Disease Hospital.
-The National Pharmaceutical Company of Zimbabwe (Natpharm) was also visited to appreciate its capacity to procure and distribute drugs in the country.
3.4 The Committee made reference to the following documents:
- The Census (2012);
- The Demographic Health Survey (ZDHS) of 2012;
- The MoHCC Annual Reports;
- Health Transition Fund Manual (2011);
- The 2012 Ernst and Young Audit Report for the National Blood
Service;
- The Zimbabwe Health Development Partners Group Report
(2013);
- The National Medicine Survey (2013);
- The Zimbabwe National Cancer Registry Annual Report (2011);
- The World Health Organisation: Public Sector Reform:
Downsizing, Restructuring Improving Performance (1996);and
- Hospital Reports.
- THE COMMITTEE FINDINGS
- HEALTH STATUS
- Although Zimbabwe has realized a remarkable decline in HIV prevalence from the peak of 20.1% in 2005 to 14.9% (2013 HIV Estimates) amongst the 15-49 age group in 2013, the prevalence remains too high. HIV incidence has also declined from 1.21% in 2011 to 0.98% in 2013. However, the number of new cases are still very high with an estimated 69,105 new infections per year. HIV mortality is estimated at 63,853 per year. With the adoption of new WHO guidelines, clients on Anti-Retroviral Treatment (ART) have up-scaled to 724,299. Of the total clients on ART, adults constitute 51.8% and Children 45.8% .New Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs) cases from January to June 2014 were 50,524.
- There is a decline in all forms of Tuberculosis (TB). Evidence shows that there was drop in TB cases from 325 per 100 000 in 2011 to
298 per 100 000 in 2012.
4.1.3 The annual malaria incidence has also reduced from 136 in 2011 per 1000 population to 22 per 1000 population in 2012.
4.1.4 Life expectancy at birth has slightly increased from 45 (2002 census) to 47 years for males and 50 for females according to 2010/11 ZDHS.
4.1.5 However, the ZDHS shows that neonatal, postnatal, infant and child mortality rates have increased (2010/11 ZDHS).
4.1.6 Maternal mortality has increased from 283 in 1994 to 960 deaths per 100 000 in 2012.
4.1.7 Non-communicable diseases are on the increase, in particular diabetes and hypertension. Prostrate Cancer is the leading cancer among
Zimbabwean black men, accounting for 16.5% of the new cases in 2011.
The most frequent cancer among black women were cervical cancer (37%) followed by breast cancer (11%).
4.2 FINANCE
4.2.1 The Ministry of Health and Child Care submitted a budget of US$712 million and received US$337 million inclusive of salaries. The allocation received is 47% of the submission and 11.6% decrease from the 2013 allocation. The MoHCC set aside US$43 million out of the US$337 million allocation for recurrent expenditure and by August 2014 only US$7.8 million (18%) has been disbursed. The hospitals' total allocation in the budget was US$23 million against a debt of US$36.4 million. This means that effectively, the institutions received no budget for 2014 and still need to finance the gap of US$12 million.
4.2.2 Health Service Fund (HSF)
The health Service Fund gets revenue from user fees collected by institutions. The revenue collected ranges from US$3 million at Mpilo Central Hospital to US$10 million at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals annually. For some strange reasons, neither does the Ministry of Finance nor the Minister of Health reflect the revenue from user fees on their budget statements. Good corporate governance demands that these fees be properly accounted for.
4.2.3 Donor Funds
The Committee acknowledges the continued support from donors. Zimbabwe Health Partners Group injected US$415 million into the health sector in 2014. The following is the breakdown of contribution by country or organisation and amounts:
Global Fund | US$110 million | |
USAID | US$97 million | |
DFID | US$66 million | |
UNICEF | US$42 million | |
CDC-Zimbabwe | US$32 million | |
European Union | US$23 million | |
UNFPA | US$18 million | |
Sweden Embassy | US$14 milliom | |
Embassy of Switzerland | US$5 million | |
Irish AID | US$4 million |
Norwegian Embassy US$2.5 million
GIZ (Germany) US$1.3 million
-It is important to note that the bulk of this money goes towards preventive services and purchasing of drugs.
4.2.4 Health Transition Fund (HTF)
This is another fund that has kept the MoHCC from the Intensive Care Unit, yet it is not acknowledged in the budget statement. The HTF is a multi-donor pooled fund, managed by UNICEF to support the MoHCC to achieve the highest possible level of health and quality of life for all Zimbabweans. The Fund was launched in 2011 and will run up to 2015. The fund pooled approximately US$435, 336, 586 at inception. The donors were the governments of Canada, Sweden, Ireland, Norway and the United Kingdom as well as the European Commission.
- HUMAN RESOURCES
The staff establishment of 1981 has not been reviewed despite the growth in the population and increase in disease burden. Instead, the existing inadequate posts are being frozen as they fall vacant. The nurse patient ratio is now sitting on below 2 nurses per 1000 population. Even if the posts were to be unfrozen, conditions of service are not attractive to qualified personnel because of the pathetic salaries.
- INFRASTRUCTURE
The infrastructure in hospitals is dilapidated. Most of the central hospitals are overcrowded, with broken beds and benches, and obsolete hospital equipment. The buildings are falling apart and all need a facelift. There is water shortage because of old leaking pipes. There is also lack of linen and staff accommodation. However, Chitungwiza Central Hospital is an exception with its phenomenal infrastructure, cleanliness and ambiance which it has achieved through the effective application of the Public-Private-Partnership (PPPs) ventures.
- REFERRAL SYSTEM
The referral system between district hospitals and tertiary institutions, city council clinics and tertiary institutions has broken down. Lack of ambulances to ferry patients from rural areas to the tertiary institutions means that the patients prefer to go straight to tertiary institutions while they are strong enough to use public transport. On the other hand, because of the indiscriminate charging of user fees by city council clinics, urban dwellers by-pass their local clinics and present themselves with minor ailments at tertiary institutions. This also is compounded by lack of district hospitals in urban centres.
- DRUG MANAGEMENT
Multi donor funds have provided support to the vital medicines and vital health services for the district health system. The programme supplies more than 75% of the country selected package of essential medicines. The programme excludes the five central hospitals, hence, the lack of essential drugs at the tertiary institutions. It is essential to note that 98% of the drugs being distributed to various hospitals are donated by donors and do not seem to be purchased with morbidity pattens in mind and have very short shelf life +/- 3 months in most cases.
Natpharm, a quasi-government company mandated with procurement and distribution of drugs is incapacitated by lack of finance and has been converted into a warehouse management company for donors.
- 0 HEALTH SERVICE MANAGEMENT
- Uncontrolled unit price for blood products—a unit price of blood is US$200.00 per unit within a society where the average wage is US$150.00 monthly.
- Lack of adherence to MoHCC policies e.g user fees policy by government hospitals.
- Lack of supervision:
-Abuse of cell-phone and fuel allowances for Chief Executive Officers at central hospitals.
-Poor utilisation of scarce resources by renting cars at exorbitant prices -Uncoordinated training of District Health Workers (over workshopping) -Allowing drugs to expire.
- COMMITTEE OBSERVATIONS
The Committee observed that:
- Government is not showing commitment to access to health of the nation as shown by the percentage of money disbursed for health delivery. Of the 8% allocated to the MoHCC, in the 2014 budget (which is below the 15% of the Abuja Declaration) only 18% was disbursed by August 2014.
- The Health Service Fund is not mentioned in the MoHCC budget.
- Central hospitals ate left to fend for themselves through the HSF.
- The referral system has broken down.
- Drugs are expiring at Rural Health Centres and district hospitals whilst the central hospitals are in need of the same.
- Staff establishment is still frozen.
- Poor corporate governance e.g the Zimbabwe National Blood Transfusion Services Board Chairman has been in the post since 1981.
- Esigodini District Hospital was a farm house that was turned into a Rural Health Centre and eventually, upgraded into a district hospital without improving the infrastructure, rendering it grossly inadequate for its function.
- Ekhusileni Medical Centre is falling apart without being used yet pensioners’ monies were used to construct this hospital.
10.Thorngrove Hospital is grossly underutilised.
- RECOMMENDATIONS
The Committee recommends:
- That Government must endeavour to disburse 100% of the allocated budget to the central hospitals.
- That Government must immediately unfreeze all frozen posts and review the establishment up-wards in line with population growth and increase in morbidity, and in accordance with the President's pronouncement.
- The Minister of Health and Child Care should re-engage donors to extend their support to central hospitals.
- That the pharmacy directorate in the MoHCC must as a matter of urgency start a workable redistribution system of the distributed drugs to reduce the quantities of drugs expiring.
- That capitalisation of Natpharm by both Government and donors is paramount.
- That the MoHCC needs to strengthen its monitoring system for effective drug management.
- That Natpharm should sell excess stocks of drugs to private sectors and also donate to the schools, clinics, prisons and mission hospitals to minimise expiries.
- That the Minister of Health and Child Care must use powers vested in his office to ensure that Ekhusileni Medical Centre opens by March this year.
- That all hospitals must adhere to the strict terms of office for board members.
- That district hospitals should be constructed in Bulawayo and Harare to ease congestion in the tertiary institutions. The Committee proposes that Thorngrove Infectious Disease hospital be converted into a district hospital to ease congestion at Bulawayo central hospitals.
- That a new district hospital in Umzingwane district should be budgeted for in the 2016 national budget. The Committee further recommends that Government builds district hospitals in all districts that have mission hospitals designated as district hospitals by 2017. These districts are Mbire, Guruve, Mberengwa, Lupane,
Hwange and Gutu among others.
That Ministry of Finance and Economic Development must assume the debts the hospitals owe to suppliers of services in the 2016 National Budget. I thank you.
- MUSIIWA: Thank you Mr. Speaker. I rise to support the report on the State of Health in Zimbabwe. The health delivery system in this country requires very urgent attention. It is facing many serious challenges which, if they are not tackled now, are going to reverse the success that we had scored in the early years of independence. These challenges are mostly around funding. Infrastructure in most hospitals is very old. Plumbing in most hospitals is so old that we do not have water.
Hon Matambanadzo having passed between the Chair and the hon.
member speaking.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Order hon. member.
MR MUSIIWA: Before I was interrupted, I was saying that the
state of our hospitals particularly infrastructure is very old. Because of this old infrastructure, we are having a lot of challenges. For example,
Harare Central Hospital is relying on plumbing that was put way back in 1943. Sections of the hospital have not received water and for our hospitals to run without water, it is a serious challenge.
Equipment in most of the hospitals is also very old. X-ray machines are very basic diagnostic equipment that are required in the hospitals but most of these hospitals have X-ray departments that are not functional. So when patients get there, they are referred to private clinics where they are supposed to go and get these X-rays done, then they have to go back to the hospitals for consultations with the doctors.
Mr. Speaker Sir, there is also a serious shortage of staff in the hospitals. The reasons why we have this serious problem of hospitals are three fold. We are relying on a very old staffing situation. The 1981 staffing situation in Zimbabwe has not been reviewed. In 1981, the population of this country was only about seven million and it was before the advent of HIV/AIDS. So, the disease burden has increased.
The number of posts in the health delivery sector has not been increased.
So, we have got a very serious situation and an added burden.
Zimbabwe also suffers a serious brain drain of critical medical staff, whether it be nurses or doctors, from 2009 up to date because of hyper inflation. So, most commonwealth countries like United Kingdom and Australia now employ more Zimbabwean nurses and doctors than Zimbabwe. So, it is also a problem that has compounded the shortage of medical staff in the country.
The other problem is of remuneration, Mr. Speaker Sir. You remember three weeks ago there was a strike of the junior medical staff in the country. Our remuneration to this critical staff is pathetic for a nation to pay its medical doctors US$204 a month. We have to think about it. We must really do something about their salaries. We need to motivate and retain staff in the country.
Another problem we have is of drugs. We have a serious shortage of drugs in the central hospitals. I think as has been alluded to in the report, the supply situation in the district hospitals is much better than in the central hospitals. But, not because our referral system has failed, people are going to flock to the central hospitals and there are no drugs.
We are lucky that at the moment the donor community is assisting in a big way, so we can at least get the ARVs, anti malaria and the anti tuberculosis drugs.
The blood situation in this country is a major concern; blood is an integral component of our HIV prevention system in any country. Safe blood is required but in our situation, our blood is not paid through the health delivery system. So, if you are admitted and you need surgery or may be mothers are going to deliver, you probably need about three pints of blood and each unit cost about US$200. So three pints of blood would raise your bill for blood alone to about US$600. In the state of our economy at the moment, the average wage is about US$200, it is too high. I think as a nation we must do something about subsidising the price of blood in our country.
I alluded to funding earlier on and I want to highlight a few things that we must do because the funding in this country will actually help the health delivery system. The disease burden in this country has risen. I have alluded to HIV/AIDS. Now, we have close to 800 000 people on ARVs in this country. Before the ARVs, if people contracted
HIV/AIDS, they passed away. Now, because of the advent of the ARVs, people live longer but for them to live longer, they must have a monthly supply of ARVs.
So, we have got a burden at the moment to supply 800 000 of our population with ARVs every month. This is not the whole figure because at the moment we are only catering for 60% of the adults and about 40% of the youths who need the ARVs. The new recommendations from WHO – we used to initiate people on treatment at CD 4 count of 350, so, now the new recommendation is to initiate treatment at CD 4 count of 500. What this means is, we must get funding to add another 400 000 of our population on the ARVs and these are maintained for their lives. So, we require funding to cover all these. Mr. Speaker, because of HIV/AIDS, there are lot more opportunists infections that come with it. Tuberculosis and cancer are also rising because of HIV/AIDS. So, we need more funding to cover this burden.
From last year’s budget, the health budget was on eight percent of the budget. The Abuja declaration says, at least 15% of the budget must be allocated to health but we were only allocated eight percent. The worst thing about this is that, it is not all the eight percent that was disbursed, because by October, 2014, only 18% of the allocated budget had been disbursed. So, you can see the dire straits that our health delivery system is in.
I implore the powers that be to look at remuneration, infrastructure, blood supply situation and funding in general so that at least as a nation, we must be inspired by the health delivery system. When we take our people to the hospitals, they must have the hope that they are going to get in there and come out alive. Thank you Mr. Speaker.
- D. TSHUMA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir for affording me this opportunity to weigh-in and add my voice to this topical subject on the state of health in our country. It is my singular honour to make mention of my Chairperson Hon. Labode for a very comprehensive and informative presentation on the state of health in our country and the seconder as well.
I would like to weigh-in on two aspects which I think are very critical in the area of human capital vis-à-vis service delivery and the safety of patients. The freezing of nursing posts has left health facilities in a quagmire and precarious state in that it carries out its functions under strain. Even though there was pronouncement by our President on the Opening of Parliament that those posts should be unfrozen, the situation on the ground is still very precarious as nothing has changed and people are still under strain.
The institutions are understaffed, clinics and hospitals have a very difficult situation as the nurse to patient ratio is compromised. The situation compromises service delivery on the part of nurses because the workload is not commensurate with remuneration. In addition, the training of nurses continues even though the health centres are failing to absorb the trained staff. Are we now training for the world or we need to capacitate our centres which are the clinics and hospitals, instead of encouraging expertise to move to other regional countries or international levels.
There is an increased number of deaths in our health institutions as patients are dying at that hands of doctors in our hospitals. I, therefore, recommend that corrective measures be put in place and the doctors who are found on the wrong side of the law be brought to account and compensation is effected on those who suffer from this negligence. I am saying so because sanity, accountability and efficiency will prevail in our health centres should the above be adhered to.
I would also like to take this opportunity to add my view, as this is my maiden speech, to touch on my constituency. Mr. Speaker Sir, I would like to add on the education sector the fact that since education is a provision for all those who are supposed to be in school, it is a disappointment that in Entumbane Constituency, I have about four primary schools and a secondary school. The secondary school is not in a position to absorb all those who graduate from the four primary schools and as such, it does not auger well because we are failing to meet the set standards as a nation.
Early Childhood Development (ECD) has also been introduced in these schools and has led to hot-seating. The challenge that we now have as a constituency is that of lack of classrooms which have been over-blown...
- CHAKONA: On a point of order, I think the hon. member is giving his maiden speech, if he wants to contribute towards his constituency, he can do so during the Presidential Speech and not during a Committee Report. This is a Committee Report, yet he is now talking about his constituency.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: What Standing Order are you
referring to?
- CHAKONA: Sorry, I did not bring a copy of my Standing
Orders.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Order, order kindly resume
your seat, there is no point of order. You may continue with your debate hon. member.
- D. TSHUMA: Thank you Mr. Speaker for protecting me – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] – I had indicated that the education for our children at Entumbane is in a bad state due to hot-seating which is dotted all over the constituency due to lack of classrooms to accommodate our pupils. I therefore, urge the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing to work on this issue and make a provision for enough classrooms for the betterment of our education.
I would also like to move onto the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Services. I have a number of people who are out of employment in my constituency due to the economic situation and other factors. Some retirees who have been on the job market for a long time and served their tenures, alas we are facing a situation whereby these old people who have contributed to the economy and well-being of our country …
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Order, order hon. member, I
thought I had protected you. May you please stick to the Report on the state of affairs of the health delivery system in Zimbabwe.
- D. TSHUMA: I was going to that Mr. Speaker that these people who have slaved and contributed into the well-being of our economy have been deprived of the priviledge that they are supposed to enjoy at an old age whereby they are supposed to get free service delivery in our clinics and hospitals. We understand, from the information on the ground that these people are made to pay user fees which become an impediment for them to get medical services. There is also a shortage of drugs in these facilities and as such, these people are deprived of their rights at that ripe age.
Mr. Speaker, I would have gone further but unfortunately my preparation was not in order. Thank you so much.
- DHEWA: Thank you Mr. Speaker. I also want to add to what the Committee on Health and Child Care has delivered to this House in terms of the health delivery services in this country particularly focusing on one hospital that they indicated, Esigodhini District Hospital.
Their mention of a farmhouse was an understatement because I have been there as the constituency Member of Parliament. It is actually in a very dilapidated state. The situation has been like that for the past three decades as there have been promises that Government would build a new hospital. I think it is one of the administrative districts that does not have a district hospital or an upgraded one. I want to believe that it is an urgent matter that the Ministry of Health and Child Care should look at.
There is a railway line running in the middle of the hospital in which case the buildings always succumb to vibrations and have developed cracks from now and then. The hospital also had long periods without professional doctors or even professional health staff because ..
ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER
SUSPENSION OF COMMITTEE BUSINESS
- SPEAKER: I have an announcement to make. I have to inform the House that all Committee business is suspended until Monday, 2nd March, 2015.
- DHEWA: Thank you Hon. Speaker, I was indicating that for
long periods, the hospital does not have professional services staff like the doctors and also the necessary ancillary staff. The major problem being that there is lack of accommodation in that particular area. We are aware that when a hospital is actually built, normally there are houses that will be provided for specialist staff which is not actually available. You will also find that basic equipment like X-ray, machines or even a dental chair itself, you will not find that in that particular hospital, which makes it unusable.
You will find a lot of patients that go to that hospital are referred either to UBH or to Mpilo Hospital. There was talk of space in terms of where that hospital can actually be constructed and I think there was a lot of debate when I became a Member of Parliament in that particular area. That space has since been found and I should think that has been communicated to the Ministry of Health and Child Care and we await their response in regards to starting a new hospital.
Mr. Speaker, I also want to add my voice that, I think in terms of health facilities, the country needs to improve as soon as funds are made available because what we see in the rural areas, in our clinics and also like the hospital that I have singled out, is actually pathetic, to mention the area that I am referring to. I thank you.
THE MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT (MR. CHINAMASA): I move that the debate do
now adjourn.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Tuesday, 3rd March, 2015.
MOTION
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
THE MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT (MR. CHINAMASA): Mr. Speaker, I move that
Orders of the day, numbers 6 to 20, be stood over until Order number 21 has been disposed of.
Motion put and agreed to.
MOTION
DEVELOPMENT OF SPECIAL ECONOMIC ZONES
Twenty First Order read: Adjourned debate on motion on Special Economic Zones.
Question again proposed.
THE MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT (MR. CHINAMASA): Thank you very much Mr.
Speaker, I want to thank the mover of the motion and the seconder and all those who contributed to this motion. I felt that the contributions which were made deserve a short response. The Special Economic Zone, as a concept, is embedded in our Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio –Economic Transformation (ZIM ASSET). Following the Economic Blueprint, we have as Cabinet, been debating this issue with a view to clarifying exactly what this concept would mean if we apply it to our economic circumstances. As the House will be aware, we have had a near collapse of our manufacturing sector and it is important therefore, that whatever we say must be taken against the background that the manufacturing sector is not performing to the same level as we expect and we have this situation whether it is Bulawayo , Gweru, Kwekwe, Harare, Mutare, Chinhoyi – everywhere; the industries are not performing to the level that we want. So we have been debating of course within Government as to what to do. The concept of Special Economic Zone is only relevant where we want to attract foreign direct investment. As a result, it cannot be applied globally to all the industries which are in distress. That is not where we can apply it. Last year, my Ministry put a paper to Cabinet, basically to try to define this concept with a view that Cabinet should choose the option that they think is most relevant to our economic situation. Generally the options are basically the following:
We can have an option where we say we have a geographical area and we say everyone in this geographical area; the geographical area constitutes a Special Economic Zone (SEZ). We then apply or give all the incentives that we want in order to locate any investor into that geographical area. That is one option.
Another option is that we identify as a country which products we think we have competitive advantage and this could arise from the fact that these products are produced in our country or we have developed expertise to produce world quality products. This option will be referred to as the product option where we are isolating a product. The product could be cotton, gold or diamond. We isolate it and say, we want to be a world class producer of this product and then we mobilise all the resources necessary to be able to achieve that standard and level.
Another option is to narrow the geographical area into what is called an industrial park. This would entail a small geographical area, for example five hectares, preferably in an urban setting. It may not necessarily be in an urban setting. The objective will be to attract new technology into our country. For instance, if we want to attract technology to assemble computers and cellphones or any new technology that we think we can attract into that industrial park, then it is an option and of course, we have to come up with a menu of incentives that we can give to attract investors into that industrial park.
The paper that we have put to Cabinet as Treasury is basically describing all those options and many more. Another option is to look at our comparative advantage as a country, an educated population, a skilled population and therefore, to emphasise the knowledge based industries in education, insurance and financing. Therefore, mobilise all the necessary resources and factors necessary to be able to be world class producers of engineers and accountants which we can export in terms of expertise and services regionally and also globally.
In fact, in some instances because of the dispersion of our population in the diaspora, a lot of that is already happening. When you hear of our people in the diaspora in New Zealand as Agricultural Extension Officers; in Australia working in financial institutions there; in Europe and London; that means that we are reaping the benefits of investments that we put in the area of education and we can now develop knowledge based industries which can then go to start up or give services to countries in the region or globally.
Underlying all this is the need for infrastructure. We can talk and talk and talk about SEZs. We can talk about attracting foreign direct investment but as long as there is a shortage of power; those who want to go into steel will not come. Those who want to go into smelting, which requires heavy usage of power will not come. So it is very necessary that as a foundation which is what ZIM ASSET is all about, we must lay the necessary foundation so that we close the infrastructure gap in every sector, in power generation, power transmission, water, roads, railways and ICT. That is basically what we are doing.
Let me conclude by saying, currently there is a lot of debate going on in Cabinet and in the Committees of Cabinet to identify the option that we think we should push forward by way of SEZs. We are likely to end up with a hybrid choice where for instance we have a geographical area like Victoria Falls. We can develop Victoria Falls as a SEZ for tourism and then give incentives to any investors who want to invest in Victoria Falls so that they locate and come to invest in Victoria Falls. I am aware that something along those lines is being worked out so that we have a clear understanding of what we are doing.
The direction that we also think we are taking is basically along the product line. If for instance in the Lupane area, we have coalbed methane, we can then have a SEZ built around the coalbed methane product which as you may be aware, can be exploited to make fertilizer, to generate power, to produce tar for road construction and so forth. It can do a lot in the chemical sector industries. I want to thank those who moved the motion for triggering debate on this issue but I want to say that the debate is not yet concluded, even within ourselves with respect to what option we should adopt to apply to our specific economic circumstances. I thought I should give that response and I thank you for your kind attention.
- NDUNA: Thank you Mr. Speaker and thank you Minister
for the response and clarification. What I also need to bolster on it to answer a few queries that other hon. members had is that there is going to be increased investment as the Minister has alluded to on the issue of SEZs. Also as the debate is proffered, what I need to make clear to hon. members and to this House is that the incentives that can be proffered for those investors go as follows; as we debate what I believe can be proffered to those that will bring in foreign direct investment: That is 100% tax exemption for the first five years then 15% thereafter; 100% foreign ownership of companies operating in free trade zones or SEZs, 100% repatriation of capital, profits and the duty free importation of capital goods and raw materials, the hassle free licencing procedures and the business facilitation. In Lesotho, they have already put in a onestop-shop for all the licencing initiatives or all other issues that centre on licencing of businesses. This reduces or increases the ease of doing business.
Like the Minister has also alluded to, the non interruption of power supply and also, we would do better by issues to do with the way we conceive how to establish businesses here as a nation, Mr. Speaker Sir.
I want to thank all those that have contributed to this motion. I also want to thank Hon. Mutseyami, who debated in his Ndau language for the benefit of his local community for the beneficiation of the products that come from his sector. Mr. Speaker Sir, I move for the adoption of the motion. Thank you Motion put and agreed to.
On the motion of THE MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (MR. CHINAMASA), the House
adjourned at Eight Minutes past Five O’clock p.m. until 3rd March,
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Wednesday, 18th February, 2015
The National Assembly met at a Quarter-past Two o’clock p.m.
PRAYERS
(THE DEPUTY SPEAKER in the Chair)
ORAL ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
- GONESE: My question is directed to the Minister of
Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development who sits in Cabinet. Can the Minister please shed some light as to whether it is true that Cabinet has approved the construction of a new capital city at Mount Hampden with a new State House, Government villas, state-ofthe-art residences, freeways and so on?
THE MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE, MECHANISATION AND IRRIGATION DEVELOPMENT (DR. MADE): I want to
thank the hon. member. Of course the question he raises is a policy issue and it is in the public domain that indeed there are proposals to build a new Parliament. It is not a secret. As to the details he went into, that I would request that he puts in writing so that the Minister of Local Government and Urban Development can adequately respond to that question.
*MR. ZWIZWAI: On a point of order. Madam Speaker, last week
I raised a point of order complaining about the absence of ministers. If you look at your right side, we have 42 ministers and there is only one minister present. All these hon. members have questions that they have been given by people from their constituencies. We cannot be asking all the questions to Hon. Dr. Made.
We also talked about the Leader of the House and we requested that we know the Leader of the House before we sit. When we look at the right side we realise that nothing is happening. We are not happy as Parliamentarians that ministers are not doing their job. We are requesting that they take this House seriously. They have not heeded to the caution by the Speaker of Parliament to respect this House. I thank you.
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Last week I answered you this
question that your point is noted but the person who does that is going to work on it, not today but in his own time.
*MR. CHAMISA: On a point of order. Let me speak in vernacular. The issue that was raised by Hon. Zwizwai that you gave a ruling on, that we accept. My view is on the issue of privileges given to Parliament which is now being violated by the ministers. If it is a day that they should come and answer our questions, they should come and answer those questions. If they are not yet here, why do we not agree as a House to wait and summon them to the House and resume the question time when they appear?
*THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: For us to defer the question time, it is not possible because…
*MR. CHAMISA: Madam Speaker, we did not say that we would stop doing business but we are saying that we can defer the question time and do other debates and then summon the ministers who are not concerned about the country to come whilst we the serious ones continue with the debate. I thank you.
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: There is a proposal that has been put before the House that we defer question time, is there anyone who seconds the proposal?
Motion put and negatived.
MDC-T hon. members broke into song singing “into oyenzayo siyayizonda.”
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, order…
ZANU PF hon. members started singing “Sorry yayaya sorry”.
MDC hon. members joined singing ‘ZANU yawora baba’.
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, order, let us have order. We are proceeding with Questions Without Notice…
MDC hon. members started chanting we want ministers!, we want
ministers!
- GONESE: On a point of order, Madam Speaker. I stand on a point of Order on a matter of procedure Madam Speaker. The point of Order on a matter of procedure is very clear, simple and straight forward. The Hon. Member of Parliament for Kuwadzana East stood up and pointed out that in view of the fact that we do not have adequate ministers; it is not a new point. It has been a continual and flagrant violation of not only the Standing Orders but also of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, showing total disdain and contempt of this institution.
We have pointed out before Madam Speaker, that a political party has scheduled meetings of a political nature on a day when we are supposed to have Question Time. The Honourable Member of
Parliament moved a motion that for today, we stand over the issue of Questions Without Notice until such time that the Executive take the business of this House seriously. That motion was seconded …..
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, order!
- GONESE: I have not finished, that motion was seconded and
if it is seconded, we believe that it is a substantive motion and a matter
of procedure, it should be then put to the House and then if there is no agreement, there must be a division….
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, order!
- GONESE: I have not finished articulating, I am still articulating the point. So, I am still putting across my point; there is a lot of noise, if the hon. members on your right can keep quiet so that I complete articulating my point…
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, order!
- GONESE: We have got only three substantive Ministers out of a total of ….
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, order!
- GONESE: So, my point Madam Speaker is that the motion by Hon. Chamisa should be put to the House…
Mr. Gonese approaches the Chair.
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, order, my ruling is that there was an objection when the proposal was put across so, we are proceeding with Questions Without Notice…
MDC hon. members started chanting, we want ministers!, we want ministers!
- MAJOME: On a point of order. Thank you Madam Speaker - [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] - My point of order is that - [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] - I can hardly be heard Madam Speaker.
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, order hon. members. Hon. Majome order, please resume your seat. - [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] - Order, order hon. members you have been talking for more than twenty minutes, do you want the whole Parliament to keep talking for the whole day? – [MDC MEMBERS: We want Ministers!
We want Ministers!] –
Order, order Hon. Mandiwanzira. - [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] - - [MDC MEMBERS: Gara pasi!][ZANU PF
MEMBERS: MAJOME gara pasi!] -
Hon. Mandiwanzira resumes his seat after having been given the floor by the Deputy Speaker due to the interjections.
Order, order! May I have order in the House! Yes, you called for a point of order, what is the point of order? Hon. members, can you go to your Standing Rules, Standing Order number 77 says that if we continue making noise, I will - [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – Hon. members if you have something to say you stand up and speak.
- MAJOME: On a point of order Madam Speaker.
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: What is your point of order?
- MAJOME: My point of order is, in terms of Section 107 of the Constitution, subsection 2 provides that ‘every Vice President,
Minister, Deputy Minister must attend Parliament – [HON. MEMBERS:
Inaudible interjections.] – must attend Parliament in order to answer questions. – [AN HON. MEMBER: What she is reading is not a new thing. She must sit down, you have already made a ruling.] -that requires that every Minister or Vice President must attend Parliament in order to answer questions concerning matters on which they are collectively or individually responsible. Madam Speaker, it is our duty as Parliament to ensure that this Constitution is upheld, and in that case Madam Speaker, there cannot be a vacuum in this House. Each and every Minister is responsible for each and every question but they are not there - [HON. MEMBERS. Inaudible interjections] –
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order in the House. There is an adequate number of Ministers in the House to respond to the questions.
Order, Hon. Majome mentioned Ministers and Deputy Ministers –
[HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – MS. MAJOME: My point of order is therefore..
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon. Majome, I do not want to send
you out.
- MAJOME: Madam Speaker, you did not hear my point of
order.
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: I am answering you.
- MAJOME: You did not hear me finishing Madam Speaker.
Madam Speaker, you did not listen to my point of order, I have not finished because everyone here is making noise. Madam Speaker, my point of order therefore is that the Ministers who are present cannot avoid questions because they are collectively responsible. Hon. members have a right to be answered questions whether to the Leader of the House or not. If they are here, they must answer all questions of policy because they are also collectively responsible. If they are avoiding questions – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Is there anyone with a question without notice – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] - THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, order. According to
Standing Order No. 77, I am sending Hon. Madzore and Hon. Thabita
Khumalo out –[HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]-
MDC Members of Parliament broke into song ‘Into oyenzayo, siyayizonda’ and surrounded Hon. T. Khumalo beyond Sergeant-at-
Arms’ reach
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, order!
Hon. Thabita Khumalo eventually walked out of the Chamber
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, order. Business is suspended
for ten minutes.
Business was suspended at Three Minutes past Three o’clock p.m. Business resumed at Twelve Minutes past Three o’clock p.m.
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, order. Since last week, there have been complaints from hon. members across the board that we need ministers, but for today we proceed with our business as usual. -[HON.
MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –
- MAWERE: Thank you Madam Speaker. My question is
directed to the Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development, Hon. Minister Made. There have been repeated calls from this House in regards to the ban of agricultural imports and there have also been repeated answers from the Minister in regards to the same, but nothing has been done because the local market is still being flooded by the same produce. So, we want to hear from the Minister what action is being taken and if there is no action, what is the course of action to follow. Thank you.
THE MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE, MECHANISATION AND IRRIGATION DEVELOPMENT (SENATOR DR. MADE): I
want to thank the hon. member and make note that the concern is being attended to in the sense, that there are certain commodities that we are now monitoring to make sure that there is a balance between what is produced and even processed locally, but sometimes we have certain areas where we have agreed commodities according to the various associations that give us the information. I can assure the honourable House and the hon. member that this is a matter that we are indeed implementing in terms of monitoring the goods that come in.
I also want to say there are however, other commodities that we agreed on as COMESA and SADC that we also take in as we are also exporters of certain commodities. The concern of farmers has indeed been heard, that we should not continue to undermine their produce. Thank you.
Questions Without Notice were interrupted by THE DEPUTY SPEAKER, in terms of Standing Order Number 34.
- HOLDER: Madam Speaker, I request that time for Questions Without Notice be extended.
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon. members on my left, at times I
think we need to behave. One hon. member stands up and objects but you are all shouting. Why are you doing that? –[AN HON MEMBER:
Ndozvamakamboita.]- No! We are not doing what we did last time.-[AN HON MEMBER: Sorry Madam Speaker.]- There is an objection, so we are proceeding to Questions With Notice.
ORAL ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS WITH NOTICE
REDUCTION OF FUEL PRICES
1 MR. CROSS asked the Minister of Energy and Power
Development to explain steps being taken by his Ministry to ensure that fuel wholesalers and retailers immediately reduce their fuel prices in line with the 30% decline in global crude oil prices?
THE MINISTER OF ENERGY AND POWER DEVELOPMENT
(DR. UNDENGE): Fuel prices are determined through a fuel pricing model agreed to between oil companies and the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (ZERA). The model sets the permissible maximum pump prices after taking into account the cost of doing business in the fuel sub sector. Fuel retailers engage in price competition but this must be below the price cap applicable at any point in time.
The first cost element in the fuel pricing model is the price at which oil companies procure the fuel. As this price changes, the model captures the movements and adjusts the maximum pump price accordingly. The same applies when the other cost elements in the model change.
The Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority constantly monitors pump prices and following our recent experience, they can now penalise retailers found selling above the price cap in terms of Statutory Instrument 20 of 2015. Hon. members may be aware that during the same period that fuel prices have been falling on the international market, Government increased duty on petrol and diesel by 5c per litre on petrol and another 10c per litre for both products. This resulted in duty on petrol increasing from 30c to 45c per litre and that of diesel increasing from 25c to 40c per litre.
Madam Speaker, the increase in duty had the effect of increasing fuel prices at the pump during the months of August to September 2014 and took away a significant portion of the price gains that had been achieved. It is important to note that since then local fuel prices have been reducing in line with the fall in the price of crude oil on the international market.
At the beginning of November 2014, the price of petrol was as high as $1.56 per litre. By mid December, the prices were between $1.49 and $1.53 per litre. The price of diesel had also fallen from around $1.44 to between $1.38 and $1.41 per litre. On 8th January 2015, I gave a press conference at which I called upon the local oil companies to reduce further fuel prices in line with the falling price of crude oil. This resulted in prices falling to around $1.29 per litre for diesel and $1.44 per litre of petrol.
It is important to note the following; the fluctuations of the crude oil prices do not immediately reflect on domestic pump prices because it takes time to get the cheaper product onto the local market. I have directed that price reviews be done every two weeks because our estimation is that this is time enough for old stock to have been sold and new stock received.
Although price comparisons with other countries are useful, other important factors also come into play. Countries with ports and refineries tend to be at an advantage compared to land locked countries.
Some countries subsidise fuel and others impose minimal taxes on fuel.
In Zimbabwe, taxes and levies on petrol amount to 63c per litre and on diesel the amount is 46c per litre.
In conclusion Madam Speaker, fuel prices in Zimbabwe are currently within the agreed price cap as per the fuel pricing model in use. The prices are moving in tandem with the movement of crude oil prices on the international market. In addition, oil companies continue to compete ensuring the consumer gets value for money. I thank you.
- P. D. SIBANDA: Supplementary question. It is said that the pricing of fuel in this country is influenced by a cartel of 3 or 4 oil companies that are operating the majority of fuel stations in the country. What policy measures are you going to put in place to ensure that this cartel does not influence the pricing of fuel in the country?
- UNDENGE: I hope the hon. member was listening when I was explaining the pricing model which we use which determines the pricing of fuel in the country. It is not determined by any cartels. I explained here in response to a question which was asked by Hon. Cross, how we utilise the pricing model which we have and using that pricing model, it is the one which controls prices and follows the movements in international prices. We sat a period of two weeks whereby if the price of fuel goes up, companies should not immediately raise prices. They should wait for two weeks.
I agree with you that in the past the moment when prices went up, oil companies increased prices at the same time. Whereas when prices go down they maintain the high price. They do not immediately lower that, hence this directive which I gave that we need a period of two weeks to ensure that there is a change in price upwards or downwards depending on the price movement on the global market. I thank you.
- NDUNA: Besides our fuel being a little bit dearer than that of South Africa, I believe the viscosity or quality is a bit on the lower side because for the same quarter tank of fuel, with South African fuel that you buy in there, you do a little bit more in the number of kilometers than you would do here. What is it that we are putting in place to make sure that our quality also matches the quality that is around our borders?
- UNDENGE: Madam Speaker, I would like to assure this
House that the quality of our fuel is not less than the quality in South Africa. We always monitor its quality; it is not true that our fuel when used here has less mileage than in South Africa. I call upon the hon. member to come to my office with that empirical evidence. Thank you.
- BHEBHE: Madam Speaker, there has been some disparities
in terms of pricing. According to the Statutory Instrument, there are three categories of pricing. There is the price for the oil company, the price for the wholesaler and the price for the dealer. That price was regulated by Statutory Instruments that were different. I remember it was changed during the shortage of fuel. What measures are you taking to try and bring back that regulation that categorises the three pricing systems as per your Statutory Instrument?
- UNDENGE: Our pricing model which I will avail to the hon. member, addresses every stage of trading, the margin for the wholesaler and at the retail end. That formula, is all encompassing. It is an inclusive formula, it caters for everyone in the fuel chain. So, that is addressed hon. member.
- MATANGAIDZE: The danger we have with the whole fuel
pricing Madam Speaker is in ensuring that you get value for money, that means you get one litre when you have bought one litre… THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: What is the question.
- MATANGAIDZE: The question is there is a system called a-sizing, where ZERA is supposed to be checking these meters that they are delivering the liters as required. We want to know the progress on doing that.
- UNDENGE: Madam Speaker, I am trying to decipher the question asked by the hon. member. Perhaps he is saying that when one goes to the pump, you are short changed in terms of the quantity of fuel you get, that it may not be up to a litre. If there is that exercise and you suspect that any garage is cheating, let ZERA know or let us know and we will immediately institute appropriate action. I thank you.
PROGRESS MADE WITH REGARDS TO MAKING HARARE A
REGIONAL CENTRE FOR THE SUPPLY AND DISTRIBUTION
OF REFINED FUELS
- MR. CROSS asked the Minister of Energy and Power Development to inform the House on the progress made with regards to the project aiming to make Zimbabwe a regional centre for the supply and distribution of refined fuels to the whole of Central Africa.
THE MINISTR OF ENERGY AND POWER
DEVELOPMENT (DR. UNDENGE): The Government policy is to
make Zimbabwe a hub of fuel trade in the region. Being centrally located, Zimbabwe is strategically placed for this exercise. It is a natural advantage which we enjoy, in other words, we do have a competitive advantage because of our location. In addition, the country has huge fuel storage capacity through the National Oil Infrastructure Company of Zimbabwe of 537 million litres. This is more than the storage capacity at Beira which stands at 320 million litres. In other words, we have more storage capacity in Harare than in Beira.
Turning Zimbabwe into a hub of fuel trade and transportation in the region will not be achieved overnight. However, it is important to ensure that steps are consistently taken towards the achievement of this goal. This is progressively being done. Madam Speaker, hon. members may be aware that in the past, international oil traders used to station their fuel at Beira from where local oil companies would purchase and transport the same into the country, either by pipe line or by road. Taking advantage of the huge storage capacity in the country, the Ministry convinced international oil companies to station their fuel in Zimbabwe, in bond.
Local oil companies can therefore, now import fuel from within the country, greatly reducing the turnaround time. Some regional countries, namely Zambia, Malawi, DRC and Botswana, get some of their fuel supplies from Zimbabwe …
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, order, can you please lower your voices; those who are at the back of the Chamber would like to hear what the Minister is saying.
- UNDENGE: Madam Speaker, local oil companies can therefore now import fuel from within the country, greatly reducing the turnaround time. Some regional countries namely, Zambia, Malawi and DRC and Botswana get some of the fuel supplies from or through Zimbabwe via the pipeline.
Fuel exports from Zimbabwe to the region are still low, though averaging 10 million litres per month, this is but the beginning. Efforts are underway to increase the exports and to make Zimbabwe the preferred route for these regional countries. Currently, these countries get the bulk of their supplies through Dar es Salaam. As a first step, NIOC recently reduced storage charges for export bound fuel by US$10 per cubic metre, this is from US$80.50 cents to US$70.50. It is however, still early to judge the impact of such a move. It is hoped that measures of this kind will also help in capturing regional tracks that still transit through Zimbabwe to pick fuel from Beira when fuel is available at Masasa.
Zimbabwe cannot become a hub of fuel trade without adequate transportation infrastructure. Hon. members may be aware that the pipeline reached its designed capacity sometime in 2011. It pumped a maximum of four million litres per day. With fuel consumption averaging four million litres per day, this state of affairs, hindered the building of stocks. Madam Speaker, in November 2013, at the
Ministry’s direction, pipeline owners began to introduce a drag reducing agent into the pipeline. The drag reducing agent is a substance which if injected into the pipeline makes fuel move faster. As a result, the pipeline can now pump a maximum of six million litres per day. The drag reducing agent dispates during pumping, hence does not affect fuel quality. For this reason, it is used internationally.
Further pipeline upgrades are planned. The next phase is to install three additional booster pumps along the pipeline resulting in a throughput of 7.5 million litres per day. The subsequent phase will involve the replacement of existing pumps with bigger ones, resulting in throughput of 16 million litres per day. In addition, a second pipeline is being planned and of course, effective demand will detect the timing of these projects.
Madam Speaker, in order to enhance the loading of tankers, a third fuel loading gantry has been constructed at Mabvuku. Its completion will result in one fuel loading gantry at Feruka which is important for loading tankers destined for Malawi and two in Harare at Msasa and Mabvuku. The Mabvuku fuel loading gantry will have the capacity of loading eight tankers at a time. In addition, in order to facilitate both fuel storage and loading in the western and southern parts of the country, the National Oil Infrastructure Company recently purchased a fuel depot in Bulawayo. This will also facilitate the loading of fuel destined for Botswana. The Bulawayo fuel depot is currently being refurbished and fuel storage at the said depot shall be increased.
Clearly Madam Speaker, the process of rendering Zimbabwe as a significant player in fuel distribution in the region is already underway.
I thank you.
PROMOTION OF ALTERNATIVE ENERGY SOURCES
- MR. NDUNA asked the Minister of Energy and Power Development what the Ministry is doing to promote the use of alternative sources of energy in both rural and urban areas.
THE MINISTER OF ENERGY AND POWER
DEVELOPMENT (DR. UNDENGE): Madam Speaker, the Ministry
is formulating renewable energy policies, strategies and action plans to promote the use and uptake of renewable energy technologies as alternative sources of energy. An energy policy was launched in 2012 which includes modalities for the promotion of renewable energy.
The Ministry is now in the process of developing comprehensive renewable energy and bio-fuel policies which will have guidelines, strategies, action plans, targets and incentives for promotion of the use of renewable energy; working with research institutions in the country such as SIRDC and Agricultural Research Institution, carrying out research and development on renewable energy technologies and identifying, developing and facilitating implementation of renewable energy and energy conservation technologies and techniques.
A number of projects in the following categories have been carried out or are in the process of being carried out as pilot projects to promote awareness of the renewable energy technologies that is in the area of solar energy projects. About 400 solar minigrids were installed in rural schools and clinics with a capacity of 0.84kilo-watts and two large solar water-heating were installed at the Harare Institute of Technology (HIT) and United Bulawayo Hospital (UBH) with a capacity to meet the hot water requirements as well as space heating in the incubator ward at United Bulawayo Hospital. We also have bio-gas progammes and two major programmes are underway.
Madam Speaker, we also have small hydro-power projects. The Ministry has facilitated the development of small hydro-power stations which include Nyamingura hydro-power project which will be a
1.1mega-watt; Duru hydro project will be a 2.2 mega-watt; Pungwe Phase A will be 2.7 mega-watts and the other phase B will be 15 megawatts. So, such small hydro-power projects will add on to our energy capacity.
Madam Speaker, I think I have answered the first question that was asked by Hon. Nduna.
- DUBEKO SIBANDA: Hon. Minister, I think it is very clear that we are struggling to meet electricity requirements in this country and that production of electricity is generally expensive. It is known that we have huge gas deposits in Lupane and gas is a cheaper and cleaner alternative source of energy. Mega deals have been signed to produce more electricity but what is the position in as far as production of gas as an alternative source of energy in this country is concerned has gone?
- UNDENGE: Madam Speaker, let me commend the hon. member for being a technical conversant with energy production. As we have already pointed out, there are a number of measures that are being taken to ensure that the electricity deficit that we have is overcome and we move to a stage where we can start exporting electricity to the rest of the region.
As categorized in my answer to Hon. Nduna’s question, we have essentially four main categories of power production. The first one is thermal, hydro, bio-gas and to some extent, wind power. Turning to gas utilisation in terms of producing electricity, my Ministry is working in conjunction with the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development and the Ministry of Industry and Commerce so that we tap the coded methane gas in Lupane. You will witness some activity in terms of preliminary drilling when you get there, so that we utilise that gas but of course, it is the cheapest form of producing electricity. I thank you Madam Speaker.
*MR. ZWIZWAI: Hon. Minister during the generation of electricity, I am looking at the issue of Community Ownership Trusts which is a Government policy. When electricity is generated from Kariba, the Tonga people have their own resource Lake Kariba and electricity is generated at Kariba and sold in different areas. What is the Ministry’s policy so that the Tonga people can also benefit in terms of
the Community Share Ownership Trust?
- UNDENGE: Madam Speaker, what we have done as a Ministry because currently, as you know sino-hydro is building units seven and eight. Each unit will produce 150 megawatts. So the two units under construction will produce 300 megawatts at completion. As a Ministry, we have said ensure that you employ the local people; and only confine where you require skilled labour like engineers, those you can import from outside. As regards your question, it relates to indigenisation and I thought you should have asked that question to the Minister of Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment.
Perhaps I advise you to reserve that question for the respective Minister.
I have answered the part which concerns me as Minister of Energy and Power Development. I am conscious of the need to employ local people where we can so that they benefit from the project which is taking place and that is what we have done in conjunction with the local leadership in
Kariba. I thank you.
- ZVIDZAI: My supplementary question to the Minister of Energy and Power Development is to sewage plants in this country are cheap sources of energy and if you combine the possible generation capacity from sewage plants throughout the country, Harare, Bulawayo, Gweru and Kwekwe, that can amount to something like 200 megawatts of energy, for free. What is the Ministry doing to make sure that that is used as an alternative source of energy?
- UNDENGE: Madam Speaker, the question is very pertinent
and it falls under the domain of bio-gas. If you listened to me careful when I was outlining out energy policy, I said there is also a focus on bio fuel, bio-gas and certainly, this is something we are looking into. Perhaps you are talking about the pace but already we are into expansion of hydro projects, we are into exploitation of coal, methane gas and also expansion of hydro projects and bio gas occupies us and we are doing that in conjunction with research institutions which I have pointed out earlier on. Interestingly enough, you cannot only use sewer for production of energy alone. You can also use it for production of water at home. The Minister of Energy and Power Development was telling us that there is some technology whereby you connect to your toilet system, then it gets to the tape, the water immediately goes under cleaning and at the end you drink it, so that is how advanced technology is. It is not only for energy production. Even that sewer water can be used for drinking. Immediately after you flash it, it goes into a cup for drinking after having been cleaned. That is how wonderful our technology is.
DEVELOPMENT OF A BIO-FUELS POLICY
- MR. NDUNA asked the Minister of Energy and Power Development the progress that has been made towards developing the Bio-Fuels Policy as envisaged under ZIMASSET.
THE MINISTER OF ENERGY AND POWER
DEVELOPMENT (DR. UNDENGE): Madam Speaker, as I alluded to
above earlier on in my answer to the first question, my Ministry is in the process of developing a bio-fuels policy. It is already catered for.
Perhaps, in order not to waste members’ time, I think the question has already been adequately answered.
- NDUNA: I have got a follow up; I see the question was answered; what might be as a need to know basis is what the progress in that direction is. I think it is the only key issue that we might need to know.
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: I think the Minister has adequately answered your question Hon. Nduna. I am now going on to question number 5.
ELECTRIFICATION OF INSTITUTIONS IN GOKWE-KANA
CONSTITUENCY
- MR. O. NCUBE asked the Minister of Energy and Power Development when the following Institutions in the Gokwe – Kana Constituency will be electrified:
- Dzuke School
- Paradza School
- Maboke School
- Marirangwe School
- Ndarire School
- Tachi School
- Mapiwa School
- Lutochani School
- Mwambani School
- Lukukwe School
- Mudzimundiringe School
- Muyambi Primary School
- Ndodza Clinic
- Mateme Primary School
- Mateme Secondary School
- Chief Jiri homestead
THE MINISTER OF ENERGY AND POWER
DEVELOPMENT (DR. UNDENGE): Madam Speaker, in line with ZIM ASSET funding, the Rural Electrification Fund REA plans to extend the electricity grid network to all rural public institutions within
20 km of the existing grid network and to electrify those beyond 20 km’s using solar technology by 2018. Madam Speaker, I actually have a table which gives the time lines for the various schools listed when electricity will be connected.
Item No. | Name of
Institution |
Distance from Grid Network | When to be electrified | Source of Energy |
1 | Mateme Primary | 14km | June 2015 | Grid |
2 | Mateme Clinic | 14km | June 2015 | Grid |
3 | Mateme Secondary | 14km | June 2015 | Grid |
4 | Dzvuke School | 6.2km | By 2018 | Grid |
5 | Paradza School | 12km | By 2018 | Grid |
6 | Maboke School | 8km | By 2018 | Grid |
7 | Marirangwe School | 4.5km | By 2018 | Grid |
8 | Ndarire School | 7km | By 2018 | Grid |
9 | Tachi School | 15km | By 2018 | Grid |
10 | Mapiwa School | 25km | By 2018 | Solar |
11 | Lutochani School | 33km | By 2018 | Solar |
12 | Mwambani
School |
1.7km | By 2017 | Grid |
13 | Mayambi
Primary School |
1.5km | By 2017 | Grid |
14 | Lukukwe School | 14km | By 2018 | Grid |
Jiri Primary School | Underline | By 2017 | Grid | |
Mudzimundiringe School | 0.8km | By 2017 | Grid | |
Chief Jiri | 15km | By 2018 | Grid |
These schools will be electrified within the framework of ZIM ASSET which is that up to 2018, all these schools will be electrified at different stages. So Hon. Ncube, go and tell your people that electricity is indeed coming. I thank you Madam Speaker.
STRATEGY REGARDING THE CIVIL PROTECTION UNIT’S
ABILITY TO MANAGE DISASTERS
- MR. MASUKU asked the Minister of Local Government,
Public Works and National Housing the Government strategy regarding the Civil Protection Unit’s ability to manage disasters particularly where citizens die in a stampede as was the case at Mbizo Stadium.
THE MINISTER OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT, PUBLIC
WORKS AND NATIONAL HOUSING (DR. MADE): Madam
Speaker, I want to thank the hon. member and respond as follows. The stadia in Zimbabwe are constructed in compliance with international specifications and consequently, none of these structures has ever collapsed. The hon. member gives an example of Mbizo stadium as a case in point. The Mbizo stadium accident was occasioned by a stampede of the congregants, which is a function of the absence of organised crowd control by however is leasing the property. Drawing lessons from the disaster, the Department of Civil Protection is in the process of liaising with managers of all stadia in the country to put in place measures to be adhered to by whoever is leasing the stadia. Thank you Madam Speaker.
REHABILITATION OF ROADS
- MRS. MUDAU asked the Minister of Local Government,
Public Works and National Housing to inform the House plans by the Ministry to rehabilitate the Masera via Toporo-Swereki to Malibeng and Tokwe to Bulawayo-Beitbridge main road.
THE MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE, MECHANISATION
AND IRRIGATION DEVELOPMENT (DR. MADE) on behalf of
THE MINISTER OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT, PUBLIC WORKS AND NATIONAL HOUSING (DR. CHOMBO): On the
question of Masera via Toporo road, the hon. member should direct the question to the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development as they are the responsible authority on that.
On the Tokwe to Bulawayo-Beitbridge main road, plans are underway for the rehabilitation of the road and it has been scheduled to start in earnest in 2015.
INCREAMENT OF EARTH MOVING EQUIPMENT
- MRS. MUDAU asked the Minister of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing whether the Ministry would consider increasing the number of graders and earth moving equipment required for the road construction in the Beitbridge West Constituency.
THE MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE, MECHANISATION AND IRRIGATION DEVELOPMENT (DR. MADE) on behalf of
THE MINISTER OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT, PUBLIC WORKS AND NATIONAL HOUSING (DR. CHOMBO): It might be
interesting for the House and the hon. member to note that Government is working on the recapitalisation of all local authorities and has already engaged a Chinese firm which shall set up a manufacturing plant in the country to the value of US$100 million. Local authorities will access the equipment on credit. Efforts have been made to continue with recapitalisation initiative as outlined under the ZIM ASSET with the Constituency having received one motorised grader from ZINARA across the country.
- D.P. SIBANDA: Hon. Minister, you have spoken of graders that have been given to local authorities. It is said that those graders are slow graders and they are not suitable for our climate.
What policy measures is your Government and Ministry putting in place to try and recover the amount of money that was used on unsuitable graders.
- MADE: First of all, we must establish whether the graders are unsuitable for our climate. That is a position that has been asserted. I want to assure the Hon. member that we will look into that matter but we should not just assert that they are unsuitable. We have to look at each item. It could also be a question of adjusting the engines adequately.
I am aware from a mechanisation point of view that you have to look at that particular aspect. We must have hard facts to see which graders have failed and what the technical reason is. It remains an administrative issue and it is a thing we should look at technically –[AN HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]- No, no! I should not be addressing the member directly.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Yes, hon. Minister, you must
speak to the Chair.
POLICY GUIDELINES ON HOUSING COOPERATIVES
- MR. CHIWA asked the Minister of Local Government,
Public Works and National Housing to explain:
- the policy guidelines on housing cooperatives;
- whether an employee of a local authority can double as a chairperson and owner of a housing cooperative within the same local authority and
- measures in place to protect other competing cooperatives from being side-lined and also curbing corruption.
THE MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE, MECHANISATION
AND IRRIGATION DEVELOPMENT (DR. MADE) on behalf of
THE MINISTER OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT, PUBLIC WORKS AND NATIONAL HOUSING (DR. CHOMBO): Mr. Speaker Sir, I
would like to thank the hon. member for affording me the opportunity to apprise the august House on pertinent matters relevant to housing provision.
1) In September this year, my Ministry came up with the approved National Housing Delivery Programme which speaks to the basic tenets of human settlement and development and also serves as the medium or vehicle to drive the National Housing Policy (2012).
In turn, the strategy is operationalised through attendant guidelines crafted by my Ministry in October, which guidelines serve to summarise the processes, procedures, relevant statutes and timelines to be adhered to prior and during the delivery period and the roles and responsibilities of the stakeholders.
To that end, the following guidelines apply to housing cooperatives intending to access land for housing provision:
- cooperative members must be first time prospective home owners and on the respective local authority’s housing waiting list. ii. be 18 years and above. iii. the cooperative should produce a registration certificate. iv. produce copy of the cooperatives by-law.
- produce a membership register signed by the Registrar of
Cooperatives. vi. produce proof of initial income and ability to implement the project.
vii. apply for land in accordance to the size of their membership. viii. submit a detailed project proposal with financial projections.
- open a cooperative bank account with a financial institution of their choice and urge their members to pay subscriptions through the same.
- produce latest audited accounts of the cooperative.
- Liaise with my Ministry and their banker in identifying and selecting a reputable and credible land developer and/or contractor. xii. prepare a Memorandum of Understanding with developer and their banker stipulating the roles of each party.
- seek certification from the Ministry as well as the local authority for the works completed before processing payment certificate to ensure acceptable standard.
- refund members opting to withdraw or are expelled from the cooperative. xv. return 10% of the serviced stands at no cost to Government as commonage.
xvi. cooperatives are not land developers hence a cooperative is expected to disband upon the successful completion of the project.
However, registration as a housing cooperative does not guarantee automatic allocation of land as every cooperative applying for land should sufficiently justify why such land should be allocated to it.
- Mr. Speaker Sir, I assume that the import of question (b) to imply whether a local authority official can act as a chairperson/owner of a housing cooperative within the same local authority; the Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises and Cooperative Development is mandated to administer the Cooperatives Societies Act (Chapter 24:05) and the attendant regulations and by-law, which govern the operations of cooperatives, inclusive of housing cooperatives.
To that end, question (b) should ideally be directed to the Ministry that I have referred as it squarely falls within the purview of its mandate.
- MUTSEYAMI: Thank you Madam Speaker. With all due respect, Hon. Minister, having challenges with regard to people who need residential stands, with all the presentations that you have laid out in accordance with the statutes with regard to co-orporatives, what mechanisms are you putting in place to address challenges whereby we are having people who are taking their stands and actually staying on the site, building houses or cottages while there is no sewer, water or roads, but already people are staying there in situ, full time, regardless of sanitation and water requirements?
This trend is happening across the country. This is a challenge that is happening across the country and it seems like it is now a normal process whereby we have people staying in towns without water, sewer or roads. What mechanisms do you have to address these challenges?
- MADE: I want to thank the hon. member for highlighting
that situation, that is almost as if it is normal now. I want to assure you that through ZIM ASSET and as I have highlighted already, this is a matter that is of great concern.
I think combined with some or the responses that have already been given under the Ministry of Energy and Power Development and I am sure even on some issues that are raised under the Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate, this is a critical sector that we must concentrate on. I think it is also expressing the urgency with which the housing matters and servicing of stands should be treated as a critical issue in terms of providing for those services to our communities that are in the urban areas. It is a true expression of the reality on the ground,
but I plead that we concentrate on focusing on that particular aspect.
But it is a very pertinent question and I seriously take note of it.
- C. SIBANDA: Thank you Madam Speaker. Hon. Minister,
what is your Ministry doing to assist local authorities in situations where co-operatives are sprouting in cities and possibly, settling themselves in areas such as swampy areas and other areas that are not designated for settlement without the authority of local authorities, especially giving an example of Harare. That is where we are witnessing those kinds of things. What is your Ministry doing to assist local authorities in that regard?
- MADE: Madam Speaker again, that is a very pertinent observation. In our laws and in our statutes, that is a situation we should not accept. You have also witnessed even now, with the rain, a number of those communities have been affected with flooding taking place even in proper areas where settlements have been granted. We have to be careful with that and I think we should always be responding first and foremost to EMA, which is responsible for defining the areas where the locations should be, but we should also improve on our greater drainage systems in order to take care of the climate as it is so reflecting right now very heavy down pours, I think in the area that we have seen receiving over 140mm of rainfall. It means really we must comprehensively reface the areas that we have defined as wet lands and further improve on the way we relate to the construction, but the councils are again encouraged and we are monitoring that they do not allocate the pieces of land where it is not suitable for our people because at the end of the day, we are lucky that we have not lost lives, but the danger must be taken care of, that we do not reach those particular proportions. Thank you Madam Speaker.
MEASURES PUT IN PLACE TO ADDRESS BOUNDARY
DISPUTES IN SILOBELA
- MR. M. M. MPOFU asked the Minister of Local
Government, Public Works and National Housing to inform the House the measures that the Ministry has put in place to address the boundary disputes involving chiefs, in particular Chief Sigodo in Silobela.
THE MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE, MECHANISATION
AND IRRIGATION DEVELOPMENT (DR. MADE) on behalf of
THE MINISTER OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT, PUBLIC WORKS AND NATIONAL HOUSING (DR. CHOMBO): Madam Speaker,
again I want to thank Hon. Mpofu. The Ministry is currently in the process of coming up with a holistic approach to deal with all boundary disputes once and for all. It is one of our priority programmes this year.
We are aware of boundary disputes everywhere throughout the country.
In line with Section 29 of the Traditional Leaders Act, Chapter 2 (17), we are required to place all resettlement areas under the authority of the traditional leaders and because of the boundary disputes, that needs to be resolved and solved. We have done the four districts so far and the remaining districts will be done this year. Thank you
CIRCUMSTANCES SURROUNDING A VEHICLE ISSUED TO AN
EMPLOYEE OF BINDURA MUNICIPALITY
- MRS. T. BANDA asked the Minister of Local Government,
Public Works and National Housing to explain the circumstances where a vehicle issued to an employee in Bindura Municipality was seen being driven by his spouse for the purposes of ferrying sand and bricks and state whether this is permissible.
THE MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE, MECHANISATION
AND IRRIGATION DEVELOPMENT (DR. MADE) on behalf of
THE MINISTER OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT, PUBLIC WORKS
AND NATIONAL HOUSING (DR. CHOMBO): First and foremost,
I would like to thank the Hon. T. Bhanda for the question which focuses on conditions of service for senior employees of councils and Bindura Municipality, in particular, with personal issue vehicles who include town clerks and heads of departments.
The town clerk and the head of department are allowed to use council vehicles allocated to them for business and personal use. In the same view, their spouses are allowed to drive those vehicles as long as the officers do not use other council vehicles at the same time. So,
Bindura Municipality is no exception. Thank you.
PAYMENT OF MEDICAL BILLS FOR THOSE WHO ARE INJURED
IN NATIONAL DISASTERS
- MRS. MANGWENDE asked the Minister of Local
Government, Public Works and National Housing to inform the House whether the Ministry pays medical bills for those who are injured during national disasters.
THE MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE, MECHANISATION
AND IRRIGATION DEVELOPMENT (DR. MADE) on behalf of
THE MINISTER OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT, PUBLIC WORKS AND NATIONAL HOUSING (DR. CHOMBO): Madam Speaker,
hon. member I want to respond as follows; the Ministry only pays bills for those disasters declared national disasters by His Excellency the President. Thank you.
- C. SIBANDA: Hon. Minister, there was a disaster involving a ZUPCO bus and another bus. It is said that all the victims of that accident and other ZUPCO bus accidents were not covered by insurance and therefore, their medical bills were not paid. How far true is that and is it Government policy that a parastatal like ZUPCO should not insure its passengers against accidents? Thank you.
- MADE: I want to thank the hon. member for that follow up question. That is a detail and I can only undertake to thoroughly investigate that matter and provide the hon. member with the answer.
MS. ANASTANCIA NDHLOVU: Hon. Minister, still on
disasters, I would like to find out from you what Government policy or what Government plans are with regards to reviewing the disaster risk management system because I know that as a country, we are still using the 1989 provisions which in my view, are outdated and are failing to deal comprehensively with disasters in this country. I thank you.
- MADE: I want to agree with the hon. member. As I have already said when I was in part responding to areas or wetlands and flooding and also that the phenomenon that we are seeing in climate is that we have to be better prepared, not account of being ill prepared at the moment but the fact that the situation as we are seeing requires indeed that we review the statutes that we are using. It is a very clear position and direction that has been proposed by the hon. member. That process is already under way. I can say after the Tokwe-Mukorsi disaster, already there are many reviews that we are taking including the experiences that the Committee is seized with. That Committee is headed by the Ministry that I am representing. I thank you.
Questions With Notice were interrupted by THE TEMPORARY
SPEAKER in terms of Standing Order Number 34.
MOTION
FIRST REPORT OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON YOUTH,
INDIGENISATION AND ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT ON
GREEN FUEL CHISUMBANJE ETHANOL PROJECT
- WADYAJENA: I move the motion standing in my name that
this House takes note of the First Report of the Portfolio Committee on
Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment on Green Fuel Chisumbanje Ethanol Project.
- CHIBAYA: I second.
- WADYAJENA:
1. Introduction
1.1 In line with its oversight role as provided under Standing Order
No. 160 (c), the Portfolio Committee on Youth, Indigenization and Economic Empowerment undertook an enquiry into the progress made in the implementation of the Indigenisation and Economic
Empowerment laws. The enquiry was occasioned by the Committee’s desire to fulfill the objectives of the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (ZIM ASSET) Social Services and Poverty Eradication Cluster. The ZIM ASSET economic blueprint states in Chapter 3 that, “By coming up with the ZIM ASSET, Government seeks to address on a sustainable basis, the numerous challenges affecting quality service delivery and economic growth. The plan is expected to consolidate the gains brought about by the Land Reform,
Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment and Employment Creation
Programmes, which have empowered the communities through Land
Redistribution, Community Share Ownership Trusts and Employee Share Ownership Schemes, among others”. In this regard, the Committee noted that the realization of sustainable development and social equity anchored on indigenization, empowerment and employment creation lies in compliance with and full implementation of the indigenisation and economic empowerment laws.
2.0 Objectives
2.1 In its inquiry, the Committee was guided by the following objectives:-
- To assess the levels of compliance to the Indigenisation policy by qualifying businesses; ii.To assess the extent to which the indigenous have benefitted from the programme; iii. To verify and ascertain the situation on the ground in the wake of conflicting and contradictory statements about developments in
Chisumbanje; and
- To proffer recommendations on the achievement of community empowerment.
3.0 Methodology
In undertaking this inquiry, the Committee adopted the following methodology:-
3.1 Oral Evidence Sessions
The Committee held oral evidence sessions with the management of Macdom and Green Fuel on the level of compliance with the Indigenisation policy as well as their corporate social responsibilities on community empowerment. The Committee also accepted a request for interface made by the Platform for Youth Development (PYD) to appear before the Committee on Chisumbanje Ethanol Project. The Committee also received evidence from the Chisumbanje and Chinyamukwakwa traditional leaders as well as the Environmental Management Agency
(EMA).
3.2 Written Submissions
The Committee received written submissions from PYD, Chief Garahwa, Headman Musuki Matambanadzo and Green Fuel (Pvt) Ltd
Workers.
3.3 Fact Finding Visit
The Committee undertook a fact finding visit to the Ethanol Project in Chisumbanje on 11th July 2014 with the main aim of verifying the existence of community projects that Green Fuel claimed to have initiated for the community.
3.4Public Hearing
The Committee conducted a public hearing at Chisumbanje Primary School on 11th July 2014 to gather the views of the community on the Ethanol Project and its impact on their livelihoods.
4.0 Background
4.1 In early 2008, Green Fuel represented by Macdom
Investments, acquired the right to lease land measuring 5 112 hectares from ARDA, where it built an ethanol plant. The land has since increased to 9, 375 ha and is under sugarcane. The project was initially welcomed as it was anticipated that it would lead to the employment of people in the area and uplift the quality of life of households in Chisumbanje.
4.2 Based on the geography of the area, most of the land came from adjacent land owned by communal smallholder farmers. This was to be done through progressive accrual until the fully acquisition of the proposed 45 000 ha of cane by 2020.
4.3 In the process, the company started to encroach into surrounding communal land in Chisumbanje, Chinyamukwakwa and Matikwa villages without adequate consultation with the community, as the said land was not vacant but was used by the villagers for their crop production, livestock grazing and for other cultural uses.
4.4 An Inter Ministerial Cabinet Task Force headed by the then
Deputy Prime Minister, Professor A.G.O. Mutambara, was dispatched to
Chisumbanje in 2012 to help solve the simmering crisis besetting the Green Fuel Ethanol Plant and the community. The Task Force made several recommendations, one of which was the need to expand the District Ethanol Project Implementation Committee (DEPIC) to include other stakeholders.
4.5 The recommendations carried in the Inter-Ministerial Cabinet
Taskforce Report suggested that:
4.5.1 Land acquisitions to the project were supposed to be regularized by Chipinge Rural District Council in accordance with the Communal Lands Act (Chapter 24:04) and that Council decisions enabling this particular land acquisition be reviewed, harmonized and aligned according to the Inter-Ministerial report.
4.5.2 The company should immediately compensate and resettle the 117 households that had offer letters and were displaced from ARDA estates. The farmers and the company were to engage directly to negotiate terms for the farmers to continue to live on the estates as out growers and producers to the Ethanol Project.
4.5.3 The company should immediately compensate households that lost crops in the process of developing the project’s dams and canals in accordance with the assessments of crop damages that were carried out by the Department of Agriculture Rural Extension (AREX) officials and further corroborated with information obtained directly from the affected communities.
4.5.4 There be an asset audit (i.e. land, livestock, crops, buildings, equipment and family size) for each displaced household so that compensation and resettlement is meaningful and that some of the displaced households must be accommodated as sugarcane out growers, and producers of other products and services to the Ethanol Project.
4.5.5 The grievance that not enough local people are being employed must be addressed.
4.5.6 In order to avoid future acrimonious community relations, Government and ARDA should maintain an effective oversight of the implementation of the project and that the District Joint Implementation Committee should be broadened to include the Council Chairperson, all local chiefs, the local Member of Parliament, two councilors, two workers union representatives and four representatives of the displaced and affected households, two being from Chisumbanje and two from Chinyamukwakwa.
4.6 It was against this background that the Portfolio Committee on Youth, Indigenization and Economic Empowerment visited Chisumbanje on 11th July 2014.
5. 0 Findings
5.1 Compliance Issues – Indigenization and Economic
Empowerment Act
5.1.2 The Committee gathered that, whereas the Indigenization and
Economic Empowerment Act (Chapter 14:33) as read with the
Indigenization and Economic Empowerment (General Regulations, 2010) stated that investment should be 49/51% in favour of local investors, and that local communities should benefit from such investment through 10% share community ownership. This is not the case in Chisumbanje where the investment has a contentious 90% stake through Macdom Investments and the Government owns the remaining
10% through ARDA. ARDA has an irrevocable option to acquire up to 51% shareholding, but it is not yet clear how this is going to be achieved. It was also noted that Green Fuel was granted an ethanol blending licence despite not fulfilling the 51/49% joint venture with
Government according to the spirit of S.I 17 of 2013 on Mandatory Blending.
5.2 Community Projects
5.2.1 The Committee was briefed by Green Fuel management on the Ethanol Project as well as community projects that the company claimed to have initiated for the benefit of the community. The Committee was informed that the Green Fuel was the first large-scale ethanol producing factory in Africa producing anhydrous ethanol from sugarcane. The joint venture partnership with the Agricultural Rural Development Authority (ARDA), saw 40 000 hectares of Chisumbanje land earmarked for the project. Currently, only 9 375ha of land is being utilized with a total production of 6 million litres of ethanol per month.
The Committee heard that, at full capacity, the current plant can produce 120 million litres per annum, which translates to approximately US$120 million.
5.2.2 Green Fuel management informed the Committee that 10% of the project land was set aside for the community as part of its corporate social responsibility scheme. To this end, the Green Fuel officials told the Committee that the company had developed 1060 ha of land for farmers in the community at a total cost of $10.6 million. Of the above-mentioned hectarage, 660 ha was set aside for two groups of outgrower farmer; 250 ha for war veterans, and 410 ha for “settlers”. The remaining 400 ha is under a community irrigation scheme. The company claimed to be assisting these farmers with land preparations as well as provision of inputs such as irrigation water, fertilizers etc.
5.2.3 The officials also indicated to the Committee that the company, through ‘Vimbo-hope of a better future‘ was also involved in social services infrastructural rehabilitation and development at schools, clinics, roads and boreholes. The Committee was also told that Vimbo was setting up of a Technology Centre, a Sewing workshop, training workshop, bee project and indigenous tree nursery project.
5.2.4 On its guided tour of the community projects, the Committee was only shown some plots in the plantation which the officials claimed had been set aside for out-grower farmers and war veterans but there were no beneficiaries present to support the claims. The Committee did not see the other projects which were mentioned by officials to the Committee during the briefing meeting in the morning.
5.2.5 After the tour of the “community projects”, the Committee conducted a public hearing at Chisumbanje Primary School later in the day. The super-charged public hearing was well-attended by community members, amongst them youths, women, out-grower farmers, Green
Fuel workers’ representatives, war veterans and traditional leaders. The gathering did not mince their words to the Committee. They informed the Committee that while they did not object to the project per se, they had burning grievances which had remained unresolved despite several
Government delegations that had visited the area in the past dating back to the Government of National Unity (GNU) when Government set up an Inter-Ministerial Committee to look into their grievances.
5.3. Compensation
5.3.1 The community dispelled the claims by Green Fuel during the oral evidence session that it had compensated the community for land and livestock losses suffered due to the Ethanol Project. The Committee observed that the issue of non-compensation by Green Fuel to affected communities in Chisumbanje Village, Chinyamukwakwa Village and Matikwa village became very emotive and thus captured the mood of the community regarding the Ethanol Project.
5.3.2 The Committee gathered that most villagers whose land was
“swallowed” by the project have not been compensated up to this day despite undertakings by Green Fuel to do so when the project was first established. The affected villagers told the Committee that as a result of the expropriation of their land, they no longer had any source of income as their livelihood depended on small-scale farming, especially cotton.
5.3.3 The Committee heard that when the project was first established, displaced farmers were not given a chance to harvest their crops but instead they were promised compensation, which has not been forth-coming. The community pointed out that while Macdom had given them small pieces of land, measuring 0.5 ha, which are not adequate for the needs of each household and their livestock, it had not yet compensated them in monetary terms in accordance with the agreement they had made.
5.3.4 The Committee gathered that no compensation has been paid as yet to businesspersons who lost shops and grinding mills which had to make way for the project, for example, in Matikwa where ARDA had encouraged a businessman to erect a shop to service the area.
5.3.5 Members of the community are now in their sixth year without receiving any compensation. They are concerned that the company has not erected a fence between their grazing land and the small pieces of land they had been allocated for irrigation purposes, as promised.
5.4 Grievances of Out-Grower Farmers
5.4.1 The Committee noted that even those villagers who were accommodated in the Green Fuel project as out-grower farmers bemoaned the insufficient size of their plots, averaging 3 ha per family.
5.4.2 The out-grower farmers also expressed fears regarding lack of security of tenure over their allocated plots in the plantation. They said there was no clarity as to who the land belongs to. Hence they recommended that they be given permits or some form of security of tenure.
- 3The out-grower farmers accused Green Fuel of exposing them to harmful toxic substances, which has a taken toll on their health. EMA provided the Committee with evidence (backed by an independent expert) that Green Fuel is illegally discharging millions of litres daily of harmful and acidic effluent (vinasse) from its plant into the environment. Vinasse is very acidic due to high concentrations of potassium and sulfur among other substances. They also said the company was releasing these toxic substances into the river system, thus affecting their livestock and the ecosystem.
5.4.4 The farmers complained about the pricing model of their sugarcane, which they described as day-light robbery. They bemoaned lack of transparency with the scheme since Macdom controls the whole process from land preparation. The absence of a weigh bridge to weigh the cane made them feel shortchanged. The settler farmers were concerned that the current price of US$4.00 per tonne which Macdom is buying their cane at is not realistic, even after factoring in improvements and other costs. Green Fuel did not allow them to sell their sugarcane to other buyers offering better prices. The out-grower farmers told the Committee that Hippo Valley was buying sugarcane, for sugar production, at prices up to $70 per tonne.
5.4.5 The out-grower farmers also informed the Committee that they had not been fully paid for their sugarcane by Green Fuel since 2010. Farmers have been negatively affected by the non-payment of their sugar cane. The company owes farmers US$300 000-00 according to a valid contract they signed with the company at the rate of US$4.00/tonne. Farmers prefer to get one-off payments instead of part payments as is currently obtaining. The reason they were given was that they owed the company $2.4 million from contractual arrangements, a debt they did not agree with.
5.4.6 The Committee gathered that land sizes have remained stagnant since 1967 when the settler programme was introduced. The farmers feel that they should be allocated more land size for sugar cane out growing as part of the process of empowering black people. They have been farming 3 hectares since 1967 and feel that cane growing needs to be done on larger pieces of land for it to be profitable.
5.5 Limited alternative Land for People Displaced by the
Investment
5.5.1 The Committee noted that there is limited alternative land for the people who were displaced, as the 0.5 hectares have not been allocated to all those whose land was taken up by the investment. Some of the beneficiaries of the 0.5 ha travel long distances of between 10-15 kilometers to the allocated land. The Communal Land Act [Chapter 20:04], Section 12 requires that those who suffered dispossession or diminution of their right to occupy or use the land be provided with alternative land or be compensated. This has not been the case with the Chisumbanje community.
5.5.2 The Committee observed with concern the resettlement problem faced by Mr William Mhlanga of Chinyamukwakwa village under Chief Garahwa, who was negatively affected by the introduction of the Chisumbanje Ethanol Plant which took the greater part of Ndooyo communal lands for sugar cane plantation fields. He has a family of 58 children, 600 cattle, 70 goats, 6 donkeys and 24 sheep. His homestead is about ten (10) meters away from the sugar cane plantation fields and as such, his livestock has nowhere to graze. He was ploughing 30 hectares which have been engulfed by the project and his wish is to get another piece of land anywhere in Chipinge as he is having challenges securing pastures for the livestock. The situation has not improved in spite of appeals made on his behalf by Headman Chinyamukwakwa to the DA Chipinge and various letters from Mr Mhlanga himself to the DA.
5.5.3 The Committee gathered that those displaced by the project should be allocated at least two (02) hectares per household to grow sugar cane for sale to the project as a source of income. The community stressed that further displacements from the land they had been living on historically should be stopped forthwith as land for resettlement is no longer available.
5.5.4 Chief Garahwa informed the Committee that families are now running short of food and occasionally going hungry as they no longer cultivate the larger pieces of land that they used to. The current 0.5 ha is so inadequate that the harvest cannot satisfy the nutritional requirements of an average household. Hence, he advocated for chiefs and other traditional leaders to be allocated an additional four (04) hectares for ‘zunde ramambo’ to augment food security and fulfill their cultural obligations to the community.
5.5.5 The community also informed the Committee that the Ethanol Project had taken up grazing land for their animals. Livestock farmers said they had no alternative pastures to graze their cattle and as a result they were forced to sell their cattle at give-away prices. They also have not received any compensation for livestock lost due to the chemicals in the effluent water discharged from the plant which they are exposed to.
5.5.6 It emerged that due to this land challenge, villagers now preferred to return to the previous status quo where they would go back to their original homesteads and continue farming on their land as before, while the ethanol plant uses ARDA’s land only.
5.6 Lack of Genuine and Inclusive Consultations
5.6.1 Members of the community were also riled by lack of adequate consultation by the company of all stakeholders in the affected community. They bemoaned the lack of genuine consultations and accused the company of selective consultation which they said was done just for window-dressing purposes. The Committee noted that the designing and implementation of the land deal lacked transparency and accountability. It was further worried about the lack of a clearly shared implementation plan of the investment.
5.6.2 The Committee learnt that the community was greatly concerned about the disbandment of DEPIC which had been set up in line with recommendations of the Inter-Ministerial Cabinet Taskforce led by the then Deputy Prime Minister Professor A.G.O. Mutambara in 2012. The Committee gathered that DEPIC has been disbanded by the former Minister of Energy and Power Development, Hon Dzikamai Mavhaire, acting in cahoots with the Member of the National Assembly for Chipinge South Constituency, Hon Enock Porusingazi, and the company, principally to safeguard and advance the interests of Green Fuel at the expense of the communities in the general area of Chisumbanje. It emerged that the community suspected that money and/or other inducements had changed hands between the trio an allegation disputed by the former Minister in a letter he wrote to the
Committee. As a result, this has deprived the community of a platform through which to raise their grievances and share ideas on how best the company should serve the interests of the local community.
5.6.3 It was felt that DEPIC was better able to represent the interests of all stakeholders, and thereby help avert any potential source of conflict but that since its disbandment, relations between the company and the community had deteriorated.
5.6.4 Some of the villagers at the public hearing accused Government of siding with white capital and of having lost interest in their welfare. The company owners and management were also accused of arrogance and lack of respect to traditional leaders as well as lack of appreciation of cultural customs and values. A case in point is the alleged assault of Headman Chinyamukwakwa by a white Green Fuel senior employee.
5.7 Employment Opportunities
5.7.1 The other bone of contention regarding the Ethanol Project was the issue regarding employment opportunities for the locals. Chief Garahwa informed the Committee that the people of Chisumbanje, which hosts the project, should be given priority when it comes to employment at the project. The community expressed disappointment at the investor for failing to employ them since most of the employees at the company, especially general-hand workers, were from other provinces at the expense of the unemployed youths in the Chisumbanje community.
5.8 Unfair Labour Practices
5.8.1 Green Fuel’s labour relations are less than satisfactory as workers are not allowed to have a Worker’s Committee and those who try are victimized and often end up losing their jobs. The responsible union, Zimbabwe Energy Workers Union (ZEWU), is not allowed to intervene on behalf of the workers. The Committee gathered during the public hearing that the workers were not affiliated to a relevant NEC, in breach of existing labour regulations and statutes. It also emerged that the company does not have a job grading structure. In addition, the workers go for months without being paid.
5.8.2 The Committee was further told that seasonal workers were made to work for long hours from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. for a daily rate of $2.50. Ill-treatment of workers was also cited as rampant at the company.
5.9 Unfulfilled Community Projects
5.9.1 The Community was not amused by Green Fuel’s failure to fulfill promises that it made at the establishment of the project, especially those projects meant to benefit the community by alleviating poverty. Hence the community members questioned the Government’s sincerity on its Indigenization and Economic Empowerment Policy and its current economic blue print, ZIM ASSET, which both stipulate that investors should plough back 10% equity to the communities they operate from.
5.9.2 The Committee gathered that, the company has not fulfilled the promises it made to the villagers and as a result, their quality of life has deteriorated as they are no longer earning the income they used to get from cotton prior to the coming on-board of the company. Some children have stopped attending school as the parents’ source of income has been removed.
5.10 Pollution & Health Issues
5.10.1 As gathered from the community and EMA, Green Fuel has been discharging toxic effluent into Jerawachera stream, Musazvi River and eventually Save River. Livestock and aquatic deaths have been recorded due to contact with polluted water downstream. This was in contravention of the Environmental Management Act (Section 57) which stipulates that it is an offence for any person to discharge or apply poisonous or toxic, noxious or obstructing matter, radio-active waste or other pollutants into the aquatic environment.
5.10.2 In its defence, the company asserts that it carried out the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) report and submitted it to
EMA on 22nd February 2011 and that in terms of Section 100 of the Environmental Management Act (Chapter 20:27), in the event that EMA does not respond within 60 days after the submission, the EIA report shall be deemed approved. Green Fuel argues that EMA did not respond within the requisite time frame and thus, the EIA was deemed to be approved.
5.10.3 Upon further investigations, the Committee on 23rd
September 2014, heard from Environmental Management Agency
(EMA). EMA verified that the ethanol plant is a prescribed project in terms of Section 97 (1) of the EMA Act and therefore, should only be implemented upon granting of an EIA certificate. The Committee was informed that at the onset of the project in June 2010, Green Fuel was required to do a full EIA study, but they proceeded to implement the project without it, thereby contravening the law. The agency informed the Committee that during a couple of inspection visits in February 2011 and September 2012, they issued Green Fuel tickets for violating the law, and issued an order to cease operations and regularise, which the company received but refused to sign and continued operating. In between these visits, on 22nd June 2011, Green Fuel partially submitted an EIA document to EMA, which to date has not been processed since the company does not want to complete the submission procedures, among them payment of a fee. Despite receiving of tickets and instructions on what to do to safely handle effluent, Green Fuel has to date not complied but argues that it is expensive implying that they find it cheaper to continue polluting the environment and paying fines. EMA, on 24th September 2012 opened a docket for operating without and EIA.
The matter is yet to be finalized after the company had got away with a $20 fine, before EMA applied for the docket to be re-opened.
5.10.4 The Committee gathered from Mr Dhliwayo that his younger brother, Robert Chivaura, had been affected by ‘dhanda’ water on his legs, which has vinasse, potash and other chemicals from the plant, as a result of which he has wounds and could no longer walk properly. The victim, Robert Chivaura, was present at the public hearing and the Committee was able to physically witness his state and even took photographs of him. Since he was affected, he had been failing to secure money for medical treatment as the investor did not want to help him. It emerged that many other people in the village had fallen ill due to the contaminated water coming from the plant, pointing out that there is need for urgent health intervention for everyone in the village.
5.11 Inadequate Consideration of the Balance between the
Investment and Food Security
5.11.1 The relationship between the investment and food security and vulnerability was not given adequate analytical attention. The community was concerned that, in the absence of a clear set of operational guidelines on investment, land use, access to market and credit, land transfers under the investment could have tremendous implications for livelihoods, food security and social justice.
5.12 Traffic Accidents
5.12.1 The Committee gathered that the community was up in arms against the company for its reckless drivers who have caused 15 fatal accidents of children in the area. Members of the community said that the company did not even have the courtesy to assist with burial costs but arrogantly referred parents of the victims to its lawyers. As a result, the community has now developed an aversion to the employment of unlicenced drivers by the company.
5.13 Preference for an Alternative Model
5.13.1 The Committee learnt that, in light of the problems currently facing the people, there is preference for a model where resettled households themselves are given inputs to grow sugar cane and sell it to a company of their choice, just like the model used by cotton companies where farmers are given seed, fertilizers and pesticides and sell the cotton to the contractors. It was felt that the envisaged model would be more effective in empowering farmers than the one Macdom was using.
5.14 Insensitivity to Local Culture and Customs
5.14.1 The community was concerned about the insensitivity and disrespect shown by the company to local culture and traditional practices, for example, when it tempered with graves and burial places during excavations.
6.0 Recommendations
6.1 In view of the above findings, the Committee recommends:-
6.1.1. That the decision to disband DEPIC be immediately reversed and that the role of the former Minister of Energy and Power
Development, Hon Dzikamai Mavhaire and the Member of the National Assembly for Chipinge South Constituency, Hon Enock Porusingazi be investigated to establish the truth of what transpired.
6.1.2. That the ARDA Board Chairman, Mr Basil Nyabadza, clarifies the issue of land ownership between ARDA, Green Fuel and the community.
6.1.3. That land sizes allotted to farmers resettled in 1967 be reviewed upwards in line with their needs.
6.1.4.That the audit on land, buildings, livestock, crops, family sizes and business enterprises lost to make way for the project be expedited to facilitate meaningful and realistic compensation before the
2015 farming season.
6.1.5. That human, animal or avian victims of ailments arising from contact with contaminated water be adequately compensated and that the company takes urgent measures to facilitate their treatment and rehabilitation.
6.1.6. That the local component in the entire investment by Macdom, Rating and Green Fuel be progressively increased in line with the Indigenization and Economic Empowerment Act (Chapter 14:33) and that a Community Share Ownership Trust for Chipinge South and
Chipinge District, in general, be set up during this Second Session of the
8th Parliament along the lines of the Zimunya-Marange Community Share Ownership Trust.
6.1.7. That Green Fuel fully complies with the requirements of the Environmental Impact Assessment process by December 2015, and that the penalties for non-compliance with provisions of the Environmental
Management Act be immediately reviewed upwards.
6.1.8 That Green Fuel lives up to its undertaking to rehabilitate roads, schools, boreholes, clinics and animal health infrastructure, among other Corporate Social Responsibility activities.
6.1.9. That Green Fuel takes immediate, deliberate measures to reduce fatalities due to accidents caused by project vehicles around the plant, fields and access roads.
6.1.10. That Green Fuel respects the traditional leadership, as well as the norms, values and customs of the local people, including the allocation of an adequate number of hectares to each traditional leader for the ‘zunde ramambo’.
6.1.11. That for any further recruitment, Green Fuel gives priority to the employment of qualifying and train able people from the local area and adheres to standard labour practices.
7.0 Conclusion
The Indigenization and Economic Empowerment (General)
Regulations, 2010 (IEE), in its enshrined Community Share Ownership Trust (CSOT) scheme, offers a lucrative 'quick gain' in line with the
Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (ZIM ASSET). The Committee appreciates that the ceding of 51% stake in foreign controlled entities is not an overnight fast-track task. However, the 'sustainable economic empowerment and social transformation' of communities like Chisumbanje can be surely be done with immediate benchmark gains through more robust and evaluable social responsibility schemes like CSOT. It is high time Government make a strong statement of intent and also reviews the shambolic way in which the IEE Act, especially its community empowerment objective is being implemented by entities like Green Fuel with whom it has joint ventures. It is sad to note that the state has not shown any urgency to bring to order the evident dis-empowered of the people of Chisumbanje, but has shown more concern to support the business side of the Ethanol Project.
- CHIBAYA: Thank you very much Madam Chair, I rise to support the report presented by the Chairperson of the Committee on Youth Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment. Madam Chair, as Parliament, we are there to make laws and to provide a representative role as well as provide oversight role. Madam Speaker, your Committee visited Chisumbanje ethanol plant as has been alluded to by the Chairperson of the Committee. The purpose of the visit was to see if the company is actually following the laws of the country, that includes of course, the Indigenisation law and the Community Share Ownership Trust.
Madam Speaker, I would like to indicate or to highlight to this august House that as far as Community Share Ownership Trust is concerned, there is no law which enforces the companies to actually do projects to communities. So, I would like to recommend to this august House, if the Minister can come up with a law which will be actually be followed by the companies or which enforces companies to actually do projects to the communities where these companies are established.
Madam President, I would like to reiterate that when this company was established, the people of Chinyamupapa and other villages that have been mentioned by the Chair of the Committee were expecting that their lives where going to actually improve but it is sad to mention that the people from Chisumbanje area who owned shops and also those villagers were actually displaced. When these people were displaced, there was an agreement which was entered into between the company and these villagers but what is sad is that the company did not compensate these villagers. By the time we visited Chisumbanje Ethanol Plant, the villagers were complaining that the company did not honour its promises.
The other issue is in regard to those villagers who grow sugar cane.
Their concern is about the price. The company is buying sugar cane at
US$4 per tonne as compared to US$70 at Hippo Valley. If we subtract
US$4 from US$70 we get US$66. You can see the huge difference.
That is clear exploitation.
On the issue of employment, the people from Chisumbanje were complaining that when the company was established, they thought that the local people were going to be given the first priority when it comes to employment. What actually happened is the opposite. They were not given the opportunity and 70 to 80% of the people employed there are from outside the area. They are saying there is nothing for them to celebrate. They are not enjoying the fruits of the company whereas you know that if there is a company established in an area, the local people expect to get the benefits. The truth of the matter is that the people benefited nothing.
When it comes to the issue of Community Share Ownership Trust, the management of ethanol plant in Chisumbanje, is that they did some projects at schools and also the community. When we carried out our visit, there was totally nothing which means that the company lied to the Committee and to the people from that area.
I also learnt that the people from Chisumbanje were surviving through growing and selling cotton. The land they were using for that purpose was actually taken by this company. What it basically means is that their children were going to school through the sale of cotton. It means that these people are now suffering as a result of that company but I think this company was supposed to serve the community.
When this company was established, the people from
Chinyamukwakwa complained that there was inadequate consultation. They were not even consulted. They only consulted the local leaders; these are the councillors and the Members of Parliament. I do not want to labour much on that issue because it has been alluded to by the
Chairman. The local leaders did not also report back to the community. This basically means that there was lack of transparency and accountability. It is a clear sign that these local leaders were actually benefiting at the expense of the community.
I want to urge hon. members in this august House to visit their pigeon holes so that they can have sight of the report because frankly speaking, there is need for Government to take serious measures about what is happening at Chisumbanje Ethanol Plant. The people there are suffering. If they do not have anyone to represent them – according to what they called your Committee, they said that the Member of Parliament from that area is benefiting. The hon. member is Hon.
Porusingazi. I think it has been alluded to by the hon…
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Speak to the Chair hon. member.
- CHIBAYA: Thank you very much Madam Chair… THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Madam Speaker.
- CHIBAYA: Madam Speaker – [Laughter.]- Madam Speaker and Madam Chair I think is almost the same thing. The people from that area where complaining that they are not being represented by their local Member of Parliament. Surely, this august House needs to take measures against the hon. member because he was elected by the people from that same area. They expect that if they have problems in the area, they go to present their grievances to their Member of Parliament and he or she is there to solve those grievances, either in that area or here in Parliament.
I would like to end by saying that hon. members in this august House should kindly support the report presented here by the Hon. Chair Mr. Wadyajena. I thank you.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: I have an announcement. May the hon. member with vehicle ACM 0258 kindly go and remove your car as it is blocking other members.
- MARIDADI: Thank you Madam Speaker for giving me this opportunity. I would like to thank the Chairman of the Portfolio Committee that has presented this report. It is very thorough and it is eloquently presented.
Madam Speaker, the issue of Green Fuel touches on the core of some of the issues that we have debated in this House. It touches on the core of leadership and corruption in this country. I would want to take you back. If you browse the internet and look at who owns Green Fuel; it is owned by a person who is known as Billy Rautenbach or Muller
Conrad Rautenbach. He was born in 1959 and is listed as a
Zimbabwean millionaire and entrepreneur.
If you look at his profile, it is very interesting. It is littered with corruption, lack of corporate governance, swindling and theft wherever he has gone to do business. It says here that he owned a trucking company called Wheels of Africa in Zimbabwe. I remember Wheels of Africa was operating from Msasa and there were so many people coming from my constituency Mabvuku-Tafara who were employed by this company as drivers. Today, there are so many women that were left as widows as a result of their husbands dying on the roads as drivers of
Wheels of Africa because they were not getting enough time to rest.
That is number one.
Number two; Mr. Billy Rautenbach had businesses in South Africa and Botswana. His businesses in both countries were placed under judicial management or liquidation. He left a debt of one billion rands in South Africa and 900 million pula in Botswana. He went on to do business in the DRC during the time of Mr. Laurent Kabila. He was declared persona non grata in DRC.
Again in South Africa, he came to a settlement of 40 million dollars after he had been implicated in some shoddy deals. And not only that; in 2009, he admitted in a South African court of law that he had given US$100 000 to a convicted drug dealer called Glen Agliotti to pass it on to the Commissioner of South African Police, who is now late, Mr. Jackie Selebi because he wanted the Commissioner of Police to sort out his mess in his businesses.
Madam Speaker, this is the same person who was given a licence to take more than 5 000 hectares of land and put under sugarcane, moving hundreds of families and not compensating them. What makes it so painful in this country is that Mr. Billy Rautenbach will tell you that no one will touch him because he is connected. The report that has been presented by the Chairman of the Portfolio Committee alludes to that. He was being backed by the Minister of Energy and Power Development and an hon. member who was elected by the people of Chisumbanje to represent them in Parliament is actually getting money from Mr. Billy Rautenbach so that he protects him. That cannot be accepted Madam Speaker.
Hon. Porusingazi should have been sitting in this House to hear what the members of the Portfolio Committee was going to present because he is a member of that Portfolio Committee, but he decides to bunk this Parliament and maybe go and meet Mr. Rautenbach and tell him that chabvondoka muParliament - [Laughter] -.
Madam Speaker, as the seconder of this report has said, something must be done. I think the former Minister of Energy and Power Development must be brought to answer questions and must be held accountable to the people of Zimbabwe. Also, if it means the political party that Hon. Porusingazi represents in Parliament must recall him, it must do so.
One of the biggest problems that we have in this country, Madam Speaker, is that of corruption and that is an issue that has been debated so passionately by members of this House. All Committees have discussed this issue very passionately and to hear that someone has moved families, he has not compensated them and nothing has happened to him; he has been given a licence and yet he has not complied with the
51/49 percent. What you must realise is that the senior management of Green Fuel is made up of white people only and some of them are actually expatriates. They are not Zimbabweans but these are people that are taken from other countries who come here with expertise which we have in this country. What does the law say about employing expatriates? It says that you can only employ an expatriate if the skills that he is going to bring are not available in the country, but we have people employed as company secretaries at Green Fuel and yet we have so many people who have CIS qualifications who are lawyers who could actually work as company secretaries.
Madam Speaker, on the issue of polluting water in people’s main source of domestic water, what has happened is that Green Fuel, because it is a rich company, discharges toxic substances into sources of drinking water and what does EMA do? EMA goes there and makes them pay a fine of US$ 5000, which Mr. Rautenbach can actually pay from his change, that is petty cash that he uses to give to Mr. Porusingazi and to the Minister of Mines and Mining Development.
Madam Speaker, I am going to say this without fear or favour because this is a report that has been presented to this Parliament and the Portfolio Committee did a wonderful job because they actually went to great lengths to come up with these issues. That is why when he was still Minister of Energy and Power Development, Hon. Dzikamai Mavhaire came to this House and stood his ground and he said that he was going to force fuel to be blended. How do you come up with a policy as a Minister of Government, which benefits an individual at the expense of fourteen million Zimbabweans and this is an individual whose skin colour is not as dark as ours?
Madam Speaker, I think this report must be given the due consideration that it deserves and it must be implemented. We must go to implementation if it means this Parliament is going to drag one of its own over the cause, so let it be. If it means that the Senate is going to drag one of its own over the cause, let it be. I think Hon. Dzikamai Mavhaire and Hon. Paul Porisungazi should be put to the wall on this issue here.
In conclusion, Madam Speaker, I want to say - why is it that Billy Rautenbach is untouchable? If you browse on the internet, three quarters of the Cabinet of Zimbabwe are personal friends of Billy Rautenbach. This is how Mr. Billy Rautenbach, after Zimbabwe got into the DRC war, was one of the people who was on the road to go to the DRC and to get involved in mining. Madam Speaker, the issue of
Mr. Billy Rautenbach was raised by a Member of this Parliament, Hon.
Themba Mliswa and he was booed. The issue of the Chairman of ARDA, Mr. Basil Nyabadza was raised by Hon. Mliswa, that he benefited a house from Mr. Billy Rautenbach and he was also booed.
Madam Speaker, this issue must be investigated and all those that benefited, especially if they are members of this House, must be dragged over the cause and they must be put to the defence. I thank you.
*MR. MUTSEYAMI: Thank you Madam Speaker for the time that you have given me. We thank you for the report that has been presented before us. I am going to say a few words in connection with this report.
Firstly, the firm that is being talked about, the owners of Green Fuel company, are taking more than 42 000 hectares. They are taking what is known as Greater Chisumbanje; from Chisumbanje to Hakata, going further to Garahwa. This is an area that was inhabited by people since the 1950s. If you look back, you will find that there is a programme that was brought into this country. It was said that the black man had to get land and this programme came in 2000 and the black majority got land. After acquiring this land, we then look at the issue of Green Fuel and we see that Africans are now losing their land again in the areas where they used to stay since the 1950s where they used to farm their crops and rear their cattle. These farms were taken and there was no compensation that was paid to them. They are not respected in any way as children of Zimbabwe and this land is taken and given to one person.
This is what we were talking about; that the idea that was there was that people would get land and engage in farming, but this was land that was already for the black man in the rural areas, not that it belonged to anyone. They are the ones who cleared the area and grew their maize and other crops, but today that area is being given to Rautenbach to engage in sugar cane production.
Looking at the policy of land to the people of Zimbabwe, it is different. It is an issue that needs to be looked into. If we look at those people who lost their land in the Greater Chisumbaje area, these are people who had grown their maize. Some of their cotton was already budding but it was destroyed. They put canals which are so big and wide and when the cattle go there for water which is not ideal because the cattle end up dying as the canal is deep. There is no fence that separates the people’s homesteads from the canal. The canal was put in the middle of the night and there is nothing much that the people can do. They need protection from the police. If you want to do anything you are arrested. Some of them actually said they have people and a number of cases are before the courts for them not to lose their land. The land is being lost by the people of Zimbabwe and that person has nowhere else to go because that land is his area but it has now been given to Billy Rautenbach. This is affecting the whole country.
Madam Speaker, if you consider this issue, if the project is to come as a good development to the country, then it should benefit those who stay within the community and they should be given first preference to farm sugarcane. They should be given adequate knowledge and research assistance in ploughing so as to add beneficiation to the sugarcane, not that Billy Rautenbach ploughs the sugarcane and he has the trucks that carry the sugar to the plant.
Again, he also has the plant that processes the sugar and after having the plant that processes the sugar, he would then transport the sugar from Chisumbanje to Harare. He is the one who was given all the fuel that we are using in Zimbabwe. For every litre there is a percentage of sugar from Billy Rautenbach. Do you not realise that you have given one person so much? Twenty percent for each litre of petrol that is sold, there is 20% belonging to Billy Rautenbach. I think that issue needs to be addressed.
We went as a Committee and I was there on that particular day when the Committee went there. Hon. Minister Mutasa, Hon. Minister
Made, Hon. Minister Mangoma and the Deputy Prime Minister
Mutambara during that period were there. People said a lot in
Chisumbanje at the township. A report was compiled and taken to Cabinet to be actioned. People were promised compensation and that they would be assisted to engage in sugarcane farming but up to today nothing has been done.
What we are requesting Madam Speaker is that, Parliament should also stand for these people and represent the people of Zimbabwe so that their concerns and challenges are taken into consideration and that they can be addressed. There are people from Chipinge and there are now Ndau people. They are losing their land and does this not pain you hon. members because I am greatly pained that a person loses 30 ha that he used to plant cotton on which he was able to buy farm implements like tractors, look after his wives and send his children to school. Now, he has lost 30 ha and he is given 3 ha to engage in tomato production. Can you really feed three wives on such a small plot of land? So the Government should assist.
I thank the Committee for the report that has been tabled. We also need to look at something else. We heard that there was an accident involving a Green Fuel truck that had a head-on collision with a lorry carrying a family that was going to bury their relative where 27 people died. These people are survived by wives and children, and do not have a bread winner anymore but there was a promise that Green Fuel would assist the children to continue with their education but they have not paid anything. Green Fuel had also promised to employ a child above 18 years to ensure that they can sustain themselves and be able to pay fees for the surviving children but nothing has taken place.
We also agreed that the graves should be laid with tombstones but if you look at what has happened today, they were just supplied with bags of cement. The tombstones that we agreed on, that they should have the names of the dead and also the fences that were supposed to be put up - nothing. We had graveyards that had 10 – 15 people but up to today, we have not seen those tombstones. Green Fuel had promised all that. We are saying that Green fuel is not experiencing challenges that it makes it difficult for them to get the tombstones and yet it gets 20% for every litre of fuel that is sold but up to today, nothing has been done. The fence is not even there. I heard from the relatives that the dead are not happy with what is happening because one of the graves has a huge crack reflecting that something is not right.
Green Fuel should honour its promise to the Muyambo family to ensure that these people rest in peace. That is corporate governance but it is not there. What we see here is the spirit that was there during the colonial regime. Hon. Minister Made is here and what I am saying is nothing new to him. He heard the people say it themselves. Even the war veterans were complaining that they are losing their land and were asking what they would do.
I am requesting Madam Speaker that you assist us to ensure that our country develops. We agree that Green Fuel has brought development in Chipinge. If we are to count the buildings in Checheche, they were built before Green Fuel came. The buildings that are in Checheche and the development in Checheche, Hakwata and Mabehe were constructed because of the cotton that was planted long back. That is what actually developed the area. We then had a cotton ginnery. Now, there is fuel and what is happening is that this has brought hunger and poverty. It has threatened food security as people now are not able to engage in farming.
If you look at the few Ndau people who were employed by Green Fuel, most of them are in arrears of their salaries for 3 – 4 months. So what we are requesting is that the report that was tabled be acted upon so that we can see tangible fruits so that the people can realise that their concerns are being addressed. The people in Hakavara, Chisumbanje, Vheneka, Chinyamukwaka, Jerauchera, Mabehe and Rukandare should see progress on this issue.
I want to thank those who debated on the motion. I am sure Hon.
Minister Made will ensure that something is done. I want to thank the Chairperson of the Committee, Hon. Wadyajena for presenting a report that shows a true picture of what is on the ground and we are looking forward to seeing fruits from this report, the Government should step in. We can say that probably it was not acted on, because Hon. Mutasa was the responsible Minister who benefited in some way. Now, that he is no longer on the picture, we want to see what the new Minister is going to do about the Chisumbanje issue. Thank you.
*MR. MAPIKI: Thank you Mr. Speaker. Firstly, I want to thank the Chairperson of the Committee. Mr. Speaker Sir, if all Committees would bring such reports, I think as Parliament we can then say we are now working. It shows that they were able to put their heads together and researched. The Committee gave a report that reflected that at one time we thought there was no more discrimination but we have realised that it is still there. The white man is now disrespecting even the village heads; he is causing more problems and disturbing what he is not supposed to. The traditional leaders in those areas are now being ruled by the white man.
What concerns me is the contract farming that is done by this white man. He is not the only one who is discriminating but even those who are engaged in tobacco plantation, people are doing national service, and are not benefiting at all. This will continue and it affects us, we thought that by chasing away the white man we had done the right thing but now, people are being paid US$4.00 per tonne. So, I think the issue of contract farming should be looked into. We might just think of what is happening in Chiredzi but the whole country is in trouble. Contract farming should be investigated, be it in tobacco farming or anything; we need to look into the issue of indigenisation because it is now causing more poverty.
This man called Billy Rautenbach, we have problems with him again in Shamva, he is the one who is buying gold and smuggling it. It surprises us that there are white men who are doing such things. If there are people who are benefiting and not doing anything about it, that is what is causing havoc. In Shamva, there is no more gold because this white man called Billy, is buying it all. If a child is caught with gold, it will be for Billy. The way the white men are coming is that they are now using our fellow black people. They are benefiting, are given certain benefits and are allowed to operate. I do not know what this white man really did because the blood that was shed during the liberation struggle was for the liberation of the country. If we are to consider the cost of all the people who died during the war, I am sure that this white man cannot compare to that. If people are benefiting from our resources, they should make sure they give back to the community but this white man is just getting a lot of resources without giving back to the community.
In Kariba, people got a tender to build, they are charging very high prices but in Zambia, the charges are very little and then in Zimbabwe it was six times what they charged in Zambia. So, can we sit back and think we are being assisted; it is like you are losing your wife to someone else. If a project costs US$3 million, if they buy using the
right prices, they multiply it by 4 or 5 here in Zimbabwe and they continue milking us to an extent that we end up poor. So, I think the policy of Indigenisation should be interrogated and investigate people like Billy investigated.
Even the way EMA is operating, if a service station allows fuel to run into a stream, the owner of the filling station should be dealt with. These people are causing a lot of harm and damage and it affects the vegetables and animals. In Shamva, if the gold panners get into the rivers with torn gumboots, they will be arrested and expected to pay US$5 000 fine but people like Billy use our resources and benefit from them for no reason. If I were one of those people, I would go and brew beer to ensure that they perform a job that they are supposed to be doing as EMA.
Even the assistance that we are getting as Zimbabwe, we need to look into it because there are some who come with the aim of assisting but at the end of the day, it affects us negatively. So, this affects the whole country. What is happening is not only in Chiredzi but it is in the whole country. Those who are into chrome mining are also being exploited. They cannot even afford a bicycle tyre yet they are miners and yet Billy is on the other hand taking kgs of gold. It is said that his fuel costs 92 cents yet other fuel is 60 cents and no one has questioned that. Even if it is corruption, it has reached alarming levels because it affects everyone.
We talked about the issue of the white man using the black man in the forefront and this has become an issue. Most black men who are shareholders are just there as holders but the people who control the companies are the white men. I think we should also tighten our legislation; people like Billy should be exposed because people are living in poverty because of him. After independence, people hoped that they would end poverty and be able to sustain themselves but this is not what is happening. This report has exposed what was not supposed to be exposed because we have now realized that we thought we were liberated but that is not the case. When people come, they say a lot of positive things and we are fooled into thinking that it is right and yet that is not the case.
I was touched by Hon. Mutseyami, he was able to explain that the Ndau people have been affected and they are angry with what is happening. I am also concerned with gold in Shamva which is my constituency. People end up having offices and when the police come, no one is arrested; a person is arrested if he is just a gold panner but when Billy is caught with a kg or 20kgs, he is left scot free. So, I thought the legislation needs to be revisited and made stiffer. Hon.
Wadyajena and your Committee, continue to do the good work. Hon. Chibaya and others, continue working in this manner. It has reflected that we are learning every day. Thank you.
- MAONDERA: Thank you Madam Speaker. I would want to
add my voice to such a splendid report which actually shows the corrupt or underhand dealings that are occurring at Chisumbanje. First and foremost, I would want to congratulate Hon. Wadyajena and his
Committee for the excellent work that they did.
In as far as I know, the manner in which Billy Rautenbach behaves, you might have been tempted by being given a sack full of money but you turned it down because you are not prone to corrupt tendencies, you remained steadfast. The corrupt activities that we have heard taking place in Chisumbanje, especially those involving the former Minister of Energy and Power Development and the hon.
member of the National Assembly representing that area should not be swept under the carpet. If an investigation were to reveal that underhand activities were done, they should be incarcerated and that the keys to the jail should be thrown into Lake Chivero so that they can never be found.
It is quite painful because at times I travel along the Chisumbanje road – the state of disrepair of that road is not acceptable. It is now pot hole infested yet we have a major company that is carrying thousands of litres of fuel where they are making a profit out of that but there is no corporate social responsibility. The people of Chisumbanje have no cattle at the moment because they died from drinking contaminated water. This sets back the activities that are being done to restore the national cattle herd. Most people in Chisumbanje are now paupers. Those that are responsible for the environmental management should relook into the issue and see what damage has been done to the climate change because of this company.
We also expect the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Services to also look and see what the welfare of the workers at this company is like. We have also learned that the workers are being ill treated by the management of that company that is mostly composed of whites. This is slavery at its worst because of the legislation or rules that they are made to abide by. Furthermore, they are being subjected to hazardous environment when they do not have sufficient protective clothing.
The Committee that is led by Hon. Chikwama should also look into the welfare of the workers. It is painful. The head of this company Mr. Billy Rautenbach has shown that he has thrown caution to the wind in that he is disrespectful. I do not know how much money is being given to these persons who are working in cahoots with him to the extent that he now believes that he is an untouchable. This august House should not countenance such activities at all.
The most important assets in any environment are the local people.
There are a lot of companies in Zimbabwe such as Zimplats and Mimosa. They are doing quite well in the area of corporate social responsibility. Of course, there may be complaints in certain quarters about the corporate social responsibility but these companies that I have mentioned are doing quite well. I do not know why this company under discussion is being allowed to get away with murder.
Why is it that several Government officials, including Dr. Made paid a visit to the area? Some of the people that were alleged to be residents of Chisumbanje were hired a crowd. They were bussed in. We should not play hide and seek with the lives of these people. These people know the type of lives that they live in and there is no need to hoodwink anyone by bussing any people from outside that area. We should never countenance such behaviour. If such behaviour is not countenanced at all in Zimbabwe, we will be oppressing the rights of the people in that surrounding community to the same factory.
Furthermore, the same company does not respect the traditional leaderships, the chiefs. In terms of our culture, we are very rich in our tradition and values and we respect the office of the traditional leadership. The chiefs are the custodians of our culture and it does not matter how much money an individual would have brought to any given company. We should never overlook the value of our tradition because money has been brought. We also want the relevant ministry to look into the welfare of the chiefs to see if they are happy about the conduct of such companies. Should they be unhappy, the matter should be taken further up.
Lastly, this august House is known for speaking against corruption and we are known for having done that from the onset. Both sides of the House will never countenance corruption at all. The issue of corruption has been mentioned on several occasions and we would want them to be used as an example to show that we are walking the talk. This will act as a deterrent to likeminded offenders.
I want thank you Hon. Wadyajena and Hon. Chibaya for continuing unearthing such unethical and unbridled activities because from time to time, we hear that as the Chairperson of the Committee whether that is true or not, you are being threatened. We appreciate the good work that you are doing. I thank you.
THE MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE, MECHANISATION AND IRRIGATION DEVELOPMENT (DR. MADE): I move that the
debate do now adjourn.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Thursday, 19th February 2015.
On the motion of THE MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE, MECHANISATION AND IRRIGATION DEVELOPMENT, the
House adjourned at Sixteen minutes to Six o’clock p.m.
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Tuesday, 17th February, 2015
The National Assembly met at a Quarter-past Two o’clock p.m.
PRAYERS
(MR. SPEAKER in the Chair)
ANNOUNCEMENT BY MR. SPEAKER
CAPACITY BUILDING SEMINARS
- SPEAKER: I would like to remind the House that Parliament will resume a series of seminars that are meant to capacitate Members of Parliament in the conduct of Committee business. In this regard, the following Portfolio Committees are invited to attend the Capacity
Building Seminar that will be convened in the Senate Chamber on
Wednesday, 18th February, 2015 at exactly 9:00 o’clock. Honourable Members in the Committees that I will announce here should bring with them their national Constitution.
The Committees are as follows: Youth, Indigenisation and
Economic Empowerment; Transport and Infrastructural Development;
Defence, Home Affairs and Security Services; Environment, Water, Tourism and Hospitality Industry. All Committee members are expected to attend this seminar.
SECOND READING
RESERVE BANK OF ZIMBABWE (DEBT ASSUMPTION) BILL
(H.B. 7, 2014)
First Order read: Adjourned debate on motion on the Second Reading of the Reserve bank of Zimbabwe (Debt Assumption) Bill (H.B. 7, 2014).
Question again proposed.
- GONESE: Thank Mr. Speaker Sir, for affording me this opportunity to participate in this very important debate relating to the
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (Debt Assumption Bill).
Mr. Speaker Sir, this debate has generated a lot of excitement, a lot of controversy and it has drawn mixed reactions and emotions from the people of Zimbabwe. There are people who are in support of the Bill and their view basically is to the effect that, Government must assume the obligations of the Reserve Bank and that the former Reserve Bank Governor, Dr. Gideon Gono was a saviour to this nation at a time when the country went through some difficult times. That is the view and the perception of those people. They believe that the quasi-fiscal activities of the Reserve Bank were necessary and indeed kept the nation afloat and they believe that by-gones should be by-gones.
However, on the other hand, there is a diametrically opposed view. There are people who are vigorously, strenuously and in fact violently opposed to the passage of this Bill. They believe that this Bill is actually a scandal that the people’s Parliament must not even be sitting down to debate and contemplate passing a Bill of this nature. For those people Mr. Speaker, their perception is actually that this is a diabolical piece of legislation. Some of those people equate it to the original, Access to Information and Protection and Privicy Bill (AIPPA) when it came before this Parliament. It was described as a diabolical piece of legislation at the time. In the view of those people Mr. Speaker, if we are saying that by-gones should be by-gones, then we must let the Reserve Bank deal with its creditors, liabilities and if it has any assets, it must deal with those assets. Most importantly Mr. Speaker, if there are any debtors who have caused this debt to be incurred, then those debtors must be made to account and that is the view which those people hold.
I think that, it is incumbent upon us as the people’s representatives to be introspective and to examine precisely what this Bill provides and come to our own judgment as to whether this Bill is in the interest of the nation in its present form; particularly in view of the concerns which have been raised. Some of those concerns, I will articulate them as they have been articulated by members of the public, the people whom we represent and who have sent us to this Parliament.
Mr. Speaker Sir, if you have sight of the Schedule which relates to the prior debts which were said to have been incurred by the Reserve Bank. Indeed Mr. Speaker, there is some cause for concern. One of the issues which has been highlighted is the fact that, the Reserve Bank was doubling in quasi-fiscal activities; diverting from its core business, which is really to set the monitory policy and so on. As a result, through its wisdom or the lack of it, it ended up incurring those massive debts which are listed in the schedule. When you look at the issue of tractors, combine harvesters, disc harrows and other agricultural implements, the assumption is that, the people who benefitted were meant to use those agricultural implements for stimulation or production. If they were so able to increase their production, they should surely be in a position to pay back for the value of the tractors which were bought for them. They should be able to pay back for the combine harvesters and all the other implements which were purchased for them.
Mr. Speaker, we have another category of items which were purchased by the Reserve Bank and this relates to things like cars and generators. The people are saying, we need to know the beneficiaries and those people who got those cars. As you know Mr. Speaker, at the time, the Reserve Bank was behaving like Father Christmas.
- J.M. GUMBO: On a point of order Mr. Speaker. The hon. member is just recycling what is already in the Hansard. There is no new information that he is giving us. So, if he can excuse us -[HON.
MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]-
- SPEAKER: Order, order. I overheard the words; ‘shut up’ and my eyes could not properly identify the hon. member. So, the hon. member is spared but let us not use unparliamentary language. What Dr. Gumbo is simply saying is, let us not repeat what has been stated and bring in some freshness into the debate.
- GONESE: Mr. Speaker, I endeavour to bring in a new dimension different to what was articulated. It might be talking about similar issues but from a different angle. This is what I am endeavouring to do. Thank you very much Mr. Speaker and I also believe that for the purpose of emphasis, it is important for the people of Zimbabwe to understand and appreciate where we are coming from as their elected representatives.
Mr. Speaker, I think what is crucial and important is for this Parliament not to be taken for granted and not to be a rubber stamp. I think that it is in the public domain that there are people who benefitted. I think the angle which I want to bring in now, is where there is a conflict of interest. It is the issue of a conflict of interest. If we are to vote on this Bill, certainly Mr. Speaker, those people who are direct beneficiaries must be precluded from participating in that vote because they are interested parties. That view which I am articulating Mr.
Speaker, finds support in the Privileges, Immunities and Powers of Parliament Act (Chapter 2:08). I think that when it was raised in the debate here, I was not present.
- SPEAKER: Order, order. If my memory serves me right, I think it was Hon. Chamisa who raised the issue and I made a ruling and said, the stage at which we are now does not permit the reference to taking a vote. Secondly, may I draw the hon. member’s attention to Order No. 75, which says we should avoid irrelevance and repetition of what has been stated. I will indulge Hon. Gonese to please continue.
- GONESE: I am now going to refer to the Schedule. I believe that there was no specific reference and the concern of the people of Zimbabwe is that we have got a situation where the Minister expects us to condone payment of things which are not clearly specified. We have a situation of where the debt to Kingdom is referred to as various. What does various mean Mr. Speaker, what precisely was it that the debt was incurred for? That is a serious cause for concern. For all we know Mr. Speaker, that money could have been used by somebody to go and pay lobola for a second wife. The Minister is saying ‘various’, what is various, and it is not just the Kingdom Capital one, it also refers to the one for Metallon, it is also described as various.
Another one to Anglo American is also described as ‘various’. How are we expected Mr. Speaker, to condone something which is just described as ‘various’? What does that mean? We do not know. Surely, we cannot expect hon. members of this august House who were elected to represent the people of Zimbabwe to articulate the aspirations of the people of
Zimbabwe, to simply rubberstamp something which is not specified.
Again Mr. Speaker, we have got the one for Meikles which is said to have been incurred by previous administration and it is the Reserve Bank which is saying purpose not clear. I am not inventing this Mr. Speaker, just read it for yourself. Even the Reserve Bank itself does not even know what the purpose was and the Minister has the guts to come before us and say that we must authorise this – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.]-The Peoples Parliament cannot be expected to condone or rubberstamp what the Minister has brought before us.
It is my respectful submission Mr. Speaker, that there must be full disclosure. I know that other members have mentioned it before but for the purpose of emphasis I want to explain why we cannot simply authorise or condone it. We need an explanation and this is what members from this side of the House have been at pains to emphasise.
You must have a clear explanation as to how that debt was incurred.
What was it for? We have got too many unanswered question and as long as those questions remain unanswered, we believe Mr. Speaker that we cannot support this Bill.
Mr. Speaker, what is essential is that the Reserve Bank should make an attempt to reduce the amount from US$1.3 billion –[MR. GUMBO: How?] – I know my brother is asking how. Clearly, those people who benefited must pay and reduce that debt, so that we do not condone anything, it should be reduced to a larger extent by those people who fairly benefited, if they got their electricity paid, if they got their fuel paid – because we see Mr. Speaker, when we make reference to the expenses, there is mention of fuel, mention for electricity, whose electricity bill, whose fuel bill? The suspicion Mr. Speaker Sir, is that that there is a perception out there that these and excuse me for the use of the word that this was for the benefit or responsibility of the fat cats who had been benefitting from the fat land over the years and these are the very same people whose bills were paid, who do not want to pay and they expect the poor impoverished tax payer to foot the bill.
As I stand here Mr. Speaker, this Government is well known for being broke. It is on public record that lecturers at our tertiary institutions have not received their bonuses and I understand they have not received their January pay - [AN HON. MEMBER: Vakapiwa.] -If they got it they only get recently but as at the end of January, they did not receive their salaries. So, we have got a Government which is unable to meet its obligations. It has been unable to release the salaries of the civil servants and it wants to assume RBZ debt.
Indeed Mr. Speaker, it is unable to pay for the fuel of the hon.
Members of Parliament who come to Parliament, week in and week out. It is on public record that those payments are way behind and we are expecting that this Government which is unable to meet its obligations, now wants to assume a debt on behalf of the Reserve Bank when the Reserve Bank itself was dabbling on activities which it was not supposed to be doubling.
The point Mr. Speaker is that the former Reserve Bank Governor who used to say that failure was not an option but because of what he was doing, failure became inevitable, now he expects us as a peoples’ Parliament to simply condone it. I believe Mr. Speaker that as people who have got the interests of the people of Zimbabwe at heart and I want to challenge members who are seated on your right if they have got the interests of the people of Zimbabwe at heart, they must join us – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] – they must agree with us that Hon. Gumbo, if you have got the interest of the people of Zimbabwe at heart, he must join us and support us to say that it is important before we can pass this Bill to reduce the amount. Then and only then - when we have had full disclosures, full specifications of what were incurred and not if you can excuse me for the use of the word nonsense where you have got something described as various and purpose not clear. We cannot support it and for those reasons Mr. Speaker, I want to emphasise that we will not support this Bill and we are in agreement with those Zimbabweans who are violently and vigorously opposed to this Bill. I thank you Mr. Speaker.
*MS. MANGWENDE: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I want to talk about the issue that was mentioned by the previous speaker. The issue of bonus, we were informed by in Mutare by Professor Madhuku that lecturers at the universities had been given their bonuses. On the issue of equipment for farming that he has mentioned, the equipment we were given in 2007; people went ahead and engaged in farming, even those on the opposite side also engaged in farming, what we sent to the GMB was not paid for. I personally delivered ten tonnes and I have not been paid. So, I think we should be paid for that produce. We all benefited from the crops that we grew that year using those implements. So, what I want to say is that the GMB should honour its obligation and pay us. Thank you Mr. Speaker.
*MS. MANGAMI: I also want to add my voice to the motion under debate. First of all I am going to look at the purpose of this Bill to alleviate the problems that are currently being faced by the Reserve
Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ).
Of course, the figures that have been availed by the former speaker are yet to be validated. I am also a member of this Committee. They have since availed a Debt Office where they are going to be validating each figure before payment of all that has been stated as credit to the RBZ. After all, the payment is not in cash, they have negotiated to pay later and some of them have indicated to have the payments made in three years through Treasury Bills.
So I think, Government is doing that because the RBZ acted as an agent. It has been made in such a way that RBZ is not an aide on its own, it was a strategy by Government to do whatever it did as the RBZ has always been acting under Government instructions. It was formed through a government so it is the Government which has the credit to all these financial institutions. It is only assuming its responsibility as it is not anybody’s responsibility but the Government’s because if you look at the RBZ, it is not a private company but a Government entity. All it has done is to act on behalf of Government.
I believe that the US$1.3 million is not all for the mechanization, only US$200 million went for mechanization of which everybody benefitted from. – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] - It was a Government programme whereby everybody was actually assisted when we had our Land Reform Programme... – [HON. MEMBERS:
Inaudible interjections.] -
Of course, we cannot have a …
- SPEAKER: Order, order. The floor is a place where to debate, please stop pointing fingers at each other. You may proceed Hon. Mangami.
- MANGAMI: Thank you very much. As Parliament, we are
being asked to endorse the concept of assuming the debt by the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development as Government. We are not being told of the exact figures as they are going to be continuously validated. We have agreed that all the figures on that schedule should be verified and the Ministry is doing that. I do not think anyone would want to pay for a job that has not been done since they are responsible Zimbabweans because we need that money. You know we have been under sanctions for quite some time, so every cent counts.
We also need our banks to perform. As you are aware, we have credit that emanated from us taking money from other banks. For them to perform, we need to take over the debt that Government assumed and make payment for that.
Lastly, Mr. Speaker Sir, may I also add my voice on the issue of us members being cautious of what Government’s responsibility is. The institutions that we have as Government are ours and we are responsible for whatever happens to them because we are the very people who created them. So, there is need for us to supervise them and it is still our responsibility if they do not perform.
ENG. MUDZURI: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I rise to add my voice to this motion, particularly when we talk about debt assumption. I hope hon. members understand what it means.
What it means is that we are inheriting a debt for the future generations. When we are inheriting a debt for future generations, we must be clear as Parliament and as the third arm of Government what
Government intended to achieve when it did all this. I want to support
Hon. Kuruneri when he spoke because he said, “We need a proper audit of the Reserve Bank on its quasi-fiscal performances to ensure that we get a proper understanding of what transpired”.
I want to say, a lot of members here are debating like they are supporting it because they have a pie in it and have already taken something from it. The issue here is not about whether you took something or not, but the nation must know and understand that this Parliament is assuming a debt which is clearly defined and to whom the money went to, who benefited and what are the main reasons it cannot be paid back? – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] -
We insist that there are so many able bodied members who have stood in this august House and argued that they got a tractor. I remember Hon. Chinotimba saying, “Yes, I got a tractor and benefited”. Some of the members are arguing for the sake of their own benefit and not for the sake of the benefit of future generations. Government and us as Parliament, must be looking at this as the Constitution directs. The Constitution states that, we have an oversight role as Government and that oversight role comes by how we analyze Government’s performance. If we leave our work half done and assume this debt, then we will be negating our duties and failing to achieve.
I want to ask that, should we want to pass this Bill without a proper audit and analysis of who owes what? I think, we should put this to a vote because I want to define myself in a secret ballot and say, no, this is not a debt to be assumed by me or any sane-minded Zimbabwean.
*MR. SARUWAKA: Thank you Mr. Speaker for giving me this opportunity to debate on the Government to assume the RBZ debt at a time when it was performing duties that were not theirs.
I wanted to clarify that the way I understand this issue is that the Government in this day and age is burdened because of the economic crisis. Hon. Chinamasa has come here a couple of times to present his Budget and explained that the available funds have been used to pay civil servants. So I think, it is not a good move for us to burden the Government with this Bill when it is facing challenges in paying salaries to its workers.
When the RBZ was accruing this debt, it had very good programmes, Sunrise 1 and 2, where there were changes in the money that was available, there was BACOSSI 1 and 2 and those names given were quite entertaining. We also had some mechanisation 1 and 2. What I want to explain Mr. Speaker, is that sometimes people do not understand the mistakes that were made in the accruals of these bills. Some wanted to protect their counterparts, but they might get just a bit in an effort to help a few of their friends. You find that others were given tractors that they are utilising fully. It is not right for us to defend those who have 5 to 7 combine harvesters that are just lying idle at their farms.
In talking about this Debt Assumption Bill, I heard one Member of Parliament talking about the fact that some of the members from the previous Parliament were given vehicles from the RBZ. As Parliament, the Government actually owes us a lot of money and these arrears are still there. If there are any people who received cars from the RBZ, it should be transparent. Our country has very good intentions but it fails in terms of implementation and the issue of the debt that is being explained Mr. Speaker, some of these for example, can be compared to what happened during the land reform. It is not everyone in ZANU PF who was able to get land but others became multiple farm owners. So while we are saying that there should be transparency on how this bill was accrued, is it not that the RBZ gave the same individuals the same implements.
Lastly, Mr. Speaker, we always hear of people talking about the importance of agriculture as a business that yields a lot of money from farming. Those people who were given implements during the farm mechanisation, were given an order to ensure that there is food security in Zimbabwe.
*MR. CHINOTIMBA: On a point of order Mr. Speaker, we are talking about a debt, we are not talking about land reform and how many people benefited from the land reform. So these people should stick to the motion on the Debt Assumption Bill that they know about and that they benefited from. So I do not think there is need for us to proceed with this debate. I thank you – [DR. J. GUMBO: Mr. Speaker, Hon. Zwizai is making a lot of noise, he must go and sit where he is supposed to sit on the other side.] –
- SPEAKER: Order, any member who temporarily crosses
the floor must abide by the ethics of where he goes – [Laughter.] –
*Hon. Chinotimba, I do not think the speaker is out of order, he was about to finish his debate so let him wind up his debate, thank you.
*MR. SARUWAKA: Thank you Mr. Speaker for your protection
and ensuring that people continue to listen to the debate. What I wanted to say Mr. Speaker is that those people, who were assisted by RBZ on farm mechanisation, were assisted in order to engage in agriculture because agriculture is business as we all know. So if these people do not want to pay for those implements that they have got, are they saying that they admit that they have failed as farmers? If so, they should let the whole country know that they are failures, because if they are managing it, there should not be a problem for them to pay for these implements than for everyone in Zimbabwe to bear the cost and pay for the implements. If this debt is accrued by the Government, it means the Government will not pay for those people with the debts, so we are saying that if they received those implements and used them, they should be requesting for a system whereby they pay in installments for their implements.
If we were to go and borrow such implements from these people, they will personalise these implements but when it comes to paying for the implements, they want us to share the costs. So what I am saying is we cannot agree on sharing the cost of those implements. I want to thank you for the opportunity that you have given me and I want to reiterate that the people who got implements from this country should buy and pay for these implements, so that there is less debt for the country to take care of. I realise that there are those who added this farm mechanisation project to the debt that the RBZ has accrued so they should pay for these implements. I thank you.
+MR. MGUNI: Thank you Mr. Speaker. Firstly Mr. Speaker, we should look at what the Minister brought before this august House and I think it is a very good thing because this is preventing people to come to Zimbabwe, if they look at the RBZ statement and realise that they have a debt, they do not come but if they want to assist and they look at the RBZ statement, they get up with it.
- MURAI: On a point of order Mr. Speaker, the hon. member
is debating whilst he is seated.
- SPEAKER: Order what is your name hon. member?
- MURAI: My name is Hon. Murai,I think the problem is your eyesight; the hon. member is on his feet.
+MR. MGUNI: Thank you Mr. Speaker. Everyone in Zimbabwe wishes that we get people who can come and assist us in our economy but as the RBZ statement reads debt, debt and debt then it means that no one is going to come and assist us. We must also examine how this came about. If we look at it carefully, you will discover that we had sanctions and these changed the whole economy of the country and disturbed everything.
Things that we never expected then happened, that is when
Government asked for quasi fiscal ….
+MS. T. KHUMALO: On a point of order, when Hon. Gonese spoke about what has just been spoken about; he addressed the House on what was said by others before. He stopped us and said we should not repeat what was said by others but we are always worrying about sanctions. We hear about them in the morning, afternoon and evening. We hear about sanctions everyday but why are you allowing him to talk about sanctions and yet when it is the opposition, you say it is wrong.
+MR. SPEAKER: The last speaker is not Dr. Gono. It is Hon. Mguni. Anyone who is not happy about what we said on sanctions is also allowed to stand up and debate on what we have said so there is no point of order.
+MR. MGUNI: I thank you Mr. Speaker. Since things had gone bad in the country; the Government allowed RBZ to get into quasi-fiscal operation. Government allowed RBZ to get into debt but now
Government wants to extricate the RBZ from the debt. Now the Government is saying, since I the Government gave you the permission to create that debt, I will now take it over.
It is just like a parent; when you have a crippled child, you do not throw that child away but you find means to assist that child. So now the Government is taking over what it started initially so that we get investment in this country. I thank you Mr. Speaker.
*MRS. ZEMURA: Thank you Mr. Speaker. I thank you for giving me the opportunity to debate the RBZ (Debt Assumption) Bill. It actually benefits the nation for the Government to assist the majority of the nation and that should be applauded.
There was hunger here in Zimbabwe and the Government intervened. We went through the land reform; many people were given land but did not have farming implements. Government then intervened and gave farming implements and this benefited the country. The Government acts like a parent and through RBZ, should assist to pay this
bill.
The major question asked here was that; let us agree that the
Government should take over the bill…
*MR. MADZIMURE: On a point of order, the hon. member did not understand the fact that we are not saying that the Government is not doing any work but we are saying people should pay for their own debts.
Thank you – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]-
*MR. SPEAKER: Order, order. Hon. members, please do not raise point of orders that are not necessary.
*MRS. ZEMURA: Mr. Speaker Sir, my request is that this debate on RBZ should come to a conclusion. RBZ should pay for its debt – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.]- there is no one who should be called to pay for this bill but the Government and RBZ should pay –[HON.
MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]-
There are some people who discouraged others from acquiring land during the land reform process. If we continue to listen to those people, we are not going anywhere. Today they are in power but their people do not have land. We have land here as ZANU PF. Are you waiting for a time when more land will come to Zimbabwe?
My request is that RBZ and Government should proceed with whatever they want to do and should continue giving people land. We knew that this nation was now ours. For those of us who retreated, let us not retreat, but let us proceed. The RBZ must pay. Thank you Mr.
Speaker. – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]
*MRS. MUZONDIWA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir, the issue at
hand here is that we are arguing in this House because there are some people who took implements and do not want to pay. Even the Bible says render unto Caesar what belongs to him, so these people should pay.
If we say that the Government should pay, what we are saying is that the Government is the people and most people in Zimbabwe did not benefit from the tractors and the farms. So, those who benefited should pay. If we are talking about the vehicles that were given to MPs, they should be paid for despite which party you are from. So people should be given these things, but my request is that they should pay for these implements and vehicles that they are getting. I thank you Mr. Speaker.
- CHIDAVAENZI: Thank you Mr. Speaker for allowing me
to contribute to this motion. Under the prevailing circumstances, then adversely affected by sanctions, there was no option but for the RBZ to take the initiatives which they did, which effectively served its purpose.
Its purpose was as a sanction busting measure.
Sanctions are a form of cold war. All Zimbabweans benefited either in the form of implements or food security. Hence, it is natural justice that the Zimbabwean Government should pay for Zimbabwean citizens. I thank you.
- BHEBHE: Thank you Madam Speaker. I would like to add my voice on this debate pertaining to the assumption of the RBZ debt.
Madam Speaker, this Bill is a diabolic Bill because it was a mismanaged affair in the RBZ, where a lot of corrupt deals took place in the RBZ.
Where a lot of cronyism and partisan decision took place in the RBZ. Madam Speaker, it is very unfair for this House to ask Zimbabweans to assume a debt that they did not benefit from.
I still remember that we went out for a public hearing. Zimbabweans were explicitly clear that they did not want to pay this debt, so we cannot come here as Parliamentarians and assume that we did not hear what the public said about this debt. We cannot come here as representatives of the same people that refused to pay the debt and endorse that we pay that debt. It is not fair, we will be taking this Parliament to endorse corruption that has reduced this country to the level that it is right now.
Madam Speaker, I take offence if Members of Parliament on your right tell us that Government is supposed to take over a debt of implements that they were given for their own personal use, for their own campaigns. I have seen some of the people that took implements.
Instead of using the tractors to plough, I have seen people ferrying loads and loads of people to rallies instead of going to plough.
- HOLDER: On a point of order, Madam Speaker. My point of order is that the hon. member was not even at these public hearings, so he is misleading this House.- [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible
interjections.] -
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, order hon. members. The hon. member will have his chance of debating. We cannot wait for answers from all the members who are sitting here, answering each other here. Leave the hon. member to debate and when you stand up, you make your own debate. - [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] -
- BHEBHE: Madam Speaker, I wanted to emphasise that it makes no logic that this very House has a revolving fund where every member accesses money to buy a vehicle to be able to access his constituency. I see no difference if the same House can sanction that all those people that actually acquired implements should pay through the same system they are using to pay for their Parliamentary vehicles. It does not make sense for us to come here and endorse Zimbabweans to pay for a section of Zimbabweans who are not more than a tenth of the population and it is regarded as a public debt.
To me, Madam Speaker, this is a purely private debt that has been turned public by the RBZ. Therefore, I strongly believe that we should just forget and if the other members on your right insist on the
Government taking over the RBZ debt, we will therefore require this House to be divided so that Zimbabweans can actually judge who are the people that come here in this House to sanction looting because, as a Parliament, we cannot sanction looting that took place at the RBZ. We should actually fight against looting and the corruption that took place. We should actually fight against the mismanagement of public funds that took place at the RBZ.
We cannot be seen coming to this House and actually endorsing corrupt, unorthodox means of accessing people’s accounts, which is an illegal act that was done by the RBZ. You cannot, as a central bank, which is supposed to supervise and manage banks, take people’s money without their consent. You then come to this House and require the House to take over the debt which was accrued through unorthodox means. It will not work. It will not bring back the fortunes of this country. It will not improve the economic well being of this country. If we want to improve the economic well being of this country, we have to start managing our affairs properly. That has got to start by the RBZ and that has got to start by this House rejecting this Bill. It should be thrown out of the window because it does not belong to this House. It has to be taken back to the RBZ so that whoever did whatever he did should be answerable, give full answers and give explanations why and who benefited. I thank you.
- GUMBO: I rise to make an appeal to you that we have got many motions on the Order Paper and that some hon. members have been coming to contribute on their motions but there is a lot of interest on this motion. I think if my appeal is accepted by you Madam
Speaker, we can move on to other motions –[AN HON MEMBER:
Hazviite, toda iyoyi.]-
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: I think Hon. Gumbo is appealing to the Chair –[HON MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]- Let him finish.
Can you please proceed?
- GUMBO: I have made my appeal in the interest of the House. There are many motions which are very important. I am not appealing to the House –[HON MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]- Why cannot you be civilized.
I am appealing because there are hon. members on both sides who have been asking to debate on their motions. If the House is not accepting that then that is fine. If it means we have to divide the House, let us divide the House because across the board, hon. members want to debate their motions. We are coming to debate one motion day-in dayout. I am appealing to say, can we debate other motions as well. That is my appeal.
- WADYAJENA: I second.
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: I am saying we are not removing this debate on the Order Paper but we should also give chance to other motions to be debated on. Tomorrow and Thursday we are coming back to this House and we cannot keep on debating one motion every day. I think we should be sensible at times.
Motion put and negatived.
*MR. MLISWA: I rise to support the Reserve Bank Debt Assumption Bill which is in the interest of Zimbabwe. First and foremost, I would like to enlighten some hon. members that any Government which has a good economy does a lot of subsidies. Some of these subsidies are on agricultural inputs and implements. Government subsidies have no limit. It could be to an extent where goods and equipment are issued for free. The Government would be driven by the fact that whatever its intervention is good for the country.
I say so because in Europe, a lot of countries follow the European example. In Europe, a lot of milk was being produced and they were ordered to throw away their milk and the governments paid or compensated for the milk. They threw away the milk and the government paid because there was a glut of milk on the market. So, if Government does not have sufficient funding, can it not then pay a debt to alleviate the people’s poverty. If you look at the Government’s subsidies, they are in order. I have come up with a dimension on why some benefited and others did not. What is fundamental is that was it good that they be given? Was corruption involved? The state has various agencies such as ZRP and other agencies that can look into such issues. They have the right to investigate such cases. Anyone who is disgruntled is free to go and report to those agencies so that Hon Mliswa can be arrested if he has committed a crime. We should not allege corruption without any evidence. That is not proper.
I am also saying that we should not focus more on implements when the debt rose as a result of companies whose bank accounts were raided by the RBZ. For us to go ahead, we require credibility and for us to have credibility, we must pay back to the banks. If we do not do that, our banking sector will lose its credibility and that is why at the moment we have a liquidity crunch. People are keeping their monies in their homes because they are afraid that their monies in the banks might be taken. It is proper for the Government to assume the RBZ debt and that way, we will have credibility in the financial sector and our country will be able to develop. If there is no credibility in the financial sector, we are sitting in this House for no reason.
We have a good Governor, Dr. Mangudya who has helped many people even those in the opposition. We would want him to start his duties on a clean slate as they say in English. Given his intelligence that he is not opposed by anyone in this august House, our economy will grow to greater heights. So, it is fundamental that the credibility of the financial sector be restored. I say so because some of these accounts were offshore. We are looking for offshore loans at the moment because we have a debt that has not been liquidated. Funding is found offshore. I also heard that, Madam Speaker, those who have not accessed implements, Hon. Dr. Made is also waiting to give implements to those of the opposition. Hon. Dr. Made is waiting to give them the implements from Brazil but it is a requirement that one should first have the land, once you have the land, you will be allocated equipment.
You heard in this august House, Hon. Zindi asking about the disbursement of the Brazilian equipment, Hon. Dr. Made said that he is waiting for the majority to have land so that tractors can be distributed. So, I look forward that they are going to be given tractors and then we pull in the same direction. I thank you – [Laughter.] –
*MR. MAPIKI: Thank you Madam Speaker for affording me this opportunity to debate. Firstly, I would want hon. members to know that whenever there is farming in Zimbabwe, it belongs to the Government. The implements that are being made reference to are being used on Government land. This shows that the Government is sympathetic to its farmers who are tilling Government land. Hence we are saying that the Government should assume the RBZ debt. In countries such as Brazil, this has happened, this is not a new phenomenon, so, there is nothing amiss with the Zimbabwean Government assuming this debt. We have bad debtors or what we term doubtful debtors, and those bad debts are retired. We should not be wasting our time discussing this issue.
Mr. Speaker Sir, it is imperative for the Government to assume this debt in the same manner as the amnesty is also granted to prisoners. The debt was cutting across. In fact in Mashonaland Central, a lot of equipment was given and production increased. We do not want the Government to keep on importing wheat and maize. People should be able to do farming without debts. The problem is that in the Opposition, we now have divisions. The minister who moved away from one party had allowed that members be given such equipment and it is that former minister who is now being castigated because he is now with the other faction. These are now party fights because in the beginning we had agreed that there be a debt assumption Bill. Because the Finance Minister in the Inclusive Government now has his own new party, members of the original party are unhappy about it, so there is now a feud.
Madam Speaker, I fully support that Government should assume the debt for the RBZ without wasting the hon. members’ time. It is not a new phenomenon. I will give an example of a truck or a police vehicle
if we park it at a police station, it is on its original place, so, equipment is in the right place. From that time, we have been producing, sending wheat to GMB we have not been paid by the GMB because these were during difficult times. This is what one has to come across during sanctions, others do not feel them. There was a time when we did say that we should not overtly praise the traditional healer because you run the risk of having your mother being accused of witchcraft.
When the sanctions were being called for, people were unaware of these consequences. It has drastic consequences. There is no panacea for this in Zimbabwe, so at the moment, the Government should assume this debt. Those that are against such an assumption – yes, we now know that you have a fragmented Opposition and that you have a war amongst yourselves. So, we should support that the Government should assume the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Debt. I thank you.
- ZVIDZAI: I wish to thank you for giving me this opportunity to have an input into this very important debate today.
Madam Speaker, this debate has generated a lot of interest and I can only assume it is because it stands at the core of the interests of the common person in Zimbabwe. The common old, unemployed lady who is in Checheche, in the far corner of this country and all other far corners of this country, I think you have a huge stake with respect to what will happen to this particular debt.
Madam Speaker, it is clear that the RBZ, when it introduced the quasi fiscical apparatus, it was for the purpose of helping people, it was for the purpose of helping certain sectors of the economy, it was for purposes of promoting agriculture as I hear. I am sure Madam Speaker, the RBZ records are very clear with respect to who benefited what and for what purpose. Madam Speaker, the general feeling from the other side of the House is that the debts so owned by individuals be written off from the individuals and be passed on to the generality of Zimbabweans, it is not fair. The question is when we say Government should take over the debt, what are we talking about, what are we saying? We are basically saying the debt must be spread across all the people of Zimbabwe because Government is the people of Zimbabwe.
We must disabuse ourselves of the feeling that Government is some creature sitting somewhere out there because Government is the people of Zimbabwe. So, if this Parliament allows this Bill to pass through, we are saying that every Zimbabwean, the 14 million
Zimbabweans, each now has got a debt equal to US$100.00 because it is US$1.3 billion divided by 14 million which is US$100.00.
All Members of Parliament should be brave enough to go and report back to their constituents over the next weekend to say, I have agreed that all you people in my constituency are now carrying a debt of this much. Each one of us here should be able to go and honestly report to his people that ini ndati wava nechikwereti che$100.00 and let us see whether the people will agree to that. When we come to debate here, we do not debate on our own behalf, we are representatives. Let us go and check whether the people of Zimbabwe, the common person, chembere, young people, the foetus that is still in its mother’s womb - agree to have a US$100.00 debt on account of comrade so and so who is enjoying equipment that he got.
Madam Speaker, as a nation, we must learn to cultivate a new citizen who is good, takes his own responsibilities and accepts them. We have people who benefited thousands and thousands of dollars worth of equipment. They are bad and unpatriotic citizens in that they do not want to stand up and say, I owe this much and I must own up and pay back. We cannot keep developing Zimbabweans who are so bad, we cannot keep inculcating Zimbabweans to become bad citizens who do not pay back debts, who expect to eat what they have not killed and expect to reap where they have not sown. It is not right. Both sides of the House must accept that we must grow in order to become good citizens.
Now, what does this debt mean? What does it mean to the nation to say, the Government has got a new debt of US1.3 billion? For me, it means that for the next five or so years or for the rest of the remaining term of this Parliament each year, the Minister of Finance and Economic
Development has to find more than US$400 000.00 to pay off this debt.
If he were able to do that, it means a lot of other developmental issues will not be funded as it will be difficult to begin to fund the revival of industry. It means as we put half a billion into this debt, we cannot fund improvement of health delivery because a collection of people benefitted unfairly from this US$1.3 billion at the expense of improving our hospitals, schools, conditions of service of civil servants and failure to improve infrastructure. It will significantly slow down our ability to engage in development processes.
Madam Speaker, we must just encourage beneficiaries of this good intended policy or people who benefitted from the Reserve Bank to just pay back and make sure that the country moves forward and ensure that we do not load upon myself an amount that I have not benefitted from.
Madam Speaker, the albatross on the neck of the economic recovery of this country is debt, both foreign and internal. It will not help our situation to add more debt onto this nation because we must be busy looking at how to reduce this debt rather than how to increase it.
This side of the House has proposed methods of how to liquidate this debt and one of the methods is for the members who benefited to pay. The other method is for the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe to have a look at their own asset base and say, do we need this or that so that they can liquidate some of the debts from the disposal of some of the Reserve
Bank assets. As a House, we cannot agree to burden innocent
Zimbabweans with debt that is careless and from irresponsible citizens.
Thank you very much.
- CHAKONA: Thank you very much Madam Speaker. I
would like to debate on this motion on the assumption of the Reserve Bank debt by Government.
I would like to start by saying, we are very excited about the move because, first of all it cleans the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe’s balance sheet so that it looks attractive for further borrowing by the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. The second thing is that whichever way we look at it, whether we keep that debt at the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe or if it is assumed by Government, the debt still has to be financed by
Government. So, there is no need for us to keep a debt which Government still has to pay in the books of RBZ instead of Government just assuming that debt.
The other thing is that we are talking about Government assuming a certain responsibility. I came across a book on the research on agriculture in Southern Rhodesia and this was done in 1963 to 1964. The then Rhodesian Government wanted to understand why farmers were failing to produce for the nation. After Mr. Johnsons’ research, they actually found out that there was need to train farmers. This research was carried out from 1951 to 1963, a period which was very critical because the economy then was having problems because of the droughts that were occurring during that time.
At the end of that research, they found out that there was need to construct agricultural research and training centres to train land development officers who were going to be deployed in every province in the country. The Government assumed the responsibility to train farmers in Rhodesia from 1964. If you look at our history, you will find that all construction of agricultural institutions was done from 1965.
This means that the Rhodesian Government was subsidizing agriculture in a way … -[HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] – by enabling farmers to produce for the nation. If we go further in the research, you will find that there were years when the Government would buy grain at an exorbitant price in order to cushion the farmers and there were also years that they would buy at a reduced price because there were excesses.
All these measures were being designed to promote agriculture and I think in this august House, it would be very unfortunate that we continue to attack those who benefitted from the mechanisation period that was designed to promote production in the farms. We are only talking of a smaller percentage of the debt but the critical issue of the assumption of this debt is to create an enabling environment for the RBZ to start borrowing so that this economy can start operating in a normal way. We want this country to have access to multi-lateral funds that are available in the world, just like any other normal RBZ that is operating in the world.
Madam Speaker, I think it is important that we stop debating on who benefited from what because that has been explained, that has been made very clear. Let us focus on the assumption of the debt by Government. We know even during war time after the war in 1980, people were compensated, those who suffered some injuries or anything during war. There was also the War Victims Compensation Fund that was set up by Government to compensate those people that actually had injuries during the war; those that lost their cattle and houses. In this case Madam Speaker, during the hyper inflation, people lost money and assets and we all know that. The de-monetisation that is being spoken about is there to actually cushion those who lost their assets during the ZIM dollar era and we all know that we lost our assets and money during the hyper inflation which was a product of the sanctions, who does not know that?
Some of our friends were even celebrating during the hyper inflation era to demonstrate that our Government has failed. Now, the Government is actually correcting that problem which was caused by some of us who are sitting with us here who went about calling for the imposition of this country. Now this is being corrected, this is now being redressed and it can only be done when the RBZ balance sheet is clean. Let the Government assume this debt, that is the only way we can clean up our past and then we start afresh.
Madam Speaker, it is important that we understand as parliamentarians that we were voted into Parliament by people who are out there and they are waiting for our Government and ourselves to produce positive debates out of this House. I thank you Madam Speaker.
*MR. MUNENGAMI: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I also want to add my voice on the RBZ Debt Assumption Bill. What I would want to clearly spell out is that which I want people to know, that the issue of the motor vehicles as regards the debt, we are now in this bad habit of not paying for our debts. I heard a member from the ruling party saying that hon. members received motor vehicles. As I stand in this august House, I would want to state that myself and other members of the
Seventh Parliament were unable to access those vehicles and this is on record. The reason is that when those vehicles were disbursed by the RBZ, it was quite clear that these vehicles would be paid for. We also observed that we were unable to pay for these vehicles and our colleagues said the vehicles would be for free. It is our fault if we could not access these vehicles. It is also true that our colleagues accessed these motor vehicles for free. I would also want to make clear the issue of credibility ...
- HOLDER: On a point of order Mr. Speaker. The hon.
member is speaking in two languages, shonglish, you must stick to one language – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] -
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Order, hon. members. I did
not hear the other languages that he used. Hon. member, can you please proceed.
*MR. MUNENGAMI: It is difficult Mr. Speaker, when one does not understand Shona. At times, there might be problems but I will proceed. The matter at hand is that the problem we have is that when one has realised that you have struck a nail on the head, they would want to interfere with your line of thinking, and this is what I have done. If I were to turn my mind to the importance of the Bill, it is true that in 1963 Government used to subsidies farming. The subsidies that Government gave during the training of a land development officer, they would specifically mention what their training would entail...
*MR. MANDIPAKA: On a point of order Mr. Speaker. We
want to assist the hon. member he did not say ‘subside’ but he said
‘subsidies’. I thank you.
*THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: There is not point of order.
Hon. member, please go ahead.
*MR. MUNENGAMI: Thank you Mr. Speaker. What I wanted
to say was that when land development officers were being trained by the Ian Smith regime in 1963, they would clearly spell out that he would be receiving training and there would be such an amount in terms of loan that needed to be repaid. What is the debt of RBZ, as individual hon. members, how much do we owe? A lot of the members who are speaking owe almost a million dollars. They are in this august House and are in the fore front campaigning for the assumption of the debt. There are also others who owe US$20 or US$10 but can a person who owes US$20 be treated the same as one who is owing a US$1m. Another previous member in their contribution said that we are now burdening ordinary people in Zimbabwe. The generality of people who sell tomatoes are going to be assuming this bill because Government is the people. We should clearly point out that I, Hon. Temba Mliswa for example, how much do I owe RBZ. If that is disclosed, we will then know that we are pushing for the assumption of the Bill because you owe US$750 000. We should not mislead this House. There are some hon. members who misused this fund.
The war victims fund was also abused. 50 000 Zimbabwe dollars were given and some misused the money and bought cabbages for cattle. There are some people who were given farming equipment, sold it and made profits out of the proceeds because they knew that this debt was never going to be repaid. Others were having parties and slaughtering goats. Others took ‘small houses’ and others bought fire arms to go against the Government but we should not be allowed to assume this
debt.
We should clearly spell out what is owed. Let us be transparent so that things can move well. Once we do not take that route, our constituencies are going to cry foul because we will be misleading ourselves. This was not the people’s mandate at the time when they elected us. We are their servants; we should not lie and cover corruption. It has also been mentioned that we need credibility so that we can get funding from other countries. We can never access that funding for as long as we are corrupt and we are abusing and enjoying self aggrandisement. With these few words, I thank you Mr. Speaker Sir.
*MR. MUTSEYAMI: Thank you Mr. Speaker for this
opportunity. If we were to look into this issue of the Bill in question, you will observe that a lot of things that are in this Bill and if an audit is to be carried out; to what purpose the money was used – it was not just farming. There were a lot of things that should be mentioned.
Some of the debt that we are being asked to assume is debt for the Government which was used in 2008 general election campaigns. This money was used to buy Mitsubishi motor vehicles that transverse the length and breadth of this country. These were used to defeat a democratic war. During this process, a lot of people lost their lives and today as Parliamentarians, we would want to pass such a Bill. I will not be found standing up as one of those members who will support such a
Bill.
I appreciate that it was money that was used to defeat the democratic process that had taken place during that time. If you were to look at the history of that Bill, some people who are in this House and who represent constituencies were given monies and they purchased chen long 30 tonne double decker vehicles. Today they even have such vehicles and they are making profits out of that. They are using these trucks and making profits and they are now saying they are not going to be repaying this debt and that Government should assume this debt.
This is not dignified at all –[HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]-
In our country, it is said that we can use Ndau. It is one of our official languages. That is why I am at liberty to debate in that language. I also would want to say that if we were to look at the items that were being given and the people that are Members of Parliament; some were given fertilizers amounting to 30 tonnes and this is about 20 000 dollars. Others were given tractors, fertilizers and various equipment amounting to 750 000 dollars. Today we are now saying that this debt should be assumed by the Government.
Using our own brains as representatives of the people; can we surely believe and say that all of us should now pass the debt to the ordinary people or the vendors to assume this debt. We should have the same thinking and not accede to this Bill.
I would like to spell out this; the RBZ should come up with a document that clearly spells out how each dollar was used. In simple terms, each cent should be accounted for. Once there is that document, Parliament should have the document. We should then look at the document and see how much each person got and how that money was used. We should not just be majoring on trivialities. We should not accept everything.
We are all dignified and honourable as members dressed in our suits but some know that there are others who benefited 20 000 dollars, others 2 million. Others do not even know how this money was used for. I will not proceed any further but I would want to reiterate that we should think clearly as we debate this issue to see if this Bill is going to be beneficial to the country or to certain individuals. Thank you Mr.
Speaker.
*MR. CHIWETU: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. Let me take you back to the land reform. When land was acquired for resettlement, that is when sanctions were imposed. These sanctions were imposed so as to portray that Zimbabweans had been resettled in bad light as bad farmers.
The wisdom that Government has in its leadership then observed that they could not be defeated by fools. Still going back, before the advent of the land resettlement era, in support of Hon. Chakona who earlier on spoke, European farmers used to have Government assistance. They used to even ask what would be done if there was a drought after they would have carried out farming activities. The Government used to give them free loans and soon after harvesting, they would repay and then they would again borrow and repay. This was free funding or they mainly had surety.
They used to demand that if they failed to secure any loans, then they would not be involved in any farming. When the land reform took place, white farmers were told to leave the farming equipment because it belonged to the Government, but some equipment was recovered on transit to Malawi and Botswana and stored at half way houses. A lot of tractors were kept there and various other equipment which was being sold which had been stolen. These whites had stolen. In Bromley, there was another white farmer who was selling tractors on the side of the road. So, when the Government realised that these people had stolen tractors and Government equipment, they purchased new equipment and distributed to the people so that they could continue farming.
What happens in a family is that when the mother prepares a meal, not everyone is going to be satisfied, so you cannot ask the mother to cook another portion so that you can consume. Those that failed to access anything were not there. Using my example of sadza, those that did not partake the sadza were not there.
I support Hon. Mutseyami who said that this debt is not for the tractors only. I am still aware that before my advent into this House, there was a house that was constructed and it was allocated to Mr. Tsvangirai. It is part of the debt. The house was painted and that cost is a part of the debt. We are saying that the Government must assume the debt because if we are to ask Mr. Tsvangirai to pay US$3 million, he does not have it. He cannot even afford to pay it in monthly installments. So there is a long history with this debt and revisiting it would mean that we would end up having a bigger figure than what we actually have. So, Mr. Speaker Sir, we are saying that the Government should assume this debt so that the new RBZ Governor starts on a new slate and we are able to assess his performance. With those few words, Mr. Speaker Sir, I urge that the Government should assume this debt. I thank you.
- M. KHUMALO: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir, I happen to be a member of the Budget and Finance Committee which went to find out what people are saying about this debt. I happened to be a Member of Parliament who was a there when this debt was incurred and I happen to know that Government and the RBZ had this debt over the years, since 1999.
Mr. Speaker Sir I happen to understand what Government is. It is the people. I happen to know what the RBZ is. It is a parastatal and a banker of Government. I wonder when hon. Members of Parliament stand up, who represent the same people who are the Government, who at that time when the quasi fiscal activities that were done by the RBZ were hungry and were given land when the same Government says
‘RBZ who is my banker, can you borrow from banks even if you do not have money and give the people so that they get seeds, stand up and oppose this debt. The same Members of Parliament like Hon. Bhebhe; we were together. He represents people in Nkayi and I represent people in Lupane who got some ploughs. I am one of the people who got a plough from the RBZ which I used and am still using it to plough. I have managed to send maize to the GMB, though GMB has not paid me.
That maize is going to town to feed the town people.
I am so worried, Mr. Speaker, to hear Members of Parliament asking the same Government which asked its own banker if it could assist it so that it clears its balance because this balance is not actually for the RBZ, but it is for the Government. It was a mistake for RBZ to put that money under its books, otherwise Government should have taken money, if it had money, and given it to the GMB to give to the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development so that it buys farming implements.
Mr. Speaker Sir, I want to ask my fellow MPs that are arguing that
Government must not take this debt, if they have read the list of people who are owed money by the RBZ? The people who we owe money are indigenous banks. Some of them have collapsed. Meikles, for example, are our very good friend that has assisted this Government even in the hard times. We owe Meikles large sums of money and people are saying that we must not, as a Government, give Meikles its money.
Surely, Mr. Speaker Sir, I understand that some of these Members of Parliament did not benefit, but most of us benefited here and surely, to stand up here today to say it was wrong to give tractors and for banks to give RBZ money to assist agriculture when the Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation development, Minister Made, was reporting that last year maize farmers produced a lot of maize for the country which we are eating. That maize is a product of the implements that we are talking about here that Government must pay for.
- MUTSEYAMI: On a point of order, Mr. Speaker Sir, we never said it was wrong to borrow but we are only saying they must pay
for.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: There is no point of order
there.
- M. KHUMALO What the hon. member assisted me to do and I want to end this one – last week the Minister of Finance and Economic Development gave the Reserve Bank US$100m - people’s money to do what? The Government wants money from RBZ to pay people when it also gives money. That money which was given last week must be taken and given to the banks which are owed. What is the difference? This money must be paid back and Government must pay it.
- P. D. SIBANDA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir, for affording
me the opportunity to debate on this Bill. It is actually a privilege to debate this Bill whilst I am facing the Minister of Finance and Economic Development who initiated the Bill in this House.
Even as I am debating this Bill, I am alive to the fact that our economy is almost in a comatose. I am alive to the fact that we are debating apportioning the burden of paying back this debt to an ordinary teacher whose wage is already below the Poverty Datum Line. I am aware that even as we debate in this House, the majority of the few workers that are still employed in this country are struggling to feed their own families. On top of the struggles that they are facing, this House is seized with trying to increase the burden that they are already facing.
I am debating on this Bill at a time when even hon. members are not sure whether they will get fuel coupons at the end of the week to go back to their constituencies because Government cannot afford that. Having said all that Mr. Speaker Sir, it is important for me to acknowledge that the objectives and the motives of the Bill are noble. The nobility of the Bill is in that it seeks to return that which was unlawfully and wrongfully taken from entities and individuals operating within the economy.
However, I am guided in debating this Bill by a key issue that has been raised by the Minister of Finance in his two previous Budget
Statements that he has given. The Minister of Finance and Economic
Development emphasised the point that the major challenge that our economy is facing has got to do with lack of confidence. Therefore, as I am going to debate on this Bill, it is pertinent that I emphasise how this Bill is going to impact on the confidence that investors, both local and foreign will have on our economy.
Firstly, paying back what is owed to entities and individuals indeed in an ordinary manner creates confidence, especially in the financial market. However, what I have heard from this Bill is that Government intends to pay through Treasury Bills. Ordinarily Treasury Bills are supposed to be risk free securities. In our case unfortunately, our Treasury Bills are not risk free. They are literary junk bonds and therefore, it is my view that even if we promise to pay those that we owe through the Treasury Bills, confidence is not going to be created in the economy because they do not have the guarantee that those Treasury Bills will be settled.
Again on the issue of confidence, I believe that every action that we take as a nation be it legislative or otherwise, it is important that we try to do it in order to address issues of confidence. This Bill therefore should be interrogated on whether it is going to create confidence in the economy or it is not going to create confidence. Confidence among other factors is a function of good governance. It is my view ordinarily that confidence is created as a function of good governance.
I am going to touch on eight characteristics of good governance that might have an impact on confidence in an economy as a result of how we handle this Bill. The eight characteristics that I am going to touch on that build good governance are: participatory, consensus oriented, accountability, transparency, responsive, effective and efficient, equitable and inclusive and follows the rule of law. The participatory aspect of good governance is also enshrined in our Constitution in that it is stated that our people, those that are the voiceless outside there should also be able to feed into whatever laws that we care coming up with as a country. The report that was read by the Committee on Finance and Economic Development clearly states that people outside there are saying that they are not willing to settle this
Bill on behalf of certain individuals.
I want also to state that accountability and transparency seem to be seriously lacking when we talk of this Bill. There is a lot of opaqueness that is actually accompanying the manner that this Bill is being railroaded in this House. What people are demanding is that those that benefited from this debt should be clearly stipulated like the hon.
member indicated, whether out of speculation or fact that Mr. Tsvangirai benefited from that debt. That is what he indicated. I am saying we are creating room for speculation because we are not coming out clearly with the list of beneficiaries. I would want to state that currently as we speak, there is speculation to the fact that Alpha and Omega was founded upon a bill of US$200m that came from this very debt.
Now, that speculation that the First Family founded their company Alpha and Omega from that very debt that today Zimbabweans are supposed to pay back, it will remain speculation unless…
- MUKWANGWARIWA: On a point of order Mr. Speaker
Sir. The hon. member is talking about the First Family having benefited from the RBZ debt and it has nothing to do with the debt.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Did he say so, he said First Family? Order, order. Hon. Sibanda, why do we want to get into issues that we may not be able to defend tomorrow? Please speak to the Bill.
- DUBEKO SIBANDA: Mr. Speaker, let me explain my point, I am not going to withdraw – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible
interjections.] -
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Order, order, if you said that
statement, may you withdraw that please.
- DUBEKO SIBANDA: Mr. Speaker, before I withdraw – In terms of Order No. 63, I am allowed to explain myself…
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: May you withdraw.
- DUBEKO SIBANDA: I am allowed to explain myself
before I withdraw. Before you order me to withdraw, allow me to explain myself so that you can hear what I said.
- MANDIPAKA: On a point of order. Thank you Mr. Speaker
Sir, I want to believe the hon. member is defying even our standing
order because he is delving in the First Family’s affairs but he has no evidence of what he is talking about. [HON. MEMBER: I withdraw.]
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: That is why I am saying Hon.
Sibanda should withdraw.
- DUBEKO SIBANDA: What am I withdrawing? – [HON.
MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] -
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Order, please at the back
there!
- DUBEKO SIBANDA: I am sure my colleagues on the other
side could not have heard me properly, if they did not hear me properly, I withdraw that which they did not hear properly.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Please withdraw.
- DUBEKO SIBANDA: Mr. Speaker, I withdraw. The point
that I am emphasising is that it is important that we create some kind of transparency when we are dealing with public funds and public resources. The point that I am trying to emphasise is that right now because of this opaqueness in the manner that this Bill has been handled, there is a lot of speculation. I indicated that part of the speculation is what has been raised by the previous speaker where he indicated that the Right Honourable Morgan Tsvangirai bought a house for 1.5 million and this speculation Mr. Speaker is actually extending to the fact that now some people are imputing that Alpha and Omega was founded on US$200 million that was part of US$1.3 billion dollars.
Now Mr. Speaker, the question that I have before this House is, is it what we desire as Parliament that our leaders should be speculated to have benefitted wrongful from that amount of money? Is it what we intend to do that people should then start to speculate that the big companies that are owned by the leaders of this country were actually founded on monies that were siphoned from the US$1.3 billion. Are we trying to create an impression to the people that Zimbabwean leaders can simply go and get money and then order its poor people to go and pay back the money on their behalf.
Therefore, in order to kill this speculation, in order to kill this opaqueness Mr. Speaker, I believe that it is important that the Minister should be able to list each and every beneficiary of that US$1.3 billion dollars. Only on the basis of that list Mr. Speaker can this House be informed on whether we should be able to take that Bill or not.
Therefore Mr. Speaker, in the eyes of potential investors that the Hon. Minister is everyday crying for to come into this country to lay their money into this economy; we remain still a country that is not transparency; we still remain a country that is busy robbing its national fiscus for individual benefit. Unless Mr. Speaker, we can deal with those issues, then the issue of confidence in this economy will continue to be a problem to us. No sane investor will bring money in any economy where the leaders can secretly and Nicodemusly take money so that the public then pays. We will not rectify the situation of our economy unless we begin to practice good governance especially in areas to do with transparency.
Mr. Speaker, it is my view that as a Parliament our constitutional responsibility is to ensure that we superintend on how national resources are used by the Executive. Now, what are we saying, if we look into the Bill, the Hon. Minister is actually saying that let us pass the Bill.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: Order Hon. Sibanda. Vehicle
ACM 0258 is blocking other vehicles. Please go and attend to that vehicle.
- DUBEKO SIBANDA: My perusal of the Bill, Mr. Speaker.
The hon. Minister is saying that let Parliament pass the Bill and then the team that is responsible for validation will do it after the fact.
What he is saying is that, literally we are surrendering our powers as Parliament to superintend over usage of resources by the Executive because there is no way we can then say checking over the manner that the Executive is using resources if validation is going to happen after the Bill has been passed. It is my view that the validation should happen now prior to us having the Bill being passed in this House because that way we will be able to see whether indeed what we are passing is in the personal or national interest. Thank you Mr. Speaker, for the opportunity that you gave me.
THE MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT (MR. CHINAMASA): Mr. Speaker, I want to
thank the hon. members who have made contributions to this debate. I am heartened by the interest shown in debating the Bill as it demonstrates that Members of Parliament have applied their minds and it has brought out in full focus the issues that are involved.
Let me reiterate that the thrust of the Bill primarily, is to clean-up the balance sheet of the Reserve Bank. – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] – that is the thrust. Why cleaning it up? At the moment, burdened with US$1.35 billion debt on its balance sheet, it means we have no sound financial services system. The Reserve Bank is the pillar of the financial services sector. If you compare it to our bodies or the blood system, it is the heart. If the heart is sick, then the whole system is in trouble. . – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] – So, I want us to remain focused that this is the main thrust. I am happy that even those who are opposing this Bill are not in contention with that thrust, we all agree that the balance sheet must be cleaned.
After cleaning the balance sheet, we can now capitalise the
Reserve Bank. We need something like US$250 million to capitalise the Reserve Bank. Just imagine putting US$250 million into a balance sheet which has US$1.35 billion, it makes no sense. So, I want to emphasise that, already we have raised US$100 million to capitalise because currently, the Reserve Bank is receiving a subvention from Treasury to keep it afloat. We are paying something like US$2 million or so a month to keep it afloat but that is not how it should be. It is that way because primarily, as you know, it makes a big chunk of its monetary role by not being able to print money.
Central banks everywhere make money from printing money but the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe is not doing it. They make money from lending through the interbank lending system, interbank activities. Currently, that is not happening but we are hoping after some capitalisation, that process with the assistance of Afrexim Bank, we can get started on interbank lending activities where the central bank can lend overnight interests and make its money. So, I want to emphasise that point Mr. Speaker.
I also want to emphasise that we are talking about monies borrowed by the Reserve Bank and not monies lent by the Reserve Bank. In other words, monies lent by the Reserve Bank are assets on the balance sheet of the Reserve Bank as they represent debtors. How recoverable those debts are is a different issue but we are talking about monies that were borrowed from various economic players in our economy. We are now saying, at the very least, what I am doing here is I do not have the money and Treasury does not have the money.
At the very least, we are saying, we will give Treasury Bills which is a debt instrument acknowledging debt in order to build-up confidence. Even for those who may not be corporate, at least the asset can be inherited by their heirs. So, we are merely acknowledging debt and the
Treasury Bills will mature at various times, period and we hope that the
Budget can be able to meet those Treasury Bills on maturity.
I remember there was an hon. member who seemed to rubbish these Treasury Bills calling them junk, whatever. That is all a problem when Members of Parliament speak carelessly and recklessly about such matters. You are undermining your own confidence. – [AN HON. MEMBER: Inaudible interjections.] – Yes, you are undermining your own confidence because we have not failed to pay Treasury Bills when they mature, so why call them junk? You say these statements recklessly but in the process, undermining our very efforts to recover this economy and undermining the confidence that we are seeking to build in this economy.
There are several members who think that we should go into the past. Mr. Speaker, I am going to devote the energies I have towards plotting a path into the future because if we spend our time looking at the past, we will just spend time quarrelling and it will not give us the momentum that we need to face the future. Let the past be lessons for the future so that we avoid those things that we think we did wrong in the past. Spending time trying to delve into who brought sanctions, who travelled to meet Susan Lightsey and so on is no longer of any benefit to me.
A lot of what has happened has been because of our unique situation, the imposition of sanctions which crippled our capacity to honour our external and international obligations, which basically undermined and brought our economy to its knees and we are still now in a process to recover that economy. My own thrust is basically to look forward and backward never. – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] – There will be historians, no doubt, who want to know what happened in the past. I will respect their wishes, they can dig and research to find out what happened in the past but for me, I want to say that the future for us is beckoning and we must seize the opportunities that are being presented and not spend our time looking into the past.
We had very constructive engagement with the Governor and the Committee and I am very grateful to the Chairman of the Committee and the Committee who supported this Bill. The members of the Committee, in a way, also supported the Bill and I am very grateful to them. I am grateful because the engagements were very constructive and confidence building but they raised certain anomalies and I propose to deal or address those anomalies in amendments to the Schedule when we come to the Committee Stage of the Bill. I promise to do that.
What I think is also important to highlight Mr. Speaker is that the process of verification and validation is a long process. It could take years and we cannot hold back bringing sanity to the financial services sector over years, we cannot afford that. A Bill is coming to Parliament in due course where we are setting up a Zimbabwe Debt Management Office in my Ministry basically to verify and validate these debts - verifying and validating and I am hoping that when the Bill comes, I can also receive the support of this august House.
Hon. Chapfika also made a point that we should raise awareness of this Bill. When all is said and done, I do not think there is any other piece of legislation that we have debated here which has raised awareness of the population as this Bill. I have heard it debated on radios, televisions, in this august House and on many fora. So, in terms of awareness, I think the public is fully briefed about the measure that we are taking. Primarily, we are cleaning up the balance sheet of the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, with a view to restoring confidence in the financial services sector and the role of the Central Bank to superintend effectively and efficiently the financial services sector. I think the public is generally in agreement that that is the correct thrust that we are taking.
There was also a point that the earlier Schedule did not include the small creditors. I think the Schedule that we are going to substitute will go some way towards addressing that problem. On the recommendation of the Committee, we are also going to include the commercial banks amongst the institutions, to benefit from the provision on immunity - that we have taken on board.
I want to thank in a special way, Hon. Kereke for going to quite some length in giving the background on how these debts were incurred over the period that they were incurred. Clearly, it was a state of emergency and like I pointed out to the Committee and I do not mind repeating it here, on the few occasions that I acted, I am sure among the authorities which are with the Central Bank, there will be some authority which also bears my signature. We were confronted with a situation which required immediate response and we had no time to rationalize or to try to make sense out of the points which are now being made by the hon. members.
Hon. Chamisa has more questions than answers. I must also say when we look back and say why are we in this economic situation; we also come with more questions than answers. Why did we go out of our way to destroy our own economy, our own country when in fact we are now the losers and it is very difficult to reverse some of the measures that were imposed, especially the United States of America. Those measures will take us years to reverse, as you know when they imposed sanctions on former President Nelson Mandela, they were only removed after he was dead. So, it is very important when we take some of these measures or we go to outsiders to ask for impositions of sanctions against our own country, they take years.
Hon. Majome spent quite some time talking about ethical issues and not addressing the point in issue. I must say that most of the contributions which were made were basically addressing other issues and not the issue which is clearly before them. The one is - we are seeking to take over the debt of the Reserve Bank to clean up its balance sheet. With these few remarks Mr. Speaker, I now move that the Bill be read a second time.
- MASHAKADA: On a point of order Mr. Speaker.
THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: What is your point of order?
- MASHAKADA: My point of order is based on the fact that
when the Minister explained the origin of the debt, he attributed all the debt to borrowings by the Central Bank only and he said that everything else the bank is owed are assets. I am concerned because this is on record in the Hansard, maybe it was a slip of the tongue on the part of the Minister. Our understanding was that whatever monies were advanced or assets advanced because they are now irrecoverable, they now constitute debt. So over and above any earlier borrowings that the Reserve Bank had, whatever becomes irrecoverable, even it is not borrowings is also classified as total debt of the Reserve Bank. So, I thought the Minister would clear that slip of tongue.
THE MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC
DEVELOPMENT (MR. CHINAMASA): Thank you very much, I do
not know whether I made a slip of the tongue. What we are taking over are liabilities by the Reserve Bank to creditors. Some of them were negotiated, others not negotiated. If the Reserve Bank went and took money in a company’s account, it becomes a liability by the Reserve
Bank to that company; that is what we are taking over. - [AN HON. MEMBER: Assets.] -These were done in the context of quasi fiscal activities but what we are taking over, let me emphasize are liabilities by the Reserve Bank to creditors which were incurred in one form or another, some through negotiations and others not to meet the exigencies of the situation existing at the time.
I move that the Bill be read a second time.
Motion put and agreed to.
Bill read a second time.
Committee State: Wednesday, 18th February, 2015.
On the motion of THE MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (MR. CHINAMASA), the House
adjourned at Five Minutes past Five o’clock p.m.
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Tuesday, 17th February, 2015
The Senate met at Half-past Two o’clock p.m.
PRAYERS
(THE DEPUTY PRESIDENT in the Chair)
ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE DEPUTY PRESIDENT
CAPACITY BUILDING SEMINARS
THE DEPUTY PRESIDENT: I would like to remind the Senate that Parliament will resume a series of seminars that are meant to capacitate Members of Parliament in the conduct of Committee business. In this regard, members of the Thematic Committee on Indigenisation and Empowerment are invited to attend the capacity building seminar that will be convened in the Senate chamber on Wednesday, 18th February 2015, at 0900 hours. All Committee members are expected to attend.
MOTION
PRESIDENTIAL SPEECH: DEBATE ON ADDRESS
First Order read: Adjourned debate on motion in reply to the
Presidential Speech.
Question again proposed.
THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR LIAISING ON PSYCHOMOTOR ACTIVITIES IN EDUCATION (MR.
HUNGWE): I move that the debate do now adjourn.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Wednesday, 18th February, 2015.
MOTION
CONGRATULATORY MESSAGE TO THE PRESIDENT OF
ZIMBABWE AS THE NEW AU CHAIRPERSON
SENATOR MATHUTHU: I move the motion standing in my
name that, a congratulatory message be presented to the President of
Zimbabwe and Chairperson of the African Union as follows:-
May it please you, your Excellency the President, we, the Members of Parliament of Zimbabwe express our gratitude and congratulate you on your elevation to the helm of the African Union as the Chairperson;
RECOGNISING your consistency in your resolve to pulverize machinations of colonialism and imperialism in Africa;
NOTING your unflinching desire to have a united front of African
States against all forces of negation;
COGNISANT of your resolute stand that Zimbabwe will never be a colony again, your ascendancy to the position of chairmanship serves as an indication of the impeccable confidence that the continent places on your illustrious leadership qualities.
NOW THEREFORE, this House resolves to:
- Convey its appreciation and good wishes to a statesman par excellence.
- Wish your Excellency many more years of distinguished service to Zimbabwe and Africa as a whole.
- Commend your Excellency on remaining focused on the cause of emancipating humankind from shackles of oppression.
SENATOR MUMVURI: I second.
+SENATOR MATHUTHU: Thank Mr. President. I stand up to congratulate our President, His Excellency, Cde. Mugabe for being chosen to be the Chairperson of the African Union (AU). I have come to realise that he got this seat at a time when SADC had also chosen him to be the Chairperson of SADC.
It is not usual in Africa to have one leader holding two such important seats of such calibre at the same time. For that reason, I would like to give him a round of applause and also give a round of applause to all the leaders in Africa who have realised that as one of the available people who started being in governance in Africa and he was one of the people present when the Organisation of Africa Unity (OAU) was formed. He was also there as part of the leadership of the frontline states and he led us as the first Prime Minister of Zimbabwe before he became
President.
Mr. President of the Senate, I would like to say that it has been realised that the pioneering leadership in Africa should be given the recognition and seats that they deserve in Africa. There are attributes of the character of the President that I have noticed and that I want to speak about. His Excellency, if not in doubt on anything, stands by his views to the end. We know that he spoke a lot about our former colonial countries, countries of the West. They need to agree that they mistreated the black people during colonialism. When His Excellency, the President wants to engage the West, he can do it the Zimbabwean way. He is never forced to follow anyone else’s views. In my own view, His
Excellency the President is someone who believes that Africa belongs to Africans. People of Africa, in their different tribes and races and if you are part of the Africans, Africa is yours.
He does not care whether people agree with him or not and that there are other people who want to associate with the presidents of the West. He involves everyone as sons of the soil who have a right to be in Africa. His Excellency is someone who, when he has a view, does not retract. He does not change his views because of where he is. He stands by what he believes in as long as he believes that he is correct. His Excellency is an example of what happens with computers - what you see is what you get. It is the same because what you hear about him, is what he wants. He believes that black people should partake of Africa’s riches to develop Africa, especially environmentally and also in mining.
He believes that black people should own their riches and does not believe that these should be taken away from them as what happened during the colonial era when their belongings were taken away from them. His Excellency president Mugabe believes that the people of Africa themselves can unite and resolve their conflicts on their own without any help. He believes that we do not need to invite anyone who is not from Africa to come and help us unite. He knows that there are people who will come with different intentions and it reminds us of what happened in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Egypt and Djibouti. It was just because of interventions which came from other countries and they have never been at peace.
Mr. President, there is no one who does not know President Robert
Mugabe’s history in liberating this country. He was part of the liberation struggle and had a difficult time with the white people. It was good that God kept him and he became part of those who survived and came back home. He manages to talk about that story openly because he speaks about something that he really knows. He knows a lot about unity and if Africa has any problem, he can easily speak to the people of the West, if there is need for unity.
His Excellency, the President has spoken about the International Criminal Court (ICC) and its dishonesty. They are dishonesty in that they are choosy when it comes to who to bring to that court. He spoke about Hon. Kenyatta, the Kenyan President questioning him on why he went to the ICC and a week after he said that, one who was a leader at the ICC known as Luis Moreno Ocampo said that, the war in Kenya and the issue that Kenyatta and Rulo should not partake in the presidential race was planned by diplomats from the West. If such a leader agrees to that, it means that His Excellency was telling the truth. His Excellency said that, if this court is true to its mandate, then it needs to bring George Bush and the one who was once a Prime Minister in England, Tony Blair to the ICC, to stand before it and be answerable to the crimes they committed, especially when they engaged in war with Iraq. It is believed that he hid weapons to destroy the whole world but after the war, it was found that, that was not the truth.
His Excellency believes that the children of Africa are intelligent and have the ability to do their own jobs without any disturbances if they were to unite together as one so as to develop Africa as a whole. Mr. President, His Excellency, the President believes that if you wish to develop a nation, like the Land Reform Programme, there is need to go forward so that the black person can also develop. He has no doubt on that issue. He supports anyone who wants land, such that they are given land because they are sons of the soil.
His Excellency, the President is against gays and lesbians. He does not believe that a man should marry another man or a woman to marry another woman. If a man is to marry another man, there is no pregnancy. This is against nature. There are other nationals who support such issues that have been brought by the West because they want donor funds. His Excellency, the President said that such money is dirty and it is against God’s will. He believes that African people need to be proud of themselves, as people who are wonderfully made by God and were given the same rights, to live in this world and to do the same jobs and develop their nations. The President of Uganda Hon. Museveni and President of Gambia, Hon. Yahya Jammeh have also tried to speak against gayism, an idea that was brought about by the West. They have been criticized by other nations for such. They were looked down upon and comments like, ‘he is a black person’ or ‘he is proud of himself’ were leveled against them. His Excellency, the President is happy.
Even in this country there are people from different countries. If you go to different places like Mutare, Nyanga or Victoria Falls, you see people from different nations walking around freely without any kind of violence against them. It is different from what happens in other countries. We hear that foreigners are being murdered in other countries but we have never heard of that in Zimbabwe. That is why I am saying that, he is a leader par excellence. We know that people from different nations prefer to marry people from Zimbabwe because we are a peaceful nation. They are happy to mix and mingle with us in different situations without any problems. However, if you listen to news from different media, in different countries, people do not say any good about Zimbabwe. They always say bad things about this country.
As I conclude Mr. President, His Excellency, the President was the leader of the Non-Aligned Movement, the Frontline States and now he is the Chairman of SADC, a seat that he is holding at the same time as being the Chairman of the African Union. Today, His Excellency has been entrusted to lead Africa and the trust that he has got from people and other Presidents reveals that we are also supposed to be proud as
Zimbabweans that we have such a leader. His Excellency is a leader who encourages that the liberation of Africa did not end from gaining our freedom as different African countries from colonial bondage. However, after gaining our independence, there is need to own some of the riches. When you become rich, that is when you can say I am free. This was revealed when we gained our freedom and they started such programmes as indigenisation.
Lastly, His Excellency has wisdom to lead Africa. I have no doubt that this task he has been given, he will handle it in a proper way to the end. In a way, that exceeds expectations from other leaders in Africa. Right now, I ask that this august Senate congratulates His Excellency, together with me because we have a leader par excellence. We have to congratulate him because he is a leader who supports his country and
Africa. He therefore, develops not only Zimbabwe but the whole of
Africa. He encourages that Africa may unite, have love and be patient.
At times we fight on issues that we could discuss among ourselves.
With these few words, I say congratulations Hon. President! Congratulations Ngwena! May the good Lord help you as you partake this task you have been given by Africa. I thank you.
SENATOR MUMVURI: Thank you Mr. President. I rise to support the motion which was moved by Senator Mathuthu. She has spoken at length about the characteristics of the new Chairman of the African Union, who is the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, President R.G. Mugabe. The characteristics which the former speaker has spelt out are numerous and befitting indeed of such a person. The characteristics are an embodiment of an ideal leader whom we have in the person of His Excellency, Cde. R.G. Mugabe.
For him to assume the Chairmanship of African Union is not an accident at all. He has earned such an elevation from what has been said by the previous speaker. In short Mr. President, our President deserves to lead the African Union. To my knowledge, he has the vision to lead this Union to greater prosperity and for the benefit of Africa as a continent. The President, I remember well, is the only sitting Head of State who was present when this organisation formally known as Organisation of African Unity was formed way back in 1963. So that is not mean achievement, he has come far with this organisation.
His experience in dealing with the Union’s issues is a marvel to watch and read about, so we should not be left out as Zimbabweans to emulate our President who has been elevated. However Mr. President, we celebrate his elevation and ascendancy to this chairmanship but there are still things which are restricting the President from operating freely. I want to mention here the EU bloc sanctions. For reasons best known to them, the EU bloc imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe way back in 2002. These sanctions have remained in force since then but recently, they have been gradually and partially lifted to encourage some reform between the EU and Zimbabwe.
However, our President and the First Lady, Dr. G. Mugabe are still on the list of sanctions when everybody else has been removed from that sanctions’ list. By this embargo on his travel ban, the President as the
Chair, will be restricted to carry out his duties freely and I want to quote here a quotation which was given by an EU bloc spokesperson by the name Catherine Ray and she says, “the ban will be lifted when he is travelling under his AU chairmanship capacity only”. So that is double standards, we do not accept that and we are appealing that the restriction be removed in total on the President and First Lady [HON. SENATORS:
Hear, hear.]-
In this vein, I want to welcome Minister Chinamasa’s appeal for unconditional lifting of sanctions on the first family. At a recent occasion of signing a $270 million aid deal in Harare with the EU bloc,
Hon. Chinamasa criticised the EU bloc’s position and appealed for the lifting of the total embargo on the President and his wife. Deals and dialogue of such nature should be done between equals and surely, we will not be equals at all until our President is completely removed from the alleged illegal sanctions.
Surely Mr. President, in all fairness, President Mugabe who is now
Chairman of the continental body and who is also the Regional
Chairman of SADC deserves due respect in that capacity. As Senate, we want to congratulate the President for assuming the chairmanship but at the same time, appeal that we become equals with our trading partners who have imposed sanctions on the President. With those few words, I want to support what the mover has said and I wish to see a fruitful debate towards the adoption of this motion. Thank you.
* SENATOR CHIEF CHARUMBIRA: I rise to add my voice in support of the motion which has been raised by Senator Mathuthu seconded by Senator Mumvuri and I am the third one. If she had not brought the motion, I was going to bring it because it is a good motion and when I came, I even confronted her asking why she brought my motion because it is a very good motion. This is a historic thing on this nation and Africa as a whole. We should say it frankly; a good thing is a good thing despite who has done it. If we want to build our nation, we should do that even if we hail from different political affiliations. If any of us does a good thing, we should be united and sing one song that this is good and a great thing for Africa. That is the main thing that I have stood up for.
We know that in Africa we have 53 countries. Our President who is one of the 53 presidents was chosen to chair all the presidents like the way we are seated right now; President Mugabe will be there in front chairing. We should all be proud because of that because if you are not proud of that, we will ask you where you come from and what your I.D says you come from. If it says Charumbira, we should confront your parents to find out whether you really do come from that area. It is a very good thing that we have been uplifted as Zimbabweans out of the 53 countries.
There are doctors in other countries who are Presidents but they have seen it fit that this position be given to President Mugabe. Besides that, we know that our President is the Chairperson of SADC and they bestowed this on him knowingly that he is also Chairperson of SADC. This means that they know he is a man who is capable and has the ability to lead us. So, let us unite because this is a blessing. I know some of us aspire to be presidents, you can be a president locally but to AU you will not reach there. So it will be recorded in history that we once got there through President Mugabe because not all Presidents will get there.
Let us all be happy and celebrate this achievement. We should ask why it is that President Mugabe has been bestowed with this position. Firstly, I think we should ask why President Mugabe was bestowed this chairmanship. Firstly, Africa is a continent which is loved by many people. There is poor development. You can go to Benin, Mali, anywhere, you will find that the continent is dead, but other continents are rising up. There are wars in Africa, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, everywhere, what is wrong with us? If you look at our health delivery system, it is not functioning in Africa, even our sanitation.
The President of the World Bank, after seeing that from the first century into this millennium, produced a report in 2000, you can go and search on the internet. The title of the report is disheartening to the black people because it reads; ‘Can Africa claim the 21st Century?’ This means that we are really underdeveloped. Talk of sport - soccer and so on, we are lagging behind. In the 21st century, why can we not grow as Africa? Because of this poverty, there is need for a man of spine, it is not for everyone. That is why President Mugabe was chosen because he was the man amongst men. He knows that the poverty of Africa is backdated years back. We know that Africa is the one which has all the wealth; all minerals are in Africa, even water.
However, our people do not have clean drinking water. There are no seas, most of the African countries are landlocked. We are so wealthy in Africa as a continent but we do not know where the wealth is going. We do not know how it is being used. That is why they have chosen President Mugabe, it is because of his history. It is not that, now that he is there, we should go and read and come up with a degree. This is all about his struggles and commitment to the African call. He is the only one who is capable of tackling that.
We attend workshops outside Zimbabwe and many people out there are asking why they also do not have a president like President Mugabe when it comes to land grab. They say that their presidents are not as strong as our president. They think that by electing President Mugabe to the Chairmanship of the African Union (AU), other presidents will be able to copy the Zimbabwean experience. As we know that there is an imbalance in the distribution of wealth, those countries which are wealthy, like Japan do not have anything. It is only because they are white, even if you go to Britain, we are far ahead of them when it comes to wealth, but we rush to stay there. There is someone who needs to tell those nations the truth because they are the ones who are causing our poverty. Many presidents are timid because they cannot face the leaders of those nations. When many leaders go and stay there, they sell their countries.
All these people know that President Mugabe is not a sell-out. There are presidents who are afraid of whites but President Mugabe is not like that. Because of that, the people of Africa have said, Africa with its poverty and challenges, we need an African who was born in Africa, who knows the African plight and will tackle the challenges. That man can only be President Mugabe. We do not have to look at politics. It does not have anything to do with that. We are very lucky because we have people from different parties, we should go and hold rallies with our people and tell them that we should rejoice because of our President. Even if you invite me, as long as you are congratulating our President, I will attend those rallies because great honour has been bestowed on us as Zimbabweans. Even those people who imposed sanctions on our leaders, if they are now imposing sanctions on the
Chairman of the AU, it even means that you will not get into heaven. How can you impose sanctions on a person who is liked and loved by the whole continent? I would like to thank those who raised this motion and I think we are going to unite on this issue. Thank you.
*SENATOR CHIEF NEMBIRE: Thank you Mr. President. I stand to add my voice to this motion which was raised by Hon. Senator Mathuthu and supported by Hon. Senator Mumvuri. Firstly, I would like to congratulate His Excellency, our President for attaining the
Chairmanship of AU ahead of all the countries.
I think this is a time that we should think deeply that as a nation, if we look at the alphabet, it ends with Z, which is the last. However, now Zimbabwe is number one. This means that Zimbabwe is now number one out of the 53 countries. I would like to talk about three things. If you look at Africa, there is a lot of poverty as already alluded to by Hon. Senator Chief Charumbira. However, we have so many minerals and animals. We are also very intelligent. Many of our resources are going out and we are getting finished products from our raw materials. This needs someone who is very intelligent so that we can harness our wealth and we can come up with beneficiation for our minerals. This will ensure that people from Africa will not suffer, they should enjoy their inheritance. Hon. Senator Charumbira has said that many people are afraid to say that the other nations are stealing from us but our President is a bold man, he will just say it point blank. He calls a spade a spade because he has Africa at heart.
We have so many diseases in Africa - in Sierra Leone and Liberia, like ebola, which has affected so many people and up to now there is no medication. We want people who are intelligent and can engage so that that disease will not eradicate the whole race. The other thing pertains to the wealth which is in Africa. Most of the wealth is being exploited by the people in the West because they want our diamonds, timber and our animals here. So, they cause disharmony amongst the people and then people fight each other. Such things need people who are clever and intelligent who can engage others to come up with plans. I would like to thank those who have raised this motion that they have to encourage our President that he should go ahead and also the ancestors should give him support. I would like to thank you.
+SEANATOR MASUKU: Thank you Hon. President of the
Senate. I would like to second this important motion that has been brought into this Senate by Hon. Senator Mathuthu and seconded by Hon. Senator Mumvuri. I would also like to support those who have spoken before me.
I would like to congratulate His Excellency President R. G. Mugabe. I also congratulate the whole nation because this seat, though it was given to President, it is the President of Zimbabwe. Hon. President of the Senate, if the President of Zimbabwe fought for the liberation of Zimbabwe it was their intention that the liberation of Zimbabwe will be the liberation of Africa. Therefore, the fact that he has become the Chairman it is no doubt that when he is still in that office he will do a good job, because he intends to fight and liberate Africa. Africa was not fully liberated because the issues of Africa were still with colonialists. We realise that even in Zimbabwe our riches, mainly the land, were still in the hands of the colonialists until when there came a time when the President said that we did not fight for these buildings but we fought for the land. He therefore, declared that land should go back to its rightful owners.
At the moment the President of the country has realised that the minerals that are being mined are being exported and used to develop the countries of the west. They had used our riches in Africa even in developing weapons to destroy and kill us. Therefore, the President said that even the mines should go back to their rightful owners again. I therefore, hope that all countries in Africa have seen what happened in
Zimbabwe and the fact that they have chosen the President of Zimbabwe to be the Chainman of African Union. It means that they are satisfied that there is a lot that he is dedicated to do in order to develop the livelihood of everyone in Africa as he has done in Zimbabwe.
For that reason hon. President of the Senate, I look forward to that
His Excellency whilst he is still the Chairman of SADC and also the Chairman of the AU - this is not an easy task, for that task to be made easy there is need for his nation to fully support him. There is need that his nation uplifts him the way that the whole of Africa has uplifted him. I expect that peace prevails in Zimbabwe by the way that His Excellency worked hard for unity and peace to prevail in this country. He had talks with Dr. Nkomo and there has been peace that is enjoyed by each and everyone.
Different countries in Africa where war is still prevailing have to learn from our example. They need to learn from him on having unity and peace. It is my wish that in all countries where there is still no peace they will learn from the current Chairman. There is a speaker who spoke before me Hon. Senator Chief Charumbira he said that it is not according to education. I was checking on whether I should say and how I should refer to the person on the seat of the President of Senate. Hon. President, I was saying that Senator Chief Charumbira mentioned before that it is not according to the educational levels. However it is about the intentions that one has and the character one has as well as the life, the livelihood in his own country. I therefore, say that it is not an easy task to His Excellency Hon. R. G. Mugabe. With those few words that I am using to second this motion I hope that the respect that has been given Zimbabwe when the President of Zimbabwe was chosen to be the Chairman. We need to be together, respect one another as we do such that when he is in such an office no one would be pointing fingers at him referring to what is happening in his own country.
However, when he is holding that office they should always refer to the development that is happening in his own nation. We need to admire what is happening here in Zimbabwe those who are not yet like us should admire us. I would like to congratulate His Excellency and I say that I hope that God will help him and also be with him in his life such that even though countries of the West tried to disturb and stop him from being the chairman, he has become the chairperson. I therefore say congratulations Hon. R. G. Mugabe and congratulations to Zimbabwe.
Thank you.
*SENATOR MAWIRE: Thank you for affording me this time to add a few words on the motion being debated. I would like to thank the mover and seconder of this motion. We were not aware of the happenings and as senators; we are very happy that you brought this motion for debate. As has been alluded to by the speakers before me, out of 53 countries, our President was chosen to chair the whole continent. If we were at Borrowdale race course it would be like a horse which comes first. So, I really want to congratulate our President.
We might not want to face the truth but our President makes us proud. When things were really tight and sanctions were imposed upon this country, he emerged a strong man. He went and faced Britain and America. He did not go there timidly but went there on behalf of his country. He did not look at which party or family but he stood for the whole nation. We really want to thank our President because as Zimbabweans we are very clever and we know that he is a real father, through the lessons he taught us from way back. Starting from his history when he was in prison during the colonial era, he was very intelligent. Even in jail, where he was being tortured, he did not leave the children of Zimbabwe alone but he was with them.
Looking at the struggle, he also stood his ground to the extent that the whites had to call him for a meeting. He was not someone who sold out on the country or the nation. The President makes us proud at all times. Even when he was given travel bans and was not supposed to go to the West, he would still go there and speak his mind on behalf of
Africa. He told them that Africa is for Africans and the countries in the West are theirs. We do not envy them but they should continue with their business while we continue with our own business. He really shows that he is a brave man unlike some other people.
Even if we look at the wars that were fought in Africa, he is mentioned among the greatest statesmen, the likes of Kwame Nkrumah and Nyerere. I wish all of us would debate with one voice and not look at personalities. The problem that we have in Zimbabwe is that we do not look at the good that the person has done, as alluded to by Chief Charumbira. He gave us a very good lesson on unity, which will move our country forward. If you just look at your political party and not at the people of Zimbabwe or the people of Africa, it means that you are not a good person. You need someone to tell you to love your country or your nation. I think God should intervene if we have people like that because he is the one who gave us a President like Cde. R.G.Mugabe.
He loves the people in his country and those in the continent of Africa. They chose him because they learnt a lot from him. Even if you look at the question of land, he comes first. Even when it comes to minerals, he always talks about them. He always speaks his mind freely. What else would we want?
For the President to be given sanctions by the whole world, it means that he is a great leader. It shows his bravery. Even amongst whites, he speaks his mind and tells them off. He tells them that they are colonialists and oppressors. For him to be made Chairman of the AU is an honour. I think the others could not match him because they are afraid to stand up for their people.
Let me say congratulations to Zimbabwe. Even if you look at the issues of peace, he is the only President whose people are living peacefully. He is ruling his people fairly. He has been able to maintain peace within his country. If he was not a strong father, this country would have gone to the dogs. So, what else would you want? As the Upper House, Gushungo we want to congratulate you. We are proud of you. We know there are some who do not like you but we are still congratulating you as the Senate. I thank you.
*SENATOR CHIEF MUSARURWA: I have risen to also
support the motion. Firstly, I would like to congratulate our President for being chosen to chair the AU by other Presidents. They saw that it was befitting that for now, the AU be chaired by a person with Africa at heart. Africans who stand for the truth. If it were my own thinking and doing, the British, Americans and their friends, I think they should realise that no matter how difficult you make things to be for
Zimbabweans or Africans and even if they oppress us with sanctions that they are imposing on us, it has no impact because we are resilient and we will stand for and protect our country.
It is clear now that our President is very courageous and brave. Although sanctions were imposed on him as all the others were removed from the sanctions list, they left the First Family on the list. They thought that probably he would sell the country because he will be alone but he was very resilient and he said he would remain on the list alone just like Moses who was instructed that he should lead the children of Israel out of Egypt into Canaan and as he was travelling towards
Canaan, he faced a lot of challenges because some of the children of Israel had to die because of the diseases and wars but he did not retract. He went forward.
Those who read the Bible are aware of that, like Senator Hungwe who really articulates Bible stories. That was during the time of Moses but Moses did not reteat. He went forward and led the children of Israel into Canaan and the same applies to our President. He is like Moses because he does not retreat. He is a true leader, a true Pan Africanist and he does not go back. He does not retract on what he had decided to do. As the Upper House, the Senate, we should debate this motion whole heartedly and show that as Senators, we support our President.
We support our President even if they make our lives difficult. One of these years, I said if it were possible, this House or even as chiefs, if we can go there because we are the owners of the land, if we can go to Britain and tell the Queen that even if you make life difficult for our people or President Mugabe, we have taken our land. It will never go back and Zimbabwe will never be a colony again because we know that chiefs, from time immemorial, were known as the owners of the land and the country. So even if they make life difficult for our people, we are there, we will stand and we will never go back. We will support the people especially the things that he does like when he goes to be inaugurated as the Chair, which means the whole of Africa is now in the hands of Zimbabwe through our President Robert G. Mugabe. This is something that really makes us proud.
Even as we are affiliated to different political parties, I think on this motion which concerns Zimbabwe, we should be united and talk with one voice to show that as Zimbabweans, we are united. If we look at all the other countries in Africa for example, Uganda, because when people are not united, wars will take precedence. There are so many wars which were taking place but because of the courageous nature of our President Mugabe, in Zimbabwe you cannot do what you want especially when it comes to war. You will find that you will not get the chance because he is a principled man. He does not change.
The whole world, there is no leader who has ever denounced the bombing of Iraq but President Mugabe denounced it and said the Americans and the British were not doing the right thing. He was not afraid that probably the following day Zimbabwe would be attacked. He stood and when Gaddaffi was bombed in Libya, it was only President
Mugabe who stood up and faced the British, telling them that they were doing the wrong thing. It was only our President. Even today, he talks about it even before he was chosen to be the Chairman of the African Union (AU) and SADC. He would stand and call a spade a spade. So that is British and Americans’ ways of doing things and if we are not intelligent as Zimbabweans we will end up despising our leader. We should support our President who is very principled and who does not go back.
I cannot say all because I want to leave room for others but I want to say congratulations Gushungo, go forward and we know that you are our Munhumutapa, you are our Moses and you should remain like that. Backwards never and may many more years be granted to you. We know that your birthday is approaching very soon on the 21st of February and we are celebrating with you, that actually, you are getting younger and we look forward that you will leave for many more years. May the Lord keep on looking after you because you love Zimbabwe, you love Africa and you love even the whole world because even if you travel to these other countries, even places like Britain, the British people admire you and wish if they had a leader like President Mugabe, their countries would be at peace. If you see your country causing mayhem in other countries, it means there is no peace.
So I am speaking strongly to the British and the Americans that these sanctions are nothing to the children of Zimbabwe. It is nothing to the African continent because even if things are difficult, Zimbabweans are known for hard working. In Zimbabwe, we have never come across a grave which is there as a result of hunger. Yes people can say they are hungry when we have droughts but they do not die because of hunger. They will eat wild fruits like hacha, matunduru, matamba and people have lived because of the leadership of President Mugabe. Thank you Mr. President for according me this time and let me leave it so that others would also add their voices to this motion. We want you to debate whole heartedly all of us, despite your party. We want you to support our President who loves us and that is why you are Senators here. If he was not here in Zimbabwe, the idea of Senate would was only for the whites, not for blacks. It was only whites who were called senators whilst blacks were oppressed. Our President is very resilient, he was troubled but he never let down his idea of elevating the black people. I want to urge members of this Senate to say our congratulatory messages whole heartedly. I thank you.
*SENATOR MACHINGAIFA: Thank you Mr. President for
affording me this opportunity to add my voice on this motion which was moved by Senator Mathuthu and seconded by Senator Mumvuri. They touched on a lot of issues, on the work that our President did, as the leader of Government and Commander-in-Chief, Cde. R.G. Mugabe. The work that he did is very important. I want to say, well done to those who moved this motion; you have done it in time.
Our President travelled and he came back with a title. He did not pick it up, but it is given to hard workers. It is given to those who are suitable. As Zimbabweans, the unity that we show; the truth that we live in, gives him strength whenever he goes anywhere. When he is representing Zimbabwe, when he looks back, he sees that we are supporting him. Mr. President, His Excellency, the President is like the sun which shines on the whole of Africa. He is like a weed, even if Zambezi is full, it does not break. It can only bend. Even if things are very difficult, he stands for this country.
When other African leaders like Malawi were against homosexuality and they jailed the people who engaged in homosexuality, when they were threatened that the aid was going to be withdrawn, they released those people. In Zimbabwe, through our President, we still say no to homosexuality. They use sanctions as their main weapon if one goes against their will. They think that if they withdraw their aid, people will dance according to their tune.
Zimbabweans refused to do that through our President. Now, they want to lure us. When they realised that he was appointed Chairman of African Union, they said that the sanctions would not affect him as long as he is travelling as AU Chairman. We are saying that, they should be removed totally on the First Family. If they do that, they would have done well to Zimbabwe.
There was a certain story that happened outside the country. There was a man who had a band called Queen. He was gay and he became rich, but his father lived in squalid conditions. He wanted to build a house for his father but the father refused it saying the money was dirty so he did not need it. He stayed in the same conditions as he had before. That is exactly what is happening to us, that we do not take dirty money because we are poor.
I would like to say to our President -congratulations! Gushungo, I say congratulations! You have been given more responsibility. The more years you have, the more responsibilities and more work. That is why we saw the President of Zambia who was elected recently. Coming to Zimbabwe so that he would get advice from President Mugabe because he has all the leadership history. I think since he is Chairman of AU, if Gaddafi was alive, he was going to be happy as well. Thank you.
*SENATOR CHIMBUDZI: Thank you Mr. President. I would
want to thank Senator Mathuthu and the seconder Senator Mumvuri for moving such an important motion. I will just say a few words because most of the things have been said. I would like to congratulate our President, Cde. R.G. Mugabe for being elected the Chairman of SADC as well as the AU. If we look at his history of the struggle for independence, he is a leader who really went through thick and thin. If he was not a true leader, he could have sold out but he said that he would remain a prisoner because he wanted to see this country free from colonial rule.
We want to thank the President when it comes to peace. When he was elevated to this chairmanship, we know that he is going to bring peace in the whole of Africa by removing all the fears that grappled other leaders so that they will have peace. Let me say that we are blessed because we are at peace. The whole of SADC is peaceful through our President, R. G. Mugabe. If there is war, there would be no development. Even if when we were under sanctions, our country did not come to a standstill. We know that even if they removed the sanctions partially, they left the First Family under sanctions. They thought probably he would have a second thought but he is not going to change.
I also want to thank Dr. Grace Mugabe because she is the only First Lady whom I have seen among other first ladies who brought development in Mazowe. There is no first lady who has brought such development of building an orphanage in Mazowe. We want to thank her for that. That is why she is being persecuted because of her good deeds. She is the First Lady who is not afraid. She built an orphanage at Mazowe which is helping our orphans to go to school. We know that there are these other First Ladies, who do not have that, instead they wait for things to happen. Our First Lady shows us through her deeds that she is a mother. We know that she does all this because of the President.
She really supports our President. We want to thank her for that.
Because of this chairmanship, we know that SADC is going to develop.
We know that these sanctions have caused other nations to be colonized by the enemy but when we were under sanctions, our
President thought of other ways. That is when he brought the Look East Policy and we now have our friends in the East. So we know that our country is going forward even if they thought that it would affect the army and police. They thought that the people of Zimbabwe would arise against their President but we did not do that. Instead, our President looked for new friends from the East. So, we want to thank him for the wisdom and intelligence that he was given.
We want to thank him even through the sanctions, that our education, our literacy rate is very high. Our education is rated highly. I was very happy when our ‘O’ Level results came out, the girl child was 74% and the boys 64%. You will not even think that we are under sanctions. Our country is defended and we will fight for it. We want to love our country just as our President. Even if things are difficult, we will go forward as long as we remain united as the people of Zimbabwe. If we move as one family, we will move forward even when we are facing all those challenges. Our army is doing a great job and our education is rising high.
Again, we want to thank the First Lady, Dr. G. Mugabe. We know that she was not feeling well but we pray that the Lord will heal her and that she will bring new things and development to our country. We wish her a long and good life. We know that as Senate, when we are in our
Thematic Committees, we will have a chance to go there as Peace and Security Committee because it is part of the AU. I think we will be given an opportunity to go and learn about the peace and security at the AU because our President is now the Chair. We believe that our President is going to give us that opportunity. Thank you.
SENATOR. MATHUTHU: I move that the debate do now
adjourn.
- MUMVURI: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Wednesday, 18th February, 2015.
On the motion of SENATOR MATHUTHU, seconded by SENATOR MUMVURI, the Senate adjourned at Five Minutes past
Four o’ clock p.m.
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Thursday, 19th February, 2015
The Senate met at Half-past Two o’clock p.m.
PRAYERS
(THE DEPUTY PRESIDENT in the Chair)
ORAL ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
*SENATOR MUCHIHWA: Thank you Mr. President. We plead
with you to ensure that ministers come to the Senate to answer questions. On many occasions, we get responses from their deputy ministers and we do not get the full responses that we expect. We are not looking down on the deputy ministers but we feel that they are short changing us. They should come and show their respect for this august
Senate.
I will direct my question to the Minister of Industry and
Commerce. His Excellency the President, in his opening Speech, stated that industries would be reopened in Bulawayo. Have any industries been opened since this pronouncement? I am asking because the unemployment rate is very high and all the unemployed in the country have become vendors.
*THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF INDUSTRY AND
COMMERCE (MS. MABUWA): Thank you for giving me this
opportunity to respond to the hon. senator. Since she misidentified me as the Minister of Culture, maybe that is why her question is not properly framed. Can I ask her to put her question in writing so that she can get a well crafted response?
*SENATOR MUCHIHWA: Maybe I used the wrong language.
My question is on industries. All I am asking is how far you have gone with the opening of industries and I do not think that needs to be put down in writing. This question is directed to your ministry. I had a different question for the minister of culture.
*MS. MABUWA: Thank you for clarifying your question hon.
senator. This is a very broad question and I am not sure which industries to touch on because there are many programmes that are being undertaken by Government through ZIM ASSET to ensure our industries are operational. As a ministry, we have also put in place a lot of strategies to ensure the reopening of these industries.
SENATOR MARAVA: Thank you Mr. President. I do I agree
with what the minister is saying, but I think she can highlight to the nation which other industries are almost in operation now.
* MS. MABUWA: I will give examples of industries that are performing well. We have the food and beverages industry divided into its four sectors. Some of the sectors are operating at 100% capacity utilisation, especially the beverage industry. There is also the clothing and textile industry, which is already on its way to resuscitation. I might want to cite that David Whitehead, which is currently under judicial management, is already seeing some fruition in the process of resuscitating the industry. The ministry also recently launched the cotton to clothing strategy, which is already being implemented through stakeholder’s participation and support. We received support of roughly 4 billion euros from COMESA, which is currently rolling out that strategy. Those are the few that I can cite for now. Thank you.
*SENATOR CHIEF CHARUMBIRA: May the Minister of
Energy and Power Development let this august Senate know the Government policy regarding the purchase of prepaid electricity. There are very few selling points for prepaid electricity. I have often noticed that during the weekend, we have very long queues at the existing selling points. So, we do not want any family to go without cooking food. In particular, we do not want the chief to go hungry. I am sure his wife should always have electricity to prepare food for him. So I am seized with that matter Mr. President and I am sure access is going to improve. I thank you.
THE DEPUTY PRESIDENT: I would like to welcome the
Ministers who are here present and so far we have the Deputy Minister of Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment, Hon. Tongofa Mathias; Hon. Chiratidzo Mabuwa, Deputy Minister of Industry and
Commerce; Hon. T. V. Muzenda, Deputy Minister of Energy and Power Development; Hon. S. Undenge, Minister of Energy and Power Development; Hon. Z. Ziyambi, Deputy Minister of Home Affairs; Hon. F. Moyo, Deputy Minister of Mines and Mining Development; Hon. L. Dokora, Minister of Primary and Secondary Education and again I say you are welcome.
SENATOR KOMICHI: I would like to start by saying well done to members of the Lower House yesterday for demonstrating against Ministers who were not coming to the House – [AN. HON. SENATOR:
Aah.] – Today the House is full. Thank you very much for that – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] – [SENATOR MARAVA: Ko ndochokwadi
ka nhai.] –
The question goes to the Minister for Home Affairs. I would like to know the policy of ZRP towards soldiers who beat MDC activists? I am raising this question because we have one of our youths from Chivi who was beaten to pulp by soldiers and this culture is continuing all over the country. Do you take any action against soldiers or you are afraid of them?
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS (MR.
ZIYAMBI): Thank you Mr. President and I would like to thank the hon. member for the question. Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) does not look at the colour, gender and age of anyone except if they are minors when they are arresting offenders. So if you have information about somebody who was beaten up, may you kindly tell that person to go and report to the nearest police station. I thank you.
SENATOR MUMVURI: Thank you Mr. President. My question
is directed to the Deputy Minister of Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment. I just want to know a clear policy on empowering people through their indigenisation programme. Are there any checks and balances Minister, for those people who benefited in other earlier programmes such as land reform and mining that they are not considered in your indigenisation and empowerment efforts just to ensure that there is no double dipping by the same people? Thank you.
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF YOUTH, INDIGENISATION
AND ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT (MR. TONGOFA): Thank you Mr. President for giving me this opportunity to respond to this question raised by the hon. senator. There are various ways through which the indigenisation and economic empowerment is empowering indigenous people. To start with, he mentioned the land reform. Yes it was started way before this Act was enacted but it is an empowerment programme as well.
The policy or the Act itself empowers people through the Community Share Ownership Trusts. Thus empowering the communities which are around areas where natural resources are really exploited by the commercial entities. The communities around that area are empowered through ownership of the equity within that entity and also through other various initiatives which emanate from that Act. Also, the youth benefit through the community ownership trusts as well because they have got a stake when the seed capital comes and a case in point is where we used the shares from Old Mutual to securitise the money which we were giving the youths during the previous period which we have just suspended because of other problems.
Also, the Nordic Investment Bank (NIB) through the
Neighbourhood Investment Facility (NIF) fund is supposed to help our people to acquire shares and just because it is not capitalised, that facility is not visible because it is not yet capitalised. It is a facility that that was supposed to help our people to acquire shares through the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange (ZSE) and also shares from other entities which will be indigenising. I think in a nutshell, these are the initiatives through which our people can be empowered through the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act.
The second question on checks and balances, I think the programme is open to everyone. It does not discriminate. It is a programme which is there for the indigenous people of this country and everyone is free to participate in any programme which the Government is rolling out. I thank you.
SENATOR KOMICHI: Deputy Minister, can you confidently
say the Community Share Ownership Trust is a success as a project?
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF YOUTH, INDIGENISATION AND ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT (MR. TONGOFA): Thank
you Mr. President. I will confidently say so because there are a number of success stories behind Community Share Ownership Trusts. I will let the hon. senator know that we have 61 registered Community Share Ownership Trusts, but 15 of them have been capitalised. We had US$38 million availed to those Community Share Ownership Trusts and US$14 million out of that, has been used in various communities. Communities are really benefiting, which really shows the broad based empowerment programme.
Mr. President, there are so many projects, which I cannot highlight at the moment but if you go to the Unki, which is the Shurugwi Community Trust, they have built a number of schools and dams where people are eking a living. Even if you go to Chivi, there are a number of schools which were rehabilitated and boreholes drilled in those areas. If you go to Chegutu, there is the one which was done by ZIMPLATS in Mhondoro-Ngezi. There are so many success stories. I can confidently say this is the best model which can empower our societies. I thank you.
*SENATOR CHIEF CHARUMBIRA: We need to tell the truth
regarding Community Ownership Trusts. You said 15 out of 61, which is about 24% as the success of this scheme. As far as I am concerned, this is a failure. Looking at the feelings of the chiefs, because
Community Share Ownership Trusts, you said it would be bestowed upon the powers of the chiefs. We have noticed that, we are not in the NIEEB Board, that is running these policies. We have been told that we cannot even be ex-officio members of these boards. How can you say they are operating well?
- TONGOFA: Thank you Mr. President. I also want to thank Hon. Senator Chief Charumbira mambo vedu. I want to say it is a process, it is not an event. As a process, we listen to all the stakeholders as we move along. The chiefs are the ones who chair the Community Ownership Share Trusts that is the configuration. Therefore, from our own point of view, the chiefs are the ones who are running the Community Share Ownership Trusts because they are the ones who chair the programmes of the Community Share Ownership Trusts. So they have got a say at what is happening in the Community Share Ownership Trusts.
Of course, I want to say the success of 24% where other companies are not coming on board to provide the seed capital, is an issue which we are working on. It is also an issue which we need to work together as a community to make sure these companies come on board and really provide the seed capital. It is about the seed capital, but these Community Share Ownership Trusts have been established, only that they do not have seed capital. Other companies are coming on board. We have recently talked to Metallon Gold and it has established five because it has five mines in different districts. They are capitalising those Trusts this year. To me, there is progress. Yes, we are not moving with the speed that is expected by everyone but we are making progress.
It is us together as a team who should make it faster. I thank you Mr.
President.
SENATOR HOLLAND: Thank you Mr. President. My question
is directed to the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education. What is the Ministry’s policy towards bullying? How effective is the policy, where bullying has taken place and what steps are being taken to follow the policy is actually implemented. I say this in light of the young pupil at Waddilove Primary School who is said to have committed suicide after having been bullied and that the parents are having difficulty in getting to understand exactly what happened? This is a very serious matter which we need as nation, to take seriously and address. What steps are taken where bullying has taken place with fatal or even tragic results as the Waddilove case?
THE MINISTER PRIMARY AND SECONDARY
EDUCATION (DR. DOKORA): Thank you Mr. President. I thank the
hon. senator for raising the question. The Ministry has a policy on bullying. Statutory Instrument 1/2000 will certainly visit those who fail to enforce the rules that protect pupils within the school premises.
Secondly, you cited a particular instance and deduced that it appears to fit the bill of bullying leading to death. That is a matter that needs investigation. At the moment, we do not have a report on our desk describing or providing the details that led to the demise of the young person. However, every life lost is regrettable. I do not think we can take it at face value and say, it is caused by bullying. Let us wait and obtain the full circumstances of the situation that might have led to that young boy’s loss of life.
*SENATOR CHIEF MUSARURWA: Thank you Mr. President.
My question is directed to the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education. We have been told of the framework policy which you intend to introduce that school children will be allowed to take cellphones to school so that they can communicate with parents and guardians in order to catch up with the current trend of technology. My question is, did you consult parents regarding this education? As far as I am concerned, we are destroying our education and in another way also introducing pornography indirectly.
*THE MINISTER OF PRIMARY AND SECONDARY
EDUCATION (DR. DOKORA): Thank you Mr. President for giving
me the opportunity to respond to the chief’s question. Let me clear this policy statement. When we talk of a cellphone, we are talking of a gadget which was introduced some few years back for communication. During the old days, we knew the ordinary handset which is stationary and located at a particular place, be it at an institution or somebody’s home. Whenever you wanted its service, you would go to that home or institution to communicate. You could not carry it around but during that period, technocrats were looking for ways and means of improving the technology in communication among people located in different continents as Africa, Europe and Australia to enable them to hold conferences at the same time.
They therefore had to introduce computers and the first computers were introduced in the late 60/70s. These were huge mainframes and because of their size, they had to be located at a particular place and people had to pay it a visit. It was a marvel during those days. One had to make an effort to get in touch with it. As time progressed, our technocrats and scientists have reduced these machines including the computer and the handsets which were stationary and put them in homes.
We now have information, communication and technology. This has led to the unification of ideals by the industrialists and communicators, and they have combined this technology to introduce one machine. This has resulted in the reduction of the size of this machine. I know when computers were introduced, we had these desktop computers. Next in line were the laptops which were portable to carry around but because of the technological improvement, we now have portable handsets which we can carry in our hands or on our persons easily.
A cellphone is a sophisticated technological piece of machine which is able to carry out the business which was done by the huge computer mainframes of the past. You can also google using your cellphone, searching for markets, services and products. You can also locate geographical places. You can also go into the political world using these gadgets and we want our children to catch up with modern technology and advance economically.
This also means that each school should have its policies and regulations on the use of these technological communication gadgets. The laptop which is used by these learners can also be used to communicate as a phone. Therefore, when we are talking of a cellphone, we are not talking only of the handset which we know. We are talking of other attachments to the computer.
Therefore, I plead with the school authorities that they should have some regulations and policies regarding the use of these gadgets. As teachers and lecturers, they should not fight against these gadgets because these are friendly gadgets. We are encouraging the school authorities and parents to allow access to these computers which should be introduced in schools so that we almost have a ratio of one computer to four learners. This should be an accepted average at a school.
We believe that if these gadgets had been introduced with such a ratio, each learner would have had access to a computer for about an hour or so many hours because they are in a school environment; the knowledge so gathered is going to be of some help to these learners when they go for their tertiary education. We want to take these computers to the learners from the ECD level through primary, secondary and tertiary education. We do not want these children to be introduced to computers when they go to tertiary institutions and universities only.
So to answer your question, the use of these communication gadgets will be used according to the regulations, guidance and policies of the schools. We believe the school authorities can also bar access to some of the pornographic material which has been stated by the
Minister.
SENATOR CHIEF NGUNGUBANE: I would want the Minister
to clarify by saying whether kids are now permitted to bring cellphones to the school or the school will provide the computers that have certain programmes locked to the kid?
- DOKORA: Every school has rules on how the technology
deployed in its institution will be used. Thank you.
*SENATOR. MAVHUNGA: As a follow up to Hon. Senator
Chief Musarurwa’s question, he said, is this not going to lead us to getting poor forms of education in our country and our children will be spoilt because of this new technology.
*DR. DOKORA: Let me give you a tangible example of what I am talking about. When we knock off, we need to go and watch a D6 programme which is used in some Group A schools. On that site which I have mentioned, it has assignments which will have been set up for the learners. The learners receive instructions on what exercises they will have to embark on. They will also be given information on when examinations will be written. They are also given some books which they are supposed to read. We know that some learners may not have access but this programme is exposed to them.
The introduction of an ICT tool does not degrade the kind of education in the country; on the contrary, it improves the school’s education. We have some schools which are already working with these communication gadgets and are creating groups whereby students of a within a particular group can communicate with each other. A teacher or lecturer is also able to communicate with his students through that computer. At home, our children are able to access the computers and therefore, we should not have these negative thoughts about computers.
We have two types of mathematics.
*SENATOR CHIEF MUSARURWA: The Minister may have
misunderstood my question. He is talking about laptops and computers; we support it because it was supported by his Excellency.
THE TEMPORARY PRESIDENT: Sorry, Mambo is it a point
of order?
*SENATOR CHIEF MUSARURWA: Yes, it is. On a point of
Order! My question was misunderstood; we do support the ICT technology on computers which was …
SENATOR W. SIBANDA: On a point of order! I think the hon.
chief must correct what he wants to correct [HON. SENATORS:
Inaudible interjections] - can I have protection, Mr. President.
THE TEMPORARY PRESIDENT: Order, order!
*SENATOR W. SIBANDA: I wanted to say the hon. chief should
correct the point of order so that we proceed properly.
*THE TEMPORARY PRESIDENT: Mambo, just ask the
Minister where he did not understand.
*SENATOR CHIEF MUSARURWA: Minister, my question is
on cellphones in particular. I am talking about these handsets, whether you allow cell phones as cellphones, as computers or laptops. So in the classrooms, computers and laptops are monitored by teachers but cellphones are personal and they will be used on an individual basis. So, I am talking about cellphones.
My second question was whether you consulted with the parents before allowing children to bring cellphones? Thank you.
*DR. DOKORA: Thank you Mr. President. When I am talking about handsets, I explained that these handsets you may call it a cell phone but it is a computer on its own. If I had a chance, I would ask the hon. senators to bring out the handsets which they have and their sizes be will be different. These cellphones can also be used for mathematical calculations. My response was aimed at introducing the whole basic introduction of these machines. The senator on my left supported the idea by supplying these computers and ICT technologies. In our curriculum, we have mathematics and we also have mathematics which is calculator based. As a result, learners are allowed to bring calculators into the examination room and write their exams. This means we are introducing different forms of ICT to assist the learners so that when they are through with education, they will be very highly computer
literate.
THE TEMPORARY PRESIDENT: Minister, you did not answer
part of the question on consultation of parents. Did you consult the parents?
*DR. DOKORA: Mr. President, I am proud to hear what the hon. chief has said that His Excellency the President of the country, allowed schools to launch the programme on computerization in schools but technology has to advance as it is. Thank you.
+SENATOR A. SIBANDA: Thank you Mr. President. My
question is directed to the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education. I would like know, in the past we were governed by the white people and our children moved from grade one to seven, whether they passed or not. Then from grade seven, they would move to form 2 which was ZJC; from there they would proceed to form four and stop. However, at the moment, what does your policy say when it comes to our children because, some are slow learners and others fail. Are you in support of the fact that they just move from grade one to form four and when they fail, proceed to form six and then to University? What does your policy say as the black people who have got freedom and were liberated?
*THE MINISTER OF PRIMARY AND SECONDARY
EDUCATION (DR. DOKORA): I thank you Mr. President. I understood some of the things but not all. Let me now give an explanation regarding the question you asked on learning. Regarding basic education, in some countries when you talk of basic education, you will be referring to primary education, but in the Republic of Zimbabwe - because of our visionary leader, basic education means the learner should start from ECD to form four so that every child should have access up to form four and every child should access of the four years of secondary education.
So, let us start from ECD. The leaner should move without any blockages. We now have what is termed infant module which is in grade 2, that is where we lay the foundation for this learner. We also need to examine the strengths and weaknesses up to grade 2; they should have been identified. From grade 3, the pupil will be taken up by other learners where he has to move from 3 to 7. The grade seven education and examinations are aimed at assessing the real profile of this learner and will be able to asses where the strengths and weaknesses fall and then take this learner to secondary education. So, the curriculum will be expanded.
We have been holding consultations on the new curriculum to be put on our education and so we are widening this curriculum scope. What we need is to look for the weaknesses and strengths of this learner and be able to look at the vocational and other skills. In form 4 these same learners write examinations and the learner will have gone through the basic education. After, form 4 the learners will then branch either they go for vocational training or advance to university and other tertiary education. I know that you are talking about before and after education we could have had a misunderstanding, may you were talking of preindependence and post independence period. But, we are now saying we are moving with a new line of thinking which led to a removal of ZJC examinations because the Nziramasanga Enquiry said the ZJC level was a waste of the learner’s time because it was no-longer considered in any training program or in any profession or industry. But, we are saying we are not going to remove the Grade 7 because it helps us in order to assess the needs of the child from primary to secondary.
*SENATOR MLOTSHWA: My question is directed to the
Minister of Primary and Secondary Education. The students who fail like slow learners are they allowed to repeat whatever grade that they would have failed?
*DR. DOKORA: When we are talking in terms of education and
identifying a slow leaner, any trained teacher is told about the remedial ways of dealing with slow learners. Because, learners have different ways of accessing and engaging in education. We have some of your colleagues who can confirm this assessment.
We also have a specialised college which trains teachers who have special education for learners with special needs and mostly these are slow learners. At times when we talk of slow learners we are talking of some of the learners who have problems in their faculties or who are challenged intellectually. In the past years these slow learners with low
IQ were segregated and stigimatised, they were taken to their own special classes and learned in seclusion. But, we are now saying this segregation and stigmatization is bad. These learners must be in the same class because they have to access their knowledge the same. Because, in real life the slow learner with low IQ and the highest IQ live in the same world and share similar life experiences, hence they should receive their education in the same place. What we want our teachers to do - they should be trained in multi degraded teaching.
You can have somebody who is in group 4b but they have challenges in their learning. A trained teacher should have many ways of assessing both slow and fast learners. When we get to Grade 7 and we say the children who have a low IQ have not done well. We say in assessing their progress; in life we late matures they may have done badly when they are in primary. When they get to certain stage they are then accommodated in secondary because there are a lot of things which determine the learning process because of the environment in which they live.
We have parents who are saying their children should repeat certain grades but we are asking the parents to be patient with their children because they will be destroying the child in making that learner repeat a certain grade. So, we are saying they should go ahead and learn.
*SENATOR SIANSALI: My question is directed to the Minister of Primary and Secondary Education. Hon. Minister is it Government policy that all university graduates should go for temporary teaching in case they fail to get a job somewhere, regardless of the fact that they are holders of non teaching degrees even a civil engineer or a mechanic to go and teach a Grade 2 child? Thank you.
*DR. DOKORA: Thank you Mr. President. I talk of the operations of our Ministry. Our wish is we need to have 100% of qualified teachers these should the teachers who will be imparting education to our learners. But, this is an ideal situation and difficult to attain.
Zimbabwe has got 135 000 teachers. Out of these we have about 9
000 or below who are not very well qualified to get whatever it is we want according to ideal situation. These 9 000 are then supported by the fully qualified because there are some who have high qualifications like they might have a masters in physics and chemistry but they do not have the teaching qualifications.
*THE DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Pedagogy, pedagogy chava
chishona here?
*DR. DOKORA: Thank you for the correction when I talk of pedagogy in education. We are talking of the methods which teachers can apply to different levels of students in order to facilitate a full understating of whatever being taught. In other words it is the way of identifying the learning needs of the learner in such a way that they should be able to divide the imparting of knowledge from what is required per week, month or per year. This is an ideal situation and I have said we have some teachers who were not able to go for training.
We then have the civil service ministry which helps us in sourcing for temporary who should be coming into the system. These are not trained teachers but people who are qualified but lack the necessary teaching qualities. They are taken in as temporary teachers because of the shortage of trained teachers in our schools. We are also hoping that the Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education will looking at equipping itself in such a way that it trains adequate teachers in order to have a good pupil to teacher ratio who will have the necessary pedagogy in the imparting of knowledge to the learners.
*SENATOR SIANSALI: Than Mr. President. My question is, is it Government policy but the Minister has not responded to that, when we are talking of these temporary teachers, who have masters and doctorates. Why not employ ‘A’ level and form 4s to teach people in their own language? You may have a Masters or a Doctorate but if you have not been trained as a teacher, you belong in the same grade, therefore there will not be any discrimination.
THE TEMPORARY PRESIDENT: Order, the time for
questions without notice has expired but I will use Standing Order
Number 23 to extend the time. I will tell you when the time is up. *SENATOR SHIRI: I would like to find out from the Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, what Government policy is, regarding training of teachers in Zimbabwe. We have noted that some of the trained teachers in these colleges lack the necessary pedagogy, especially when we focus on learners with disabilities. There are ECD learners who have been ejected from schools because they lack the necessary training.
THE TEMPORARY PRESIDENT: In the interest of time, can we have just a quick response.
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF HIGHER AND TERTIARY
EDUCATION, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT
(DR. GANDAWA): Thank you hon. President. It is quite sad that we have some learners with disabilities being discriminated against and stigmatised because there are no teachers with the necessary pedagogy to accommodate these children. But in Bulawayo, we have a teachers’ college aimed at equipping teachers with the necessary skills to enable them to accommodate these children. We wish these teachers would be spread to all the schools throughout the country.
*SENATOR MAKORE: Thank you hon. President. I would like to find out from the Minister of Home Affairs what the Government policy is regarding commuter omnibuses that stop wherever they want even in the presence of policemen on patrol.
*THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS (MR.
ZIYAMBI): If you see any police officer allowing that to happen, please report to the authorities.
*SENATOR MAKORE: My question has been misunderstood. I am talking about a scenario where these commuter omnibuses load and unload in the middle of the road. They are so used to it that they disregard all the other motorists. What is of concern is that they do it in the presence of some uniformed police officers.
*MR. ZIYAMBI: Thank you for rephrasing this question. My response is still the same. When our police officers are on traffic patrol, they are also to ensure there is peace and order on the roads. So when a policeman observes commuter omnibus breaking all the rules of the road and does nothing about it, they should be reported to their authorities.
*SENATOR CHIEF DANDAWA: I would like to direct my
question to the Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development. We have two districts, Kariba and
Hurungwe, which are inundated with a lot of school leavers. They have no access to teacher training colleges. How can they be assisted to get access to such colleges?
*THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF HIGHER AND TERTIARY
EDUCATION, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT
(DR. GANDAWA): The Senator is talking about areas where I come from. It is true that this area has no teacher training college. As Government, it is our wish that each province or district should have its own teacher training college. However, may I put it to this Senate that Zimbabwe is one, and wherever students are, they should be able to access training in any province. There is no discrimination on provincial lines. They can apply to any college of their choice. Let us encourage our children to apply to different colleges.
SENATOR CHIEF CHISUNGA: Can the Minister of Home
Affairs apprise this august Senate how the two departments in the
Ministry of Home Affairs, that is the Registrar General’s Office and the Police, account for the retention of the money that they collect?
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS (MR.
ZIYAMBI): I would like to thank you Mr. President and I would like to thank the hon. senator for the question whereby he wants me to give an account of how the monies are spent, which I believe is not a policy question because when we are spending money, the policy is already there and I request him to put it in writing so that we can give him a detailed account of how the monies are being spent. Notwithstanding that, whatever we use the money for, those records are always tabled before the Parliament for your consideration. I thank you.
SENATOR CHIEF CHISUNGA: Thank you Mr. President. The
question I asked is about how they are accounted for not how the money is used? How the money is used, since I have been in Parliament, this is my 5th year and I have never had an opportunity to read a report from the Auditor General. Thank you.
- ZIYAMBI: Thank you Mr. President. I am not getting his question. When we collect funds, we send them to Treasury and then Treasury will give us whatever retention they want to give us. So the reports do not come through us but they come through the relevant ministry which is the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development. So I am not actually getting what exactly he wants us to give an account of. I thank you – [SENATOR CHIEF CHISUNGA: Mapindura
Minister.] –
SENATOR MARAVA: Thank you very much Mr. President. My
question is directed to the hon. Minister for Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment. Minister, I think the country would like to know about a lot of youth officers scattered all over the country, especially in rural areas. Can you please enlighten the country about the functions, responsibilities and duties of these youth officers and how they are remunerated? Thank you.
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF YOUTH, INDIGENISATION AND ECONOMIC EMPOWERMENT (MR. TONGOFA): Thank
you Mr. President and thank you hon. senator for asking this important question. First of all, I will start from the end of the question. Youth officers are civil servants and that is the answer. They are under the Ministry of Youth, Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment and they are recognised by the Civil Service Commission. Their job or task is to help the people; youths and even the old people within the wards to identify economic activities which will empower them and they also help them when they are implementing those projects within the wards. They normally coordinate as well with the officials from Ministry of Women Affairs, Gender and Community Development in ensuring that communities are implementing projects which will empower them.
Those are the duties of the youth officers. I thank you Mr. President.
SENATOR MABUGU: My question is directed to the Minister of Energy and Power Development. Minister, what is the progress regarding rural electrification? If this is still in progress, who should be the beneficiaries of this programme?
THE MINISTER OF ENERGY AND POWER
DEVELOPMENT (DR. UNDENGE): Mr. President, can I assure the
hon. senator that the rural electrification programme is on. As you may be aware, Rural Electrification Agency (REA) is a statutory body created through Parliament and there is a levy for electricity which is 6% levied on all collections on electricity bills. The aim is to ensure that electricity goes to rural areas. Let me inform you that a number of clinics and schools have been electrified through REA. I am not sure about where you come from but throughout the country, such a programme is taking place. I would like to know the area where you come from and maybe if you travel around the country, it is certainly there. Maybe if you have been omitted for a number of years, I will remind REA that there is this neglected place. Thank you Mr. President.
SENATOR NCUBE: Thank you Mr. President. Sir, my question
is directed to the Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development. Minister, how much is supposed to be paid for someone to be enrolled in a college? I thank you.
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF HIGHER AND TERTIARY
EDUCATION, SCIENCE AND TECHNNOLOGY
DEVELOPMENT (DR. GANDAWA): Thank you Mr. President. I am
not sure of what in particular that the senator is asking but if it is enrolment fee, it varies from $5 to $30 per college as an enrolment fee.
Thank you Mr. President.
SENATOR NCUBE: I just wanted to explain to the minister because there is a college where somebody got a place and he was told to bring US$400 and that is why I am asking that question.
- GANDAWA: Thank you Mr. President. I think she is now
referring to a particular college so we would prefer if she would put it in writing so that we could be able to answer it adequately.
Oral answers to Questions Without Notice were interrupted by THE TEMPORARY PRESIDENT in terms of Standing Order Number 34.
ORAL ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS WITH NOTICE
PAYMENT OF TAXES BY CHURCH RUN BUSINESSES
- SENATOR MASHAVAKURE asked the Minister of
Finance and Economic Development whether there is a Government policy which requires a church or religious institution operating a business venture to pay taxes to Government.
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF INDUSTRY AND
COMMERCE (MS. MABUWA) on behalf of THE MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (MR.
CHINAMASA): I would like to thank the hon. senator for asking the question. The current Income Tax Act, Section 14(2)(e) exempts the receipts and accruals of all ecclesiastical, charitable and educational institutions of a public character. The receipts and accruals of ecclesiastical institutions being referred to relate to church activities only which are not of a business nature. By this I mean that only offerings given by congregants during a church service are exempt from taxes.
With regards to business ventures of churches, these are to be accounted for separately. Any business venture for a church should be properly registered as an incorporated company. The Income Tax Act specifically pronounces that any company engaged in a trade which includes any profession, business, activity or calling, occupation or venture in producing income is liable to pay all due income taxes. This also applies to consumption taxes such as Value Added Taxes (VAT), excise and customs duty.
REGISTRATION OF ABANDONED CHILDREN
- SENATOR MLOTSHWA asked the Minister of
Home Affairs to explain why the abandoned children are registered under the Births and Deaths Registration Act, 1986 No. 11 of 1996 while other children are registered under the Birth and Death Registration Act, Chapter 5:02. Secondly, to state whether this is not in violation of Section 81 of the Constitution on the rights of the children Subsection (a) (b) (c)
(i) (ii) and (d)
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS (MR.
ZIYAMBI): The Birth and Deaths Registration Act, (No. 11/86) was repealed and replaced by the Birth and Deaths Registration Act (Chapter 5:02) which came into effect on 20 June, 1986. The Act incorporates some of the provisions of Act No. 11/86 and one of them is Section 15 of the Act (Chapter 5:02) which provides for such registrations including the registration of adopted children, some of whom are generally abandoned children whose birth registration is provided for by Section 70 of the Children’s Act (Chapter 5:06). The said provisions protect the interests of the children.
It is therefore, incorrect that these are provisions of Act No. 11/86 which are still being applied when registering births and deaths as the said Act was repealed.
The second part of the question is sufficiently covered under the first part above. The Registrar General is complying with relevant provisions of the said Act (Chapter 5:02).
PRESS STATEMENT ON SPORT FINES
- SENATOR HLALO asked the Minister of Home Affairs why the Chief Superintendent Nyathi made a press statement of spot fines that contradicted the opinion of a Judicial Official.
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS (MR.
ZIYAMBI): On 9th February, 2015, Hon. J. Bere delivered a speech on the opening of the High Court in Masvingo. The Judge expressed concerns on the collection and retention of spot fines by the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP). The Judge went on to state that there is no law which compels a motorist to deposit a fine with the police, if he desires to challenge the alleged offence. He further stated that any attempt by the motorist to refuse is met by threat to have the vehicle impounded by the police. The Judge intimated that retention of fines by the police compromised its professional integrity.
ISSUES
- The legality of ‘spot fines’
- Power of police to accept fines
- Verification of particulars
- Retention of funds
- Corruption
THE LAW
- Section 356 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act
(Chapter 9:07)
- Section 26(2) of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act
(Chapter 9:07)
- Road Traffic Act (Chapter 13:11)
- National Deposit Fine Schedule
- Elliot v Commissioner of Police and another 1977 (1) ZLR
315 (S)
DISCUSSION
In his speech, the Hon. Judge insinuated that Section 356 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act prohibits the collection of spot fines by the Police. The learned Judge clearly misinforms the public because quoted hereunder is the relevant part of Section 356 that deals with police powers to receive or accept fines as follows:
“When any person has been summoned or warned to appear in a magistrate court or has been arrested or has been informed by a peace officer, by written notice referred to in Sub Section (1) of Section 141 or otherwise, that it is intended to institute criminal proceedings against him for any offence, and a prescribed officer has reasonable grounds for believing that the court which will try the said person for such offence will, on convicting such person of such offence, not impose a sentence of imprisonment or fine exceeding level three, such person may sign and deliver to such prescribed officer a document admitting that he is guilty of the said offence and –
- Deposit with such prescribed officer such sum of money as the latter may fix; or
- Furnish to such prescribed officer such security as the latter thinks sufficient for the payment of any fine which the court trying the case in question may lawfully impose therefore; not exceeding level three or the maximum of the fine with which such offence is punishable, whichever is the lesser, and such person shall thereupon not be required to appear in court to answer a charge of having committed the said offence
The import of the above provision is that:
- A person, who has admitted the commission of an offence and is willing to pay the fine, has an option to do so right at the spot or opt for court appearance. The fine is paid to a prescribed officer wherever he is, whether at a police station or at a point of traffic enforcement. Quite clearly, therefore, the above
Section does not prohibit the police from collecting fines from traffic offenders who are willing to pay the fine on the spot.
- The prescribed officer has powers to accept in lieu of appearing in court or payment of a fine.
NATIONAL DEPOSIT SCHEDULE
- The National Deposit Fine Schedule was designed by the Ministry of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs and is reviewed by the same Ministry from time to time. It was put in place to enhance the operationalisation of Section 356 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act.
- The payment of fines not exceeding level three (3) is meant for petty offences and not necessarily traffic offences. It is meant to exclude petty offender from cluttering the courts of law. Level three offences also include petty assaults, urinating in public and public drinking. This has greatly reduced the issue of backlogs at the Magistrate’s Courts where the judiciary is battling to clear serious cases.
- Another consideration that led to the acceptance of spot fines is the cost element involved in pursuing fines less than US$20.00. A simple example that comes to mine is that of a driver based in Lupane, who is arrested in Harare and is given time to pay US$5.00 at any police station within seven (7) days. If the driver neglects to pay or fails to pay the fine, the police would be forced to make a follow up of the driver or a warrant of arrest is issued against such a driver. He is arrested in Lupane and brought to Harare to answer the charge of failing to pay US$5-00. Surely, in such a scenario it makes a lot of sense for the driver to pay
the US$5-00 on the spot rather than waste much more to recover such a small figure.
VERIFICATION OF PARTICULARS/POWER TO
DEMAND LICENCES AND DETAIN MOTOR VEHICLES
- It is not mandatory as declared in Elliot v Commissioner of Police and Another 1997 (1) ZLR) 315 (S) for one to move around with one’s identity documents. The motoring public who have no identity particulars on them usually give false particulars to the police. Further, experience has taught the police that the offending driver would not be found anywhere as the names and addresses would all be false and the issue of spot fines became the most convenient way of curbing all these misdeamenours.
- Two provisions have been put in place to assist the police in addressing such problems, that is:-
- In terms of Section 26 (2) (b) of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act, the police are permitted to keep a person for twelve (12) hours at a police station or police road block site whilst verifying the particulars of the offender or a person reasonably suspected of having committed an offence. In most cases, the motoring public would rather pay the spot fine than to be kept for the 12 hours whilst verifications are being carried out.
- Police are empowered to impound vehicles where a driver fails to produce his driver’s licence for a period of 24 hours. Section 74 (2) of the Road Traffic Act clearly states that:-
“(2) If, upon being required to do so by a police officer or inspecting officer in terms of Subsection (1), a driver, having failed to produce his licence to drive the motor vehicle concerned, failed to produce proof of his identity, the police officer or inspecting officer may detain the motor vehicle for a period not exceeding 24 hours.
COMMENT
From the above exposition of the law, it is very clear that the ZRP is empowered or authorised to accept deposit/spot fines and to impound vehicles where the driver fails to produce proof of his or her identity. What needs to be done is to implement the law as it is and not as it ought to be. This can only be done by our members on the ground if:-
- Proper briefing of members to be deployed should be done before members are sent on traffic enforcement duties.
- Commanders take a keen interest in playing their part in the supervision of subordinates.
- Impromptu visits by officers should be carried out to ensure members are always monitored in the performance of their duties.
- More training and development of members is required to improve their competencies in traffic enforcement.
RETENTION OF FUNDS
- Justice Bere at page 6 if his speech said: “There may be no problems with the police operating as an extension of Treasury but if that is desired, then the legal framework must be put in place to support such kind of a development… I am more concerned that as a nation and in our desperate efforts to give it lieu in the collection and retention of that revenue for its use, we may have severely fractured the execution of its core business.”
- It must be unequivocally stated that the organisation has
Cabinet approval for such retention. The judge’s conduct in commenting negatively about retention smacks of a dishonourable and disrespectful conduct on the authority vested in the Executive and a complete disregard of the doctrine of separation of powers as espoused in the Constitution.
- It is the duty of the Executive to formulate policy and this unwarranted attack on the Executive regarding the nature and choice of its policies constitutes unconstitutional usurpation of functions and undermining of authority vested in the same.
- Retention is not only exclusive to the police as other Government departments enjoy the same privilege.
Retention is justified on the basis that there is very little fiscal support from Treasury due to the harsh economic environment.
- It is common knowledge that retention funds are subject to audit by both internal and external auditors, including Comptroller and Auditor General, whose report is tabled before Parliament.
- The judiciary itself is enjoying some retention, which is being used to pay allowances for judges and other workers under the Judicial Services Commission. For the judge to attack the police for enjoying the same privileges smack hypocrisy and double standards.
ZERO TOLERANCE ON CORRUPTION
- The learned judge at page 7 of his speech said that:… “we talk of the determination for the need to rid this country of corruption. How can we achieve this when we allow our police officers to conduct themselves in such a corrupt manner”.
- At an all stakeholders Judicial colloquium held at the end of 2010 in Victoria Falls, an acknowledgement was made that corruption has permeated all parties involved in the justice delivery system. Police took the opportunity to reinvigorate strategies to fight corruption.
- The ZRP has declared zero tolerance on corruption and has vigorously campaigned against corruption in a number of platforms. The organisation has a reporting structure and follows a clearly laid down procedure in cases of corruption or malpractices committed by members of the organisation.
- The cases of corruption which have been brought to the attention of the organisation have been dealt with in terms
of the law and those found on the wrong side of the law have been dealt with accordingly.
- The organisation has no knowledge of any person who has been forced to pay a spot fine as articulated by the learned judge. The judge has not made an indication either in this regard. In any event, there are several remedies available to an aggrieved party in the event of violation of his rights including the right to contest the matter in a court of law.
PERSONAL OPINION
- It is unfortunate that the learned judge has clearly relied on unsubstantiated claims based on hearsay in his public comment, something unexpected of a person of his caliber and standing. At page 6 of his speech, Bere J states that:
“Quite often one hears of more illegal collections which are being made by the police. There is talk of well coordinated collections of security fees on our public roads particularly from commuter omnibus drivers which fees are meant to give commuters free and unhindered passage at police road blocks. If it is true, then the department is surely cursed…..”
- Judges are expected to rely on evidence or proof to come up with sound decisions rather than relying on bar talk and unsubstantiated rumours like what the honourable Judge did in this case. The intemperate language used by the judge is without precedent, particularly when he says the police are “cursed”
GENERAL
The learned judge’s comments have been deliberately misconstrued by certain quarters of the society to incite members of the public to turn against the police in the discharge of their duties. The police would like to take this opportunity to warn those who are behind these machinations that the full wrath of the law will soon mercilessly descend on them.
In terms of Section 31 (a)(i) and (iii) of the Criminal (Codification Reform) Chapter 9:07) Act states:
Any person who, whether inside or outside Zimbabwe
(a) Publishes or communicates to any other person a statement which is wholly or materially false with the intention or realising that there is a real risk or possibility of:
- Inciting or promoting public disorder or public violence or endangering public safety; or
- Undermining public confidence in a law enforcement agency, the Prison Services or the Defence Forces of Zimbabwe” shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine up to or not exceeding level fourteen or imprisonment for a period not exceeding 20 years or both.
CONCLUSION
It is unethical for the judge to pre-empt a case that may one day be brought before him for adjudication or determination. The spot fines are meant for those who will be admitting to the offence and were designed for the convenience of the motoring public.
In any event, this is only an opinion by the learned judge which is not binding on any one.
DISCRIMINATION OF ABANDONED CHILDREN
- SENATOR MLOTSHWA asked the Minister of
Primary and Secondary Education to state whether there are regulations in schools that allow abandoned children to participate in all school activities without being discriminated against given that they still use abridged birth certificates print.
THE MINISTER OF PRIMARY AND SECONDARY
EDUCATION (DR. DOKORA): As far as the Ministry is
concerned, every child has the right to participate in all school activities as enshrined in the Zimbabwean Constitution. Our mandate is to create an environment that allows for the full expression of the children’s potential and that is the reason why we have engaged the nation to transform our curriculum.
The Ministry is aware that in some sporting tournaments, rules are put in place in relation to age and weight. There is a requirement of certain documents which may include birth certificates and passports. If there are any legitimate challenges that are encountered, the Ministry is ready to assist and can work together with our ministries to address the challenges.
INDUSTRIAL CAPACITY UTILISATION
- SENATOR W. SIBANDA asked the Minister of Industry and Commerce to state:
- How many companies have been shut down from 1st January, 2013 to 30th June, 2013 and how many workers lost their jobs as a result;
- Industrial capacity utilisation in the following sectors: Mining, food and beverages, clothing and textiles and further state how many jobs have been lost in the same sectors between 1st January, 2013 and 30th June, 2014.
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF INDUSTRY AND
COMMERCE (MS. MABUWA): Thank you Mr. President Sir and I
would like to thank the Hon. Senator Sibanda for asking the question on the number of companies that have shut down from 1 January 2013 to 30th June 2014 and how many workers lost their jobs as a result. In response, over 700 companies (both SMEs and large) cumulatively liquidated in 2013 and in the first half of 2014, 118 companies retrenched citing viability and other challenges and of these, only 6 closed shop during the same period.
On the outlook, this scenario of high retrenchments is likely to be reversed as Government has already started introducing a host of measures to revive industry under the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation (ZIM ASSET). The measures include reviews of duty on both raw materials and finished products, import licencing and provision of affordable funding to industry. In 2013, 165 companies closed and retrenched, thereby directly affecting 2 179 workers. During the first and second quarter of 2014, 1 326 and 760 workers were retrenched respectively.
On the capacity utilisation in mining, food and beverages and clothing and textiles, as you are aware, the food and beverage industry is subdivided into the food process and the beverages sub-sector. The beverages subsector is doing very well and is boasting of 100% capacity utilisation. Two major companies are in play; the Delta Beverages and Schweppes Zimbabwe. These are the main players in the sector.
Capacity utilisation for the food processing subsector averages between 50% across the industry. Capacity utilisation in the clothing and textiles subsector is currently averaging 5%. We expect capacity utilisation in this sector to improve as we start to implement the newly produced Cotton to Clothing Strategy (2014 – 2019) that the Ministry and other stakeholders have developed.
The capacity utilisation in these subsectors has mainly been affected by stiff competition from imports and other internal factors such as inadequate working capital, obsolete machinery and power shortages. The mining sector remains the major growth haven for our economy. In 2013, the mining sector production figure stood at US$2,3 billion up from US$1,9 billion in 2012. This statistic has been supplied by the
Ministry of Mines and Mining Development.
On the number of jobs that have been lost in the above sectors between 1 January, 2013 to 30 June, 2014; the food processing subsector recorded a retrenchment figure of 482 from 2013 up to the second quarter of June 2014, while the beverages subsector recorded 14 retrenchments. The clothing and textiles sector had 93 retrenchments in the same period showing stability in the two subsectors. This is as a result of companies downsizing and retrenching permanent staff due to downturn in business, lack of finance, restructuring or viability challenges.
In summary, the table that I am about to present contains verifiable statistics and it shows retrenchment figures (number of job losses for
2013 to June 2014)
Sub-sector | Retrenchment figure (2013) | Retrenchment Total figure (Jan – June 2014) | Total |
Food subsector | 312 | 63 | 375 |
Beverages | 14 | 0 | 14 |
Clothing and textiles | 93 | 0 | 93 |
Total | 419 | 63 | 482 |
Source: Ministry of Labour and Social Services
COMMENCEMEMT OF OPERATIONS BY ESSAR
- SENATOR. W. SIBANDA asked the Deputy Minister
of Industry and Commerce to state:
- when ESSAR will commence operations in view of the fact that it has been three years since the ESSAR project was commissioned by the President;
- the value of the investment and how much has been received by the Government from this deal;
- what has been purchased by ESSAR in terms of iron ore deposits and assets, and if the Minister could furnish the House with the agreement of this deal.
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE (MS. MABUWA): ESSAR will scale up
operations as soon as the amended agreement is signed. The original Share and Asset Purchase Agreement (SAPA) had Conditions Precedent that required both parties to the agreement to fulfil first before full closure of the Agreement could be released. Fulfilment of those Conditions Precedent took a long time to realise and hence, there was a delay in the closure of the transaction. To date, most Conditions Precedent have been fulfilled by both parties to enable the full closure of the transaction to take place.
The SAPA is currently being cleaned up for final closure by Legal Counsel from both parties to capture the adjusted plans as per the bid document to now encompass the additional costs associated with the time lapse since 2011 when the original agreement was signed. Whilst adjustments to the agreement are taking place, the Government of Zimbabwe and ESSAR agreed to implement immediate interim measures that would inject some funding into New Zim Steel and also offer relief to workers.
On the value of the investment, the value of the total investment by ESSAR in Zimbabwe was originally expected to be US$750 million comprising ESSAR’s clearance of the
SinoSure and KfW debts amounting to US$300 million and the
US$450 million for recapitalisation and the steel plant at Redcliff. This has since risen to over US$1 billion owing to the changes in revival plans and obsolescence of the plant.
The original implementation plan had to be revisited due to changes in circumstances. By way of example, the completion of the ongoing work such as the relining of Blast Furnace No. 4 as well as refurbishment of the rolling mills which was originally put at US$430 million has now been revised to over US$600 million as the new plan now envisages 80% replacement (instead of relining and refurbishment) with totally new equipment.
Similarly, local liabilities initially put at US$70 million at the time of signature have now ballooned to over US$200 million. As a result, scaling up of operations has thus delayed but engineering work has already started.
Mr. President, in terms of how much was received from the transaction, no money has exchanged hands between the two parties as consideration for the Asset Purchase of ZISCO Assets. This is expected to take place after the closure of the transaction.
Regarding what ESSAR has purchased in terms of iron ore deposits and assets, Mr. President, ESSAR did not pay for the iron ore deposits but it received an entitlement to mine the iron ore for feedstock after the initial exploration at Mwanesi. The feedstock is required for the steel plant when it is revived. ESSAR was granted access to the iron ore claims subject to payment of royalties and a claim transfer fee for each claim.
No purchases have taken place, save to say that BIMCO claims deemed minable are transferred pro rata to New Zim Steel. For Mwanesi, only exploration rights have been extended to ESSAR to explore jointly with ZMDC.
The last part requests that there be a presentation of the agreement before the august Senate. Please be advised that the revised and amended copy of the original Share Asset and Purchase Agreement (SAPA) is not yet available. The SAPA is currently being cleaned up for final closure by Legal Counsel from both parties. It is expected that, once the transactions have been closed, I or the Minister will present the agreement before the Senate at the appropriate time. I thank you.
Oral Answers to Questions With Notice were interrupted by
THE TEMPORARY PRESIDENT in terms of Standing Order
No.34.
MOTION
PROVISION OF FUNDING TO THE DISTRESSED AND
MARGINALISED INDUSTRY FUND
SENATOR D.T. KHUMALO: I move the motion
standing in my name that this House:
AWARE that this country is experiencing economic challenges characterised by liquidity constraints; NOTING with concern that the liquidity crisis has resulted in a number of debtors defaulting in their loan repayments to banks and other creditors.
CONCERNED by the level of litigation in the country which has seen many properties being auctioned as evidenced by advertisements in newspapers on a daily basis;
FURTHER concerned that many of the people losing their properties are indigenous entrepreneurs who have been negatively affected by the economic down turn;
AFRAID that should this trend continue, the entrepreneurship spirit in our people will die;
NOW, THEREFORE, resolves that the Executive must:
- i) Come up with policies to save the thousands of debtors whose properties are likely to be auctioned and; ii) Provide funding to the Distressed and Marginalised
Industry Fund.
SENATOR S. NCUBE: I second.
SENATOR D.T. KHUMALO: My motion is on the need
for Government to come up with strategies to bail out the various banks and lending institutions’ debtors. We all owe banks and financial institution when we borrow money to start businesses and we end up not paying. The financial system in a country is the engine that drives the economy. It is in the financial system that lubricates all the levers of the economy. It is the financial system and its success or failure that drives the country.
When the financial sector sneezes, the whole economy shivers and in Zimbabwe, that is the situation. The various challenges that we are facing have roots from the financial sector. Zimbabwe has adopted a multi-currency regime in our country and the RBZ is no longer in a position to exercise most of its functions and that is compromising its role as the monitory authority in the country. The RBZ does no longer print money as it used to, not that I want it to print but at present it is unable to set the interest rates. The past few years following the demise of our local currency, has seen the use of multi-currency in the country, particularly, the US dollar and the South African rand.
The Reserve Bank, due to its week balance sheet is no longer a banker of last resort and not effectively participating in the inter-bank market and influencing the monetary policies. Our Central bank is now a toothless bulldog and the best it can do is just to look and bark. It is unfortunate that its influence in the financial industry is so very much limited. In view of these facts that we do not print our own currency, doing business in this country has become extremely difficult and a nightmare for business people as we have heard the Minister talking about the closure of businesses.
Zimbabwe is facing liquidity crises of unprecedented proportions. The liquidity challenges have seen many industries in Zimbabwe closing with very few that are still operating at a less than 40% levels.
Zimbabwe, instead of being a producer and a manufacturer as it used to be before, has been reduced to a retailing nation. A walk in the central business district in all our cities and towns bares testimony of this retailing.
The major beneficiaries of the liquidity crisis in the country have been those with access to funds. They lend money and have made real profit business in this country. The people and institutions which lend money are charging high interest rates of above 25% per annum compared to such countries as USA which charges less than 2% of interest. While it is true that the interest rates charged are changing because of the circumstances, but Mr. President, I think the interest rates in Zimbabwe are exorbitant. Mr. President, it is even extortion to charge 10% interest when people are not working, not employed but trying their best to make business for the country.
While it is true that banks and other lending institutions are faced with huge levels of defaulting clients, it is my argument that these institutions are in a much better situation than the people who are asking to be funded. The major victims of the economic down turn and the crippling liquidity crises in this country are the ordinary people, the debtors who owe money to these banks and lending institutions.
Mr. President, I am speaking on behalf of thousands of individuals and companies that owe the banks and other lending institutions money. I am talking of those people and organisations, who borrow money to increase capacity utilization in their industry. I am referring to the farmers who go to the banks to borrow money to increase capacity utilization within their farms. I am asking here, of the small business and that entrepreneur who borrowed money but who has found the business environment too difficult for him to operate. All these debtors and borrowers are victims of the economic meltdown and I can bet you Mr. President, that there are fewer economies in the world that are as difficult as ours at the present moment.
These borrowers and debtors, who in a normal operating environment could be heroes and heroines of the day, today are a laughing stock because they have turned to be beggars. If you open a newspaper today, you will find that there are houses or properties within the households that are being auctioned leaving the said business to be in debt, with their homes getting poorer and poorer because their properties are being sold.
Today, a lot of these debtors are dying silently and thousands are suffering from depression, high blood pressure, ulcers and stress because they cannot raise the money to pay back the banks. The Government cannot watch while properties are being auctioned. It cannot sit and leave all these debtors to lose their properties because it does not want to interfere in commercial transactions. In my view, Government cannot fold its hands and let these entrepreneurs suffer yet it is aware that the operating environment is harsh and it is not the making of these debtors. They were thinking of improving the country and the people of Zimbabwe when they were trying their business. Although they were thinking of improving the country, the people of Zimbabwe and themselves in order to profit, they were going to employ other people to get money as well.
I am not calling for punishment of the banks or creditors but I am calling for the Government to be proactive and come up with strategies to help the situation. Government should help fathers, mothers and the youths, who have been aiming at improving the economy of the country. These new and young entrepreneurs had aimed at growing up and employing other people who could then look after their families and improve the health and nutritional status of their own families through the money they would have earned from these businesses.
What I am calling for Mr. President, is not something new but what but what has been done in many countries and economies. In the recent credit crunch the Global Financial Crises of 2007-8, the US administration under Obama had to actively participate in the economy by bailing out ailing companies and banks and protecting borrowers, the ordinary who would have seen their houses being mortgaged for the payment of their debts.
Similarly we saw this method used by Gordon Brown Government in the United Kingdom, they bailed out their citizens who were to lose their properties to the money lenders. A good thing has to be applauded no matter who has done it let, us appreciate it - let us copy a good thing even if it is done by a person who we do not approve. But, when a thing is good it should be taken as good.
Therefore, I am asking our Government to also think of bailing us out as citizens of Zimbabwe. In Zimbabwe when the economy was better the Government came up with various facilities such as Small Business Sector Facility. The Government as recent as last year wrote off debts of households to local authorities primarily because of the liquidity challenges. As at present, Parliament is debating to make a law that will allow the Government to take over the debt of $1.3 billion owed by other members of the public. Why therefore, can it not bail out the ordinary people so that they can also maintain their homes, properties like these who are being bailed out? This Senate therefore, calls upon Government to do everything in its power with a view to save a lot of debtors whose properties are on the verge of being sold. In some cases this resulting in families being impoverished. In coming with this mechanism Government will not help these bank debtors only, but will also help banks in the process and the economy in the longer term. The Government should in a matter of urgency through the RBZ urge the banks and the other creditors to roll over loans and overdrafts until such a time that the loans and overdraft have reached in duplum. The rule that means the interest accrued will be equal to the money borrowed. This process allows creditors time to run around in order look for the money rather than to quickly dispose the properties of their clients. The Government should create a fund with a view to bail out entrepreneurs who are facing liquidation and disposal of their properties. The fund so created will be used in a responsible manner so as to either inject funds into these debtors businesses to enable to re-pay their debts. Or alternatively to allow the banks to arrange new roll over facilities or partner with the business people who are debtors.
There is need for the RBZ to sit down with the bankers association of Zimbabwe and look at individual bad debts books of banks and other lending facilities. The RBZ should in my view advise the Government the level of funds that should be injected using a special vehicle or facilities. There is need for Government to urge the bankers and other creditors to do a debt swap so that the special facility created by the Government can result in banks becoming shareholders in some these ventures which the people are trying to have. There is need for
Government to make it difficult for one to lose his property by creating a mechanism that ensures that there are bold sing posts, steps and processes that have to be taken before banks and other creditors does are ask the courts to dispose of properties of the people. Properties especially land and buildings, these should not things which are just going easily and leaving people without their land or buildings – [HON
SENATORS: Hear, hear.] –
Mr. President, I am away that the Government has challenges of its own but I believe this is one area the Government needs to rise up and be counted. Desperate times as the one we are going through calls for extraordinary interventions by our Government. Mr. President, future generations will applaud us as Government if we assist in this regard.
But should we not, we will be harshly judged as a Government that will have been heartless and killed the spirit of entrepreneurship from the
Zimbabweans who are hard workers.
Zimbabweans are hardworking people let us continue keeping their entrepreneurial spirit high in that regard Mr. President I thank you. –
HON SENATORS: Hear, hear.] –
SENATOR MOHADI: I move that the debate do now adjourn.
SENATOR W. SIBANDA: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Tuesday, 3rd March, 2015.
On the motion of SENATOR MOHADI seconded by SENATOR
- SIBANDA, the Senate adjourned at Half past Four o’clock p.m.
until Tuesday, 3rd March, 2015.
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Tuesday, 26th November, 2013
The House of Assembly met at a Quarter-past Two O’clock p.m.
PRAYERS
(MR SPEAKER in the Chair)
ANNOUNCEMENT BY MR SPEAKER
CHANGES TO PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP
- SPEAKER: I have to inform the House of changes in the membership of committees as follows: Mrs. L. Sibanda has withdrawn from serving on the Portfolio Committee on Higher Education, Science and Technology Development. The hon. member is already serving two other committees; and Mrs. Majaya moves from the Portfolio Committee on Communication Technology, Postal and Courier Services to the Portfolio Committee on Mines and Energy.
MOTION
PRESIDENTIAL SPEECH: DEBATE ON ADDRESS
First Order read: Adjourned debate on motion in reply to the Presidential Speech.
Question again proposed.
MRS. THEMBANI: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir, for giving me this opportunity to address this august House. Let me start by congratulating the President and First Secretary of our party ZANU PF, Cde. Robert Gabriel Mugabe, for being elected President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, Head of State and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces.
May I also congratulate you for being elected Speaker of this august House. My congratulations also go to Mrs. Chinomona for being elected the Deputy Speaker of this august House. To my fellow hon. Members of Parliament, I congratulate you on your election to represent the people out there. Mr. Speaker, people are watching us and are expecting results from us.
Lastly, I would like to commend and thank the people of Zimbabwe for coming in large numbers to vote for us all. They make us proud
Members of Parliament who will work with the President, His Excellency Cde. Robert Gabriel Mugabe, in order to achieve what we promised people through our ZANU PF manifesto.
When His Excellency, President R.G. Mugabe addressed this august House on the 17th September, 2013, he was extending his hand to us all in order to guide us on the right path, which if followed, will lead us to achieve our goals as articulated in the ZANU PF manifesto.
Mr. Speaker Sir, I shall try and speak on some of the issues raised in the President’s Speech. In doing so, I will be supportive of those who have spoken before me. The Government should be commended for taking positive steps by improving our national road network. However, in spite of all these positive steps, today it is not safe to travel on our roads using different types of road transport. There are too many fatal road accidents which are taking place almost every day. Who is to blame for these accidents? We hear people, when they are involved in accidents, blaming the poor road infrastructure instead of the drivers who might be driving at 140 kilometres per hour in a 70 kilometres per hour zone, overtaking on blind corners, et cetera. Mr. Speaker Sir, some blame police road blocks for causing accidents. Although most drivers will not agree with me, in my view, blame must be given to the reckless drivers who are causing accidents. There should be stiffer punishment for reckless drivers so as to stop these accidents.
Also, during his address, His Excellency, President R.G Mugabe said the new Constitution imposes on the State, the duty to take concrete and reasonable measures to prevent the spread of diseases and to treat health care as an absolute right for every Zimbabwean citizen. Hon. members, our task is to debate and urgently amend the laws that govern health care. While debating these issues, we should not forget to support any measures that will be brought before us which are aimed at improving the conditions of service for our health workers, the civil service and our security forces.
I thank you.
- Z. SIBANDA: Thank you Mr. Speaker for giving me this
opportunity. I will start by congratulating you on your election to the position of Speaker of this House, ‘amhlope, makorokoto’. Secondly, I would like to congratulate His Excellency, the President and the First
Secretary of ZANU PF, Cde. R.G. Mugabe for his resounding victory on
31st July, 2013 elections. God is great. Zimbabwe will never be a colony again. Mr. Speaker Sir, I would not be fair if I do not thank the people of Tsholotsho South Constituency, for giving me the opportunity to represent them in this august House.
Mr. Speaker Sir, from the address by His Excellency the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces, Cde R. G.
Mugabe, he touched on agriculture as the mainstay of the economy. Yes, Zimbabwe is an agriculture based country and Tsholotsho South falls under natural region 5, with very little rainfall. The community in Tsholotsho South is made up of subsistence farmers. Most young men and women of this constituency work in neighbouring countries, mostly South Africa and Botswana, as domestic workers. Because of the little rainfall the place receives year in and year out, droughts are a common threat in the area. The poor sandy soils and hot weather have adverse effects on the livelihoods of communities and this has a negative impact on agricultural activities in Tsholotsho South. So, as a result communities depend on food from NGOs such as ORAP, Plan International and World Vision. Most, if not all, members of this constituency are extremely poor.
Mr. Speaker Sir, Tsholotsho South is the only place in this country where you can find the San community, among other tribes which are Khalanga and Ndebele. The San community is one of the most underprivileged communities and so the Government should embark on an irrigation type of farming. Mr. Speaker Sir, if massive cropping is to be done, it has to be done under expansive measures, that is, through irrigation schemes, as I have mentioned before. Therefore, more dams must be rehabilitated in Tsholotsho South Constituency. The constituency does not have any irrigation schemes. Tsholotsho South experiences floods every year because the land is flat and as a result, we need a big dam to harvest that running water so that we can use it for irrigation purposes.
Mr. Speaker Sir, the livestock payback period is naturally longer than that of cropping. My constituency has the hospitality industry as a ready market for agriculture produce. Poachers from all over the country take advantage of the San community, using them to kill elephants in
Tsholotsho, because most of them are vulnerable families. I would like to suggest that hunger alleviation programmes be introduced as a matter of urgency and that this be a cultural activity to reduce the so-called dangerous poaching in Tsholotsho, where we see the country losing more than 100 elephants a year. I also urge the Judiciary to revise the sentence given to those who kill elephants. Mr. Speaker Sir, someone who kills any elephant is being sentenced to two years, but a stock thief who is being accused of stealing just one beast, is being sentenced for 9 years. Surely it is not fair.
Mr. Speaker Sir, Tsholotsho South has a poor road network. As Government, something has to be done to urge D.D.F to improve its operations because DDF is totally underperforming. We have other state roads in Tsholotsho South, for example Tsholotsho-NyamandlovuBulawayo, Tsholotsho-Plumtree and Tsholotsho-Skente, these roads are in a sorry state Mr. Speaker Sir.
Tsholotsho South residents rely on borehole water from January to December because we do not have rivers to supply our livestock with water. I therefore urge the Government to rehabilitate more boreholes and drill new ones to serve our livestock.
Mr. Speaker Sir, Tsholotsho South Constituency has fourteen secondary schools and thirty-three primary schools, but as I have mentioned before, the San community, found in wards 10, 7, and 8, cannot afford to pay school fees. Therefore, I urge the Government to offer these people free education and build more secondary schools. Teachers at some schools in Tsholotsho face challenges where they have medical aid schemes, but when they go to a clinic they are denied assistance because the clinics fall under rural district councils. Can Government assist the teachers so that the clinics in the rural areas accept medical aid, thereby improving the welfare of rural teachers on their health services.
Also on health, Mr. Speaker Sir, we have a shortage of clinics in my constituency. We have some areas where people travel up to 20km to reach a clinic. For example, people travel from Dingane to Tsholotsho and even from Mbamba area to Bubude Clinic and the distance is too far. Something should be done to reduce unnecessary deaths because people fail to travel these distances. It is a shame, Mr. Speaker Sir. We should increase the number of our health institutions in rural areas and at newly resettled farming areas. Many people in my constituency are people living with AIDS so I urge the Government to make this a matter of urgency.
I would like this House to know that Tsholotsho South Constituency has a big project, which was initiated by the Late Vice President, Dr. John Landa Nkomo, a son of the soil. He built a beautiful school in Tsholotsho, but I would be happy if Government does not abandon this project, to the wishes of the Late Vice President. We need more computers, dormitories and a science laboratory to fulfill the late John Landa Nkomo's wishes and we want this school to be a boarding school.
Finally, the people in Tsholotsho South Constituency need economic empowerment through the provisions of soft loan schemes, community share ownership trusts and restoration of livestock projects, especially the youths, so that they do not travel to South Africa seeking jobs. There is need for the establishment of a vocational training centre and common facility centre to assist the youths and women in Tsholotsho.
Mr. Speaker Sir, people from Tsholotsho South are calling for the removal of sanctions imposed by the West. Zimbabwe will never be a colony again. I thank you, Mr. Speaker.
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF HEALTH AND CHILD CARE
(DR. CHIMEDZA): I move that the debate do now adjourn.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Tuesday, 3rd December, 2013.
MOTION
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF HEALTH AND CHILD CARE
(DR. CHIMEDZA): I move that Orders of the Day Number 2 to 5 be stood over until Order Number 6 has been disposed of.
MOTION
INQUIRY INTO THE POWER SECTOR IN ZIMBABWE
Sixth Order read: Adjourned debate on motion on the intermittent power cuts by ZESA.
Question again proposed.
- NDUNA: Thank you very much Mr. Speaker Sir. I rise to debate on the motion by Hon. Maridadi on the electricity or ZESA situation here in Zimbabwe.
Firstly, I want to make it clear that the brain drain here in Zimbabwe, at ZESA is not unique to Zimbabwe only but it is an effect that affects all countries that have got a literacy rate such as ours. So if a country is endowed with technocrats such as ours and the remuneration in their field does not match the amount of work that they put in or the amount of energy they put towards their work, naturally that will shed off such technocrats to other countries.
Secondly, I want to dispel the notion that our grid or our infrastructure here in Zimbabwe cannot hold the amount of electricity that our consumers, as a nation need to use for their day to day consumption. Mr. Speaker Sir, we have a tri-nation agreement which borders on the
SADC countries, that they can take electricity or import electricity via Zimbabwe. This infrastructure was built with that in mind. So the notion that as a nation, our infrastructure capacity cannot hold any electricity that is more than that which is being transmitted through it at the moment is not right.
Thirdly, Mr. Speaker Sir, the electricity shortage here in Zimbabwe is not only unique to Zimbabwe. As I will illustrate, generation of electricity is a mammoth task and is capital intensive, as it also covers the countries that are bordering us. As I speak, Mr. Speaker Sir, except that it gets to be a little bit easier for them to go about this mammoth task because they are not under sanctions, they can easily get their infrastructures in place and they can easily get spare parts from the western countries. The replacement of spare parts and the building of new infrastructure for electricity is very capital intensive.
I would also like the House to know Mr. Speaker Sir, that the unbundling of ZESA, had it gone through or had it not been seen, was going to make sure that our electricity is now in the hands of neocolonialists, our former colonisers and those that we previously fought with during the war of liberation. I am glad Mr. Speaker Sir that we have seen through the thin veil of political machination by the opposition party which intended to give back an issue of national importance to the enemy.
I want to mention that our Chief Whip, Hon. J. Gumbo has already touched on the issue of motions being presented by the other side of the House, that border on trying to debate the Presidential Speech in a skewed manner that is going to be seen as though they are not aligning themselves to the Presidential Speech. The President touched on electricity or ZESA being an enabler in the economy and this has also been touched on in the ZIM ASSET document; that if followed to the latter, Mr. Speaker Sir, is going to see this country go out of the doldrums.
- MUTSEYAMI: On of a point of order, I think the hon. member is not addressing the motion; he is really diverting from the motion. I would appeal to you Mr. Speaker Sir, to address him so that he goes back to the motion. I thank you.
- SPEAKER: There is no point of order because the hon. member is trying to demonstrate that the issue of infrastructural development as far as electricity generation is concerned has been mentioned in the ZIM ASSET document.
- MUTSEYAMI: The hon. member was just trying to find
something to talk about.
- SPEAKER: Order, can you debate the motion -[HON.
MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections]
- NDUNA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. That is music interlude. I have touched on the ZIM ASSET on how the Blue Print is seeking to address the situation of this enabler, which is electricity in our nation to totally make sure that we get optimum power for the development of the issues that have been touched on in the ZIM ASSET document that I think are very noble. This issue is just taking over from the Presidential Speech which I certainly think, if the other counterparts on the other side of the House had debated the Presidential Speech, we would clearly have finished this motion on electricity by now.
I am going to touch on the pre-payment system Mr. Speaker Sir, before I go deep into this debate. It is a noble development because Zimbabwe is the only country in the world that by now or up to now had continued to use electricity to prepare tripe, mazondo, and to cook such other things such as trotters. Other countries have moved away from this approach Mr. Speaker Sir. They are now using other renewable sources of energy and gas to say the least. So, prepayment systems are going to make sure that by choice, our people move away from using electricity unnecessarily that they cannot, at the end of the day be able to pay for Mr.
Speaker Sir. People are going now to use what they are able to pay for. What this does is, it aligns the amount of electricity generated by us as a nation to the amount of electricity that we are using as our domestic requirement.
I am going to touch on energy deficit Mr. Speaker Sir, as examples in other nations that are bordering us, to show that this issue of energy deficit or electricity deficit does not only reside in Zimbabwe. It is a regional phenomenon that touches on all other countries that are bordering us. According to Himende the energy minister in Mozambique. He is looking at closing the energy deficit through building of new hydro-electricity power stations at Mpanda Nkuwa phase one which will generate a thousand five hundred megawatts. Phase two will generate 900 megawatts, Bora 200 megawatts, Lupata 600 megawatts, Lurio 120 megawatts and on the north bank of the Cabora Bassa 1 245 megawatts. This is happening as we speak Mr. Speaker Sir. This is a statement that was produced in May of 2013. Mozambique has not completely covered its population or its needs in electricity issues. The only difference that Mozambique has with us is that they can develop their electricity infrastructure un-impeded in a sanction free environment. What I want the other hon. members to know is that we can develop our infrastructure because we will need that electricity to cover the deficit that is there in the nation. However, it is going to be a bit slower, more tedious and more painful because of the dilapidating sanctions that have been imposed on us by the West. Thus, the hon. members from the other side of the House are totally cognisant of and should call for the lifting of the sanctions uchirayika imi - [HON.
MEMBERS: Hear, hear, ]-
Mr. Speaker Sir, we are endowed with natural resources and I want to touch on what the Energy Minister in Mozambique also are used to, as endowment in their nation. He says, the development of the energy sector in Mozambique – you need to listen to this Hon. Mudzuri- will not be based...
MR SPEAKER: Hon. member will you address the Chair please.
MR NDUNA: Will not be based on one source as a country but, also has access to natural gas. I should hasten to say, we have got these fields as well Mr. Speaker Sir, resident in our country. He goes on to say, there is coal in that nation; he goes on to say there is ethanol in that nation. You already, know that the energy crisis on issues to do with petroleum are going down in Zimbabwe because of the ethanol plant at Chisumbanje. This is a process that we are currently grappled with, that shows that if we use and optimally utilise the resources that our nation is endowed with, we can come out of this energy deficit that is currently in the nation. We have dispelled the notion that the infrastructure or the cabling, to be precise, in this nation is obsolete to the point that it cannot carry the load that is meant for our nation as usage Mr. Speaker Sir. So, however much we generate as a nation to cover our deficit, our cabling, our infrastructure as it is, is able to carry that load.
I am going to touch on DRC Mr. Speaker Sir. We import some of our electricity from DRC to cover our deficit. DRC also exports to other nations. So this phenomenon is not only unique to Zimbabwe. It says the country Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is looking for a developer to build Inga three dam. This is as of November 2011, on the Congo
River, which the authorities hope will generate 4 300 mega watts. As a nation, our consumption is ± 2 600 mega watts and we have a deficit of 500 mega watts. So these nations that are bordering us, that still have a deficit and they are looking to build or develop infrastructure that is going to generate 4 300 mega watts, which is going to be ready by 2018. This is a long term project and I want to prove that it is not unique to us only. It is also capital intensive.
I will also show how much power generation costs. Still in DRC, a far larger project that would build a 39 000 mega watt hydro plant in Inga
3 has attracted the interest of the world’s largest mining company BHP. –
[HON MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections]- MR. SPEAKER: Order, order.
- NDUNA: Mr. Speaker Sir, remember BHP is an Australian based company which also tried its hand in Chegutu West Constituency at some point. They ended up handing over the mining concessions and infrastructure to ZIMPLATS which is headed by a South African oriented company. When I say BHP is a large conglomerate of companies that are resident in the mining sector, it is with a lot of knowledge in that regard.
The plans for quoting BHP have stalled. Naturally, what I see Mr. Speaker Sir, is that because electricity generation is so capital intensive, it will scare away a lot of investors, including the neo-colonialists and big corporates like BHP. If big corporates like BHP can be scared off in a natural environment such as the DRC which is sanctions free, which has a lot of potential, how then will it be for Zimbabwe which is under these debilitating sanctions? I want you to see Mr. Speaker Sir, that in an environment that has got no sanctions, which has free movement of capital and otherwise, big corporates are still scared to embark on big capital projects such as power generation because they are too capital intensive.
It says here, the Government of DRC is hoping to double the percentage of population accessing electricity by 2015. This is 2013, but this would cost $6.5 billion. When we say 39 000 mega watts is going to cost $6.5 billion, it means generation of 500 mega watts is going to cost us a billion to ± $2 billion. So if a country such as DRC is unable to attract people to invest this amount, how can we attract investment ourselves in such infrastructure, in such a sector, if those countries that release the monies report to the Western countries have imposed sanctions on us?
I want to touch on ...
- SPEAKER: Hon. member, you have five minutes more to
debate.
- NDUNA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I will quickly touch on
issues of playing politics with electricity, which is a key enabler of any economic development in our country. In a statement that was given by the former Minister of Energy and Power Development, at the time Elton
Mangoma said, “all the 13 independent power producers are licenced to produce electricity but have not started operating because of heightened concerns about the political situation in the country and Government’s forcible approach in implementing its indigenous programme”, that is a shame Mr. Speaker Sir. You can see already, the war is not yet won. These people want to come into our environment on their own terms. The former Minister of Energy was nearly giving away our livelihoods on a silver platter to neo-colonialists. He goes on to say, “the people who are prepared to do IPP and CSCs are there but they are not here because they are finding the economic and political situation unacceptable to them.”
If you are coming into our turf, the terms should be acceptable to us not to you. The percentage, that as a nation we are giving to foreigners as an indigenisation approach is too much in my opinion. -[AN HON
MEMBER: Indigenous ipi yacho yauri kutaura]-
- SPEAKER: Order, order.
- NDUNA: So if corporates from the West are not prepared to invest in our nation or commit themselves in the energy sector, Mr. Speaker Sir, as you have seen in the past few days, the load shedding has subsided a bit because we are now using what we are able to pay for.
Also, the issue of brain drain is because we are endowed with technocrats. The issue Mr. Speaker Sir, of sanctions, the hon. member who moved this motion should be calling on nations that imposed sanctions on us in order that they get removed and we proceed to generate electricity, Mr. Speaker Sir; using our own natural resources: our coal, our gas at Lupane, using our water at Kariba unimpeded, because we have got the capacity and the natural resources. What we lack is the removal of sanctions so that we can access the lines of credit to build the infrastructure.
So Mr. Speaker Sir, I want to encourage the hon. member that moved this motion to keep moving motions of this nature, but should take cognisance of the fact that, the likes of hon. members who have seen through this thin veil of politicking and political machinations, by the neocolonialists, are going to come and debate to the effect that, let us make sure that this environment is sanction free – [HON MEMBERS: Hear, hear] – and then we can now …
- SPEAKER: Order, order, hon. member, your time is up.
- MUTSEYAMI: I want to move that the hon. member’s time be
extended – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections].
- SPEAKER: Order, order, hon. member, you may sit down please – [Being Mr. Nduna who had stood up]. Hon. Member, can you wind up your debate – [HON MEMBERS: Hear, hear].
- NDUNA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I just want to touch on the statement by the Energy Minister, Minister Mavhaire that, given the current situation…
- SPEAKER: Sorry, hon. member, there were some members who did not agree and in that case, the time cannot be extended – [HON.
MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections].
- MHLANGA: Thank you Mr. Speaker for affording me this opportunity. What I would actually like to thank very much, the hon.
member for bringing this very important motion. Sometimes Mr. Speaker, you wonder where this important motion is debated here; you find it is actually like a rally, when people are campaigning. I wonder, maybe there is an election.
Mr. Speaker, this very important motion affects a number of sections in our community…
ANNOUNCEMENT BY MR. SPEAKER
VISITORS IN THE SPEAKER’S GALLARY
- SPEAKER: Order, order, switch off your microphone. My apologies hon. Mhlanga, I need to announce the presence of a delegation in the Speaker’s Gallery, of hon. members of the Committee on Equal
Opportunities from the Parliament of Uganda, led by Hon. Kawooya Anifa. You are welcome. Hon. Mhlanga, if you may continue – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear].
- MHLANGA: Thank you. I was saying this motion touches everybody’s life; all ministries concerned. For example, I said, a number of sectors, you will find in the commercial industries, ministers are always complaining about poor quality. Honestly, there have been a number of workshops talking about that. What causes poor quality is because electricity is cut when production is on line. Definitely, unless we actually attend to that, we will always have poor quality.
In the residents, you will find that when the electricity is being cut, another cruel law was made Mr. Speaker Sir, another cruel law to the people to say you must not sell firewood in town. We used to say, when electricity was abundant, you know very well Mr. Speaker, that there were some stores where people could be allowed by the City Council to sell firewood. When electricity is not available, another cruel law is made. Surely hon. members must actually consider and feel it in their hearts and allow people of Zimbabwe to sell firewood, especially in places where it is dry. Let the people be allowed to sell because electricity actually is replaced by firewood. I think I am right Mr. Speaker.
What I have also noted is that power cuts have also affected the residents’ gadgets. People have lost a lot of gadgets through these power outages and everybody is keeping quiet. What I have noted with concern, both Members of Parliament and Ministers, what have you as Members of Parliament to do with the calculations of megawatts? What must an MP know about megawatts? An MP is an enabler. We must ensure that the environment is free. Let our experts do the megawatts calculations, not to concentrate on calculations. Maybe we are also interfering in their work and that is why, they are not carrying out their job properly. Let us move from working as technocrats or electricians. Let us come here to
Parliament and make policies and rules which will make those people able to do their work. We are enablers here, not doers. I hear a lot of calculations of megawatts, it is not our job – [HON. MEMBERS:
Inaudible interjections].
Mr. Speaker Sir, I want to thank this hon. member for bringing this, maybe in another platform, where people will get men and women of substance and content to actually debate and maybe come with a good policy rather than this fighting and this campaigning. Thank you Mr.
Speaker – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear].
- CROSS: Thank you Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, after the previous two speakers, I feel that I should in fact make a short statement today on the question of electricity supplies in Zimbabwe because there is a lot of confusion and it is not assisted by this kind of debate.
The power generation facilities in Zimbabwe were built in stages; the small thermal power stations were built prior to 1938. Kariba was completed in 1958 and Hwange was built under United Nations Mandatory Compulsory Universal Sanctions between 1968-1970. I mention the latter because I was a young man during those days. I participated in the construction of Kariba. Kariba at its time was the largest infrastructure development in the world financed by the World Bank. Hwange was financed by the Rhodesian Government and the equipment was imported to Rhodesia under United Nations sanctions. I simply cannot understand why our associates on the other side of the House, should claim today that sanctions should be causing, in any way, the kind of crisis we are experiencing today. It is not true.
There are absolutely no restrictions whatsoever on the importation of spares of any kind to deal with any form of electricity generation infrastructure in Zimbabwe today. The power generation capacity of Zimbabwe is about 1200 MW today. It fluctuates a little bit based on the facilities at Hwange, but by and large, I think one of the greatest achievements of the past four years has been to stabilise the two major power stations in the country. I am pleased to announce today that the contractors have moved on site at Kariba South. This is a major step forward. It is a contract negotiated by the former Minister of Energy and I think it is a good contract. It will be funded by the people constructing the facility and I hope that within three years, Kariba will be able to generate something like 900 MW for us as a nation. It will not be creating any additional sources of supply because we do not have sufficient water in Kariba but will enable us to fluctuate the production from Kariba to meet our peaks in demand. This is a very important function.
Hwange, I am afraid Mr. Speaker, has been inexplicably delayed. It is in fact the only major new generation source of power to Zimbabwe today. It is capable of being financed today, without any problems at all. It is a mystery to me as to why this particular contract, like Kariba South has not been awarded. I do not know what the hold-up is today but I would hope that the minister would be more transparent in the way he is handling this business and inform the House when he has the time, as to why this important contract has been delayed.
For the rest, Rhodesia always could depend on surpluses in other parts of Southern Africa for its shortfall in supplies. Therefore, no expansion in the production of electricity in Zimbabwe has been completed in the last 40 years, 34 of which have been under ZANU PF management. More importantly, during this period, there has been absolutely no maintenance and no reconstruction of these important facilities. Now that the region itself, particularly South Africa, is moving into a deficit position in so far as their own requirements are concerned; these countries are no longer able to supply us on and when required, hence the load shedding.
As far as the future is concerned, Mr. Speaker, the Sengwa project has been on the books for some time, promoted by a major international company based in London, Rio Tinto. There is no question of any kind of restrictions on Rio Tinto regarding this investment. Rio Tinto is not proceeding with this investment simply because of the risk profile of Zimbabwe. Part of that risk profile is indigenisation. There is no investor in the world that is going to put a dollar on the table and have fifty-one cents taken by ZANU PF. For that reason, Sengwa has not proceeded. The same applies to Binga. There is another thermal station being planned in Binga. Plans for the thermal station are being funded by the French.
Again, there is no question of any restrictions on the financiers of this; it is the risk profile of Zimbabwe that is impeding these investments.
As far as gas is concerned in Lupane, I think most people now know that the gas in Lupane is not a reliable source of energy. It is unlikely to be developed on any significant scale. Therefore we have to ask, what are the immediate prospects for new energy sources for Zimbabwe? I want to highlight the new role of Mozambique. Mozambique first found gas just about 150 km South of Beira about 20 years ago. That gas is being delivered to Gauteng today using a pipeline constructed by SASOL.
Recently, Mozambique has discovered major gas in the North near the Tanzanian border. This new discovery Mr. Speaker Sir, is going to turn Mozambique into one of the largest energy suppliers in the world. These gas reserves are similar to those of Doha in the Middle East. It is going to transform the Mozambican economy. Already, more than US$100 billion has been committed to investment in the Mozambique gas
fields.
The other development of concern to us is that just in the last two months, a gas field was discovered just off Beira, about 10 km from Beira port on the other side of the river. This gas field has 4 trillion cubic feet of gas which is bigger than the fields in the south supplying Gauteng. I am reliably informed that using this gas, which is only 183 km from Mutare, we can construct a 2 000 MW power station in Mutare within three years.
Contrary to what my colleagues on the other side of the House are saying, the Indian private sector is prepared to invest in that facility. The issue we have got to look at here is that this is a critical subject for every Zimbabwean; to try and make cheap political points about the so-called sanctions on this kind of issue is simply not doing it justice. We need to debate this issue. We need to have clarity on it, the future of our economy –[MR NDUNA: Inaudible interjections]- you are quite right. Mr. Speaker Sir, my colleague is debating with me here.
- SPEAKER: Order, order, order. Please address the Chair. Hon Nduna, please avoid direct verbal attack – [MR NDUNA: He is saying there are no sanctions.]- Order. May the hon. member continue please?
- CROSS: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I just want to make a point that, until we resolve the question of a reliable power supply for Zimbabwe at the lowest possible cost, our economy is not going anywhere. We cannot expect any substantial new investment in Zimbabwe until we are able to guarantee those investors power. Therefore, this issue is of critical importance to us as a nation and should be debated properly and clearly. Thank you very much Mr. Speaker.
MISS. ANASTANCIA NDHLOVU: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I
would like to add my voice to this motion very briefly and thank the mover for moving it. I will not dwell much on why we have power cuts because we have them and they are very visible. I will instead suggest how, I think we can address the challenges.
Mr. Speaker Sir, I think over and above the hydro and thermal power sources that we use mostly, I would like to recommend that Government also invests in renewable energy sources which are also environmentally friendly, such as wind and solar. I want to recommend that Government invest in finding out, how much wind resources we have as a country to carry out what is called a windmill. The Government will also have to put resources to see how we can use both wind and hydro, so that when the wind levels are high, we can save or reduce pressure on the hydro power.
Mr. Speaker Sir, I would also want to suggest that the country invests in solar energy. We have plenty of sunlight in our country and I am sure it would add value to the electorate and put less pressure on them with regards to the cost of electricity if we use and encourage our people to go the solar way.
Mr. Speaker Sir, we all know the effects of power shots; power cuts are mainly felt by the women and the young girls. Therefore, it is important that we look into ways of how to address this. I am trying to imagine what could happen if a woman was in labour and there is a powercut in that labour ward. I think we really need to take issues of energy seriously because it affects women adversely. It also affects our economy in a very negative manner because it affects ZIM Asset’s implementation and its success. It is therefore imperative that we look into energy challenges.
I also want to congratulate the Government, through Ministers
Chinamasa and Mavhaire, who two weeks ago, signed some deal where they secured funding to look into energy challenges in our country. It is my hope Mr. Speaker Sir, that the loan facility that they secured will help us deal with the challenges of energy cuts that we face.
Mr. Speaker Sir, with those few remarks, I would want to thank you for affording me this opportunity and for thanking the mover.
THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR MANICALAND PROVINCE
(MR. MUSHOWE): I move that the debate do now adjourn.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Tuesday, 3rd December, 2013.
On the motion of THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR
MANICALAND PROVINCE (MR. MUSHOWE), the House adjourned
at Twenty-Nine Minutes to Four o’clock p.m. until Tuesday, 3rd December, 2013.
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Thursday, 9th May, 2013
The Senate met at Half-past Two
o’clock p.m.
PRAYERS
(MADAM PRESIDENT in the Chair)
ANNOUNCEMENTS BY MADAM PRESIDENT
VOTE FOR A WOMAN CAMPAIGN LAUNCH
MADAM PRESIDENT: I wish to remind the Senate that the
Women in Politics Support Unit (WiPSU) is inviting all members of Parliament, both male and female to the launch of the ‘vote for a woman’ campaign and its publications. The launch will take place today at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Harare from 5:30 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. We look forward to hon. male senators coming there to give support.
SWITCHING OFF OF CELL PHONES
MADAM PRESIDENT: May I also remind hon. senators to
switch off their cell phones or put them on silent.
ORAL ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
SENATOR MUMVURI: Thank you Madam President. We have
got an array of ministers here today but my question is directed to the
Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office responsible for National Healing, Senator Holland. I want to know the relationship between her ministry and the structure which is called JOMIC; how they are working together and how they are complementing each other. In some instances, JOMIC is causing more confusion than solving problems...
MADAM PRESIDENT: Order. Actually, the rule says pose a
question.
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE PRIME MINISTER’S
OFFICE (SENATOR HOLLAND): Madam President, this is a sudden one because the Senator did not warn me.
MADAM PRESIDENT: They are questions without notice.
SENATOR HOLLAND: Yes I know but still he can whisper.
What I was going to say is that the Global Political Agreement put in place simultaneous transitional agencies and the entire purpose of these was for the country to prepare itself for free and fair elections. The big mistake we made Madam President, as politicians, was that we did not have a programme to go round the country starting in the Parliament itself to explain what the Global Political Agreement document was about. So, the question there reflects that anomaly, which is a result of what we did not do, which is to explain to the nation what the GPA was and what its intention was.
The simultaneous transitional organs, the COPAC process for example, which is what is gathering us here and getting us discussing these kinds of things as we wait to see how we move the COPAC process forward; is something very big to celebrate because it is something we as politicians have achieved with a lot of hard work where we have learnt a lot. JOMIC is one transitional agency and its job was very simple. It was to be the watchdog of every instance of violence that took place during the GPA period. The commissions which were set up also reflect the intention of that. We would like agencies that protect our democracy in every way and in a way where we are looking at issues from the same eye where we have discussed things and agreed.
The Organ for National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration, in its first 18 months where we did the national grassroots based inclusive consultations with everybody, also came up with a very good body of data which gave us the four elements of the infrastructure for peace. What is the relationship between JOMIC and the Organ for National Healing, Reconciliation and Integration? The relationship is that we are setting up in the COPAC draft the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission genderised. Thanks to the President of the country, the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister who, in their wisdom, wanted everything genderised. So, we have come up with the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission, which is on for ten years. We have a structure that is going to deal with Zimbabwe’s real grievances about the impact on them in a timeless frame of cyclic political violence.
I think the bad thing about where we are today is that, when we say that, people think about today. Cyclic political violence covers every historical era of our country. For hundreds of years, that was the culture of change of power, violence. As people who have agreed that we do not want violence, the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission; the intention is for people to really talk about these things in a very organised way. I think the challenge we have madam President in Zimbabwe is that we do not actually admire ourselves; in our brilliance, which we are. We look at other countries and think that other countries are more beautiful; they have more than us. I would give an example of what I mean about that.
When we went round the country, most people were saying let us look at South Africa, they have a Truth and Reconciliation Commission; we should have the same. We said, in South Africa, their infrastructure for peace has two men; Archbishop Thuthu and President Mandela. Ours has three people and it is genderised; no one appreciates that and it has got its results from talking to everybody where we have come up with an infrastructure for peace that comes from the Shona and Ndebele culture of kusvutisana fodya, ukukhumelana umulotha which is best of truth, justice and forgiveness.
We do not seem to understand that those are superior positive traditional values that the traditional leaders still practice today as they taught us in their wisdom when we were now consulting with them. So the relationship between the organ and JOMIC is that, when – I hope I am talking so confidently because the people who helped us; I do not see some of the people who were there but certainly I can see Cde Sekeramayi.
The agreement was that, after the Commissions are on, the JOMIC structures will come under the new Ministry of National Healing,
Reconciliation and Integration but under the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission. That was the agreement; when that is done, the work that would have been happening under the GPA will continue in that way. As I have said before, the people who were involved in
COPAC, the people who were involved in JOMIC and the people that are involved in the Commissions; we see those as the ground for recruitment for the people that are going to be members of the Commission because of the experiences that they gathered during the period they were doing their work.
I hope that answers your question that the JOMIC structures are coming under the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission, which was the agreement. What Zimbabweans need to learn and teach themselves is that what we really lack in our brilliances is coercion which comes from us; communicating what we are doing. We have a situation where in all our brilliances we do not talk to one another. Therefore, we always, I do not know where this comes from; I think it is a settler colonial heritage we have. We see the negatives of each other, never the positives. We do not see our beauty; we just see the bad part. Zimbabweans have some of the beautiful cultural expressions and these are incorporated in how we hope the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission works. Thank you Madam President.
*SENATOR CHIEF CHARUMBIRA: My question is, if
I really got you well, since you talked on the custom of staying together despite our differences, is this happening? I do not see it happening, I think it is continuing with our differences.
SENATOR HOLLAND (its repeating): I think we are graduates
of the traditional leaders’ school of wisdom and I see two of them sitting here. I think their colleagues are here because when we first met with them we were green hollows, I am talking about Hon. Nkomo and Hon. Sibanda, who were very clear about traditional leaders; I was not. What is happening now with the organ is that we are continuing the process of learning and we have three programmes with the traditional leaders. We have had the workshops with you and Chief Mtshane to work out the modalities of three different aspects of our relationship with the traditional leaders. We had it separately with the churches and civil society; separately with different ministries. With the traditional leaders we are trying to make a connection between our traditions as Zimbabweans, with the academics in the world and with the communities where we are all allocated.
The reason for doing this is, we want the infrastructure for peace to have the foundations that come from the best traditional practices in our country. In the workshops that we had, I was really quite shocked about the clarity of the academics on culture, if you remember? It was so brilliant and this programme is trying also to understand the positive traditional elements of national healing, reconciliation and integration as practiced by the different cultures in this country. When this was now discussed, we were really quite pleasantly surprised about how our languages in Zimbabwe reflect desire to always create harmony coercion ubunandi , ubuhle runako, zvinoita kuti vanhu kuti vafambidzane. At every time our greetings, our daily remembering we are together; we are doing that programme. We also want to understand the role of women in traditional peace building. We were very surprised, the Chiefs asked us to genderise that process but in fact when you look, much of what would be seen in a negative way to day started with positive intentions. It is up to us as Zimbabweans to rescue those things. Really, the third thing with the traditional leaders which we are doing is to understand in the end what the role of the traditional methods of national healing would be in relation to the Western way which is rich in retribution and the African way which is restorative. What do I mean? Pakusvutisana fodya ukukhunelana umlotha the intention is to really understand the root of the conflict and the reason for trying to understand that is to actually find the best ways of addressing that. The third stage, which is forgiveness, is that whilst people have agreed that they have resolved, it the person who wants to remember these things and make everybody feel bad is seen as the bad one. So the stages of truth, justice and forgiveness, Chief Charumbira, is what this process which we are engaged with you in is to really understand those process and really implement things which are best on the best practices of Shona, Ndebele, Tonga. All the different groups here, we want those things reflected and that the negative things as you have always pointed out; and Chief Mtshane Khumalo has always pointed out okubi kuyakhitshwa okuhle kuya phambili zvakanaka zvinenge zvichienderera mberi, zvisina kunaka tinenge tichibvisa. That programme may be seen as not moving on because as you know we have those agreements which were made, even before the death of Minister Sibanda, at that time, after the 18 months when we came up with the three year transitional, transformational strategic plan on which was based on the four elements, that when dear Chair did pass, we had already agreed on everything. The implementation, what I love about Zimbabwe is that we actually have the best. We wrote to Mr. Sibanda, Chief Secretary, to say now the Chair has gone, what do we do? We are still waiting, but we know that where they are trying to respond because we gave them the data of everything that we have agreed on. What we are going to get back, we know is going to be just brilliant. As we wait, the programmes of the organ are still moving forward and we are still talking in the name of the three political parties. I gave two speeches this morning to different groups, our speeches always start by saying on behalf of the organ’ our departed Chair, our colleague Mzila Ndlovu and we move on. I hope that answers you that the programmes are still going on as we were left with umlandu by our Chair of saying, Hambanini lisebenza, ingoitai muchifamba muchishanda because in the end, everybody will understand and we will move forward together. Thank you. *SENATOR FEMAI: Thank you Madam President. My question
is directed to the Minister of Lands, Hon. Murerwa. My question is, when the land redistribution exercise started, people grabbed land and applied for it later on. Some grabbed land ranging from 500 hectares to 2000 hectares to 5000 hectares. However, the land was inadequate for distribution to the whole populace. What are they going to do because even some of us do not have any land? -[HON. SENATORSS:
Laughter]- My question is that, what is the Minister going to do or what is in the pipeline so that every Zimbabwean would own at least a minimum of 500 hectares so that the land would be adequate. Even 200 hectares would be ideal rather than a situation where one has 1000 hectares when others do not have.
MADAM PRESIDENT: Hon. Senators, with all due respect, I
said do not address the issue, these are questions without notice. Pose your question to the Minister. If you start debating what is he going to respond to when you have already given an answer? These are questions without notice, so they will need time to put themselves in the perspective of what the question will be based on. Are you done, hon.
Senator Femai?
SENATOR FEMAI: Yes my question is – MADAM PRESIDENT: What is your question?
SENATOR FEMAI: My question is; what are they going to do in order to distribute land equally? Do they have plans for Zimbabwean people to have equal distribution of land? If it is 100 hectares, let it be
100…
MADAM PRESIDENT: There you are, suggesting an answer
again, I do not know what the Minister is going to say.
THE MINISTER OF LANDS AND RURAL
RESETTLEMENT (SENATOR. MURERWA): I would like to thank
hon. Senator Femai for his question. I share his concern that land is not going to be enough for distribution around the country and whatever is there should be shared equally among those who deserve it. I am pleased that our hon. colleagues from the other side fully support the Land Reform Programme. I just want to assure the hon. Senator that land is being allocated on a non-partisan basis. When it is available, those who apply will be considered on a non-partisan basis.
The issue is not so much on the hecterage that one is given, but the viability of the size of land that one gets. We do have a programme that designates land sizes depending on the geographical area. In
Matebeleland for example, where cattle is a major farming activity, the land size is large because of the need for grazing. In other areas, where there is high rainfall and the soils are rich, the land size is small to ensure that the land that is given is viable. The hon. senator is quite correct that we need to spread the land around to as many people as possible. As you know, in the Global Political Agreement, we had agreed on a land audit and we hoped that it would be undertaken. This was going to help in determining the land available, the number of people on the land and how those people could be assisted to ensure viability. However, we did not have the resources to undertake this land audit because of the economic situation we found ourselves in.
Inspite of this, we have now agreed with the Minister of Finance to make funds available so that we do what we call a ‘Land use Audit.’ The intention is that we go ward by ward to determine the size of land being used, who is on the land and how best we can help these farmers. However, the point you made is correct, that there are some people who have more land than they are able to use. We should be able to say that, if one was given 200 hectares where for the past five years, the farmer has only been able to use 20 hectares, that farmer is likely to grow and use a certain capacity. We therefore will leave the farmer with 40 hectares and give the rest to others. This is the way we intend to go about it. Thank you.
SENATOR. RUGARA: My question is on the land question.
MADAM PRESIDENT: Inyowani here, supplementary has to be
related to the initial one.
SENATOR RUGARA: Thank you very much Madam President.
I would like to ask the Minister whether there are plans to train the present and future farmers? Giving people land is not enough, it will be wise to train them and give them land. Do we have a programme in place that would cater for those two very important steps of acquiring land? Thank you.
SENATOR MURERWA: I think the question by the hon.
colleague is an important one. Clearly, land use is going to depend very much on the knowledge and skills that land holders have in order to make it productive. We do have a very comprehensive programme here, as you all know, of Agricultural Extension officers. This number has actually been increased in recent years and those who wish to have information and knowledge and training can get it. We are also training in agricultural training colleges a lot of young people who are going to be coming on board to provide this kind of training but we must also acknowledge the fact that it took the settler 90 years to learn to be productive on the land and we have only had 10 years and I think we will do well in time. I thank you Madam President.
SENATOR HUNGWE: Thank you Madam President. My
question is directed to the Deputy Minister of Labour and Social Welfare. Who and how is May Day organised and what is the role of the Minister vis a vis the role of the leaders of those movements? I thank you.
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF LABOUR AND SOCIAL
WELFARE (SENATOR MUTSVANGWA): Thank you very much
Madam President. The question from Senator Hungwe is very interesting; who and how May Day is organised. As you are aware, May Day is a date set aside to celebrate what the workers go through, whether there are challenges or whether there are successes, and you are aware, also that it was just after independence that the new government at independence realised the need to have representatives for workers and realised the rights of workers; that the workers also have rights and as such, that is the time to celebrate what they would have achieved.
The workers have got rights to collective bargaining, to employment and a right to be represented and so the trade union came into place after independence. We are all aware that ZCTU is a trade union representing workers in this country. It was propped up by the government at independence to make sure that the workers are represented in their particular work places. There has been less and less numbers of workers because of what has happened in this country. There have been a lot of retrenchments because of industries which closed due to the illegal sanctions which have been imposed on Zimbabwe. As a result we have experienced a lot of retrenchments, which is a very sad story. There have been a number of trade unions who work together with the Ministry. There is a tripartite negotiating forum which involves the government, the trade union and the employers. In this country under the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, we have two trade unions under our umbrella. We have ZCTU, which is headed by Nkiwane and there is also ZFTU, which is headed by Makwarimba. These are the organisations which organise these celebrations across the country. They invite ministers to their functions; they are the ones that invite both me and my Minister to these functions.
So, I hope I have answered that question. I thank you.
SENATOR CHITAKA: My question is directed to the Minister
of State Security Hon. Sekeramayi. Is our country adequately prepared to defend itself against cyber attacks and are our security organs properly resourced to fight this threat?
THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR STATE SECURITY
(SENATOR SEKERAMAYI): Madam President, our country, like all
the other countries, is facing the new challenge of cyber attacks. These attacks have occurred elsewhere and those countries have taken the necessary measures to deal with that. In our situation, we must be prepared, in terms of our scientists and in terms of resources, to put in place an elaborate system that is able, not only to understand cyber attacks but to be able, when the attacks are launched, to take measures to neutralise them and make sure that they do not do damage to our infrastructure. The process of the defence is not going to be an event but it is going to be a process and so that process is ongoing. Resources for now are a constraint, as we all know but policy measures are in place and once the recourse are adequate we will, definitely, make sure that
we are adequately equipped to be able to deal effectively in the national interest against cyber attacks. Thank you.
SENATOR CHIEF CHISUNGA: Thank you Madam President.
My question seems to have been overtaken by events but however, I will endeavour to pose it. It is directed to the Minister of Lands and Rural Resettlement, in particular with regards to the case of chiefs. There has been a land outcry at every conference held by chiefs annually. I want to know if there are policy measures which have been put in place to redress that anomaly? Thank you.
THE MINISTER OF LANDS AND RURAL
RESETTLEMENT (SENATOR MURERWA): I would like to thank
the hon. Senator Chief for his question. Chiefs are the custodians of land and I think they deserve to be considered on a priority basis and we have discussed this matter with governors and others, to ensure that in the areas where they are, they should give priorities to chiefs.
Unfortunately, chiefs are changing also quite frequently and there are new chiefs coming up and sometimes this is the challenge that we face, but we will endeavour to correct this one, Madam President.
SENATOR MAKUNDE: Thank you Madam President. My
question is directed to the Deputy Minister of Transport. It is about our national airline. I want to know which destinations we are now flying to and approximately how often? The second part of the question is how much prepared is the airline, now, to cope with the forthcoming event, the United Nations World Tourism Organisation? Thank you.
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF TRANSPORT AND
INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT (SENATOR
KOMICHI): Thank you Madam President and also thank you Senator Makunde for asking such a good question.
MADAM PRESIDENT: May I remind the Deputy Minister that
you are in the Executive. You are not supposed to sit where you are sitting right now.
SENATOR KOMICHI: Thank you Madam, but for today may I
continue?
MADAM PRESIDENT: Pindurai henyu. I just wanted to remind you. I do not know why you moved from where you used to sit but as an Executive, you cannot be that much of a back bencher.
SENATOR KOMICHI: The airline is currently coming out of the doldrums. We know very well that we had times when we had no plane at all on our air space but currently, we have an airline that goes to Johannesburg on a daily basis and one airline which is serving the local route, that is Harare/ Bulawayo and Victoria Falls on a daily basis. It is true that the planes that we are using are too large for the trips that we are serving. We have a 737 and 767, they are too large for the job. They are very expensive but the Airline is trying its best to acquire smaller jets that will be able to service the smaller route and also one that will service the Johannesburg route. So, that the current huge airplane the 737 can be used for longer international routes such as China, London, Nigeria and many other international routes.
So, currently as an airline, we have two reliable aircrafts. We also have one an, airbus that is a 320 airbus, which is currently going through the CEE checks just the technical checks just to see if it is strong enough and it is a requirement for an aircraft to start flying. We do believe that before the end of June, we start witnessing a very reliable almost a new airbus 320 on our airspace. We have planned that this particular 320 airbus will be servicing the Johannesburg route because it is smaller compared to the 767 that will take international trips. So, that is our current position at the moment. We do believe that with economic improvement, we will be able to get more aircrafts. But we have also had some new airlines coming to Zimbabwe in early June we will be witnessing Air Egypt which will be landing here.
We also have the KLM and many others they are around 14 airlines that will be coming to Zimbabwe. So we do believe that, that will assist in meeting the load factor during the event that will take place in August. I think we will be able to meet the challenge. I thank you.
SENATOR KABAYANJIRI: Thank you Madam President, my
question would have been directed to Minister Made but I will direct it to Minister Murerwa. When we implement what the President always preaches that we want development of irrigation schemes especially in communal lands. I want to find out what the Minister of Lands is putting in place in terms of development of irrigation schemes to small scale farmers and in communal lands? I thank you.
THE MINISTER OF LANDS AND RURAL
RESETTLEMENT (SENATOR MURWERWA): Madam President,
this is really a question to the Minister of Agriculture.
SENATOR MUCHIHWA: My question is directed to the
Minister of Labour and Social Welfare. I want to ask whether, when you receive your benefit is it sufficient for your bus fare? Furthermore, I want to ask if you are the one who is responsible for BEAM? How are you identifying the beneficiaries for the scheme?
THE MINISTER OF LABOUR AND SOCIAL WELFARE
(MS. MPARIWA): Thank you Madam President, I have carefully listened to the question. We are the mother Ministry of NSSA on policy, they have their own management. But we would want to say that if people put their money to a fund, we expect them to benefit after retirement. So, we look at what this money is being put to in the form of investment. There is an expectation that the fund is going to improve from a pay out six dollars or more. It is being reviewed.
We also have a feeling that workers can benefit so that they should not have benefits only sufficient for their bus fare. We also deal with the issue of BEAM scheme. We are quite hurt as a Ministry. We are the Ministry that cares for the poor, they are selected by the community and this committee also includes the head of the school. It is not done by an individual, they are identified in a particular area and they see to it that no one really looks after that child. At the moment, we are in arrears with regards to payment of the BEAM scheme. The last fees we paid was in 2012, we are inundated with complains. I have lost my voice because of talking.
My director is always at the Ministry of Finance. But there are no sufficient funds, moreso, at the moment we need to pay for examination fees because we have been looking after them throughout the years and we cannot dump them now. We have been urging schools to return them in the education system and that as soon as funds permit, we will pay our debts. We have development partners that are running with BEAM scheme for primary level. But the money is disbursed from finance. We are also behind in payment to our hospitals, one of the Amtec bio programmes. We have a serious problem. Hopefully, Government financial situation will improve. There are very few children on the BEAM scheme that are being sent away from school. Once they are sent away from school, they should approach our offices so that we can address and assist them wherever it is possible.
SENATOR MOHADI: Thank you Madam President, my question
goes to the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure. The question is when will the construction or rehabilitation of the Beitbridge via Masvingo - Harare road take place. Thank you.
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF TRANSPORT AND
INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT (SENATOR KOMICHI):
Thank you very much for your question Senator Mohadi. The ministry is working day and night to deal with our roads. We are quite sure that one of the most contributing factors of deaths and accidents in the country is due to our poor roads. The road that you have just mentioned, Beitbridge, Harare to Chirundu road is one of the worst roads we have ever had and so many accidents have been recorded along that road. One of the major accidents that we remember is the accident that took the life of Amai Tsvangirai, and as a ministry we are touched by that.
We have currently undertaken a feasibility study, and the study is complete. What we are doing at the moment is inviting tenders/competitors to do the job, which is the dualisation of that road from Beitbridge to Chirundu. The Minister has actually been on record saying that it needs about US$960 million dollars to do the dualisation, so the work is in progress and it will be carried out. The dates of when it will start to be constructed are not yet out, but the process of going towards that is being undertaken. The ministry has been very serious of these roads as you can see what we are also doing from the Plumtree/ Harare to Mutare Border Post, the dualisation is going on and the road is being expanded. I think we have dualised Harare to Norton, it is complete now and we are actually starting to dualise Norton to Kadoma very soon and at the moment we are dealing with the Harare to Ruwa of which dualisation is also in process.
We can actually promise and assure you that the Beitbridge to Harare road will be done very soon. I thank you.
SENATOR MARAVA: Thank you Madam President, my
question is directed to the Minister of State for State Security in the
President’s Office, Hon. Sekeremayi. Hon. Minister I think the Senate or the nation wants to know what steps if any, are you taking to control or regulate political utterances by security personnel? Thank you.
THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR STATE SECURITY IN
THE PRESIDENT’S OFFICE (SENATOR SEKERAMAYI):
Madam President that is a generalized statement, I will be more comfortable with a specific reference. Thank you.
SENATOR MARAVA: Thank you Madam President, I may put
it this way, is it the Ministry’s policy to involve its personnel in political issues?
- SEKERAMAYI: The Defence and Security personnel are working to ensure that Zimbabwe and all the Zimbabweans live in peace day in and day out, that the economy of the country whether it is industry, commerce or agriculture, runs smoothly without any disturbances and that is their core business. Political statements are made by the politicians and security personnel are not making political statements.
SENATOR GAULE: Thank you very much Madam President,
my question is directed to the Minister of Health and Child-Welfare. I think we are all aware of the situation that is prevailing in our hospitals/health institutions throughout the country. Some institutions are under-staffed for example where I am coming from. I can give you an example, this other time I was in hospital in Tsholotsho and I talked to the administrator of the hospital and last time it was before these other general nurses were engaged by the ministry, there was a serious shortage of nurses as well as doctors. There was only one doctor manning the hospital, such a big hospital and such a big institution.
To my surprise the government introduced the training of Primary Care Nurses (PCN) and these people are roaming in the streets, the government is not making use of them and for that matter it was all resources that were wasted on training these nurses. As it is some of the nurses are still unemployed and I really do not know what is happening while our institutions are under-staffed. I thank you Madam President.
MADAM PRESIDENT: Hon. Member who are you directing
that question to?
SENATOR GAULE: To the Minister of Health and Child-
Welfare.
MADAM PRESIDENT: You are here. Okay, Hon. Minister
Madzorera.
THE MINISTER OF HEALTH AND CHILDWELFARE
(MR. MADZORERA): Thank you Madam President, when I came there was no- more room so I came and sat here, thank you. The question that the hon. Senator is asking is very important. Of course, we must look back and see where we came from to situate the problem correctly. First of all let me answer the issue of primary care nurses which he asked about at the end. I am not aware that there is any primary care nurse who is roaming the streets. I think we trained primary care nurses when we needed them, we staffed all our primary care institutions and we employed all of those whom we trained.
They should not be any roaming in the streets. We stopped training primary care nurses I think two years ago or more because all our clinics are now well staff. I think you are referring to the Registered General Nurses (RGN), yes we have a few who were still in the streets after training, you will be aware that about two months ago we announced that we will be employing over two thousands RGN. The problem is not because the Ministry of Health and Child-Welfare does not want to employ nurses, we have vacancies we could employ another six thousand or eight thousand nurses, but I am sure every hon. Member is aware of the employment freeze which has something to do with the amount of money we have in Treasury.
As Treasury gets more money we will have more of these posts released, so we are as anxious as you are to employ every nurse who is unemployed. To situate the problem correctly the human resources problem has been improving over the last four years or so, right now the situation even at Tsholotsho hospital is vastly better than it was four years ago. We had districts that had no single doctor in the country, now every district has at least three doctors. I think the situation is now better, as our economy recovers we will be able to fill all the establishment which itself is not adequate because it was done in the 80s but at least if we fill that establishment the situation will be better. I thank you.
Questions Without Notice were interrupted by MADAM PRESIDENT in terms of Standing Order No. 34.
MOTION
CONDOLENCES ON THE DEATH OF HONOURABLE VICE
PRESIDENT JOHN LANDA NKOMO
First Order read: Adjourned debate on motion on the tragic and untimely death of Hon. Vice President John Landa Nkomo.
Question again proposed.
SENATOR S.K MOYO: Thank you Madam President. May I
take liberty to express my deepest gratitude to all hon. senators who contributed to this motion relative to the late Vice President, Cde John Landa Nkomo. Hon. Senators indeed spoke volumes of the sterling work done by our dear departed Vice President and it is not possible for me to reflect in detail such patriotic sentiments.
Madam President, I can confirm that the late Vice President’s family was touched by the accolades expressed with passion by hon. senators who spoke on this motion. As I have stated before Madam President, great leaders like the late Vice President, John Landa Nkomo do not die. They depart through the Lord’s calling for higher responsibility. He, indeed came, served and departed. His legacy of selfless service to humanity will remain a beacon for generations to come. Hon. senators in many ways testified to this fact.
Madam President, I am proud that some hon. senators and other dignitaries spent the 8th of March, 2013 in Tsholotsho with the mother of our late Vice President, gogo Madhuve. She was unable to come and bury her son at the National Heroes Acre because of age, she is 110 years old. It was indeed a very memorable and befitting visit in honour of our late Vice President to Tsholotsho and indeed where his umbilical cord lies.
I must say Madam President, the Nkomo family wishes to express their everlasting gratitude to all hon. senators who managed to get to Tsholotsho and spend the day with the old lady. Such outpouring gesture is indeed most appreciated. In this vain Madam President, I wish to inform this august Senate that on Sunday, 12th May, 2013, there will be a memorial service in honour of this late giant, indeed a colossus. The service will be held at the Zimbabwe International Trade Fair grounds, hall number 4 in the city of Bulawayo; the city of kings and queens starting at 9:00 am. His Excellency, the President will be the guest of honour. All hon. senators are invited by the Nkomo family to join them on this special Memorial Day. It will not be, of course as we all know, a day of mourning but a day to celebrate the life of this great man departed from our midst in January this year.
Madam President, it is not my wish to belabour the messages which were conveyed by hon. senators to this august Senate and therefore, I intend to be brief in consonance with my height. It is now my honour and privilege to once again thank hon. senators for their diligent contributions on this very sad motion therefore take this opportunity once again to seek leave and beg to withdraw this motion. I thank you Madam President.
MADAM PRESIDENT: Please move for its adoption.
SENATOR CHIEF S.K MOYO: By the way, I should have done
that first. Yes, I propose of course that the motion be adopted.
Motion put and agreed to.
MOTION
ADJOURNMENT OF THE SENATE
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE AND LEGAL AFFAIRS: I
move that the Senate do now adjourn to Tuesday next week. I would want to take the opportunity to advise colleague Senators that it is intended that on Tuesday, the Minister of Constitutional and
Parliamentary Affairs will introduce the Constitutional Amendment Bill.
Therefore, I want to urge all Senators to attend the Session on Tuesday.
Motion put and agreed to.
The Senate adjourned at Ten Minutes to Four O’clock p.m.
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Wednesday, 9th October, 2013.
The Senate met at Half-past Two O’clock p.m.
PRAYERS
(MADAM PRESIDENT in the Chair)
ANNOUNCEMENT BY MADAM PRESIDENT
SWITCHING OFF OF CELLPHONES
MADAM PRESIDENT: May I remind hon. senators to please put your cellphones on silence before commencement of business.
MOTION
PRESIDENTIAL SPEECH: DEBATE ON ADDRESS
First Order Read: Adjourned debate on motion in reply to the Presidential Speech.
Question again proposed.
SENATOR MUSAKA: Thank you Madam President for giving me the opportunity to make my contribution on the motion in reply to the Presidential Speech, moved by Senator Mutsvangwa, seconded by Senator Mumvuri. I thank the two senators for giving an in-depth synopsis on the motion.
Madam President, I also join others who have spoken before me in congratulating you and your Deputy for being elected President and Deputy President of this august Senate. Furthermore, I congratulate you both on behalf of the people in my Senatorial Constituency of
Mashonaland West, especially the people of Sanyati, Chakari, Kadoma
Urban, Muzvezve and Mhondoro-Ngezi who voted for me in the ZANU PF primary elections among other candidates to be their senator for the constituency.
Madam President, I and the entire people of Mashonaland West Province wish to congratulate His Excellency President R.G. Mugabe for his charismatic able leadership and hindsight and awareness in politics for leading the team ZANU PF into an overwhelming election victory on the 31st July, 2013 harmonised general elections. Thank you President R.G. Mugabe for taking the country out of the jungle politics of GNU which was intended to lead the country on a path of the Arab spring of 2011 which is total chaos and perpetual conflict. The
Parliament of Zimbabwe had become a source of conflict debating Chamber instead of debating constructive ideas for the good of the people of Zimbabwe. Your deep comprehension of internal, regional and international politics is commendable and indeed a gift from God and Vadzimu vedu to the people of Zimbabwe.
Madam President, the politics of appeasement are a source of conflict/war. In 1935, Mr. Chaplain, the then Prime Minister of Britain came back from German to London waving a piece of paper in Trafalgar Square in London and told the people there that he had signed a peace agreement with Adolf Hitler to prevent Second World War. In two weeks time, after that meeting, Hitler invaded and attacked Poland and the Second World War started, millions of people were killed. This foreign conflict affected Zimbabwe in that, White Rhodesians and indigenous Black Rhodesians/Zimbabweans were recruited to fight for the British.
After that war, land for the indigenous Zimbabweans was taken away from them and created into farms which were given to White Rhodesian soldiers who had fought for the British as a token of appreciation for the war effort. The indigenous Black Zimbabweans who also fought for the British got nothing; they too should have been compensated by the British. The taking away of indigenous land also alienated the Africans and triggered the Second Chimurenga War and again many people were killed. Such is the politics of appeasement which President R.G. Mugabe had continuous rejected. However, one positive thing that has come out of the politics of contradiction during the past four years is that, it ushered an opportunity to create a new Constitution which is truly home grown. The people of Zimbabwe acknowledged the value of the liberation struggle. The document may not be perfect but it is from the people and there is always room for improvement.
Madam President, His Excellency, President Mugabe touched on a wide range of topics. He underscored the need to improve the agricultural sector. In my constituency, in the resettlement areas, people mainly grow cotton and maize and the main challenges that they face are as follows:
- Late delivery of inputs and the producer prices offered by both the Grain Marketing and the Cotton Marketing Boards. People are urging Government to come to their assistance to ensure timeous delivery of inputs.
- The purchasing price for their produce should be fair for them to be encouraged to continue farming in order to feed the nation and live a decent life and be able to pay school fees for their children.
- In the resettlement areas, schools, clinics and hospitals infrastructure is not good. Tobacco barns and some dilapidated and disused buildings are used as schools and clinics. I advocate that the Ministries of Education and Health actively look into this concern.
- Communication networks in the form of roads and IT (cell phone base stations) are not good. Some resettled farmers are giving up farming, preferring to be vendors in the urban areas.
- In communal lands, the challenges mainly are late delivery of inputs and poor producer prices offered by buyers. His Excellency has been very generous by giving people fertiliser, seed, food and other inputs required. In health and education sectors, both infrastructure and service delivery have been a success story for the ZANU PF Government since independence in 1980.
Madam President, in Kadoma Urban, I advocate for urgent attention to the following:
- The Dairy Board building needs new equipment and a supply of milk to make it functional. This involves revival of the dairy cattle farming in the area. Local and foreign investors are needed. The
Glass Factory and the Cold Storage Commission like the Dairy
Board face similar problems.
- The textile buildings are also idle. As I already pointed out, the cotton producers are no longer actively producing cotton due to poor buying prices offered to them by buyers. In addition, cheap Chinese imports have made it difficult for the local textiles to compete. The Government, local business persons and political leadership in constituencies need to work together and approach Chinese investors to invest in local cotton production. This will help revive the textile industry in Kadoma so as to create employment for the youths in both the urban and surrounding rural areas.
- The roads in the city are poor and the ministry responsible should be sensitised.
Madam President, my humble contribution to traffic congestion, especially by kombis in our major cities is as follows:
City Passenger Vehicles
Construction of transit ways or special roads designed for city public passage traffic only, with pick up and dropping points along the way allowed 15 to 20 minutes to drop or pick passengers going towards a specially designated depot on the outskirts of the city. For example, vehicles from Chitungwiza will be heading towards a depot in Glen Forest and vehicles from Dzivarasekwa depot will be heading towards a depot in Ruwa et cetera.
Inter-continental and Intercity heavy goods trucks
Construction of a ring road or drive belt on the outskirts of the major cities should be taken into consideration. Big trucks moving out of the city on their way to another city or country should quickly move into the ring road at the nearest point to find its way to Zambia, South Africa et cetera, without driving through the city. Similarly, a big truck from Zambia on its way to South Africa will automatically get in to the ring road without passing through the city area. This can be achieved by way of constructing flyover bridges or just on the ground. This concept of a ring road also has the advantage of decongesting traffic and getting to point A and B faster.
Urban Town Planning
The current practice of buying farms surrounding cities should be legislated against because it is encouraging the construction of shacks around cities. City planning should be vertical and not horizontal. It is cheaper to service in terms of infrastructure and every effort should be made to take into account townscape, which is the beauty and attractiveness of the city. I thank you Madam President.
*SENATOR CHIEF DANDAWA: Thank you Madam President
for affording me this opportunity to make my contribution towards this motion. I would like to thank His Excellency for the Speech that he gave when he was opening this Parliament. It is evident that the President played a major role in alleviating the suffering of the people who had huge council bills. In the rural areas, towns and in the public media, people are saying ‘thank you’ to the President for relieving them of these debts. It shows that the President has the people at heart and is aware of their problems.
During campaigns, he was talking about the problems he was going to solve. The campaigns were carried out in a peaceful manner, so we had peace during the campaigns, elections and after the elections. I would like to thank the President for such a peaceful atmosphere.
Let me now turn to the Council of Chiefs. I would like to say thank you to the President of the Chiefs Council, Senator Chief Charumbira and his deputy, Senator Chief Mtshane Khumalo for their able leadership. As leaders of the chiefs, you are good, capable leaders and I also want to thank you for your guidance. If you are able to lead people like the chiefs, who are able to listen and take advice from you, it shows that you are people of substance. Therefore, keep up the good work of leading the chiefs.
Madam President, let me now look at the chiefs as representatives of the chiefs in the provinces. Most of us were retained to our previous posts. It shows that other chiefs in our provinces saw that we are capable people and therefore we should come back and continue with the good work that we are doing.
The President also encouraged that irrigation should be improved in the country. Zimbabwe used to be the bread basket of the region and therefore we need to improve on the irrigation. In our provinces, we have seen that we can do well, especially when given enough support. As we stand, we are prepared as a province to return that bread basket status of the country.
In the agricultural sector, wherever you come from, either being farmers in the communal areas or A2 farms, we are all prepared to carry out our state duties. Therefore we are appealing to the Ministry of Agriculture to supply us with the farming implements, the seeds and fertilizers. We are asking the representatives of chiefs in Parliament on how far they have gone in acquiring implements for them. As chiefs, everybody looks upon us to get support in rural areas. In the areas where we come from, we have the elderly people who have nothing to give their families. The only person who can assist them is the Headman. These people come to their Headman for assistance and if the Headman cannot assist them, they go to the Chief. I am pleading with the Ministry of Agriculture that when they are disbursing inputs and implements for agriculture, which include fertilizer and seeds, they should also have an allocation for Chiefs. At the moment we are able to give the necessary assistance but we cannot cope with their needs.
I will now turn to the discussion on Agri-bank. In the last planting season, we had some farmers who benefitted from these finances. I have noticed that in my Constituency there are some farmers who applied for this funding from Agri-bank. Their applications were approved and sent to service providers who gave them the seeds and implements needed in their farming activities. Unfortunately, these service providers did not have the required items and the farmers lost out on that assistance.
I am very much aware of the fact that this mode of operation was followed because there were instances where farmers who were given cash directly from the banks abused it. Instead of being used in the farming activities, the monies were used on luxuries. Therefore, I would recommend that when these funds are availed, they should be given to the farmer directly and not through middlemen.
I will now turn to the health care of the constituency. There is a
Mission Hospital in Chidamoyo which is as big as Karoi Hospital. Unfortunately, the road leading to this institution is in a bad state, making it difficult for ambulances to operate effectively. Since 2005, we have been pleading with the powers that be to maintain this road so that ambulances can have easy access to this hospital.
I am kindly pleading with the ministries responsible to allocate funds for the maintenance of this road so that patients are easily transferred from Chidamoyo Mission Hospital to the Provincial Hospital. This same road passes across the river which is often flooded during the rainy season. I greatly sympathise with pregnant women who end up giving birth near this bridge because transport ferrying them would have failed to cross the bridge. In some instances, people have died during the rainy season because of the inaccessibility of this bridge.
May the responsible authorities allocate funds for the maintenance of this road to alleviate some of these problems?
I will now turn to the disbursement of the Constituency
Development Fund (CDF). I will give an example of what happened in my Constituency. This is not an attempt to belittle an hon. member responsible for these funds. In my capacity as the Chief of the area, I was not given the opportunity to give my opinion on the disbursement of funds.
When this project was initiated, Chiefs were involved in the mapping out of projects to be embarked on in the constituency, but when the funds were availed, the Development Committees and us the Chiefs, were not informed or consulted on the disbursement. The hon. member who collected the funds used it as they saw fit.
In some instances, an hon. member bought a motor bike which was only ridden by either him or his son. Members of the public would then ask the Chiefs whether they were involved in such purchases as we were involved in the initial planning stage. To Chiefs, it was a shame. I am appealing to the ministry responsible for the disbursement of these funds, in this new Parliament, to channel these funds through Chiefs or senators who are mature and will be able to handle these funds responsibly.
Lastly, Madam President I congratulate you for the job well done in the last session, for your progressive leadership and we are together again in the 8th Parliament. May I take this opportunity to congratulate you on your appointment as the leader of this august Senate and we also look forward to a progressive session. I also promise you that we are behind you all the way and will give you all the support you need.
THE MINISTER OF DEFENCE (DR. SEKERAMAYI): I
move that the debate do now adjourn.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Thursday 10th October, 2013.
MOTION
ALIGNMENT OF THE LAWS TO THE CONSTITUTION
Second Order read: Adjourned debate on motion on the harmonisation of existing legislation with the Constitution of Zimbabwe.
Question again proposed.
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND
PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (MR. CHASI): Thank you Madam
President, I rise for the first time in this Senate. My name is Fortune
Chasi, and I am the Deputy Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs. I just want to congratulate you Madam President and all senators for having come to this Senate.
I have a small request, the Ministry has noted the motion, as the senators will recall, the Constitution covers every piece of legislation in this country and we would like to prepare a very comprehensive report for this august Senate. Accordingly, I move that the motion be stood over in order to allow us to do the report.
SENATOR MARAVA: Thank you Madam President, I truly
believe that once a motion has been put on the Order Paper, people can debate it. Therefore, there is nothing to be afraid of, if senators debate this motion as it was seconded. I am sure the majority of senators here are happy about it and would have wished to debate it.
MADAM PRESIDENT: When senators move motions in the
House they eventually expect the ministry concerned to respond to that motion. In this case the Ministry is advising the Senate that they are attending to what your motion is about. Of course we cannot stop you if you really feel like debating but we know that the Ministry is advising the Senate that they are working on what you are requesting them to do.
SENATOR MARAVA: Madam President, thank you very much,
but I am 100% sure that whilst they are looking into the nitty-grities of this motion, the Senate can go on with business as usual, especially on this motion. – [AN HON. MEMBER: Ko unogopopota…]-
MADAM PRESIDENT: Order, if I give you the floor to respond
to what has been brought in here; you do not have a right to respond to another hon. senator like that. Withdraw your statement.
SENATOR MARAVA: I withdraw the statement, Madam
President.
MADAM PRESIDENT: Hon. Minister Chasi, I do appreciate and
thank you for your response but the hon. mover of the motion insists that he wants his motion debated.
*SENATOR CHIEF CHARUMBIRA: Thank you Madam
President, I would like to congratulate you. We have shown that we are mature people in the Senate and we differ from those who are younger than us. We do not want to argue over petty issues. Firstly, Senator
Marava reminded us through his motion that there is need to amend the Constitution through tabling of Bills in the House. He said that this should be done through alignment of the Constitution with what is happening. We notice also within the Constitution that the laws have to be harmonized with the Constitution, that is happening. This is what has been stated by the Minister that these have to be done, and therefore, I am pleading with you hon. senator, in order for the Bill to be in the Senate, there are processes which have to be followed before the Bill is introduced. It is not a matter of just bringing them haphazardly, but they have to go through processes such as the Attorney General, the Cabinet, the Gazzeting and all those processes. Also, you have to look into the number of days the Cabinet has been in place.
At times you find that with the current scenario some ministers are not well versed with the operations of their ministries because they are new in those positions and therefore, they are now looking at how they can best respond to the motion raised regarding their ministry. As a result, what they are now looking at is that they have no time to harmonize this or prepare this Bill and bring it into the Senate. So, we need to give them time to prepare for this Bill. But if we go up to the 20th of November, then we will feel there is some delay. Madam President, I am now pleading with this Senate to give the new ministers time to look into the Bills. They should go and look at them in their offices so that when we start, we will be starting on a new slate and everybody will be prepared. I am appealing to hon. senators.
Yes we know it is true that Bills should come. But we are talking to people who have just been recently elected into office. Therefore, they need to be given time because you find that if we cannot get along together at such a time, it remains to say that we will have a hard time especially when the Bill is introduced, because now we have drawn battle lines before the Bill has come. If the Bill comes, there will be chaos. I plead with the hon. senator to follow the advice.
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND
PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (MR. CHASI): Thank you Madam
President. I wish to assure this august Senate that the Ministry is treating this matter as an extremely urgent one, and that a considerable amount of work has already been done. All that we are seeking is to ensure that when the report eventually comes to this Senate, it is detailed and that hon. senators can have an informed debate on the matter. I wish however, to add that legislative drafting is a highly technical and specialised field. Unfortunately, in our case, we have a shortage of staff in this area caused partly by the inability of Government to recruit staff. As hon. senators will be aware, there has been a freeze for quite some time, but nonetheless, we are burning the midnight oil every day to ensure that these matters are put in order. I thank you.
THE MINISTER OF DEFENSE (SENATOR
SEKERAMAYI): Madam President, I move that the debate do now adjourn.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Thursday, 10th October, 2013.
On the motion of THE MINISTER OF DEFENCE, the Senate adjourned at Six Minutes past Three O’clock p.m.
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Tuesday, 5th February, 2013.
The House of Assembly met at a Quarter-past Two O’clock p.m.
PRAYERS
(MR SPEAKER in the Chair)
ANNOUNCEMENTS BY MR SPEAKER
DEATH OF HON MEMBERS, JOHN LANDA NKOMO, SEISO
MOYO AND JABULANI MANGENA
MR SPEAKER: I have to inform the House of the deaths of the following hon. members;
- Hon Vice President John Landa Nkomo who died on the 17th of January 2013.
- Seiso Moyo Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development and Member of Parliament for Nketa
Constituency on the 21st of December 2012 and,
- Hon Jabulani Mangena Member of Parliament for Mberengwa North Constituency on the 30th of November 2012.
I invite all hon. members to rise and observe a minute of silence in respect of the late hon. members.
All Hon. Members stood in silence.
ZIMBABWE WOMEN PARLIAMENTARY CAUCUS
STRATEGIC PLANNING WORKSHOP
MR SPEAKER: I have to inform the House that all Members of Zimbabwe women Parliamentary Caucus are invited to a strategic planning workshop to be held from the 8th to the 11th February 2013 at Kadoma Hotel and Conference Centre. The bus leaves Parliament building at 0900hours on Friday 8th February, 2013.
MDC-T CHANGES TO PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE
MEMBERSHIP
I also have to inform the House that the MDC-T Party has made changes to committee membership whereupon Hon. Tshuma moves from the Portfolio Committee on Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and International Trade to Media Information and Comunication Technology.
VISITORS IN THE SPEAKER’S GALLERY
- SPEAKER: I would like to acknowledge the presence of
Malbereign Girls High students in the Speaker’s Gallery. You are most welcome.
The Minister of Regional Integration and International Cooperation having sat on the back-benchers row.
- SPEAKER: Order, Hon Minister can you come forward and
assume your seat on the front bench.
THE MINISTER OF REGIONAL INTEGRATION AND INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION: There are no seats.
- SPEAKER: Honourable back-benchers can you open up for
ministers.
The Minister of Youth Development, Indigenisation and Empowerment having entered and there being no seat.
- SPEAKER: Honourable back benchers, may I request you once again please make way for the Ministers on the front benches. I do not have to ask you by name to stand up – [HON. MEMBERS:
Mutomba, Mutomba.] – [Laughter] -.
- SPEAKER: Order! Order!
MOTION
PRESIDENTAIL SPEECH: DEBATE ON ADDRESS
First Order read: Adjourned debate on motion in reply to the
Presidential Speech.
Question again proposed.
THE MINISTER OF CONSTITUTIONAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS: I move that the debate do now
adjourn.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Wednesday, 6th February, 2013.
MOTION
REMITTANCE OF REVENUE TO TREASURY
- F.M SIBANDA: I move the motion in my name that this
House;
NOTING that not all revenue generated and collected by various Government ministries, departments and agencies is remitted to Treasury.
CONCERNED that the Government has been unable to grant its workers meaningful salary increases and frozen the recruiting of staff and failure to carry out some of its original and international financial obligations.
NOW THEREFORE, calls upon all the Government Ministries’ Departments, Parastatals and other related bodies to remit all revenue accrued directly and indirectly by them to the Treasury.
FURTHER CALLS upon Government through the Treasury to facilitate adequate or reasonable remuneration to its workers, to enable the Government to among others:
- Motivate its workers
- Retain its highly qualified personnel
- Maintain high professional standards
- Improve their efficiency
- Become accountable and transparent
- Utilise each dollar for the good of nationhood (Zimbabwe) (vii) Prevent and control corrupt tendencies by whomever.
- GWIYO: I second.
- F.M. SIBANDA: Thank you Mr. Speaker for according me this time to discuss this imminent and very important motion. I need to give background to why this motion was crafted. Before I do that, I need to quote one old saying that says, ‘Give unto Caesar what belongs to
Caesar’. I want also to thank the Ministers of Finance and Public Service for the sterling work done to encourage civil servants and the general public to continue offering service to this great nation.
If these two Ministers or ministries were not strategic, we would be having chaos among our citizenry and our important development, particularly in the civil service. The background to this motion is that we have to take cognizance of the fact that in 1990s when ESAP was introduced, Zimbabwe and neighbouring countries that adopted ESAP declined to levels beyond recognition. After a decade or so, Zimbabwe had an economic meltdown that it was even difficult to have food on the table. There were a lot of disasters especially with unemployment and factories were closed. Consequently, professionally highly qualified people had to migrate. Unfortunately, these were called diasporans. To my little knowledge about this word - disporan means people with no state, stateless people. Hence we had massive professionals in neighbouring countries. We have lost a lot of qualified personnel, therefore, this motion is not vindictive, but is persuasive and
encouraging the powers that be that we have to give unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar.
Each ministry or parastatal has an obligation to pay its dues to Treasury so that Treasury plans accordingly. Each ministry and department is paid or given a budget that is adequate to prosecute its obligations. I need to mention and thank ZINARA that has been an example of giving to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. They have been distributing monies to nearly every department particularly in the road network, City Councils and so forth. This is an example of a parastatal that has honoured its obligations to the nation, though we are not very sure percentage-wise how much they keep on their own.
We have ZIMRA, the main collecting agent for Government. It has done massive work and has paid its dues to Treasury accordingly. I am so afraid, as I have already alluded to, that this motion is to induce reasoning and logical thinking than vindictiveness. It is alarming that Home Affairs is one of the most powerful and strategic ministries in this country. As I left Bulawayo yesterday, I was greeted nearly every 10 kilometres by roadblocks. We wonder whether the Treasury has ever received any remittance from the Ministry of Home affairs particularly on the networking of traffic police. They are making millions of dollars per day. I have taken statistics in Bulawayo that the commuter omnibus pay almost R500 000 a day. Early in the morning the first team which reports for duty at 8am to 12pm, they pay R20 each. When a new team comes at 2pm, they pay again R20 each. This is tantamount to high corruption and these monies should be sent to the Ministry of Finance so that it plans accordingly.
I have also visited the Registrar General’s Department where they have sophisticated machines which produce very decorative passports where thousands of people a week queue for $257.00 passport per day. If you queue for $50 passport it will take 6 months. A lot of people opt for the express one. To my analysis, I have never seen where this department remits its finances to the responsible ministry. Where does this money go to and how do they manage this massive money. It would appear it is a Government within a Government. The budget of that department might be bigger than Lesotho in monetary terms. This is a million dollar question that I persuade this august House to investigate further so that we have sanity. The ministry which dishes out funds has to have enough resources so that teachers, nurses and rest of the civil servants have something reasonable when they go to their homes.
I have also done a little bit of research in the Ministry of Mines and
Mining Development. Particularly, Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe where it is responsible for all parastatals that deal in monetary issues of mining. For example, we have Marange Resources which is a wholly owned Government parastatal. No wonder why people talk of Marange Resources rather than Marowa Diamonds in Zvishavane or River Ranch in Beitbridge. These latter ones are private and
Government only enjoys royalties and other administrative charges.
Marange Resources under the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe is 100% owned by Government. The people of Zimbabwe do not want to be poor. They want the resources of the country to be delivered to the rightful ministry. As I have said, give unto Caesar what belongs to Caesar.
I am persuading this august House to take this motion peacefully, not aggressively and to push logic so that this House moves in unison. I am uncomfortable with demotivated workers, especially nurses and teachers who deal with brains of children, the moment they are demotivated, it makes our country retrogressive than progressive. We need to retain highly qualified personnel in all Government ministries than use second rate people. Highly qualified people are in Botswana, South African, America and that is why they are called diasporans. The word diasporan is derogatory. We need our people here so that they can develop economically, politically and socially.
We have to improve on efficiency and maintain high professional standards and become accountable to the citizenry of Zimbabwe. Any parastatal that is being supported by other parastatals should be disbanded completely because it is a waste of resources and human resources. We need to utilise each dollar for the good of nationhood whether it is hospital, clinic or Ministry of Home Affairs. We need to be cognizant that corruption takes two to tango and we have to be zero tolerant to corruption. I have realised that certain motorist with unroadworthy vehicles entice police officers because these people are poorly paid and they end up accepting bribes. So we have to prevent and control corrupt tendencies by whoever. I thank you Mr Speaker Sir.
- GWIYO: In seconding the motion raised by Hon. Sibanda, I
just want to raise as a first point, the fact that the motion is speaking to this House but its intention is actually to remind the Executive that in terms of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, all revenues collected by State agencies ought to be remitted to the national Treasury. So simply what the motion is saying is that there is some element of breach on the part of the Executive, whether it is the Ministry of Home Affairs, Treasury or the Registrar's Office. The fact is that there is laxity on the part of the Executive in terms of complying with the Constitution of Zimbabwe, in terms of revenue collection. So the motion is properly placed Mr Speaker, in that it is reaffirming what the Constitution of Zimbabwe requires in terms of funds that are collected by Government agencies.
Hon. Sibanda has already talked about the issue of spot fines by the police. This matter has been talked about in this House in the last three years. I want to mention the fact that there has been inaction on the part of the Executive especially the ministers responsible for the police to the extent that we ought to have been informed as this Hon. House that revenue which is being collected by the police is now being remitted to Treasury. It was also raised in this House that there was a moratorium that had been given to the Police and the Registrar General’s Office.
Our concern through this motion is that the purpose of the moratorium, has outlived its usefulness because we are now in a multicurrency environment where the prejudices of the Zimbabwe Dollar are no longer recurring. So it would have been high time that the revenues are remitted to Treasury. So the motion is simply raising a pointer that there is need to have a paradigm shift on the part of one of the arms of the State so that it complies with what the Legislature would have raised in compliance with the Constitution of Zimbabwe.
I also want to talk about the plight of civil servants. It is my opinion that they are genuinely in need of a salary increase. So the purpose of the motion is to try and increase the revenue collection, try and fill up the pot so that when the income is being distributed, it actually cuts across all civil servants. I also want to add that, to a certain extent, the issue of ghost workers has not been adequately addressed. These are some of the funds that the nation or Treasury is losing out by way of paying either non existent workers or paying non working people because it is two-dimensional. So the issue of the ghost workers also needs to be addressed within the same vein.
I must acknowledge Mr Speaker, the fact that the wage bill as a ratio to our Budget – in figure terms it appears fairly huge but the correct logic is that if you collect a small revenue, there is a likelihood that if you calculate your expenditure in terms of salaries, it would appear as if it is a huge percentage of the national revenue. The fact that as a nation we are not collecting enough revenue is not also a justification for not paying workers. It is not the problem of the worker. Where the State or the nation is going to raise the revenue, is the problem of those who are in power because they gave themselves the mandate to properly represent the people and also fulfill the expectations of the workers. On that score, I want to reiterate the fact that civil servants need to be paid. The national leadership need to make sure that all revenue, whether it is from Chiadzwa, at night, during the day or under water, the revenue must come to Treasury so that Treasury is in a position to pay the civil service.
I would like to end by way of making a comment as regards incentives. Personally I would like to acknowledge the role that has been played by our civil service without necessarily preempting their relevance; it is only fair to say, a bird in hand is worth a thousand in the bush. Without necessarily talking about those that may have left, I think the local civil service ought and need to be rewarded urgently, immediately and fairly. Thank you Mr Speaker.
- MADZIMURE: I want to add my voice to this important debate but I will concentrate on the issues of improved performance of revenue collection.
Mr. Speaker, corruption breeds where the systems are put in place in a way that they can be easily compromised. It is the responsibility and the main function of Treasury to make sure that all revenue that is due to the State is collected. It must be collected efficiently and effectively. That revenue must then be remitted to Treasury. It will be the responsibility of the Treasury to make sure that all the resources that are collected by the State are then used in a manner that satisfies the country.
Mr. Speaker, if you look at the financial leakages that we now have in our revenue collection system - more than 30% of our revenue is being collected by several agencies who do not remit the collections to Treasury. The problem is that in the absence of a system that makes these entities accountable, it opens up the system to a lot of corruption. It is now quite clear Mr. Speaker, that no one can hold the Police accountable for the revenue they collect. There is a temptation that the leadership of the Police will end up being corrupted by the system itself not that the people will be naturally corrupt, but, the fact is it is because the system that opens itself to manipulation. If we are a nation that wants to grow, a nation that wants to establish institutions that are transparent and accountable, we as Parliament must ensure that it is possible that all the revenues collected go to the Treasury.
Mr. Speaker, there is also a provision that some of these institutions can retain a certain percentage. What I propose is that where the money is accounted for by Treasury and then that percentage that must be retained by the specific department should be allocated that amount; it will be better for us as Parliament to speak on behalf of those departments to say the Treasury is not remitting the money to those departments.
Mr. Speaker, if you see the figures which some of these departments are now collecting and the money is not remitted to Treasury, it shows you that there is a lot of individual interests that have grown in these institutions. Mr. Speaker, corruption is now rife; to be honest with you, very few countries in this Southern Region would match Zimbabwe in the issues of corruption because of the systems that we put in place.
Also Mr. Speaker, I want the Government of Zimbabwe to start seriously considering the issue of removing the provision that allows people to use hard cash to pay for their fines. This causes serious corruption. Out of the amount that Hon. Sibanda was saying is collected by the Police, you find that they should have actually collected much higher. Where there is corruption, the person who benefits is the one that corrupts the system; it is not the person who collects the money or the State. You find that where someone was supposed to have paid
US$80, the negotiation will be that the recipient gets US$10 out of the
US$80, a person is bribed by a mere US$10, US$70 goes with that person who was supposed to pay a fine and the State gets nothing. In some cases, they reduce the fine from US$80 you are asked to pay US$20 and you pay the officer US$10. So effectively, it will only be US$30 and the State will have lost US$50.
Where people say we are not collecting enough revenue because people are corrupt. It is not those corrupt people who are benefiting; it is actually the person who pays corrupt people. It does not end up there, if you go to those who are supposed to be policing our environment, exactly the same thing happens, you are found transporting your cattle from Muzarabani to Harare, you are stopped and what you simply have to do is grease the person and you succeed.
It is important that the first starting point should be that all the money collected should go to Treasury. The second thing is that we must reduce the use of cash at these points. The same should apply to our boarders where we must use paper instead of cash. I strongly feel that the issue of transparency, efficiency, accountability is very important and for that reason we must make sure that Treasury collects every cent and it goes to the State coffers.
ANNOUNCEMENT BY MR SPEAKER
COLLECTION OF FINAL DRAFT CONSTITUTION AND
COPAC REPORT
MR SPEAKER: I wish to advise the House that copies of the Final Draft Constitution and COPAC Report are now ready for collection in the Journals Office, located First Floor, Main Parliament Building.
MR CROSS: Thank you Mr. Speaker, I rise to support this particular motion because I think it is extremely important. I do not think there is a single member of this House who has not risked to travel on the roads of Zimbabwe and go through roadblocks. Over the weekend, when ZANU PF held their Conference, the President made a very strong statement on these roadblocks and he calls for them to be closed down. The roadblocks were withdrawn for two to three days but they are back with a vengeance. When I travelled from Bulawayo to Harare the other day, I came across 22 roadblocks.
Mr. Speaker, every roadblock is tasked with a responsibility of collecting money on behalf of the Police which is then used by the Police to meet their own needs. I think this is a fundamental violation of the rules of good fiscal management and I think it is time to put this practice to an end. I no longer think that there is any justification for this system which was introduced during the Zimbabwe dollar era. I will strongly support this motion and ask the Hon. Members of this House to support the motion. I thank you.
MOTION
RESTORATION OF THE SECOND REPORT OF THE PORTFOLIO
COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION, SPORT, ARTS AND CULTURE
ON THE CHALLENGES IN THE EDUCATION SECTOR IN
ZIMBABWE ON THE ORDER PAPER
- MANGAMI: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I move the motion in my name that the motion relating to the Second Report of the Portfolio Committee on Education, Sports, Arts and Culture on the challenges in the Education Sector in Zimbabwe which was superseded by the prorogation of Parliament be restored on the Order Paper at the stage at which it had reached in terms of Standing Order No. 43. I thank you.
- MUDZURI: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I would like to thank the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Education, Sports,
Arts and Culture. When we conducted the …
- SPEAKER: Order, Hon. Mudzuri, we are not yet debating the motion. The motion moved by Hon. Mangami was to the effect that she is asking this House to accept the restoration of her motion on the Order Paper and I wanted a seconder to support that. I thought you were not supporting that.
- F. M. SIBANDA: I second.
- SPEAKER: Hon. Mangami, can you move for the House to adopt your motion.
- MANGAMI: Mr. Speaker Sir, I move that the motion be adopted.
Motion put and agreed.
MOTION
RESTORATION OF THE MOTION TO AMMEND THE
CRIMINAL PROCEDURE AND EVIDENCE ACT ON THE ORDER
PAPER
- GONESE: I move the motion standing in my name that the motion relating to Private Members Bill to amend the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act which was superseded by the prorogation of Parliament be restored on the Order Paper at the stage at which it had reached in terms of Standing Order No. 43.
Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. When I introduced the motion in this august House, there was some debate, however, the Minister of Justice indicated that he wanted to respond to the motion and he asked that he be given sufficient time to do so. Unfortunately, because of his busy schedule as the House is well aware, he is the lead negotiator for ZANU PF and it appears that he never got sufficient time to do so until we came to the end of the session. As a result the motion was then superseded by prorogation. I now seek the support of honourable members in this august House that the motion be restored to the Order Paper at the stage it had reached before it was superseded by prorogation.
- MUSHONGA: I second.
- GONESE: I now move for the adoption of the motion, Mr.
Speaker Sir.
Motion put and agreed to.
MOTION
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
- MATINENGA: Mr. Speaker Sir, with your indulgence, may I move that Notices of Motion Numbers 5 and 6 be stood over until all the other motions have been dealt with.
Motion put and agreed to.
MOTION
DISSOLUTION OF THE SPORTS AND RECREATION
COMMISSION
- CHITANDO: I move the motion standing in my name that CONCERNED by the poor performance of Zimbabwean athletes in all sporting disciplines at international fora;
NOTING that the inadequate resources being channeled to the Ministry of Education, Sports, Arts and Culture are inadequate for the development of sports thereby depriving our athletes of national pride as well as a place among competing nations;
AWARE that various reports have been submitted to the Ministry of Education, Sports, Arts and Culture over the incompetence of our sports governing bodies, in particular, the Sports and Recreation
Commission and its affiliates like the Zimbabwe Football Association;
NOW THEREFORE, this House calls upon the Minister of
Education, Sports, Arts and Culture to;
- i) Dissolve the Sports and Recreation Commission; ii) Request the Ministry of Education, Sports, Arts and Culture to provide Parliament with specific objectives and targets on how the nation will achieve success in all sporting disciplines; iii) Calls upon the Minister of Finance to allocate adequate resources in the National Budget for sports development.
- MUSHONGA: I second.
- CHITANDO: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I will start with a quotation from one of the renowned sport managers of a football club. He once said you can have top stars to bring the attention; you can have the best stadium; you can have the best facilities; you can have the most beautiful projects in terms of marketing and all kinds of things but if you do not win, all the work that these people are doing is forgotten.
Mr. Speaker, Zimbabwe has seen a decline in performance in all sporting disciplines. There is no sport in which there is joy, a smile or a win is witnessed. As a nation, we should be concerned about what is really happening. Both at individual and team sport. It all brings agony; crying and some people have hypertension because of the performance of our athletes. Zimbabwe at one time was known in boxing because of Kilimanjalo, Langton Tinago, Stix Macloud, Alfonso Zvenyika and Emmanuel Nyika in Masvingo there, just to mention but a few. What has really happened?
Yes, they might have died as Hon Zhuwao is saying but we should know that runofa, runosiya rumwe. This does not mean that we do not have talent. We should all say in boxing all these people have gone but there are still some other people who are shining and raising the flag of Zimbabwe in other countries. In the United Kingdom, a country which we always hate so much, there is a Zimbabwean, Chisora who is going in the ring raising the Zimbabwean flag.
Mr. Speaker, if you go into tennis, you would see that there was the Black family or the Black brothers and sister – they shone on the world international forum on tennis. What has really happened to our tennis? We used to see the National City Sports Center being filled by youths and people going to watch the Black brothers but today it is no longer a tennis venue. It is now a venue for Makandiwa and the others. In 1980 if you can still remember Hon Minister Mnangagwa, when we attained independence, you were not a player but we all had that pride of the Hockey Team which was composed of all the white ladies. But, what has happened? Does it really mean that Hon Mnangagwa when you came into power as ZANU (PF), when we attained independence, does it mean that the whites were the only people who had the talent and we had no talent? What really happened? I am going to give answers to those questions.
Let us go to rugby and cricket – Henry Olonga, the Flower brothers – what really happened to our cricket? Was it because of politics, hatred, racism which destroyed our cricket? Today if you watch whenever Zimbabwe plays its cricket, the journalists do not have to go and watch the game because we all know the headline – Zimbabwe whitewashed. That is the vocabulary for cricket. What has happened?
You go to rugby; we used to be counted on the world cup of rugby.
What has happened?
Let me turn to athletics – the story is the same. Whilst Zimbabweans were competing with the Kenyans and Ethiopians, you can talk of Chimusasa, Chimukoko, Julia Sakala and others, they were competing with the world known athletes but what has really happened? It should be a big concern to this nation. Mr. Speaker, these examples which I have just said shows that there is great work which we should do to address the sporting industry in Zimbabwe.
Mr. Speaker, in 1989, His Excellency the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe appointed an advisory committee on the organization of sport in Zimbabwe which was chaired by Tommy Sithole to specifically advise on the following issues:
- The current organizational structure and governance of sport in
Zimbabwe;
- The adequacy and otherwise of the above and having regards to the current policy of governance and the ideals and objectives sport should promote in Zimbabwe;
- The method of funding various sporting activities in Zimbabwe;
- The facilities required for the effective development of sport in the fulfillment of recreational needs of the nation;
- The merit of amateur versus professional status in sports;
- Methods of identifying, taping and developing sporting talent in
Zimbabwe;
- Sport equipment – its manufacture, procurement in Zimbabwe;
- The experience of selected countries in the organization and promotion of sport;
- Any other incidental and relevant to the above.
These were the duties which were given to the Tommy Sithole Advisory Board which was set by The President of this country, then Mr
Robert Gabriel Mugabe.
However, - [AN HON MEMBER: Inaudible interjections] - how can I remember the functions which were said.
Section 19 of the Sports and Recreation Commission Act, this is the following as the objectives of the Commission. After the President had set the Tommy Sithole Advisory Board – it advised him to set the Sports and Recreation Commission (SRC) which was given the following mandate and functions.
We are going to assess - I am saying we should be able to fire and dissolve the SRC from these benchmarks which were set in 1989 which the President himself, if he was really serious about sport, that is one thing. We should say the President himself was not really serious. If he was really serious he was going to evaluate the SRC on the functions and objectives which he set for the Commission but has failed to do so.
So we are saying:
- The President should have evaluated the Sports and Recreation Commission according to Section 19 if it was able to coordinate, control, develop and foster the activities of sports and recreation.
Was it able to do that? It failed dismally. But the President let it on a laissez faire state. So we are calling this House to support the motion to dissolve the SRC because it failed to do the mandate it was given by the President.
- To ensure the proper administration of organizations undertaking the promotion of sport and recreation. Was the SRC able to promote sport and management of sport in this country? – It failed. So we are saying let us help vaMugabe and say, dissolve this. If he does not see that there is need to dissolve, I am calling this House to help the President so that we can unblind him so that he will be able to see and dissolve this.
- To promote the highest state of sportsmanship. If the President had set the SRC to promote the highest standard of sportsmanship, if we are saying there is Asia Gate – if they are saying there was so much scandal in our sporting activities and the President was watching, what was he doing? We should ask. There is something wrong if the President was not seeing it. I am calling upon this
House so that you will also be able to help the President to see what he is not able to see.
- To authorize national and international sporting and recreational activities. The other function of the SRC was to authorize national and international sporting and recreational activities. The SRC did let the Zimbabwe National team go to Asia and play dubious games knowingly and they did not even inform this House or the person who set the Commission. So what it means is that it is the right of every Zimbabwean to call for this House to dissolve the SRC. I am not going to explain some of them but it is up to you to judge if the SRC was able to perform its duty according to the functions which it was set for.
- To advise the government on the need of sport and recreation.
- To endeavor and ensure that opportunities for sport and recreation are made available to all persons throughout Zimbabwe.
- To endeavor to provide coaches, instructors and courses for sport either free or on payment of a fee.
- To endeavor to ensure recreational facilities are established in such work places as the board considers and establish and operate establishments for accommodation of visiting teams and recreational clubs.
Mr. Speaker, I will be able to say a lot of the functions were set by the President for the SRC, which they were not able to do. However, I will not be able to take all the other sports and put them to evaluation as to why we are failing. I will have to take one discipline and I believe that some of the Members of Parliament will be able to take other disciplines and debate but I will have to dwell much on soccer.
Mr. Speaker, first of all, the administration of football in this country is in state of chaos. I will first of all have to explain the state – let us look at the Premier Soccer League (PSL). The PSL owns the clubs which form the board. The sponsors of teams are the ones who are running the teams but if you look at countries like England where we have got a better league, the financiers of Manchester United, Arsenal and Chelsea are not the ones who are running the league. But here you are seeing my good friend Twine Phiri is the one who is running the league. So you see there is a difference. It is the person who has got the administration and double interests in the affairs of the league. We are saying this is where it is very difficult for us to go forward.
Whilst most of us will be glued to the televisions for AFCON, some of our colleagues will be mourning why we failed to qualify. I would like to say when I watch AFCON, I truly remember one member who was so passionate about soccer – that is Hon. Mangena the late. If he was here, I am sure he was going to support what I am saying because we went together to Angola with the warriors for the 90 minutes of agony which we witnessed there when we were beaten in only 5 minutes.
Mr Speaker, it is more than 30 years after Independence and we failed even to host the AFCON when we were given the chance. What was the reason? In all the SADC countries which I have studied, it is only Zimbabwe where you have the Ministry of Sport bundled in the Ministry of Education. You can not have books and sports together. It does not work. What works in other countries is that they have the Ministry of Sport and Youth and the Ministry of Education stands on its own. If the President was really serious, there was only one time when he tried to do it but he only chose the wrong peg. It was a square peg he tried to put in a round hole when he introduced a dog race in this country when Hon Kwidini was the Minister of Sport. Hon. Mnangagwa still remembers that project which failed dismally. The dog racing sport tried to change the whole idea of Rufaro Stadium into a dog race stadium and forgot about the most popular sport – football. Mr.
Speaker, it shows a lack of vision. The only thing which is sensible Hon. Members, I think, if we have got true people who have the love of the sport, I think, we should not talk of qualifying for AFCON; we should not talk of qualifying for the World Cup – it should be routine. If we have people who have no sense, no vision – we will not be there – it will be year in and year out crying.
Mr. Speaker Sir, the problem is, thirty-two years of Independence,
VaShamu goes to Dembare and be called, ‘The Patron’ – a patron, a minister who goes to be a patron of a team which is still administering its activities under a tree. Are you not ashamed? You should just resign
– a team which is number eight in Africa; which does not have even a Club House; which does not have even a training house, a training ground; which goes to the Ralton and you say, ‘I am the Patron’. It is not that you are interested in soccer; it is not that you are interested in the game of football but you are interested in politics there. Get out and we will be able to qualify.
Hon. Bhasikiti, get out of politics in football and let the people that are interested in football in so that we qualify. The problem is, we are having people that are so much interested in politics that want to get the interference of politics into soccer…. – [MR. BHASIKITI: Honourable you have a point but you cannot speak my friend] - Thank you Mr. Bhasikiti, it is not a question of stealing mangoes here, it is a question of talking of a very important subject.
When we are talking of sport, the first thing a country should have is talent identification. This country lost the opportunity to have a correct development of sports identification programmes. The reason why we did it is that instead of building schools of excellence in sport, we were building brigades – Youth Brigades. We were really keen on political violence instead of being keen to develop the child. I think we should be able to set our goals correctly. The nation is looking at us; the nation is looking at this House – why we are failing to qualify. It is not the question of ZIFA why we are failing to qualify, it is the question that this Parliament, this Executive – from the President they are not really keen for this country to qualify. I think, those soccer loving people of Zimbabwe should be able to choose their leaders whom they know are going to make them qualify because for thirty-two years we should be a nation that is always qualifying through the back door.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to rest my case by saying, sport is a very big business. What we need is to create jobs; we should have to uplift the standard of our soccer; we should have investment in our sport; we should have capital and correct environment. So we should introduce juice in our sport – if we are to introduce juice truly, the people of Zimbabwe are going to be happy. We are going to qualify. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
- MUSHONGA: Mr. Speaker, sport is business – our sport can actually improve our tourism. We are over fourteen million
Zimbabweans but we failed to make it to the AFCON Party whilst Cape Verde with only half a million people partaking compared to us – that is a shame. We are watching from across the Limpopo whilst the party is going on in South Africa.
Zimbabweans are known for passing blame. We blame everyone else except ourselves and this is very unfortunate. We blame ZIFA – ZIFA which we know is bankrupt and ZIFA on its part is busy witchhunting the Asiagate Scandal and so forth. As a result, we had a depleted Zimbabwean team that was thoroughly beaten in Angola and brought a lot of misery to my friend.
Yes, there is no money which this government is putting in soccer or in sports and the coffers are very dry. In other countries, in order to avoid that, they encourage military institutions to be sports academies – the Police, the army can actually produce very good sportsmen. This takes me to Zambia, in the last AFCON – their star players were military people because they have military institutions which nurture sporting talent. Why can we not do the same in Zimbabwe? Why can we not learn from our neighbours?
We know that the military – we have Black Rhinos and other teams – if they are properly managed, they can actually produce the
Peter Ndlovu’s of this world but we are not doing it as a country and we have ourselves to blame. A small academy in Highfield has produced the Musona brothers who are now the pride of this nation. They do not have a grant from government and we expect to do miracles when we are not funding it – nothing can stick on nothing. If we as Zimbabweans want to excel in sport, we have to invest in sport and I totally support my friend, Hon. Chitando, that without investment in sport, we will always cry foul, we will always – the Zimbabwean style, ‘blame each other’.
We have also destroyed our sport by political interference. Our dirty political hands have been seen in cricket and cricket has gone down; our political hands have been seen in soccer and our soccer is not thriving. We call upon politicians to keep their dirty hands out of sport so that our sport can thrive. It is not for anybody’s interest but for the future of this nation. We have not done anything as Zimbabwe to train a future Coach for this country. We are blaming Rahman Gumbo for failing to qualify yet we have never sent Rahman Gumbo for a single training in Brazil. We have never sent him for a single training in Germany but we expect to succeed and you blame him for that – what is
that?
We need to start training our own talent. Let us take Peter Ndlovu to Brazil; let us take Moses Chunga to Germany. Let us train them for the future of Zimbabwe and stop this blame game and if we do that -
Zimbabwe will never have a Keshi like the Nigerians who is leading their team in South Africa. I want us to look forward, put our political differences aside and prepare for this nation. We are a great nation, we are the jewel of Africa but what are we showing for that - that greatness? We have the most learned Cabinet in Africa, we have the most learned leaders in this country but we have no vision and a nation with no vision
is lost.
I encourage this House to adopt this motion and let us have a vision for our sport. This is Zimbabwe – it does not belong to anybody, it belongs to us, it belongs to the past and to the future.
Thank you Mr. Speaker.
- BHASIKITI: I want to congratulate Hon. Chitando for bringing this motion which is quite an important motion. Perhaps, I may, for the benefit of clarity try to improve on the recommendations but first and foremost we should take it seriously that we need to develop sport in our country. The first take-off point is to separate sport from the academic disciplines. This requires a new department, a whole department charged with sport development to develop it at
kindergarten. Even the Grade Zero, their talents in sports have to be identified and developed at Primary and Secondary School level.
I think our main emphasis should be two-dimensional, that is, sport is also a great employer and one of the greatest empowerment fields. I know this is captured in one of the documents within the indigenization and empowerment policies that we need to empower our young people to develop their talents, to make a living out of soccer, netball, athletics and all the various sporting activities.
As Africans, I know, yes, there are some of the games which were introduced although it might not have been a matter of a race, game or sport but it was developing that group of people to excel in certain skills. We should look at what really develops the African child. We used to know that the Bushmen would run and make sure that they catch a lion or an elephant by just following it trotting. Those skills, athletic skills are quite rich in us and we can compete favourably if we develop them.
What I want to suggest is that, rather than say the Ministry of
Sport, Arts, Culture and we lump too many things in one ministry, let us be very clear and say we want this ministry to be a stand-alone ministry and it should be a requirement. Once we do that then we are also in a way enabling Treasury to direct resources to a specific ministry which has a specific mandate to develop our sports facilities and our sporting talents within the nation.
I think it is important that in every district we develop these sport academics. Let alone reduce from district to ward centres or areas where people would on daily basis be practicing and developing their skills. These skills are very important not only for physical fitness but in terms of earning a living from most of our people who are gifted in most of these disciplines.
So I will agree with Hon. Chitando that at least we now need a new focus. Yes, we cannot do all things at the same time. When we started after our independence, the most important challenge was to reduce and improve on the literacy gap and hence, His Excellency in his wisdom developed the intellect and built many schools to reduce the illiteracy level which was predominant amongst us. I thought Hon. Chitando would have credited that one. But now we are at another stage of our national development where we are saying now it is important to compete internationally in sport and develop it.
Now that we have developed all these other disciplines – academics we have done so well but areas where we need to develop, where we have challenges, is the sport. You can over burden what you call the Sports and Recreation Council. If you put a very good instrument in a wrong environment it will not work. So I do not want to blame the Sports and Recreation Council for trying its best in a wrong environment. The proper environment is a sporting ministry and it is from that ministry and department that those in the Sports and Recreation Commission can work favourably. Now they will be competing with academics who will be telling them the most important priorities are A,B,C when they are pegged at a G. So it is better we separate and then if we do that we will be able to develop our sport and realize the most important aspirations and dreams we have which have been rightly pointed out by Hon. Chitando.
It is true that an indicator or the litmus test for our excellence in sport can be identified already from the Kilimanjaros and from other outstanding sporting personnel we have across the different sporting disciplines. All it means is, we are not developing the majority of people to that level but we have the capacity. We have the potential to develop them to the Apex levels. So at this point it is important.
I know that the next Government on the day after elections, if it is properly guided by the empowerment models which has been propagated by those who are not ashamed of saying let us empower the African child. Let us empower the Zimbabwean person, the indigenous person to excel and compete favourably against all other races. Then I know this matter will be taken seriously and will be implemented in the next Government. However, that Government will obviously remain under the leadership of none other than that of His Excellency and his party.
In ending my support submissions to this motion presented by
Hon. Chitando. I think he will agree with me that should he find time, it would be important to relook at the presentations and the recommendations which he wants Parliament to endorse for the record that this House is seeking to have a stand-alone ministry on sport because we feel it is important. We do not want it to be lumped, neither do we want to keep on calling Hon Coltart to talk about these things when we know his fine brains in the legal fraternity will only help to structure the rules or guidelines which the sporting ministry can execute alone.
I submit that it is an important motion and we are all in support of this motion but we want this to be taken seriously as a stand-alone ministry.
MRS. MANGAMI: I also want to thank Hon. Chitando for the
motion he has just raised. In adding my voice to this motion, I actually go with some of the recommendations which he has made. To begin with, sport is there for competition or enjoyment. On enjoyment, I think the sporting activities have been successful. On the part of competition, that is where there are challenges which I think if the ministry as the committee has also recommended, if it is made to stand alone, I think enough resources might be channeled towards the activity.
I say so because very little has been given to SRC in terms of resources. If one has not been given resources or tools to perform, it is really difficult to execute the duty effectively and at times they end up pumping from their own pockets. For us to evaluate that they have failed when we have not given them resources, it would be really unfair. I believe if they are not given resources as they are now in order to make an evaluation on their performance, it would really be a bias. Apart from that, those that are involved in these sporting activities also need remuneration. Sporting facilities need to be looked at.
We do not have to look at sporting activities at higher levels alone, instead we should look at them even at grass roots as well. In the ministry not much is being done in terms of sponsoring sporting activities in schools such that parents are paying what is called sports fee. The government is not contributing anything in terms of finances that are used to sponsor sporting activities. I say so because NAFF and NASH are running sporting activities solely on their own. It is a parents’ sponsored activity. It will not go anywhere because parents’ resources are really limited.
I, therefore, recommend that there is no need to dissolve the Sports and Recreation Commission. I was actually looking at the second recommendation, to say the hon. member requests the ministry to provide Parliament with specific objectives and targets on the nation which will achieve its sporting objective – of course I agree with him.
On the last recommendation, where he indicated that in the next budget I think it would be advisable for our government to give enough resources to the Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture. If we are going to be looking at the personalities involved in SRC then we could be misled. I understand on several occasions when we read in newspapers that some members within the SRC are actually contributing to some of the games that are being played.
I want to thank the hon. member for the motion and say if we can take up his recommendations especially the third recommendation and adopt it in the House for the improvement and betterment of sports.
- GWIYO: I would like first of all to thank Hon. Chitando for bringing this noble motion in this august House. I am in support of most of the recommendations and the contributions made by a number of hon. members. I would like to come up with a specific one that I feel in order to have good sporting system in this country what we need is a change of mind set because if you can see what is happening in this country, sports is only considered important at higher levels especially at national level. At primary schools or at homes, it is not regarded as very important. It is only taken seriously at higher levels, national level and other competitions.
What we need is to have a change of mind set whereby we promote sport from the young ages of our children. If you go in town today, whether it is down town or up town, you see very few shops that sell sporting equipment like tennis and football kits. I think that is what we need to change. If you go to countries like Brazil, in every market or shopping mall you see that there are some sporting ware. You can buy some jerseys and soccer balls because sport is being promoted. In this country when you want to talk about sport, it is only when there is a competition. If you want to talk about camping, it is only when there is a big completion like the Africa Cup of Nations and World Cup that is when you see ministers trying to seek publicity by wanting to be patron of so and so.
We are not doing much to promote sport at the grassroots level. My contribution is that we need to start at the grassroots. We need to start promoting sport at village level and primary school level rather than just trying to hijack things at the top. I think that is what we need to make sure that sport is being promoted in this country. It is not only enough to say that the Ministry of Finance must allocate so much money to the national team or cricket national squad but what we just need as individual families is to promote sport at the smallest level so that it can develop.
We can not just develop into a soccer power house at the national level or secondary school level. We need to start at the lower level.
MS D. SIBANDA: Mr Speaker, I move that the debate do now adjourn.
MRS MATIENGA: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Wednesday, 6th February, 2013.
On the motion of MS D. SIBANDA seconded by MRS MATIENGA, the House adjourned at Six Minutes Past Four O'clock p.m.
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Tuesday, 11th June, 2013
The House of Assembly met at a Quarter-past Two O’clock p.m.
PRAYERS
(MR. SPEAKER in the Chair)
ANNOUNCEMENT BY MR. SPEAKER
INVITATION BY WiPSU
- SPEAKER: I have to inform the House that Women in
Politics Support Unit (WiPSU) is inviting all members of the Women’s Parliamentary Caucus to a dialogue meeting on the creation of a safe place for women to participate effectively in governance and national processes from the 14th to 17th of June 2013 at Troutbeck Inn Hotel in Nyanga.
MOTION
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
THE MINISTER OF CONSTITUTIONAL AND
PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS: I move that Order of the Day, No. 1
be stood over until all the other Orders of the Day, have been dealt with.
Motion put and agreed to.
MOTION
REPORT OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON LOCAL
GOVERNMENT ON THE FOURTH QUARTER BUDGET
PERFORMANCE OF THE MINISTRY OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT,
RURAL AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT
- KARENYI: I move that this House takes note of the First
Report of the Portfolio Committee on Local Government on the Fourth
Quarter Budget Performance of the Ministry of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development.
- CHINYADZA: I second.
- KARENYI: Thank you Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the Portfolio Committee on Local Government resolved to undertake an inquiry on the last Quarter Budget Performance of the Ministry of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development for the year 2012. This was in line with the requirements of the Public Performance Management Act which compels every ministry to table before Parliament its quarterly budget performance reports. The Ministry of Local Government is one of the important ministries in ensuring service delivery to the citizens of Zimbabwe in providing the policy framework for the local governance and rural development.
The ministry administers physical planning to local councils and it is in charge of all the traditional leaders. It also facilitates and monitors development initiatives at the local authority level and rural community level. The objective Mr. Speaker, has been to have an appreciation on how the ministry spent its allocation for 2012.
The ministry is facing challenges in terms of the resources allocated to it for implementing its programme. The Committee received oral evidence from the Permanent Secretary of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development together with written reports.
Findings
The findings from the Committee Mr. Speaker; the Ministry was originally allocated US$88 383 500 but it was revised down to US$28 910 000.00. At the beginning of the fourth quarter, the Ministry had a revised budget balance of US$ 11 999 261.00 which translated into 41.38% of the total revised budget. US$6 800 000.00 was for local authorities PSIP, US$ 15 548 839.00 for employment costs and US$3 360 603.00 for the payment of traditional leaders’ allowances leaving US$ 3 360 603.00 for the ministry's general operations. This impacted negatively on the performance of the Ministry in view of the fact that there are twelve ministerial posts broken down as follows:
The substantive Minister for Local Government,
Rural and Urban Development,
The Deputy Minister,
Ten Provincial Governors and also nineteen heads of departments
and
Ten provincial administrators and seventy-two district administrators.
Whilst the total budget cut was 67.29%, the Ministry’s operational budget, excluding the capital budget, current transfers and programmes was revised down to US$2 573 000.00 (budget cut of 40%) versus cumulative expenditure of US$ 1 774 039.00. Thereby creating a state of affairs where the Ministry was literally brought to a standstill as only US$ 798 961.00 was left. Virements totaling to US$ 333 167.00 were processed to clear negative budget balances on some expenditure items that arose from the budget cuts.
In the fourth quarter, the Ministry, with the authority of the Treasury, transferred funds amounting to US$1 200 000.00 from capital expenditure to meet recurrent expenditure requirements.
In terms of employment costs, the expenditure for the quarter was
US$1 465 000.00 leaving a budget balance of US$83 755.00 as a result of freeze on employment. At the end of 2012, the Ministry had 298 vacant posts which translate to 24% of the staff establishment. Vacant posts include provincial and district administrators, provincial planning officers, town planners, auditors and a deputy director in the department of physical planning.
The revised budget resulted in a negative budget balance in some line items especially state occasions and vehicle hire with a figure of minus US$457 300. Funds were transferred from lending and equity participation to clear the negative budget balance. However, despite the virement, the Ministry was still left with some outstanding bills for
2012 which include Tel -One and CEED with US$ 1200 000.00 and US$1 100 000.00 respectively.
In terms of maintenance, the budget balance of US$86 964.00 was not enough and a virement of 380 000.00 was processed for the mainten!nce0of vehicles allocated to distriãt administrators' offices. THg bulk of funds was expended on mamntenance of vehicles and went towards the servicing of the vehicles almocated to the district administrators’ offices. In total, a sum of US$ 120!000 was spent.
For the curr%~t trajsfers, the department of Civil Protection managed tn receive a donation of fiVe 4x4 vehicles from UNDP !nd these were allocated to flkod prone districts& The Detartment of Civil"protection"managed to r%nder assistance to the victims of`the various disasters which obcurred during phe quarter.
As a result of inadequate funding to the Local Government Board, meetings that were supposed to have taken place, at least twice a month, were not held. These meetings would have culminated in the production of an annual report which should have been presented to the Hon Minister. In this regard, the board failed to fulfill its statutory obligation as required by Parliament. The functions of the Board were not effectively carried out.
The Ministry launched a nationwide US$17 million Local Government capacity building and service delivery programme in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
During the fourth quarter, only US$270 000.00 was released. Out of that amount, 60% was utilised leaving a balance of US$107 915.00 which was expected to be spent on the 2013 programmes. The 2012 Chief's Annual Conference was not on schedule for some reasons. It was finally successful in the first quarter of 2013.
In terms of acquisition of fixed assets, no purchases were made since the entire budget of US$920 000.00 was reduced. The Ministry had intended to utilise the funds allocated to procure furniture and computer hardware for several districts.
The budget of US$ 1 200 000.00 which was allocated for the construction of district offices for the new districts of Mhondoro-Ngezi and Mbire districts was not provided for at all. The staff at these stations had to contend with operating from borrowed facilities. A situation that portrayed a poor image of Government and thereby increasing the risk of compromising the credibility and integrity of Government
Observations
Your Committee observed that provision of funding for the Ministry’s programmes and the delay in the release of allocations were the main challenges facing the Ministry.
Recommendations
Accordingly, your Committee recommends that the Ministry embarks on inter-Ministerial borrowing for the construction of Mhondoro- Ngezi and Mbire Rural District Councils. Alternatively, funds can be viremented from allocations within their Ministry's budget. Community Share Ownership Trust must be seen to be assisting in the development of these districts. Similarly this should also apply to other districts in the country e.g. where mining ventures are undertaken.
There is also need to engage stakeholders in the liquor industry, for example, companies such as Delta Corporation, Afdis, Ingwebu, Rufaro Marketing and Go-Beer, to name just a few, to assist in speeding up the decentralisation of information technology within the Local Government Board. This could be done by encouraging key stakeholders to plough back profits into the communities where resources are tapped.
There is need for Government Physical Planning Inspectors to charge economically viable fees as the business of physical planning draws substantial amounts of money from the fiscus.
There is urgent need to get funding so as to retain qualified personnel within the Local Government Board.
The institution of Traditional leadership should endavour at all times to be apolitical – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections]
- SPEAKER: Order, order.
- DZIRUTWE: Mr. Speaker Sir, I too would want to contribute to the debate. I am a member of the Committee and the item I want to dwell on is the image of the Government in these new local authorities, the Mhondoro-Ngezi and Mbire. It is sad when Government officers operate from make-shift buildings yet these two areas are surrounded with platinum, in the case of Mhondoro-Ngezi. In the case of Mbire, there is a lot of Safari and Game viewing going on there. So, it will be important that the Government should think outside the box and get some money out of Community Share Ownership Schemes to make sure that Government offices are well built and well furnished so that it gives a good impression. Also, areas like Mutare District, for example, could benefit from the Marange Diamonds because the Government offices are a sorry site. I thank you Mr. Speaker.
THE MINISTER OF CONSTITUTIONAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS: I move that the debate do now
adjourn.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Wednesday, 12th June, 2013.
MOTION
FIRST REPORT OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON
SMALL AND MEDIUM EMTERPRISES DEVELOPMENT ON THE
ACCESS TO FINANCIAL RESOURCES FOR SMEs IN ZIMBABWE
- R. MOYO: I move the motion standing in my name that this
House takes note of the First Report of the Portfolio Committee on
Small and Medium Enterprises Development on the Access to Financial Resources for Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Zimbabwe.
- MUSHONGA: I second.
- R. MOYO:
1.0 Introduction
The SME sector in Zimbabwe plays a critical role in economic growth and development, and eradication of poverty. Its contribution to the GDP, demands that it is prioritised in terms of financial support from both the fiscus and the private sector. The committee observed that the SMEs sector however, is grossly underfunded; most of it is owner capitalised with very limited access to very limited financial resources.
The committee set out to;
- Inquire and appreciate the nature and terms of financial resources available to SMEs;
- establish the extent of services rendered by key stakeholders;
- ascertain the levels of expectations of SMEs in terms of the
nature of financial support; and
- make recommendations for improvement of support and services to reduce the negative impact of underfunding of SMEs.
2.0 Methodology
- In undertaking the inquiry, the committee received oral evidence from the following:
- Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises Cooperative
Development;
- Ministry of Finance;
- Bankers Association in Zimbabwe;
- Micro Finance Institutions; and
- Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe Governor.
- Committee Findings
- The Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) are playing a critical role in employment creation, poverty reduction, raising national incomes and the development of the informal sector. The world over, vibrant economies are SME driven with the sector as the hub of creativity and innovation. The result of that is improved standards of living through employment creation.
- The Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises cooperative acknowledged the funding challenges and told the Committee that the financial constraints were hampering SMEs contribution to the economic growth.
- The Ministry reported that SEDCO was grossly undercapitalised, yet was faced with the growing demands for machinery and equipment, infrastructure development and working
capital.
- In 2012, the Government had budgeted US$5 million to SMEs through SEDCO. As of 9 February 2012, nothing of the US$5 million had been released to SMEs. That budgeted figure is inadequate against a growing sector with no other sources for adequate funding.
- The Ministry of SMEs reported that outside the Ministry, difficulties for SMEs securing funding were compounded in the main by collateral requirements, and most financial institutions are reluctant to finance the operations. The position was supported by the Bankers Association, who said the cost of financing SMEs was high, and that the collateral requirements were to mitigate the high risk of non- payment.
- The stringent requirements by the banks have forced SMEs to use micro finance institutions to borrow funds. That actually compounds their challenges as MIFs charge exorbitant interest rates currently ranging from 15% to 24% per month. The result is normally failure to service the loans and loss of property when MIFs attach property.
- The Ministry of Small and Medium Enterprises Cooperative
Development is mobilizing resources from other sources such as Pension
Funds, Financial Institutions and other development partners. The Committee was informed that there was a group funding facility under IDBZ, facilitated by China of US$30 million, of which US$15 million is for SMEs.
- The Ministry of Finance informed the Committee that Government has always recognized SMEs as critical to the development of the economy and creation of employment. They highlighted that whilst SMEs are contributing almost 50% of the GDP, Government’s support for the sector was between 5% and 10% of the national financial resources.
- Financial resource mobilized for SMEs from various sources for 2012 amounted to US$165 million.
- The Ministry of Finance informed the Committee that
SEDCO’s degree of accountability is not ideal and that is why most SMEs funding has to be through the banks. SEDCO will continue with its catalystic role of ensuring adequate training and impartation of skills to SMEs.
- The RBZ Governor affirmed the bank’s commitment to SMEs and pointed out that the Government was not doing enough to support the sector. The level of support did not match the level of contribution by SMEs, RBZ has encouraged banks to establish SME banking division, and out of the 26 banking institutions, 16 banks have established SME bank divisions. As at 24 May 2012, the total loans extended to SMEs by these divisions was US$164,4 million.
- There is a serious mismatch between the depositors’ interest and what the borrowers are charged in the banks, almost 0% for depositors, whilst the lending rates are as high as 30%. That also partly explains why approximately US$2 billion is circulating in the informal market.
- The Governor pointed out that micro finance institutions were charging non-viable interest rates for SMEs, and some of their practices of attaching property were unethical practices accommodated by a more relaxed regulatory environment. He said MFIs were easy to set up because of low entry barriers.
- Committee Observations and Conclusions
- The Committee observed that although some funding has been availed to SMEs, the sector remains grossly underfunded.
- SEDCO plays a very critical role in supporting SMEs, but is currently grossly undercapitalized.
- The Committee noted that there are no special rates or borrowing arrangements for SMEs to facilitate easy access to funding.
- The requirement for banks to set-up SME divisions is not enforceable, it is not law hence some banks have not complied.
- Committee Recommendations
- There is need for Government to revisit legislation governing
SMEs to ensure there is one comprehensive legislation governing SMEs.
- There is need for Government to recapitalize SEDCO to enable it to play its set role, whilst ensuring the existence of accountability measures.
- Government must legislate for banks to meet a specific threshold in terms of support for SMEs.
- MHLANGA: Thank you Mr. Speaker for affording me this opportunity to debate on this very important item. Like my Chairman has said, that this is very critical for economic development but you find that the behavior, conduct and the way even the government takes this is not serious. I say this because there is SEDCO which is supposed to have these small to medium enterprises but what happened with
SEDCO. Since SEDCO was formed, we did some investigation as a Committee where they had borrowed money since they had been formed. You will be shocked.
It is supposed to be done nationally but what happens, you find a company in the name of Bulawayo Circles is owned by a person who stays here in Msasa in Harare. You go to another one which is in
Hwange, you look at the address of the owner who is here in Msasa, in Harare. You will find that those people who have borrowed money from
SEDCO are a circle of four or five people.
If the Government is serious, surely those people after borrowing that money should have made a return. I tell you that those people have never paid a cent. What happens is that every budget, the same people benefit from the same fund. Therefore, I am saying I agree it is critical but the behaviour of the organisation including the Government does not show that it is critical.
Nobody has money in a bank but what happens with money is that the money is collected by the bank from the people by way of investments with the intention of getting a return or value for their money. If we continue to say we borrow, I actually understand the small business people, they must bring a return. Nobody has got the money. The money from the bank is from Mr. Ncube and Mr. Ncube must get a return from his money. If the bank borrows money from Mr. Ndlovu and Mr. Ndlovu does not pay, at the end of the day there will be no money at the bank. There will be no money to borrow. I urge these small business people to have that idea – at least you must have something before you go to the bank. It must have been drafted to say small to medium, but they are saying small and medium. You must start small then go to medium. This organisation has remained small because there is no money circulating. The other people are not paying back the money.
- SANSOLE: I would like to add my voice to this debate on Small and Medium Enterprises. I think it is essential when you look at the inability of SMEs to access funding given the general environment in which they operate. Small to Medium Enterprises are a major employer.
They contribute about 60% of the country’s labour force.
If you look at what happened during the economic meltdown up to the time that the Inclusive Government was formed, a lot of factories had closed down, a lot of people lost employment. A lot of people who lost employment went into the informal sector to set up small to medium enterprises. These enterprises contribute a lot to the economy. Their products are easily adaptable, versatile, prices are affordable and they can manufacture anything that you ask them to do. However, the environment in which they operate is very hostile. There are too many barriers to entry into that sector. There are many requirements, expensive and time consuming. There are a lot of official and unofficial levies; the tax structures are so complex to render any business unviable. Central and Local Government tender regulations make it unviable for SMEs to bid for contracts. You find local authorities have many zoning regulations that make operations almost impossible.
The major stumbling block is also limited access to capital. Capital on its own besides being difficult to access is very costly, expensive and only short term finance is available. They have limited access to markets and limited market knowledge which makes it difficult for them to generate money to repay loans. Most SMEs have inadequate infrastructure and limited technology which makes it difficult to generate money to pay back loans. They have inadequate managerial and entrepreneurial skills and that in itself is viewed by banks in a negative light.
There is need to simplify the administrative procedures which are required to enter into this market. There is need to reduce the cost and the time involved in processing their applications. There is need to reduce the number of forms that they need to fill and there is need to eliminate a lot of administrative procedures or red tape. There is also need to avail more resources to SME focused financial institutions, that is, those institutions that are set up specifically to assist small to medium enterprises.
There is need to establish an SME bank. I know there is SEDCO but if you look at the way SEDCO is funded, you find that there are a lot of inadequacies. The fact that SEDCO was allocated $5m which did not find its way to SMEs, tells us that there is something wrong in that sector. There is also need for CABS to scale up its lending to SMEs and also to regulate micro finance institutions because the way some micro financial institutions operate is actually a deterrent to SMEs in the way they demand collateral for they want the pledged asset to be delivered to the financial institution. That in itself discourages SMEs. I think there is need to assist SMEs in that manner.
MOTION
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
THE MINISTER OF CONSTITUTIONAL AND
PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS: I move that Orders of the Day, Numbers 4 to 7 be stood down until all the other Orders of the Day, are dealt with.
Motion put and agreed to.
MOTION
REMITTANCE OF REVENUE TO TREASURY
Eighth order read: Adjourned debate on motion on the remittance of revenue to Treasury generated by Government Ministries and Departments.
Question again proposed.
THE MINISTER OF CONSTITUTIONAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS: I move that the debate do now
adjourn.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Wednesday, 12th June, 2013.
MOTION
ADJOURNMENT OF THE HOUSE
THE MINISTER OF CONSTITUTIONAL AND
PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS: Thank you Mr. Speaker. We do not
want to put hon. members through a difficult afternoon. I take it that hon. members are preparing to discuss a more thorough business on the Electoral Amendment Act which is coming sometime next week. I therefore move that the House do now adjourn.
Motion put and agreed to.
The House accordingly adjourned at Three Minutes to Three o’clock p.m.
CORRIGENDUM
In Hansard Volume 39 No. 6, column 553, the speech by Mr.
Muchauraya was wrongly attributed to Mr. Gwiyo.
In Hansard Volume 39, No. 7, Colum 631, the speech by THE DEPUTY
MINISTER OF WOMEN’S AFFAIRS, GENDER AND COMMUNITY
DEVELOPMENT should read as follows:
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF WOMEN’S AFFAIRS,
GENDER AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT: I wish to add
my voice to this historic debate that is before the august House today. I want in particular to add my voice on the progress that our great nation Zimbabwe has attained at this particular moment in the history of our country.
I would want to really celebrate, particularly, the fact that we are definitely on a pathway where, all Zimbabweans have heeded to the call which was made by our Principals in their wisdom; in particular, that, when they agreed to the Global Political Agreement, they said that they were determined that they shall set their differences aside and work together in order to solve the problems that bedevil our country. In this particular matter, those very issues have indeed been set aside. I am particularly elated that we would have a Draft Constitution that actually has the word ‘happy’ in it, that actually obliges all State institutions and organs to work in order to fulfill national objectives that are in policy making and also in implementation, that will lead the establishment, enhancement and promotion of a sustainable, just, free and democratic society in which all people enjoy prosperous, happy and fulfilling lives. I want to congratulate the people of Zimbabwe for coming up with such a process and this product.
I must, as a matter of necessity and a matter of justice speak and refer to one group of people in the society of Zimbabwe. These are women Mr. Speaker, Sir. Zimbabwe has a very unique situation in the sense that they are not only 52% of the population, but that the women of Zimbabwe themselves are very hardworking and are important in our country. The women of Zimbabwe also went to the liberation front and also fought the liberation war but alas Mr. Speaker, Sir, Zimbabwe continues to be a country whose present constitutional dispensation can be regarded as one of the worst Constitutions in the world as far as its treatment of women, the reason being that it does not accord women the status of equal citizens. In fact the present Constitution gives license to discriminate against women.
Therefore, I want to particularly celebrate the step that Zimbabwe has taken in pushing to make sure that Zimbabwe departs from this particular sad moment and that in fact it is interesting to note that the Principals Mr. Speaker Sir, in Article 6 of the Global Political Agreement that gave birth to this constitution making process, singled out only one sector of Zimbabwean society and mentioned it by name. They did not mention any other group at all in the preamble in Article 6 that gave birth to this process. They mentioned women only and they said that they were determined and that the new Constitution that arises from this process deepens our democratic values and principles and I quote “particularly, enhances the equal citizenship and dignity of women”. I am therefore, celebrating again Mr. Speaker Sir, the fact that the women of Zimbabwe have indeed stood up to this particular task. They were not found wanting and they did not miss this opportunity because in this Mr. Speaker Sir, it is most interesting to note that in the process of the Constitution Making the majority of the people who turned out in the Select Committee’s outreach meetings were women. We have been told by the Co-chairpersons the statistics. There was a total of 441 238 women who turned up across the countryside at meetings. There were 416 272 men who turned out at outreach meetings. What is most interesting is the difference that there were 23 966 more women than men who walked with their feet and spoke with their feet and spoke with their presence in these meetings. Thus, there was 23 966 more women who turned out at outreach than men of Zimbabwe and the total number of youths who attended these meetings was 253 240. That means apart from the fact that of course there are some women who are also youths, there were 187 998 more women than youths who turned up in physical presence at these meetings.
Mr. Speaker Sir, I thought it will not do justice for the history of Zimbabwe not to record the very vocal, the very eloquent and the vociferous statement that the women of Zimbabwe made in this particular process. Mr. Speaker Sir, cynics might want to explain away the overwhelming presence of women in this process by saying that possibly women are the majority of the unemployed and so they have a lot of time on their hands and that is why they turned up for meetings. Mr. Speaker Sir, I would hasten to state that, that would clearly be not the case because this turnout has shown that instead, the women of Zimbabwe are very conscious of the importance of themselves in the life of their nation. Indeed they care about their country. They are interested in how their country is run and that they are determined to play a part in the solution, through this particular process and to also reverse the unfortunate and unacceptable constitutional state of their status.
I would also hasten to add that in February 2012, that is last year,
Zimbabwe being party to the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) presented its second, third, fourth and fifth reports to the CEDAW Committee. At that presentation in Geneva, Zimbabwe caused concern to the CEDAW Committee. The CEDAW Committee raised concern with Section 23 (3) of the present Zimbabwe Constitution which gives licence to discriminate against women. It in fact gave Zimbabwe about 18 months to rectify this situation and Mr. Speaker Sir, I am indeed encouraged and indeed happy that this process has taken us this far and now the draft constitution does in fact give Zimbabwe an opportunity to actually rectify that anomaly and to meet its obligations in terms of
CEDAW.
With that, indeed we would have a Constitution that eliminates discrimination against women. Further again the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development which this very Seventh Parliament ratified in terms of Article 111B of our present Constitution, there is Article 4 that requires that all SADC member States such as Zimbabwe, must by the year 2015 ensure that Zimbabwe has a Constitution that enshrines gender equality and eliminates discrimination. It is therefore, in light of these imperatives that it is to be celebrated that this Draft Constitution that has come out of this process does indeed put Zimbabwe well on the path to fulfilling its obligations in terms of the SADC Protocol on gender and development.
I will therefore, Mr. Speaker Sir, want to add my voice to celebrate this process and the stage that we have arrived at and to indeed venture to say that the COPAC draft and the COPAC process that has been tabled before the House is a tonic and maybe indeed the panacea to the ills that have bedeviled the very unacceptable status of women of Zimbabwe itself. It even goes so far, and we should celebrate, as to make a breakthrough and to depart from the very unfortunate legal tradition that has been used in the interpretation of statutes whereby the masculine is said to include the feminine. This Draft Constitution departs from that tradition and indeed makes a breakthrough in referring to women specifically and using very gender sensitive language in referring to people as either “he” or “she” and not anymore including the feminine in the masculine amongst all the other things that it does.
I would hasten to say that this Draft Constitution may very well be the best thing that has happened to the women of Zimbabwe as far as their legal status is concerned since the Legal Age of Majority Act was passed in 1985 in order to stop African women from being regarded as perpetual minors. That did not go far enough because at law Mr. Speaker Sir, the women of Zimbabwe are still not considered as equal and this Draft Constitution does indeed give a chance to complete that process and to make Zimbabwean women full citizens at last.
I wish to just end by also paying tribute to all the people who sacrificed their time and their effort and indeed their determination in this particular process. This process has not come cheap. At least one person paid for this with his life. There was one person called Chrispen Mandizvidza who paid the ultimate price at Mai Musodzi Hall in Mbare during the outreach process in Harare in September 2010; but it is to be celebrated that this was a process in which he would not have lost his life in vain because in this very difficult and painful process,
Zimbabweans have found each other. We have found each other and we have come to respect each other; and indeed we are moving forward together as a nation; and that indeed we may live happily ever after, hand in hand in the light of this Draft Constitution. I thank you Mr.
Speaker Sir.
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Tuesday, 12th February, 2013.
The House of Assembly met at a Quarter-past Two O’clock p.m.
PRAYERS
(MR SPEAKER in the Chair)
ANNOUNCEMENTS BY MR SPEAKER
INVITATION BY THE ZIMBABWE OPEN UNIVERSITY
- SPEAKER: I have to inform the House that the Zimbabwe Open University is inviting hon. members to a meeting to share information on how hon. members can study through its University. The meeting will be held on 14th February, 2013 at 1000 hours in the House of Assembly Chamber.
WORKSHOP ON THE DRAFT CONSTITUTION
- SPEAKER: I also wish to inform the House that the Constitution Select Committee is inviting all hon. members to a workshop on the Draft Constitution to be held at the Rainbow Towers Hotel tomorrow, Wednesday, 13th February, 2013 at 0830 hours in Jacaranda Rooms Nos. 1 and 2.
FIRST READING
INCOME TAX BILL [H.B.5, 2012]
THE MINISTER OF FINANCE presented the Income Tax Bill [H.B.5, 2012].
Bill read the first time.
Bill referred to the Parliamentary Legal Committee.
MOTION
RESTORATION OF FIRST REPORT OF THE PORTFOLIO
COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC SERVICE, LABOUR AND SOCIAL
WELFARE ON THE STATUS OF RESIDENTIAL CARE
INSTITUTIONS IN ZIMBABWE ON THE ORDER PAPER.
MRS. ZINYEMBA: I move the motion standing in my name that the First Report of the Portfolio Committee on Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare on the status of residential care institutions in
Zimbabwe [S.C. 21, 2012] which was superseded by prorogation of the Fourth Session of the Seventh Parliament be restored on the Order Paper in terms of Standing Order Number 43.
- TAZVIONA: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
MOTION
FIRST REPORT OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON PUBLIC
SERVICE LABOUR AND SOCIAL WELFARE ON THE STATUS OF RESIDENTIAL CARE INSTITUTIONS IN ZIMBABWE
MRS. ZINYEMBA: I move the motion standing in my name that this House takes note of the First Report of the Portfolio Committee on Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare on the status of residential care institutions in Zimbabwe.
- TAZVIONA: I second.
MRS. ZINYEMBA:
ORDERED: In Terms of Standing Order No. 159
- At the commencement of every session, there shall be as many committees Rules to be designated according to government portfolios as the Standing and Orders Committee may deem fit.
- It shall be the function of such committees to examine expenditure administration and policy of government departments and other matters falling under their jurisdictions as Parliament may, by resolution determine.
- The members of such committees shall be appointed by the Standing Rules and Orders Committee, from one or both Houses of Parliament, and such appointments shall take into account the expressed interests or expertise of the Members and Senators and the political and gender composition of
Parliament.
- Each Select Committee shall be known by the portfolio determined for it by the Standing Rules and Orders Committee.
Terms of reference of Portfolio Committees – Standing Order No.
160
“Subject to these Standing Orders a Portfolio Committee shall:
- Consider and deal with all bills and statutory instruments or other matters which are referred to it by or under a resolution of the
House or by the Speaker;
- Consider or deal with an appropriation or money bill or any aspect of appropriation or money bill referred to it by these Standing
Orders or by under resolution of this House; and
- Monitor, investigate, enquire into and make recommendations relating to any aspect of the legislative programme, budget, policy or any other matter it may consider relevant to the government department falling within the category of affairs assigned to it, and may for that purpose consult and liaise with such department; and
- Consider or deal with all international treaties, conventions and agreements relevant to it, which are from time to time negotiated, entered into or agreed upon.
On Tuesday, 6th September 2011, the Speaker announced that the Committee on Standing Rules and Orders nominated the following members to serve on the Portfolio Committee on Public Service Labour and Social Welfare
Hon. Goto R.
Hon. Tazviona R.
Hon. Chirongwe R.
Hon. Gwiyo C.
Hon. Mahlangu T.
Hon. Chibaya A. Hon. Khumalo T.
Hon. Khumalo S. S
Hon. Garadhi Hon. Mudau M.
Hon. Chivamba K.
Hon. Zinyemba M. to be Chairperson
1. Introduction
The Portfolio Committee on Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare undertook an inquiry into the living conditions of people living in residential care institutions that are both government and privately owned homes. In 2009, the Committee managed to visit
Chinyaradzo and Upenyu Hutsva Children’s Home and Visits to other homes could not be undertaken due to lack of funding. The Committee therefore had no option but to suspend visits to other homes. The remaining tours to Mary Ward Children’s home and
Rugare Old People’s Home in Kwekwe; Percy Ibboston and
Luveve Remand Home, Luveve Girls Training Centre,
Ekhuphumuleni Geniatric Nursing Home, John Smale Children’s
Home and St Francis home in Bulawayo; Jairos Jiri Naran Centre and Blue Hills Children’s Home in Gweru were conducted in
October 2011. In Zimbabwe, care institutions are governed by the
Child Protection and Adoption Act which is administered by the Ministry of Labour and Social Services. The Ministry responsible for Social Services also has the responsibility for implementing the disabled Persons Act and the Social Welfare Assistance Act. However, the Ministry has not been effectively discharging this
mandate due to lack of funding.
2. Objectives of the Tours
The main objectives of the tours were:-
- To understand the living conditions of people living in various residential care institutions;
- To identify the challenges being encountered in the residential care institutions, problems faced and;
- To gather stakeholders views on the day to day running of the residential care institutions.
3. Methodology
3.1 The Committee received written and oral evidence from Ministry of Labour and Social Service on the state of living conditions in the residential care institutions.
3.2 The Committee also received oral evidence from the Ministry of Finance regarding the funding of vulnerable persons in care institutions.
3.3 The Committee undertook fact finding visits to Upenyu Hutsva
Children's Home and Chinyaradzo Children's Home in Harare in
2009 and visits to the following institutions were made from the
13th to 16th October 2011:-
- Mary Ward children’s home and Rugare old people’s home in
Kwekwe;
- Percy Ibboston and Luveve remand home, Luveve girls training
center, Ekhuphumuleni geriatric nursing home, John Smale children’s home and St Francis home in Bulawayo; and
- Jairos Jiri Naran center and Blue Hills children’s home in
Gweru.
4.0 Committee's Findings
4.1 Background of the institutional homes that were visited
4.1.1 Upenyu Hutsva Children's Home is a wholly owned by the Government. The institution was established in 1952 and was formerly known as Highfield Probation Hostel and Remand
Home. It was initially established as correctional institution for African children offenders and juvenile delinquents. The institution was designed to provide prison type accommodation for children between the ages 12 to 18 years.
4.1.2 The institution changed its name to Upenyu Hutsva Children's Home in 1987. The maximum holding capacity for the institution is 132 children. As of August 2009, the
institution had 80 children because those were the only kids referred by the probation Officer.
4.1.3 The Committee was informed by the Superintendent that the institution also runs a primary school which was opened in 1962 with an enrollment of 152 children. Children enrolled at the school include those from the surrounding community in order to foster the principle of community integration and participation in the home's programming.
4.2 Chinyaradzo Children's Home, run by Child Protection Society was registered in 1967. The maximum capacity for the institution is 58. At the time of the visit the home housed 58 children. The Home is made up of five family units – fenced in one place and more exceptionally, two family units that are in the local township of Highfields fostering Community integration of children in need of care. The Home is involved in livelihood training through poultry and peanut butter projects. They also have a garden from which they are getting vegetables. The institution depends solely
on well-wishers since it is owned by a local Non-Governmental Organisation.
4.2.1 The Committee was informed that there are some projects that are being undertaken at Chinyaradzo Children's Home which include peanut butter and poultry. They received a donation of two and a half hectares of land from the council which is being prepared for irrigation.
4.3 Mary Ward Children's Home is a- non-profit making social welfare organization founded by the Mary Ward sisters in 1993. It was established as a response to the rising numbers of orphaned children in Zimbabwe. Its main aim is to provide a friendly atmosphere for the orphaned, abandoned, neglected and abused children regardless of their race, nationality and religion by giving them a home and a sound basis “for an independent life”. These children are placed in the home by the Department of Social
Welfare. The Home gives the children a sense of security and
belonging, dignity, affection and educational superiority which are necessary for the development of any child. The Home strives to ensure that all the basic needs of the child are met, for example; adequate and decent shelter and clothing; balanced diet and motherly care.
4.4 Rugare old people's home in Kwekwe was established in 1986 and it was registered in 1987. Anglican and Roman Catholic Priests used to own the home. The home was established as a community initiative. Currently the home houses 9 elderly men and 2 elderly women. Some of the old people who are housed at this institution were abandoned by their children. The institution depends solely on well-wishers and churches in the community. They get free graves from the city council to bury the old people when they die.
4.5. Percy Ibboston and Luveve Remand Home is a wholly Government owned institution. It is governed in terms of the
Children’s Protection Act and Adoption Act (Chapter 33) and the institution is certified by the Minister of Labour and Social Services. It is a correctional institution for Zimbabwean children offenders and juvenile delinquents. The institution was designed to provide prison accommodation for children between the ages 12 to 18 years. The home also caters for orphans. Children are committed to the home by the probation officers and courts. The Committee was informed that the home has a role as a place of safety for the children who might have been abused by the society. Some of the children in the home would have been found in places restricted by law for adults such as bars, cinemas, and brothels or gambling places which are totally illegal. Luveve Remand Home is used to cater for a maximum of 35 children of both sexes. It is served as a temporary place of safety. The Remand home facilitated the movement of the children to the courts and whenever they were needed for investigations.
Children are enrolled at school but before enrollment the child is helped to form positive constructs on behavior through parent guiding, psychosocial support and counseling
- Churches are also engaged to offer spiritual guidance to these children.
- Vocational training and extra moral activities such as sports and visiting holiday resorts are imparted to the children and is done through programmes such as orchard and garden maintenance where they are taught the skills of growing and maintaining fruits and vegetables.
- Luveve Girls Training Center caters for children in difficult circumstances aged between 12- 18years but due to pressure they sometimes enroll children aged between 10-17 years. There are 44 girls housed at Luveve training Center and 14 of them attend school at Luveve School. The home is involved in livelihood training through poultry. They also have a garden from which they
are substituting their income. The institution depends solely on well-wishers and banks.
- Ekhuphumuleni Geniatric Nursing Home is a non-profit making, registered welfare centre that caters for recuperating elderly people aged 60 years and above. It caters specifically for the elderly who will have been discharged from Mpilo Hospital. The home has 35 patients even though their bed capacity is 62. Their youngest patient is 65 while the oldest is 97. The home receives a grant for staff wages from the Ministry of Health and Child Welfare and a bed subsidy for each patient. In October 2010 they received
US$1000.00 for running costs. Ekhuphumuleni also trains Red Cross care givers in geniatric care. However it is important to note that USD1000 allocated to the home is insufficient due to the needs of the patients who are of old age and therefore need constant medication. The institution mainly depends on donor funding and has a staff complement of 47. The Home has not been receiving their monthly grants from the Ministry of Labour and Social Services. The old people are entitled to monthly allowances from the Ministry of Social Services. In 2010, they received a total of US$900 from the Ministry.
- John Smale Children's home is administered by government. It is an orphanage home but it also keeps vulnerable children. Children attend schools in the surrounding community and they also go to surrounding churches.
- St Francis Home has 34 patients. It has a capacity to house 60 children. At the time of the visit the home had 15 girls and 19 boys. Some of the children are mentally and physically handicapped. It is sponsored by government. The institution caters for children aged from 5-16 years. Some of the parents visit their children and make some contribution towards food.
- Jairos Jiri Naran Center was established in 1950 and was once an isolation hospital for those with TB. It was later changed to a school for the deaf with 148 children, 75 of whom were boys and
73 were girls. The Jairos Jiri Center in Kadoma caters for the blind while the one in Harare is for the physically handicapped. At school they use the same curriculum with those in schools with normal children. Children are being taught speech entities, social manners, auditoria teaching in order to perceive sound and sign language. There is vocational training which offers training in sewing, home economics, wood work and poultry farming.
4.11. Blue Hills Children's Home is a wholly government owned institution. The Institution was established in 1960. It was a correctional institution for Zimbabwean children offenders and juvenile delinquents. The institution was designed to provide prison type accommodation for children between the ages 12 to 18 years. In 1980, they started enrolling orphans and children in the street. The maximum holding capacity for the institution is 60 children for both girls and boys. They used to cater for children in conflict of the law but these days they are sent to Hwahwa because at Blue hills they do not have transport to ferry the children to the courts.
5. The following challenges were noted:-
5.1 Upenyu Hutsva Children's Home is experiencing severe shortages of funding since it is wholly government funded. The
Superintendent attributed the low funding to donor fatigue as most donors are not willing to donate to government institutions because of the protocols that need to be followed.
5.2 In most cases, the food lacks the balanced diet that is essential for the growth and development of children. Blankets are also very few, such that in times of winter they are not enough. The Committee was informed that the children have to make do with only one pair of uniform till the end of each year.
5.4 The Committee was also informed that there is no clinic at Upenyu
Hutsva children’s home and at Rugare old people’s home. The situation is worsened by the fact that these institutions do not have transport to take sick children to the clinic. The nearest clinic is approximately 7 kilometers away. In addition, the situation is made worse by the rejection by council clinics, of medical assistance orders from the Social Welfare department when treating these old people at Rugare. The medical assistance orders are only accepted at government hospitals of which are approximately 15km away from the home.
5.6 The environment at Upenyu Hutsva children’s home and Blue Hills Hostel is not conducive for children due to the unhygienic conditions. The Committee was informed that some of the children have scurvy. The living conditions were not fit for humans as the home was very dirty and the children’s diet was mainly starch for example porridge and sadza with relish.
5.7 Shortage of manpower at Upenyu Hutsva is also a major challenge that the institution is facing. They do not have general hand staff and as such, all the work is done by the children and thus leaving the children with less time to rest and to do their home works
5.8 The Committee was also informed that due to lack of professionals at Upenyu Hutsva Children’s home, no proper records of the number of children are kept and no proper and retrievable finance records are also kept. This situation makes the work difficult for the Superintendent as he also has to take responsibilities of monitoring, evaluation and authentification of records in addition to his other duties.
5.9 Chinyaradzo Children's Home is facing a couple of challenges which include unavailability of government funding in the past years and problems in acquisition of birth certificates for children at the home because most of the children are orphans and in most cases there are no records of their deceased parents.
5.10 The Committee was informed that Maryward Children’s Home had not received any budgetary allocation from the Government. The home does submit monthly claims but Government does not disburse the fund on time. In 2012 the home only received the
grant once. They received USD 1000 in 2009 and during the year 2011 nothing was released.
5.11 The Committee was informed that World Food Programme used to donate beans, maize and cooking oil at Maryward, but has since stopped in 2009.
5.12. The Committee was told that workers at Rugare Old People’s Home are not being paid. The only remuneration they get, comes from Board members who contribute $10 every month towards the payment for the workers. The Government does not provide any funding to pay salaries at the Home.
5.13. These old people who are mainly women, bury the one who will have died although they are provided with graves by the council.
5.14 When children at Luveve Girls training center fall ill, they do not get assistance from council clinics because they need cash up front .They can only get assistance at Mpilo hospital where government medical assistance orders are accepted. After
treatment, they are being given prescription to buy tablets from private pharmacy and they won’t have money.
5.15 In the residential care institutions that were visited, the Committee was informed if they delay to pay city councils bills, water will be disconnected. Luveve remandees has an outstanding water bill of US$13 000.
5.16 In all children’s homes visited, the director of Social Services does not give parental support to these children. They are not receiving their monthly grants from the Ministry of Labour and Social Services and there is shortage of Probation Officers as some of the children are not being referred to these institutions.
5.17 At St Francis home, they do not have a stove and they fetch firewood from the surrounding bushes and they become a threat to City Council because they are causing environmental degradation.
5.22 Most of patients at St Francis home are not able to chew because of their health status so there is need for the food to be crashed.
5.23 The electric pots at Jairos Jiri Naran Center are not functioning well. They do not have funds to repair the beds and the kitchen pots. The total cost to repair the pots is US1500.
5.24 At Jairos Jiri Naran Center, there is need for computers, tractors and they feel that during land reform, they were supposed to be given a farm.
5.25 Blue Hills Children's Home is experiencing severe shortages of funding since it is wholly government funded hence there is donor fatigue as most donors are not willing to donate to government institutions because of the protocols that had to be followed.
6.0 Ministry of Labour and Social Services
Background on the establishment of Home
6.1 The number of orphans in Zimbabwe has been increasing because of the consequences of AIDS. The initial reaction of many well wishers to orphan crisis in Africa focused mainly on the construction of orphanages. It was later on discovered by the
Ministry of Labour and Social Services that this was an economically unsustainable and culturally inappropriate response to the crisis. The Ministry later realized that it was better to reinforce the traditional family system and improve the capacity of local communities to provide care.
6.2 Funding of the residential care institutions
6.2.1. The Department of Social Services is starved of resources since the dollarization and recently has been losing a number of professional staff. This has negatively affected children in care and other children in difficult circumstances.
6.2.2 Social Protection Programmes are designed to assist vulnerable members of society and indigent families. These include children, adults and disabled persons. The department prepares a budget estimate like any Government department and they are allocated resources by the Government.
6.2.3 The placement of children in the institutions is the responsibility of probation officers from the department of Social Services under
the Ministry of Labour and Social Services which is affected by resources to carry out proper investigations.
6.2.4 The department of social services has 12 institutions which it is fully supporting. This consists of 8 for children and 2 for disabled persons and 2 Repatriation Centres which cater for voluntary repartees. In 2009 the residential care institutions received a total of USD212 820 as government support.
6.2.5 There are 65 private children’s homes and these receive administration grants based on current capacity. For 2009, the Ministry paid USD67 180.00 for administration for the 65 institutions which converts to 24% of total funds released and the rest funding government institutions.
6.2.6 In 2008 no funds were remitted to private institutions because of budgetary constraints.
6.2.7 The Ministry of Finance has not been disbursing funds on time and this makes the work of the Department of Social Services not easy as the institutions will be expecting their monthly grants.
7.0 Observations and Conclusions of the Committee
7.1 The Committee observed that lack of access to identity documents is a major problem for children in care despite advocacy campaigns by Child Welfare Organizations. The majority of institutionalized children remain without birth certificates.
7.2 The Committee noted that the inability of the Department of Social Services to oversee and protect the rights of children in institutional care as it is reflected in the remarkable increase in the time taken to renew court orders. The failure of the department has often resulted in the increase in the number of children unnecessarily admitted to residential care and their prolonged institutionalization because probation officers would have failed to review their cases.
7.3 The Committee noted that majority of the residential care institutions continue to utilise a dormitory type of accommodation thereby depriving children of a family life and may result in permanent psychological damage.
7.5 The Committee noted with concern that Non-Governmental
Organisations are assisting Private Institutions only, despite that these NGOs register through the Ministry of Labour and Social Services.
7.6 The Committee observed that private care institutions are in a better position than government care institutions because of funding they receive from NGOs and other donors.
7.7 The Committee noted there is need for separate institutions to cater for children found to be in conflict with the law separately.
7.8 The Committee noted with concern that the infrastructure in the government owned residential care institution is dilapidated, the floors, toilets, windows, roofs are all in a sorry state. Sewage pipes are always leaking and they require constant repairing.
7.9 Although there are a few clothes and blankets being donated by OXFAM and UNICEF to some of the residential care institutions, the Committee feels Government should support these institutions.
7.10 The Committee noted that there is need for government to allocate funding to resuscitate government owned institutions. There is need for the installation of new cooking equipments, refurnishing of the hostels as the furniture is beyond use and the carrying out of extensive repairs and maintenance to restore the homes.
8.0 Recommendations
8.1 The Committee recommended that there is need to recapacitate the department of social services through the injection of human and capital resources.
8.2 The Committee recommended that institutionalisation of children must be the last resort. Instead, foster care can be effective if it is adequately promoted and funded by the Government of Zimbabwe. Alternatives such as family support services in the communities or in a family setting, kinship care, supporting child headed
households and domestic adoption, are recommended care options. Government and donor organisations should allocate resources to support alternative care options.
8.3 The government should convert dormitory style institutions to family based units either through re-modelling of existing buildings or through construction of new units.
8.4 The Government should prioritise resources to these care institutions because it is Government’s primary responsibility to meet the core minimum obligation for each child in the residential care institutions .Non Governmental Organisations should complement government efforts.
8.5 Government should mobilise enough resources for the provision of social services to the poor people in the country through encouraging mining companies to sell their produce to formal government markets.
8.6 The government should be consistent in paying out per capita, grants for children and employee salary grants.
8.7 The institutions must stick to their core business for example, remandees institutions should only keep young criminals not mix children.
8.9 Government must put in place structures and systems that will keep accountability to all resources that will be channeled by government and other well- wishers in these residential care institutions.
8.10 Government should encourage people to take care for their elderly
8.11 The Committee recommends that child offenders committing minor offences should not be placed in remand institutions together with hard core child offenders but instead, they should be integrated back into the community and undergo rehabilitation.
8.12 The Committee recommends that there is need for care institutions catering for children to move away from dormitory systems and move to individual household systems so as to foster real family
set ups .At Chinyaradzo children’s home and Maryward children’s home they have since moved away from the dormitory systems and it has been successful.
8.13 Old people at Ekhuphumuleni should be treated free of charge in government hospitals and council clinics.
8.14 Government and Council should subsidise or exempt all these residential care institutions from paying rentals and rates.
8.15 Nurse Aids that are working at John Smale and St Francis should be given incentives for their work.
- TAZVIONA: Thank you Mr. Speaker, the findings, recommendations and observations of the Committee mainly blame the local government and the central government of Zimbabwe. What we noticed and observed as a Committee is a sad story. A lot of people who are in these care institutions, be it children, orphaned children or old people, are not responsible for the mess that they are experiencing now. The mess only rests with the ineffective and inappropriate policies by the government of the day by then.
Mr. Speaker, for example the effects of ESAP, freezing of the local currency, Land Reform Programme, are responsible for the suffering of most people. Some of the people in these care institutions narrated that initially they had their own houses. They are now suffering because of the bad effects of Operation Murambatsvina. Most of the people lost their properties, their income and so forth.
Mr. Speaker Sir, polices and the way that they are implemented can cause poverty and suffering or reduced poverty. Most people and children have been working flat out wishing for a better life in
Zimbabwe, but because of this, bad effects of Structural Adjustment Programme, unemployment which was brought by Murambatsvina, destroyed houses which were their shelter and really caused suffering.
Mr. Speaker Sir, when the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP) was introduced, its main purpose was supposed to improve investment, reduce taxes that foreign companies would pay to the Government, as a result creating a conducive atmosphere for businesses to flourish. instead the result was the opposite. The ESAP was supposed to have enhanced economic growth, investment was decreased and it increased poverty and unemployment.
Mr. Speaker Sir, it is the responsibility of the government to take care of rehabilitation of people in these care institutions. Instead the government of Zimbabwe was not mobilising enough resources such that little took care of those people in those institutions. There is a legal obligation that the government should pay some salary grants and some per capita grants to these institutions so that they will operate efficiently for the survival of the people in these institutions. So your committee recommends the Government to mobilise enough resources especially through the abundance of mineral resources in Zimbabwe. For example, we have Chiadzwa; all the resources must be channeled to the fiscus so that people in need will be assisted. I thank you.
- MATSHALAGA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir, I too would like to add some few comments…..
An hon. member having gone up and down.
- MR. SPEAKER: Order, order, hon. member, whenever you stand up you bow to the Chair. I have been observing you going up and down without doing so. Matshalaga, continue.
- MATSHALAGA: Thank you, Mr. Speaker Sir. I too would like to add a few comments to the very important report. I was touched with some of the scenarios that are obtained in some of the institutions. I think it is important that this House takes note of some of the issues that were being raised and propose appropriate action for the Executive to take. I also understand from the report that this is an architecture that has developed over many years. Some of the institutions are irrelevant even in name and they vary from personal institutions to Christian institutions. Maybe what we need to do is to harmonise a system where we can now provide a social service to the categories of people. I think the report is clear that it is talking about the elderly people who find themselves without appropriate means and they are in our institutions. Then you will find there are situations where vulnerable children either orphaned as a result of HIV/Aids or by natural orphanage but the institutions do not seen to be varying from one location to the other. I think we should note the reference for instance to Jairos Jiri, who was one of the pioneers of these social institutions particularly for the disabled persons.
You will note that originally these institutions ran independently but there is a standard requirement that they be registered by the department of social welfare. The mere demand that they be registered by a Government institution means that the government should take responsibility somehow and I would as proposed by the report call upon the appropriate authority or ministry to ensure that the department that is responsible for these institutions is properly either re-organised to deliver adequate technical advice and to be resourced. We know of the resource constraints that they have but we would want a situation where in the next phase the Portfolio Committee report should show evidence of Government responding to some of the pathetic and the inhuman conditions that are being reported.
I also strongly agree that most of the orphans now or the vulnerable children are a result of HIV/Aids and Government has been groping for strategies. The traditional….
Hon. Mahlangu having not bowed to the Chair.
- MR. SPEAKER: Order, order. Mahlangu you bow to the
Chair.
- MATSHALAGA: Thank Mr. Speaker Sir. The number of
orphans has increased but as the report notes, the capacity for
Government to provide for these orphans in institutions is unsustainable. However, what is pleasing is that the report also notes that this is culturally discarded with our own customs and tradition. Therefore, what is necessary is for Government to promote either what is called community social protection or family-based protection of the vulnerable children. I however, was concerned about the spurious linkages between vulnerability currently obtaining and issues of ESAP, the Land Reform and others. I do not think we should abuse a very good portfolio report by importing esoteric excuses that have no bearing whatsoever to what the lead speaker of the report has said. The purpose of somebody seconding is to support the report and not to provide a counter report. I thank you Mr. Speaker Sir.
THE MINISTER OF PUBLIC WORKS: I move that the debate
do now adjourn.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Wednesday, 13th February, 2013.
MOTION
PRESIDENTIAL SPEECH: DEBATE ON ADDRESS
Second Order read: Adjourned debate on motion in reply to the Presidential Speech.
Question again proposed.
THE MINISTER OF PUBLIC WORKS: I move that the debate
do now adjourn.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Wednesday, 13th February, 2012.
ANNOUNCEMENT BY MR. SPEAKER
NON-ADVERSE REPORT RECEIVED FROM THE
PARLIAMENTARY
LEGAL COMMITTEE
- SPEAKER: I have to inform the House that I have received a non-adverse report from the Parliamentary Legal Committee for the Micro-Finance Bill (H.B. 2:2012).
MOTION
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
THE MINISTER OF PUBLIC WORKS: Mr. Speaker, I move
that Orders of the Day Numbers 3 up to 6 be stood over until Order Number 7 is disposed of.
Motion put and agreed to.
MOTION
MONUMENTAL STATUS FOR HWAHWA,
SIKHOMBELA AND GONAKUDZINGWA PRISONS
- KANZAMA: I move the motion standing in my name that
this House:
RECOGNISING the historical prominence that prisons played during the struggle for our Independence as they accommodated the entire leadership and heroes and heroines of the struggle.
COGNISANT at prisons such as Hwahwa, Sikhombela and
Gonakudzingwa were the most notorious incarceration centres at the disposition of the cruel settler regime.
NOTING that other younger democracies have honoured prisons that housed their leaders during the times of tribulation as evidenced by Robben Island Prison which accommodated veterans of South African Liberation Struggle against apartheid such as Robert Sobukwe, the former President Nelson Mandela to mention a few.
NOW THEREFORE RESOLVES: That the following Prisons – Hwahwa, Sikhombela and Gonakudzingwa be accorded the recognition of monumental status in honour of our leaders as His Excellency the President R.G. Mugabe, Joshua Mquabuko Nkomo and many others who underwent imprisonment.
MR. E. MUDZURI: I second
- KANZAMA: Mr. Speaker Sir, I move the motion standing in my name that this House resolves that the following prisons Hwahwa, Sikhombela and Gonakudzingwa be accorded the recognition of monumental status in honour of the founding fathers of an independent
Zimbabwe. The likes of Father Zimbabwe, Dr Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo,
President R.G. Mugabe, the late vice presidents, Joseph Msika and John
Nkomo, Comrades Edgar Tekere. Also, Josiah and Ruth Chinamano,
Leopold Takawira, Maurice Nyagumbo, Naison Ndlovu, Sikhanyiso
Ndlovu, Charakupadenga Hundu, Kissmore Benjamin Kaenda, Jane
Lungile Ngwenya, Tamburai Matshalaga and Christopher Ndlovu to name but a few. These sites bear a unique or at least exceptional testimony to our national liberation history.
Mr. Speaker Sir, just to mention that even some of our Speakers including yourself, Hon. Minister Mnangagwa, Hon. Didymus Mutasa are also some of the detainees that are on record to maintain the history of Zimbabwe, they should also be respected because they are part of our detainees.
Mr. Speaker Sir, a brief historical background of the life of inmates at these prisons will help us to understand why they would be declared national monuments. The detainees were kept under armed guard and always in leg irons. Life was not easy for them and they were allowed to walk about four kilometers to the west of the camp towards the cleared land and almost the same distance eastwards towards uncleared game land. Trying to escape was an impossible task tantamount to suicide, since the reserves were infested with marauding lions. Prisoners would be organised into groups of seven and they would prepare food for themselves for fear of being poisoned by the white settler regime authorities. This is just but a glimpse of the suffering our leaders went through to have this nation freed.
Mr. Speaker Sir, it is a shame to note that, 33 years down the independence lane, these former detention centres have never been given any significant national recognition befitting their historical weight. Only concrete slabs now remain especially at Gonakudzingwa and as a nation, we should seriously look into ways of rehabilitating such an iconic place into a national monument. I think we can all agree that the present appearance of the former detention centres and prisons leaves much to be desired. Very soon we will be celebrating our thirty-third
Independence Anniversary and we can all make a difference as hon.
Members of Parliament if we all support this motion.
- D. SIBANDA: On a point of order Mr. Speaker. Is the Hon. Member doing his maiden speech or he is debating because I can see him reading.
- SPEAKER: Order, certainly he is not doing his maiden speech because he has been here for a while and accordingly, the Member is advised to make reference to his notes.
Order, the Member has requested to read his motion and I have authorised that. Hon. Kanzama you may continue.
- KANZAMA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. My main worry is
that today’s children do not even understand how this freedom we are enjoying came about. Ignoring this call is tantamount to agreeing to bury the rich history of the emergence of Zimbabwe. We need to join forces in this journey of remembrance. These former detention centres and prisons must be fully protected, carefully preserved and perceptively developed as cultural quarters.
Mr. Speaker Sir, this motion is not about gaining or losing political points. The fact, is we all need to remind ourselves how much we owe those men and women who defied a powerful empire to proclaim the
Republic of Zimbabwe. We surely cannot leave these former detention camps in a disgraceful condition, that is an insult to the memory of the selfless and gallant men and women whom we should honour.
Mr. Speaker Sir, this motion is neither trying to invent anything out of this world, but to bring home an internationally recognised and celebrated act, which countries like South Africa and USA have implemented. We should take a leaf from our neighbours in South Africa where some of the notorious prisons like the Robben Island and the Pretoria Central prisons were declared national monuments. Robben Island, where former South African President, Nelson Mandela and Robert Sobukwe spent years in prison, is now a major attraction world over, with over 300 000 tourists visiting each year thereby generating much tourism revenue for the country. I believe my fellow Members of Parliament are fully aware of the huge economic potential that the area of cultural tourism continues to hold. This motion clearly calls on the
Government to invest in cultural tourism. To the West, is the National
Prisoner of War Museum, a national historic site opened in 1998 as a memorial to the all American prisoners of war. Many more countries worldwide rightfully honour and remember prisoners of war that way.
Mr. Speaker Sir, ……………
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Order Hon Kanzama!
- KANZAMA: Sorry Madam Speaker, I did not recognize
that the Speaker has left. Madam Speaker, without further belaboring the importance of national monuments, it suffices to say monumentising these detention camps enhances national identity, whilst serving as significant sources of education, tourism, revenue generation and employment creation. The former detention camps are rich in history and would act as a fantastic attraction for visitors from home and abroad. An area of such significance and potential should be restored and protected for the benefit and pride of present and future generation.
At present, much of visiting is left to private individuals. While that is most commendable, I am certain that if the detention centres and prisons are declared national monuments, the tours to these places will be popular. There ought to be solid physical evidence of what took place in these camps. A heritage centre like a museum should be built at one of the former detention centres and Gonakudzingwa would be most ideal. Such a centre and the creation of such a historical and cultural heritage site will not have to be exclusively devoted to what took place at Gonakudzingwa; but in all prisons across the country.
Gonakudzingwa has been of historical and cultural importance for years and the centre could become the focus of national identity. The museum would exhibit use of art, photographs, displays and video presentations to focus on the capture, living conditions, hardships and experiences of liberation war prisoners in all periods.
Madam Speaker, the clock is ticking away on this issue. We should all bear in mind that the events of the 1960s and 1970s were momentous and defining ones for all of the people of this country. These were the decades of the covenant of the gun, of blood sacrifice and bloody politics, a time of division and war, not only in this country, but across Africa. This motion therefore presents this august House with a glorious opportunity to further engrave its mark in the history books of Parliament of Zimbabwe. This can only be done by rebuilding the detention centres to bear eloquent testimony to their somber history and at the same time symbolising the triumph of the human spirit of freedom and of democracy over oppression.
Madam Speaker, I would like to conclude my presentation by urging all hon. members here present to seriously look into the gains the country will realise by declaring the former detention centres and prisons national monuments. We should strive to leave a legacy of legislators who contributed to the development of this country. Time is rapidly running out if this goal is to be realised. So Madam Speaker, may I urge Hon. Members of Parliament to be proud to be Members of Parliament today because of some of the gallant sons whom I have mentioned in my presentation and urge them to support this motion for adoption. Thank you Madam Speaker.
- MUDARIKWA: Thank you Madam Speaker. Madam
Speaker, it is my honour and revolutionary duty to rise in this august House to talk about the foundation of our revolution, to talk about the reality of the freedom we have today.
The Chinese say, a journey of 1 000km begins with a single step. It was the journey of 1 000 years that Smith used to refuse that not in a thousand years will Zimbabwe be free. The foundation was laid by the heroic sons and daughters of Zimbabwe. Madam Speaker, I want to make it clear to the hon. members and the people of Zimbabwe that in Zimbabwe, Gonakudzingwa and Sikhombela Prison centres were not run by the Prison Service. They were run by the notorious special branch of the Ian Smith regime. The life of a detainee included 90 days in the hands of the special branch. Many people died in the hands of the special branch. Some of those who were lucky became disabled. Some were beaten to death.
I went this morning to the Prison Headquarters and I was given a list of names which included Comrade Leopold Takawira – Shumba yekwaChirimhanzu who died in prison. I then went to CID
Headquarters, I could not get anything until I met an old man who said he was a detainee. Some of the names here show that most of these documents were destroyed.
Madam Speaker, in the hands of the international committee, the Smith Government presented itself as a clean Government and yet their special branch was running detention centres in Gonakudzingwa and Sikombela. The Gonakudzingwa prisoners were rounded by hungry elephants and that is where they were put in the hands of the special branch to find out from these people what they were planning. It was very simple, these people wanted their independence.
When there was the Second World War, there were some Zimbabweans who were taken from here who went to join the British and as they were shouting, the British were saying; “The Germans must get out of all these countries. Germans must rule Germans. The British must rule the
British. Africa for us all”. It really showed a situation where Africa was declared a no man’s land. These heroic fighters had to stand up; in a process they had to educate people because the process of colonization involved the washing up of the brains of most of our people. Many people used to believe that the country belonged to the Rhodesians.
When they were taken from the 90 day period, they were then moved to some detention centre – those with possible criminal records were brought back to jail. It was a very difficult life; if you go to Gonakudzingwa – all the detainees used to sleep in tin houses, on wire mesh with no mattresses. All these things were meant to make life very difficult for our people. There was no running water, they were denied medical treatment. A simple disease like sugar caused the death of Cde. Leopold Takawira. This is what our people must know; this is what our people must understand that the process of laying the foundation of the revolution needed brave men. It needed very brave men not a situation where we now have warlords operating at the University of Zimbabwe, warlords of urinating in refrigerators. It was a situation which demanded people to stand as one and all these people in detention never asked anyone are you Shona are you Ndebele or are you Karanga? They all said, ‘We are Zimbabweans’.
I would also want, Madam Speaker, to take this opportunity to salute the World Council of Churches which provided literature to most of the prisoners who had the chance to further their education. The reason why these people were detained is that they said they wanted their independence. They had songs they used to sing in prison, one of the songs was, soja rababa sunga utare kana ndozofa usare uine nhaka. This meant the people who were in detention understood that it was critical now to move to a second stage of our struggle - a struggle of armed struggle, that is why they were saying soja rababa sunga utare kana ndozofa osara uine nhaka.
In the process, some of the prisoners were released. They then had the chance to sneak out of the country like Cde. Robert Gabriel Mugabe; Cde. Joshua Nkomo. They then mobilised arms to be used, they moved to friendly countries. They had the common goal of the enemy of my enemy is my friend. So, they went to countries like China, Russia,
Yugoslavia – to mobilise arms and these arms were then used to fight in crushing the enemy so that the enemy would agree to move to the Lancaster House Conference.
Madam Speaker, for the record for Hansard, it is critical that I hand-over this information to Hansard and some of these names - I have here the late Cde. Zvobgo; Cde. Tekere; Cde. Malenga; Cde. Mugabe; Cde Nkomo. There are many names here but what is important here again, in all these lists of names there are also women’s names that are here. The women were also detained, suffering for the independence of our motherland.
Madam Speaker as we fulfill the constitutional process, the stage we have reached on the Constitution process now is the finalisation, completing of our armed struggle; completing what all these people laid the foundation. So, I must also take this opportunity to salute the people who were in COPAC that they fulfilled what Mbuya Nehanda died for – the total independence of the people of Zimbabwe whether black, white or coloured everybody in Zimbabwe was freed. Also, in the
Constitution, the people who were regarded as aliens from Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia – after the constitutional process, they are going to be Zimbabweans. Our independence, I can talk of the history of ZANU – the first land rover that ZANU got when it was launched in
1964 was a donation from Cde. Hasting Kamuzu Banda. He is
Malawian and we had a lot of support from Zambia and Mozambique.
So, the element of saying, ‘mubhurandaya, mubwidi, muMoskeni’, is unAfrican.
It is not within the spirit of Pan-Africanism; it is not within the spirit of Kwame Nkrumah; it is not within the spirit of Julius Nyerere;
Amilcar Cabral; Ernesto “Che” Guevara who came to Africa from Latin America to assist the people of Congo to fight against imperialism. The struggle is in our hands, we are the generation to move Zimbabwe into the land of Canaan; the land of milk and honey.
Madam Speaker, I want to thank you for allowing me to stand and debate in this august House. Those who were listening, I salute you; those that were not listening, I also salute you for not making noise
when I was giving this great lecture. Madam Speaker, thank you very much.
HARARE REMAND PRISON
1965
NAME CHARGE AUTHORITY D.O.A DATE OF DISPOSAL
OF DETENTION RELEASE
- Zvobgo State of Emergency Min of L/O 08.11.65
- Tekere State of Emergency Min of L/O 08.11.65
- Malenga State of Emergency Min of L/O 08.11.65
- Malowa State of Emergency Min of L/O 08.11.65
- Mugabe State of Emergency Min of L/O 08.11.65
- Mduku State of Emergency Min of L/O 08.11.65
- Shonhiwa Phibion State of Emergency Min of L/O 11.65 To Restriction
06.05.69
- Chigure Shirihuru State of EmergencyMin of L/O 08.11.65
- Thomas Ziki F.Kurimwi State of Emergency Min of L/O 11.65 Released 07.09.68
- Katungwe State of Emergency Min of L/O 11.65 13.12.65 To F/E18.11.65
- Peter State of Emergency Min of L/O 11.65 13.12.65 Released13.12.65
- Mapfuo John Masawi State of Emergency Min of L/O 11.65 13.12.65 Released13.12.65
- Charles Nheweyembwa State of Emergency Min of L/O 11.65 13.12.65 Released13.12.65
- Efrim State of Emergency Min of L/O 11.65 13.12.65 Released13.12.65
- Naison Disi State of Emergency Min of L/O 11.65 13.12.65 Released13.12.65
- Takaendesa State of Emergency Min of L/O 11.65 13.12.65
Released13.12.65
- Saul State of Emergency Min of L/O 11.65 16.12.65 24.12.65
- Solomon Nkomo State of Emergency Min of L/O 11.65
- Stephen Nhamburo State of Emergency Min of L/O 11.65 02.12.65
- Jeffrey Padzakashamba State of Emergency Min of L/O 11.65 02.12.65
- Isadore Kumiri State of Emergency Min of L/O 11.65 02.12.65
- Reki Mashayamombe State of Emergency Min of L/O 11.65 02.12.65
- Mboye Gambi State of Emergency Min of L/O 11.65 02.12.65
- Robert Nhamu Muriri State of Emergency Min of L/O 11.65 02.12.65
- Reuben Nyamweda State of Emergency Min of L/O 11.65 02.12.65
- Tamayi Vivian Mpofu State of Emergency Min of L/O 11.65 02.12.65
- Addas Makaza State of Emergency Min of L/O 11.65 02.12.65
- Michael Musembiri State of Emergency Min of L/O 11.65 16.12.65
- Nicholas Dave Mutero State of Emergency Min of L/O 11.65 02.12.65
- Francis John Mutungamiri State of Emergency Min of L/O 11.65 02.12.65
- Simon Bepete State of Emergency Min of L/O 11.65 02.12.65
PRISONS WHERE POLITICAL PRISONERS WERE DETAINED DURING COLONIAL ERA
HARARE REMAND PRISON
PRISON DATE OF DATE OF
NUMBER NAME OFFENCE ADMISSION RELEASE
- Zvobgo State of Emergency 08.11.65 N/R
- Tekere State of Emergency 08.11.65 N/R
- Mugabe State of Emergency 08.11.65 N/R
Cephas George Musipa State of Emergency 20.12.65 03.01.66
Chenjerai Hitler State of Emergency 18.04.66 06.05.66
Enos Nkala State of Emergency 04.06.66 21.12.66
Mordekai Hamutyi State of Emergency 04.06.66 04.06.66
Simon Vengai Muzenda State of Emergency 04.06.66 N/R
Leopold Takawira State of Emergency 04.06.66 N/R
Ndabanigni Sithole State of Emergency 04.06.66 19.02.69
PRISON DATE OF DATE OF
NUMBER NAME OFFENCE ADMISSION RELEASE
Edison Sithole State of Emergency 04.06.66 N/R
Kenneth Manyonda State of Emergency 04.06.66 21.12.66
Morris Nyagumbo State of Emergency 28.06.66 N/R
Emmerson Munangagwa State of Emergency 01.10.66 N/R
180/73 Ndabaningi Sithole Detainee 20.03.73 30.04.74
WHAWHA PRISON
PRISON DATE OF DATE OF
NUMBER NAME OFFENCE ADMISSION RELEASE
176/64 R. Mugabe Detainee NIL TxHarare Remand
Prison:15.12.64
74/64 Munetsi Mark Nziramasanga Trade Unionist NIL Tx Marondera Prison:05.03.65
444/78 Richard Ndlovu Law & Order M/Act 16.11.78 08.12.79
171/78 Dzikami Calisto Mavhaire Law & Order M/Act 11.05.78 03.07.79
416/78 | Cephas G. Msipa Law & Order M/Act | 16.1178 | 11.06.79 | ||
186/78 | Enos Nkala Law & Order M/Act | 11.05.78 | 26.11.79 | ||
PRISON | DATE OF | DATE OF | |||
NUMBER | NAME OFFENCE | ADMISSION | RELEASE | ||
424/78 | Jethro Dauramanzi Law & Order M/Act | 16.11.78 | 07.08.79 | ||
188/78 | Canaan Banana Law & Order M/Act | 11.05.78 | 26.11.79 | ||
157/75 | Amos Benard Midzi Law & Order M/Act | 01.10.75 | 18.04.78 | ||
60/76 | Sidney Donald Malunga Law & Order M/Act | 25.03.76 | 4 Sept. | ||
211/76 | Andrew Langa Law & Order M/Act | 28.08.76 | 18.10.77 | ||
255/76 | Welshmen Mabhena Law & Order M/Act | 14.1076 | 03.07.79 | ||
70/78 | Abel Tabona Swela Law & Order M/Act | 08.05.78 | 08.01.80 | ||
120/78 | Chipo Nolan Makombe Law & Order M/Act | 09.05.78 | 26.11.79 | ||
615/78
|
Abedinico Ncube Law & Order M/Act | 18.12.78 | 06.11.79 | ||
CONNEMARA PRISON | |||||
1326/65 Enos Nkala Law & Order M/Act | 15.04.65 | 28.04.65 | |||
1349/65 Leopold Takawira Law & Order M/Act | 08.04.65 | 09.04.65 |
KHAMI MAXIMUM
PRISON | DATE OF | DATE OF | |||
NUMBER | NAME | OFFENCE | ADMISSION | RELEASE | |
814/65 | Shadreck Chipanga | Law & Order M/Act | 24.09.65 | 23.05.72 | |
73/75 | Kemb Mohadi | Law & Order M/Act | 18.11.75 | 22.03.80 |
Restrictees at Gonakudzingwa – End of October, 1966
Name Period of No of chn. Or Restriction Dependents
- BAKE J. 3 yrs 4
- BASOPO S. 1 1
- NGONI S.T. 5 5
- BHEPE R. M (BYO) 5 6
- BOBO C. 3 4
- BVUNZAWABAYA - - 7. BWAWA J. 3 11
- CABUDA W. 4 7
- CHAFACHAROW W. M. 5 4
- CHAGADAMA M.N. - 12
- CHAKANYUKA E. 4 2
- CHAKANYUKA G. 5 6
- CHANDO T. C. 3 12
- CHAMISA D. M. 1 16
- CHAPARADZA T. - - 16. CHARLES G. 5 6
- CHIBANDA O. 5 11
- CHIBUMU P. - 9
- CHIFAMBA M. (BYO) 1 8
- CHIGARIRO R. (BYO) 5 5
- CHIGWIDA G. S. 5 9
- CHIGUDU S. L. 3 1
- CHIHATA M.S. 2 9
- CHIHORO J.D. 3 6
- CHIKOMO M.M. 3 7
- CHIKAKA P. 5 - 27. CHIKWANHA C.D. 1 6
- CHILIMANZI M.A.(BYO) - 14
- CHIMBGWANDA B.B. 3 -
- CHIMUKOMBE G. 5 - 31. CHINEMBIRI T.H. 3 5
- CHINGUWA N. 3 7
- CHINYERERE C.E. 3 9
- CHIRENDA H. 2 5
- CHIRUMEKO T. - 7
- CHIRINDA J. 5 7
- CHIRIPANYANGA 5 8
- CHITATU S. 2 2
- CHITIYO J. 3 6
- CHITONGO C. 5 7
- MPOFU (BYO) 5 5
- MPOFU S. (BYO) 3 5
- MPOFU S.M. (BYO) 5 10
MPOFU T. V (Byo) 2 4
- MSIMANGA A. (Byo) 2 6
- MSIMANGA N. (Byo) 5 11
- MSOSO G. 3 5
- MTENGWA W. 3 5
- MTINSI S. B. (Byo) 5 4
- MUTONGWERA K. 3 4
- MUCHENJA W. 2 1
- MUDENGE S. I. 1
- MUDOKWENYU 3 4
- MUDUMWA S. B. 3 7
- MUGUNI B. M. (Byo) 5 7
- MUDZINGWA M. C. 5
- MUHWATI 3 7
- NUJAJATI A. 5 6
- MUKARATI T. G 5 3
- MUNGADZI B. 5 12
- MUKUNGURUTSE 3 7
- MURAPE 5 12 220 MURISI J. W. 1
- MUNOIWA J. C. 3
- MUHUBI B. 3 3
- MUSANDA J. 3 8
- MUSAKA S. 2
- MUSAKWA B. E. K. 5 3
- MUSEMBURI M. 5 1
- MUSARIRIR M. D. 2 1
- MUSHORE T. E. 3 7
228 MUSHORE J. M. (BYO) 3 7
MUSORA N. 3 4
- MUSONZA K.
- MUTASA R. 5 2
- MUTEMBO J. (BYO) 2 6
- MUTANDA T. C. (BYO) 2 6
- MUTETWA N. G. 3 14 235 MUTUNGIRA F. 5 11
236 MUTUSWA J. 2 5
- F. M. SIBANDA: I am persuaded to contribute to this historical motion by my colleagues from ZANU PF – Hon. Kanzama and Hon. Mudarikwa.
I plead with them to allow me to amend/change or to add flesh to their main resolution. That is cognizant that the prisons such as Hwahwa, Sikhombela and Gonakudzingwa should be noted. I think they have left something; we have to be representative as liberators. You see, Gonakudzingwa is in Masvingo, which was very strategic because they wanted those people to be eaten by animals. Sikhombela is in Midlands, where I come from; Hwahwa is in Midlands. Smith’s regime was very strategic that it induced terror every inch of Zimbabwe, whether in the sea, in the air or on land.
So, I would plead with the movers that they also include Harare Central Prison where executions of liberators were done. It is very important that Harare Prison should also be noted for whatever decoration of commemoration. We come again to Bulawayo, part of the southern region. There was a very notorious camp where Hon. Mohadi and others survived which called ‘Stomp Camp’, near Rose Camp. It is so notorious that our people were castrated, murdered or incinerated and we have not seen those people to date. So, I am saying, this has to be also included in their main resolution.
The fourth but not the least, Khami Prison – if you do not talk about Khami Prison in Zimbabwe you might have forgotten historical perspectives of liberation torture and genocide. People like Masuku, Dabengwa and myself were tortured in Khami Prison for reasons that we wanted to liberate the people that are in this House. I speak without fear; I am one of those unsung liberators of this country. Not a war vet, I am still active because I am still an active member of the liberation movement. The moment I turn 90, I will be a war vet because I would now be a pensioneer.
Hon. Speaker, this is a historical fact. In 1965, when I was at Gloug Ranch Mission doing my Standard 6. We were organised by people who were doing agriculture and then we demonstrated against UDI in 1965 at Gloug Ranch Mission just near Nyathi. I was one of those people who were arrested while I was under 21 and under 18.
After being arrested, we were shifted to Inyathi, a charge office and detained and voted. Shifted at night, blindfolded to Gonakudzingwa but because of my age, I met Martin Nziramasanga and Chenjerai Hunzvi, the former leader of war veterans at Gonakudzingwa. We were then transferred to Hwahwa because of our age. I will leave it there because that is not important but the important thing is that most of the unsung heroes are unsung and unrecognized.
This motion pleases me because it touches who is a hero and who is a heroin of Zimbabwe. In 2008, I moved a motion, ‘A by-partisan selection of heroes’. Today people are talking about these people. We accept that we have to recognise prisons but what of the inmates who died there. Who are those? I have some who have never been sung in this country; Henry Hamadziripi, Crispen Mandizvidza, Charles Chikerema Dambudzo, Charles Chikerema, a friend of George Nyandoro Bonzo but Bonzo is lying at our National Heroes Acre but Chikerema has never been sung. Kenneth Mano and many others.
Jane Ngwenya is one of the heroes of the struggles who is not even recognised today. We have Jim Nthutha who has been posthumously made a hero. Joseph Masuku Commander but what I am saying is that, this motion is right and relevant this time. God has inspired the movers so that we augument this equation of who is a hero and which prisons should be honoured. It will be unreasonable, Madam Speaker, that we honour and decorate prisons historically so that we recognise them for their work and alas, do not recognise the prisoners. I am saying this is very strategic. It has to be non-political and non-partisan so that the future generation when they talk of who is a hero and heroine, they take this history as Hon. Mudarikwa and Hon Kanzama have put it correctly that these prisons were to torture and eliminate the so-called trouble shooters.
Ian Smith is recognised as one of the persons who engineered genocide but was never brought to the International Court of Justice. In this case we should start afresh. Look at all the people who eliminated our heroes and consequently, also go further to say brother to brother who eliminated them should be brought to justice. However, I am happy that our Constitution, the one that we are going to adopt says anyone who is above 70 is not going to be hung and I pray that the younger generation should desist from torture and inhumane degradation of other people by people.
Lastly, I am challenging the mover before they wind it up to amend the sections that I have referred thereafter. I thank you.
- HLONGWANE: Thank you for affording me this
opportunity to briefly add my voice to this very important motion. I want to thank the mover of the motion Hon. Kanzama for bringing this very important reminder to the House of Assembly for discussion.
Let me state at the outset that I do support the motion as moved. I also do support the amendments as proposed by the recent Speaker, Hon Sibanda that maybe the motion must reflect, not necessarily be representative. When our heroes were being detained, I do not think there was any representation about it but that they were being detained at various centres across the country. In an important motion as this one, it may very well do us a good favour to then state all the detention centres that our heroes went through or were detained in as a way of trying to extract them out of the liberation struggle.
One of the most important things or debates in this country is the intersection of the entirety of our population in celebrating the liberation struggle. There is no one in their right sense of mind in this country who does not only allude to the importance of the liberation struggle but celebrate that struggle. That is why during Independence Day, we all come together in a by-partisan format and do celebrate the achievement of that hard won independence.
It will be remiss, Madam Speaker, if on the one hand, we celebrate our liberation history in the manner that we do in this country, especially since the formation of the Inclusive Government, without going back to also honour, not only the people that suffered so much for this country, by way of them being detained at the detention centres like Sikhombela, Khami and so forth as mentioned in the motion. But we also need to honor those places, to recognise the importance of those places as part of the historical footprint that led to the achievement of our independence.
Let me also talk about the suffering that our heroes, dead and alive went through, the pain that they suffered during the detention that they experienced. Hon. Sibanda has already referred to one painful experience of castration. When a man is castrated, he is rendered impotent and he is then not able to perform another important physical and emotional function in his life. Beyond that, it is the pain that goes with that. When someone is castrated, they feel very isolated in society. They do not feel like they are equal to other people. They feel like they are an outcast. That psychological trauma that gathers as a result of that and the difficult emotional experiences that accumulate as a result of that cannot be stated or quantified in any manner.
This was a very painful process and a lot of these our heroes, some of them that are still alive or died in these detention centres went through this very painful process. I wonder how many of us today, if you were to be subjected or even threatened with castration, will be able to stand
your ground in terms of remaining resolute in defending your objectives or the national objectives of this country. This is a point that we must all reflect upon and say what it is that our heroes went through.
The other aspect, Madam Speaker, is the issue of isolation from family, friends and the greater national community of Zimbabwe. This was another very painful experience which has its own psychological challenges. Obviously, when you are isolated from your family, it obviously leads to the destruction of the social fabric, starting within your family and it has a ripple effect because we are talking of several of these heroes that went through this kind of process.
Others were threatened with death. The Minister of Defence here, Hon Mnangagwa, was supposed to be sentenced to the gallows. He was supposed to have his head cut off. He was saved by his age at that time. He was young and therefore rendering him not to qualify for the death penalty. He served 10 years in prison. All that together with several other heroes that are living – our President, of course, chief among them suffered at the hands of the Smith regime. This is something that we need to note as Parliament.
Beyond that, it is important to note that the detention centres that they went through must be recognised as a very important footprint of our liberation history. The debate about who is a hero and who is not, unfortunately Hon. Sibanda has left the House. When it comes to this important motion that has been raised, I want to bring something to the attention of the House that by honouring these detention centres in the manner that the mover of the motion requested. It will help us to move away from declaring dead people heroes and not recognising those that are alive as heroes as well.
It is important that we need to evolve as a community and begin to recognise the liberation work that has been done by heroes that are living today and we begin to honour them whilst they are still alive. There is no point in honouring them when they are dead all the time as if we are saying they should not enjoy seeing us celebrating the work that they did whilst they are still alive.
In that sense, I support categorically in every sense the debate as moved that we name the detention centres national historical monuments.
- CROSS: I am one of the generations that went through the detention centres and I was detained in 1969 by the Smith Government. I want to say that I to support this motion this afternoon.
I think it is important for a nation to identify the people who contributed to the struggle for freedom. I think that the men and women who were detained by the Smith Government over many years made enormous sacrifices for ordinary men and women of this country. I was a personal friend of Ndabaningi Sithole and Joshua Nkomo. In fact, I got to know Joshua Nkomo very well after his release from detention.
One of the things that I really celebrate with the old man was his absolute absence of any kind of sense of bitterness or hatred. He was absolutely forgiving, much in the same way as Mandela in South Africa. We need to pay tribute to these men and women. It is a great shame that places like Gonakudzingwa have not been protected up to now. This is a great opportunity to recognise the sacrifices these men and women made to the history of this country and the freedom of our people.
We should definitely highlight and I want to highlight Gonakudzingwa – this is one centre that perhaps needs specific attention. For the rest, what I would like to suggest is that we ask the Monuments Commissioner to establish in museums of our country, a facility which will record the role played by our prisons in the suppression of our people during their struggle for liberation.
I am a white Zimbabwean and I hope my black colleagues will accept this from me, that I am proud to be one of the generation that played a small role in the fight for freedom.
*MRS ZINYEMBA: I would like to thank hon. members who
have spoken before me so that we can create our own history of where we came from and where we are going. We need to identify particular places and areas which have a bearing on our history so that these places are accordingly named.
We say this is an appropriate time because it comes at a time when we have just concluded our constitution making process. I remember when I made my contribution on the Constitution, I started by thanking the Lord and I said the Lord has brought down the Holy Spirit so that as people of Zimbabwe we may find guidance.
I would like to tell you about my experiences when I visited my siblings in England. Before I got to England, when you look at history, it is very essential and you will find that when you look at all the names which were given by the people who colonised our area, you will find that they named the places after their areas. A good example is Salisbury. Even the area where I come from, Glendale - you will find that all these names came from Britain. So, when I visited England I came across a place called Glendale.
You will notice that these people, wherever they came from, they always wanted to remember where they came from. You will find that these people whenever there was something like a war fought at some place, there is always a shrine which was erected. When I go to England, I am not very much interested in their shops, but I am talking about their history.
My siblings did not go to England because of the problems faced by the people who want to seek refuge but they went there legally. When
I was there, my children took me to St Paul’s Cathedral. You will find that the people of my contemporaries like Hon F. Sibanda, who talked about the river Thames and all those areas – I toured that area in the evening and when I got to St Paul’s, I noticed that it was really a holy church.
My child promised to take me to the church the following day at 1100 am. Upon arriving, we paid some money because that place is now regarded as a tourist attraction. As he paid that money, he warned me that when I get in and come out, I will be hurt. That surprised me why my son should tell me that when I get into the holy place I will come out an angry person. As a result, I entered that place and I am pleading with those people who might have a chance to go to England, may you please pass through St Paul’s and you will find how our colleagues appreciate their history.
You will find that they deny us the opportunity to change the names of our areas especially places like Joshua Nkomo. What they say is that we will be wasting our resources changing the names. To my surprise, when I got into the St Paul’s Cathedral, I saw statues of their saints and these included our very own Bernard Mizeki. I was very glad to find that Bernard Mizeki of our country is also in this area. When I was somewhere in the middle of the church, I started seeing statues of their heroes who fought in these countries. I kindly ask anyone of you that when you get to these areas, you will find that I continued to view all this and I noticed that they respect the people who fought for their country, their heroes. When I was nearing the altar, I saw that they also had statues of people like the late Josiah Magama Tongogara in their church and yet in our country, we feel that it is taboo to put the statue of
Tongogara in our churches. My child also took me around the place and one of the places looked similar to the Anglican Cathedral adjacent to our Parliament building.
I was shown graves which were inside the church, they do not suffer from the inclement weather, because they are inside church buildings. The inscriptions on these graves talk about the contributions which were made by these heroes in advancing the British Empire. Therefore you find that the Roman Catholic and the Anglican churches used to bury their people inside the church grounds or inside the churches because of their heroic performances, religiously or otherwise.
This is very special to the people of Zimbabwe, let us not be confused by these colonialists who are denying us the right to know where we are going and recognizing the role played by our heroes and heroines in the liberation of our country.
Madam Speaker, we have started our current session well. We made that agreement when we accepted our draft Constitution as legislators. We all broke into song and dance when we approved the report of the Constitution. This shows that we have laid down a good foundation. Yes, we may differ in our beliefs and political ideologies, but as stated by His Excellency, President Mugabe, Zimbabwe is our first priority and everything else plays second fiddle. He said we should develop our country first.
The Lord intervened by making us successfully go through our Constitution making process. Therefore, let us forge ahead on this noble cause. If we differ in our political ideologies, let us look at our differences and compromise and congratulate each other on developmental ideas submitted by our opponents. First and foremost, Zimbabwe is important. We have many heroes who died, some of them laid in unknown tombs. Therefore, we need to strive for the prosperity of our country.
- MNKANDLA: I would like to extend my gratitude to the colleagues that came up with such a noble idea which indeed should be national in character. These kinds of motions would go a long way in unifying this polarised country if they are well constructed. A people without a history are just as good as phantoms that have shape and form but no substance.
Madam Speaker, to those who crafted this motion, I believe they want to propagate the importance of our history that this nation like many other nations, underwent crucial times to be where they are today. Those who contributed and were detained at the various detention centres across the country had, as we all of us would like to believe, noble intentions. It is very important to honour those men and women who were detained, never mind what their original intentions were. Just like when we went to the liberation war, it is known there are some people who found themselves amongst the liberation forces. Some of them rose to high ranks even though initially they left Rhodesia running away from certain crimes. Those who were detained should be treated as such; they should be recognised for the role that they played.
Madam Speaker, my suggestion would be, after the recognition of these places as shrines or monuments, let them reflect the history as it was then. If there is a roll of honour, that should be established or erected at each of these places. Let everyone who passed through those gates be included, for they are the heroes. I do not understand that those people, some of the names have been mentioned here, who spent so many years at Gonakudzingwa, Hwahwa, Khami, Skhombula – after independence, we turn around and try to obliterate their contribution to the liberation of this country. If we want to be nationalistic, really super refined patriots, let us chuck out this partisan feeling that there are better heroes than others. A hero is a hero.
If the colonial regime arrested the late Vice President, Hon. Joshua Nkomo on one hand and Rev. Ndabaningi Sithole on the other hand, they did not care whether Nkomo and Sithole were in one political party.
All they considered is that those men were enemies to their regime. Why is it therefore, after independence, we do not want to recognize our own people who stood shoulder to shoulder with others to liberate this country? No matter how much you say it or shout, those men and women are known in the records of Gonakudzingwa, Skhombula and
Khami that they were inmates at those bases. In the process of acknowledging these places as our monuments, let us also accept everyone that was there in their own way, they are heroes. No sane man or woman would have wasted his or her life to go as a visitor to those detention centres, they did not like it. It was not easy, it was terrible. Therefore, when those monuments come up, some of us would like to see everyone, including Hon. Eddie Cross who was once detained.
The idea and the philosophy of liberation is based on various ideologies. It does not necessarily mean that everyone must agree on every political ideology. I think that is very dangerous. No-one is a zombie here. We may have been together in the trenches, but when we get out of the trenches, I may have seen a better life than what you have. So do not blame me, accept the role that I played during that time. That is my contribution Madam Speaker. If you do not want to recognise the role of those ‘other people’, this whole exercise may be an exercise in futility.
We will be cheating ourselves as a nation. Let us recognise the roles of everyone, whether we like them or not. Do you like each other in your political parties here – [ HON MEMBERS: No] - Some of you may go groping and groveling on your stomachs, to find favour with the leadership of the parties but the truth of the matter is that you do not like them. When they see you they tell you that you are a faithful party cadre. Let us not look for things that do not exist, let us accept the reality as it is. When people see you here, they call you Honorable Members of Parliament (MPs), some of you there is no honour to talk about outside Parliament.
MR MADZIMURE: I want to thank the mover and the seconder
of this motion. Madam Speaker, over a period of time, people tend to forget history. The memories of some of them become problems as they grow older. They lose their memories and some of these issues. Madam Speaker, the problem that we have is that we take too long to recognise some of the things that we should have recognised long, long back. The issue of Gonakudzingwa, Sikhombela and Hwahwa does not require us to move a motion in this House. We have Ministries that are responsible for some of these things. These are the things they must be thinking about as they perform their duties. We have got a department of Monuments. If that department has never thought about us establishing monuments at these places, then it means we do not have even whom we call the technocrats in those departments. This issue does not require the whole House to sit down and debate because it is known that people were detained in these areas. When we campaign we always refer to some of these things.
So, Madam Speaker, I thank the movers because they have reminded those who had chosen not to think. Madam Speaker, the other unfortunate thing is that some of these things when we start talking about them, we have to recognise the fact that there is a lot of polarisation. What Hon. Mnkandhla was referring to is a situation where we apply even our history selectively.
Madam Speaker, we have got a lot of people who contributed to the liberation of this country in a very, very big way. The most unfortunate thing is that even those people are afraid to write their own history whilst they are still living. I remember one day I was talking to Hon. J Tungamirai before he passed on. We were in the dining hall there. When I asked him about what I had heard, who actually conducted the bombing of the petrol tanks. He narrated exactly what happened. He got to an extent where he said he was actually slapped by the late General Tongogara when they were talking about the same mission. He was very clear about who did it and how it was done.
Madam Speaker, today he is late, the history is not written. The opportunists are going to write and include their names. That is exactly the same situation we are going to be confronted with as we erect the monuments. The role of honour will have certain names as the founders whilst prisoners of those detention camps, the actual people who were first detained there are not even included.
Madam Speaker, as a country, we have a serious problem. We politicised everything. We always try to make sure that we honour those that we see in an effort to please them not because they will have done the best but just to please them. Even those who write history, choose to omit. Madam Speaker, we have got so many video clips and interviews from people like the late General Tongogara. Madam Speaker, on television what you see are small clips. The words that are chosen to be broadcast will have been carefully looked at so that it will not be misinterpreted.
We always do this for our own selfish reasons. Even if we are going to do what we are supposed to do, which we all agree that Gonakudzingwa, Hwahwa and Sikhombela, can not be omitted from the history of this country. If we leave out the imprisonment of those fighters, we would not have completed the history of this country. As we agree, let us then be serious and say history is history, it is like if you go to Monomutapa today there is that statue, I do not know whose statue
is that.
The reason for it to be kept there is because it is part of history. Why we have Livingston at the Victoria Falls, whatever the interpretation we can give to the reason, but we have it. Some people went there with picks and axes and tried to demolish it. The Zambians said it is part of history can you bring it to us or we can even come and lift it if you do not like it because it is part of history.
So, whether you hate someone or you like someone, when it comes to history, it is history, so all those people who were detained - [HON.
F.M. SIBANDA: Like myself] – he is now MDC but when Hwahwa,
Sikhombela and Gonakunzingwa were built, there was no MDC at all. When someone then decides to join the MDC, he then has to be omitted on the role of honour because avekunzi mutengesi, atengesa kunaani, unotengesa chaunachoka.
As a nation, we are regarded as one of the most educated nation in Africa. It is unfortunate that we are going down on a steep descent as far as education is concerned. This is because we have agreed to barter our education system, beating up our teachers, force march our children to rallies and so forth. So that is part of history and people should not ignore this. How many teachers have fled the country, good history teachers? Who is going to teach your children, it builds up to what we are talking about?
If we want to chose to ignore it, yes, you can ignore it but at your own peril. The results are now there for you to count, 18% is not something which you must be proud of and you ask how many people passed history. Do we still have people who can teach history even depending on their own memories, even the institutional memories like how did this school started? So, we are also Madam Speaker, not good writers as Zimbabweans, we do not want to write. We used to depend a lot from one man call Dzvova, now if Governor Chigwedere goes, no one knows where the likes of Hon. Hlongwane come from. Even if you ask Hon. Hlongwane, where did he come from, he does not know. We do not document things even in this House Madam Speaker, you now walk through the corridors and there is nothing. There is nothing that reminds you how this Parliament came about, how did we come in as Zimbabweans in 1980 and who were there? We do not have any pictures and now we are talking of Gonakunzingwa out there without talking about here where we are. So we have got serious deficiency Madam Speaker and I implore my colleagues to be serious about our history. When we talk about some of these things, we must also realise that when it happened, it happened together as a people. We were all fighting for independence. How I participated might be different but we were all fighting for the same objective, to free ourselves. Whoever participated at that time, must be recognized for the effort he puts in the dismantling of the regime that was oppressing the blacks. So I strongly support the motion and hope that it will be a beginning of recognizing the places and the people who participated irrespective of their political affiliation.
The biggest challenge Madam Speaker is that if we do it in a polarized situation with a polarized mind and recognise those you would want to recognize; when certain changes happen again, we will go in circles. These other people will also be trying to remove and rewrite the history and the history will become distorted. So as we do this, if it is going to be implemented, we must ensure that we recognise the people who participated.
- DIRUTWE: Thank you Madam Speaker. I rise to give
support to the mover of the motion with one tiny adjustment. It is a very good idea that we rename these institutions but the way I see it, we tend to do what sometimes is called overkill in naming these many places. With due respect, Your Excellence is an excellent leader and the late Joshua Nkomo, we say rest in peace. He was a tremendous leader but we cannot have everything named after these two. There are others who deserve to have these monuments named after them. We have got an airport, we have roads in every single major town in Zimbabwe named after the President, that is enough. Let us look for the other leaders that we do not know who were incarcerated in places like these so that it does not become tedious to say Joshua Nkomo this, Joshua Nkomo that. There are other leaders who perished too. So whilst it is a very good motion, let the other people who were there share in the glory of the names of these institutions. I thank you.
- MATSHALAGA: I too would like to support the motion. I believe it has come up too late in 32 years after independence. Some of us have been thinking about it but as mentioned by one speaker, we are not sure whether it is the right thing particularly in a polarized House.
What is most inevitable is that this motion has gotten the support of all members and it is very pleasing and encouraging that it is better late than never. The suggested monuments, I think we need to epitomize institutions that were used by the regime to fight for maintaining unfair and unjust system. However, you will find these systems….
[I am sorry Madam Speaker I was not on the system].
I said I would like to strongly support the motion which has come late but I would want to emphasise that you have places of torture which are identifiable. You have places where there were incidents of antiimperialism and you then have areas which have now been identified as monuments particularly in Zambia, Botswana and Mozambique. I think these will then form some footprints of where we came from. Currently, I think we over-emphasized the way people were massacred in Mozambique, Zambia and Botswana but the proposal being put by the honourable members is that let us identify areas where our leaders were incarcerated for years.
In addition to that, I have always said wherever you come from, like what Hon. Zinyemba was saying, there are areas where there were small battles. So my proposal is that you should also recommend for the creation of small shrines where our comrades died fighting for the liberation of this country. These are very well known and you will have to ensure that you make this a national issue because you do not have to travel to other places. You can see monuments which will at least describe why people died at that particular scene. Where, how and what were they fighting for and who were their leaders. I quite agree that it is better documented so that we do not have people who are going to have situational editorials like as been mentioned by other colleagues.
Madam Speaker, I rise to support the motion and I am sure I am also pleased with this. I have been associated with the struggle but I have a few or one unkind word to this Parliament. In other countries, Madam Speaker, Parliament takes the lead in these areas of historic monuments. They organize trips to go and see those places. Like the
Parliament of US Senate, they will go and try to see what happened at Hiroshima or the battles in the Second World War. I have never in the history of this country, ever heard of our Parliament going to even Zambia to see the graves of those who perished in Mozambique. I would, under this same spirit, urge the Parliamentarians to see whether they can now reunite with their unchangeable historical events and recognise them as they are and not for partisan reasons.
Madam Speaker, I thank you.
- MATIMBA: Thank you Madam Speaker. I want to thank
you for the opportunity to discuss this matter under consideration at the moment, more so as it relates to our history as a country and as a nation. Whereas I acknowledge the contributions made by other speakers who spoke before me, there could be one or two areas where I would want to beg to differ with them as a person because as we are here, we have the independence to differ I suppose.
Firstly, I do agree with Hon. Kanzama as to the need to have the monuments and recognition of those who were in those areas of detention and those who were also tortured there in the prisons. Further to that, I would like to say, in as much as we take recognition of whatever happened in those areas, it is quite important that as a nation, we would like to honour the people that were in those areas than the areas/detentions themselves.
It is a pity that as we debate right now, the detainees and the war collaborators have nothing on their hands to say they participated in the struggle. Now, we want to honour these detention places whereas the people who were detained there have nothing to take home. It is quite a paradox to me. Let me also say in recognition that these are historical monuments, as a nation, let us come to the age that we do not limit history.
Yes, there was Gonakudzingwa and so many places that are historical. We have gone through those places but history does not stop as one writer would say, “It flows like a river as it gets to the sea and it continues to flow under the sea”. Now we have come to a point where in our history, we also have people who have been fighting for the second dimension of freedoms. They have been detained at Chikurubi Maximum Prison, Matapi Police Station and all those notorious places. Now, if we are saying we want to be consistent with the history, I think we also need rolls of honour for those who have been detained for just causes like Hon. Minister Biti, Hon. Mahlangu here, Hon. Madzore and even the junior Madzore.
We would also want places like Chikurubi Maximum Prison where more than 29 activists of a particular party had been detained for more than two years. I think it is consistent with history and consistent with the spirit of this topic as well. Let me also say as Hon. Madzimure rightfully said, the problem that we have as a nation is that we are a bit slow in making these recognitions and taking action.
I for one would have thought that after independence, the likes of Kumbirai Kangai, Mr Rugare Gumbo and the others should have been given farms and retired and not get into Government because they had seen a lot. One could not have expected them to make meaningful contributions after more than ten years under hardships. They should just have been given farms and retired and not to be made part of the Government because they really had nothing residual in them to move the country on.
Madam Speaker, I think as a nation, even right now, we have to take note that these people, who participated in the liberation war, did an immense job and what they need now is retirement. They do not have any utility anymore to add. There is no more contribution that they can do. They have done what Caesar could not do, they were in the trenches for so long and we thank them for that and now is time for retirement.
Thank you Madam Speaker.
- C.C. SIBANDA: Thank you Madam Speaker. I rise to support this motion which has been put forward to this House. That is in realising that the contribution that was done by these icons and the areas that have been mentioned to be considered as monuments for that cause. Madam Speaker, it goes without saying that this country went through a bitter war and it was fought hence to be liberated.
The people that contributed to this noble cause should be recognised. I agree with other speakers that it is a bit too late, but it is better late than never, because as we can see, most of the people that are mentioned are the founding fathers of this country and of the nation.
In any country, even in America, they always talk about their founding fathers, even if we know that they had to aggressively remove the Red Indians from that area who have nothing to say now because the nation was invaded and taken over by the foreigners. But, they still recognise the founding fathers. They will find them in all their notes and the big cities like Washington D.C are mentioned in their names and that is in recognition of the history of founding a nation.
So, Zimbabwe also went through almost the same process. So, we need also to recognise as other speakers alluded to, without discrimination or without some people being labeled as having not worked. When they were fighting at that particular time, they were fighting for their nation or country. I am looking at it in this way, like in a house. A house is divided into different sections. There is a lounge where everybody can be found and there are bedrooms. In bedrooms, you do not expect to find visitors and everybody there but at the same time it is a house. The recognition differs from one person to the other in accordance to the contribution that was given by each one of them.
But, at the end of the day, all must be recognised.
Talking about history and the writing of history, we have no one to blame about the history of this country, because in issues of the history, you must write and when you write there is intellectual criticism on what you have written. What we are criticizing here is at least those who have written even if they have omitted certain issues that you want in Mozambique. I would, under this same spirit, urge the Parliamentarians to see whether they can now reunite with their unchangeable historical events and recognise them as they are and not for partisan reasons.
Madam Speaker, I thank you.
- MATIMBA: Thank you Madam Speaker. I want to thank
you for the opportunity to discuss this matter under consideration at the moment, more so as it relates to our history as a country and as a nation. Whereas I acknowledge the contributions made by other speakers who spoke before me, there could be one or two areas where I would want to beg to differ with them as a person because as we are here, we have the independence to differ I suppose.
Firstly, I do agree with Hon. Kanzama as to the need to have the monuments and recognition of those who were in those areas of detention and those who were also tortured there in the prisons. Further to that, I would like to say, in as much as we take recognition of whatever happened in those areas, it is quite important that as a nation, we would like to honour the people that were in those areas than the areas/detentions themselves.
It is a pity that as we debate right now, the detainees and the war collaborators have nothing on their hands to say they participated in the struggle. Now, we want to honour these detention places whereas the people who were detained there have nothing to take home. It is quite a paradox to me. Let me also say in recognition that these are historical monuments, as a nation, let us come to the age that we do not limit history.
Yes, there was Gonakudzingwa and so many places that are historical. We have gone through those places but history does not stop as one writer would say, “It flows like a river as it gets to the sea and it continues to flow under the sea”. Now we have come to a point where in our history, we also have people who have been fighting for the second dimension of freedoms. They have been detained at Chikurubi
Maximum Prison, Matapi Police Station and all those notorious places. Now, if we are saying we want to be consistent with the history, I think we also need rolls of honour for those who have been detained for just causes like Hon. Minister Biti, Hon. Mahlangu here, Hon. Madzore and even the junior Madzore.
We would also want places like Chikurubi Maximum Prison where more than 29 activists of a particular party had been detained for more than two years. I think it is consistent with history and consistent with the spirit of this topic as well. Let me also say as Hon. Madzimure rightfully said, the problem that we have as a nation is that we are a bit slow in making these recognitions and taking action.
I for one would have thought that after independence, the likes of Kumbirai Kangai, Mr Rugare Gumbo and the others should have been given farms and retired and not get into Government because they had seen a lot. One could not have expected them to make meaningful contributions after more than ten years under hardships. They should just have been given farms and retired and not to be made part of the Government because they really had nothing residual in them to move the country on.
Madam Speaker, I think as a nation, even right now, we have to take note that these people, who participated in the liberation war, did an immense job and what they need now is retirement. They do not have any utility anymore to add. There is no more contribution that they can do. They have done what Caesar could not do, they were in the trenches for so long and we thank them for that and now is time for retirement.
Thank you Madam Speaker.
- C.C. SIBANDA: Thank you Madam Speaker. I rise to support this motion which has been put forward to this House. That is in realising that the contribution that was done by these icons and the areas that have been mentioned to be considered as monuments for that cause. Madam Speaker, it goes without saying that this country went through a bitter war and it was fought hence to be liberated.
The people that contributed to this noble cause should be recognised. I agree with other speakers that it is a bit too late, but it is better late than never, because as we can see, most of the people that are mentioned are the founding fathers of this country and of the nation.
In any country, even in America, they always talk about their founding fathers, even if we know that they had to aggressively remove the Red Indians from that area who have nothing to say now because the nation was invaded and taken over by the foreigners. But, they still recognise the founding fathers. They will find them in all their notes and the big cities like Washington D.C are mentioned in their names and that is in recognition of the history of founding a nation.
So, Zimbabwe also went through almost the same process. So, we need also to recognise as other speakers alluded to, without discrimination or without some people being labeled as having not worked. When they were fighting at that particular time, they were fighting for their nation or country. I am looking at it in this way, like in a house. A house is divided into different sections. There is a lounge where everybody can be found and there are bedrooms. In bedrooms, you do not expect to find visitors and everybody there but at the same time it is a house. The recognition differs from one person to the other in accordance to the contribution that was given by each one of them.
But, at the end of the day, all must be recognised.
Talking about history and the writing of history, we have no one to blame about the history of this country, because in issues of the history, you must write and when you write there is intellectual criticism on what you have written. What we are criticising here is at least those who have written even if they have omitted certain issues that you want, why not write our own. We should write the history of this country. I say so Madam Speaker because I participated in the liberation of this country and up to now, there is nothing I have written. So who do I blame?
There are a lot of things that I went through and there is a lot that I can write but the fact that I have not written; who then do I blame for not writing what I know? I think we should encourage ourselves and the nation to write the history. They should sit down and make sure that they document everything that happened.
When we look at the things that appear on television, I do not think we should blame the one who has done his documentary. I think everybody has the chance to come up with a documentary and document what transpired. I have not seen much about ZIPRA but who do you blame? We should rise up as ZIPRAs and document what we went through because this country was fought for by two major forces ZIPRA and ZANLA – they both fought for this country. Most wars that took place in Zambia – serious wars that went for days and a lot of lives were lost but it all goes back to us for not documenting and not writing what we went through.
Madam Speaker, the Gonakudzingwa Prison was a notorious prison during the days where Hon. Vice President Joshua stayed for many years. There were many other small areas which were small detention camps dotted around the country. All those are not documented. Even the late Vice President John Landa Nkomo was talking about one area in Lupane which was used as a detention camp and he wanted something to be constructed there and I would encourage the department in the Ministry of Home Affairs that deals with the monuments to look closely into that and start constructing monuments all over the country so that we keep our history.
History is a way of encouraging tourists to come to a country. When you go abroad, they ask you about Zimbabwe. There are some people who know more about our history from other countries. About two months ago, two old ladies from Sweden visited my Constituent – they were talking about the history of this country. They were talking about how they housed some of the liberation fighters in their country during the time of war. They have a keen interest – some of the questions they were asking me were difficult to answer because I had less information than them. It all goes down to lack of documentation of the events that we went through.
As I alluded to Madam Speaker, I support this motion and would like to thank the mover of the motion and hope that from now on, something will be done so that we can have our history documented properly.
- HOVE: Madam Speaker, I would also like to air my views on this motion raised by Hon. Kanzama. Having heard several speakers commenting, there are issues of concern to me with regard to how the motion has been structured and I would like to just highlight some of these within the few moments that are before me.
It is true that we have places of detention or imprisonment that some of our elders then were incarcerated in. Now we raise a motion in recognizing such places – we seem to be diluting the efforts of the people who got incarcerated in those places. We are supposed to merely focus on the individuals who made the contribution that earned them the stay in such places and not the prisons. I want to believe that what got them into the prison is more important than the place they were taken to. When we want to attach historical prominence to prisons, especially particular prisons; I find it problematic because whichever person or name you want to mention here were not born or created in prisons. The values and beliefs that brought them there are much more important than the place they were taken to.
Madam Speaker, I believe that we need not recognize the prison.
In any case, some of the prisons are no longer there. For example, Gonakudzingwa, it is now just a ruin. It is no longer in existence and I think the same applies to Sikhombela again and I am saying as a country we do not have resources. If we are to build monuments, what it means is that we are going to commit resources to places that are no longer in existence. Of what benefit will we derive as a nation in reconstruction of Gonakudzingwa and Sikhombela? I know Hwahwa is still up there.
This issue of singling out specific prisons to the exclusion of others – I also find it problematic because nationalists or political prisoners of that time were not just confined to three prisons. There is Khami; which also had its fair share of nationalists. There are also other smaller police cells that also had a significant lot. Right here in Harare, there are some prisons in Mbare, Highfield in the area I stay and represent, the Mbizi and Machipisa. Those places also need recognition in our history books if at all we were going to be fair and just.
I know some speakers were talking of examples of what is happening in other countries. What is outstanding in those examples is that those places are still in use today. They have not been maintained because they are just objects of appreciation. Those places are in a good state because they are still being used today. My question now would be; what is the state of prisons in our countries if we were to rewind and take back the nationalists into our prisons today, would they still come out and still be nationalists? Would they still serve or would they still be visitors or would they still stay in those places for weeks if not years and still be able to come out and fight? If at all we are recognising that prisons as correctional service institutions, they are not meant to destroy the spirit of a human being.
I think having noticed the role the prisons played, we also need to improve the prison conditions in our country to ensure that anyone who gets into a prison for whatever belief will come out with his spirit uplifted. That to me, will be sufficient recognition. Right now, we have people who are serving sentences, some for weeks or a month but when we talk or hear the testimonies of the people we have visited in those places, they tell you it is just as good as a death sentence, yet we have nationalists who went in with no education but they came out with degrees.
It is my humble submission, Madam Speaker, that we need to improve the conditions in our prisons such that people who go in without academic qualifications should come out with sufficient academic qualifications or those who have ailments in those prisons are well taken care of. They have access to medication. They have access to medical staff to treat their conditions.
The other point I want to make with regard to this issue of recognising prisons such as Whawha, Sikhombela and Gonakudzingwa are that, when we begin to recognise institutions, what of the people? What of other places? What of the people themselves? I want to believe that prisons were not the only significant places that contributed or that had a bearing to our fight for independence. What of freedom fighters who actually took up arms who will tell you of battles that they went at particular places? Who will recognise such places?
When you look at our world history, the World War II, recently I was watching some ceremonies that were being done in Russia. They will tell you that there is a battle that defined the direction which the World War II was going to take. At least they recognise other places but the problem with us Zimbabweans is, we come up with noble ideas but those noble ideas tend to neglect the valiant efforts of other heroes’ who will have contributed to our liberation.
I am of the opinion that we equally need to respect the battle fields or battles that were fought at various places and also construct shrines on those places rather than prisons. Prisons were never battle fields.
- HLONGWANE: Point of Order.
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, what is your point of Order?
- HLONGWANE: My point of Order is that the Hon. Member
is misleading this august House. The issue that he raises that detention centres are not front lines of the struggle is in fact not correct.
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon. Hlongwane, if you want to
make that argument I think you can debate. That cannot be a point of Order.
- HOVE: Thank you Madam Speaker, I want to start where I had left off. Our prisons are not the only places we should recognise in our country. There are wells, mining shafts, dams, hills or caves and we would want to see monuments constructed at such places. Before we even start talking of the construction of these monuments or shrines, we need also to come up with what we are going to put up on such places to ensure that every contribution made towards the liberation of this country into the future is always obeyed and adhered to. We do not want a situation whereby there are lesser heroes.
I believe everyone when he or she commits himself or herself will not be committing himself or herself for a smaller reward but it is for a bigger reward. It is incumbent upon us to equally recognise each and every effort and recognise it in a manner that inspires future generations to continuously defend this country knowing that there is a reward.
Hon. Dzirutwe put across a very sound point that we do not need to continuously rename these institutions after the same people. It becomes confusing to people like ZIMPOST should someone forget to mention which town or which suburb as if we have a shortage of role models or heroes in our nation. If it has to become our culture of naming places or monuments after our own locals, there are many of them. Therefore, one name, one monument not to have several different monuments named after one individual to the exclusion of others.
I want to even extend the point and say, we do not need to rename institutions when at the point of the contribution or at the point of contact with history they were known as Hwahwa. The moment we allow such a thing to happen, the renaming of a place at the point of contact with history, then we are rewriting history. If a place such as
Hwahwa could accommodate a nationalist, be it Robert Mugabe, Joshua Nkomo, Leopold Takawira or whoever for that matter, did not kill his spirit there, there is no reason for us right now, in our wisdom or lack of it, renaming such places. This is because our future generations are going to miss those places on our map. They will ask you where is this place?
The idea of recognising places should not be tantamount to renaming all these institutions. Let them have or maintain their original names. After all, our prisons are overcrowded. Therefore, common wisdom demands that we construct more prisons. In light of or in honour of such heroes then probably we can now name those new prisons after our own heroes and say because such and such a person went into a prison in 1960 and came out in 1976 a better person, therefore, we want all people who go into this institution to come out better people because our prisons are not meant for killing people but they are meant to rehabilitate people. I believe with that mindset, then we are advancing our history as a nation. We are building our pride as a nation. We are esteeming our ethics as a nation, rather than renaming institutions.
It is my humble submission to you Madam Speaker, we need to build, be it new roads or even new institutions or new towns and rename them after our local people that we are deriving this inspiration from what was started by our ancestors. In that way, I believe we will have advanced our course and that name we will say, it was derived out of recognising such and such a person.
I know they are parallels, you know, that the motion tries to draw. Robben Island has not been renamed, it is still Robben Island. The history behind the naming of that Island Robben, is still there. The fact that Mandela spent over 27 years there, did not give that place the right to be renamed Mandela Island. It is still Robben Island. So, this motion opens up, according to me, the need for further dialogue on who, what constitutes a hero and who is not a hero. It also opens up an opportunity for us to engage on how we should name places in our country be it hospitals or prisons themselves or any other place.
According to me, this motion also demands that we search our conscience. There are things I have not wanted to divulge or touch on during my debate, but I know of people who were greater heroes, like during the liberation war, whose names now, have been obliterated in our history. I know of people whose presence would inspire a lot of action or activity in an area just by their mere presence and those people are long forgotten.
Madam Speaker, in conclusion, I believe that heroes’ was not just a frozen time of a frozen period. We continue to have heroes up to now and they are going to come even after our own time all of us here present. However, if we are wise enough, let us clear the way. Let us set the form in which places are to be named, not just of dead people but of even those who are alive. Heroes should not be celebrated when they are dead. They should be celebrated when even they are alive.
We should be focusing more on what they have contributed when they are alive such that we draw inspiration even from the living legends rather than to wait for someone to die then we consult mediums. Then we claim Zimbabwe is a Christian country or we prophecy to be a Christian country. Again I see a contradiction there.
I therefore, propose that this motion be amended, if not, may be withdrawn because as it is, it does not solve our problems. I heard some speakers talking of the issue of polarisation. It is such kind of motions that perpetuate polarisation and I ask to whose advantage? Who is benefitting? Probably it is the two individuals who have moved this motion, the mover and the seconder, who are trying to carry favour with the powers that be. Thank you.
THE MINISTER OF SMALL AND MEDIUM
ENTERPRISES AND CO-OPERATIVE DEVELOPMENT: I want
to support the motion. Let me read it in order to remind the Honourable that has just finished speaking. The motion says at the end, “NOW
THEREFORE RESOLVES: That the following Prisons Hwahwa, Sikhombela and Gonakudzingwa be accorded the recognition of monumental status in honour of our leaders such as His Excellency the
President R.G. Mugabe, the late Vice President Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo and many others who underwent imprisonment in these prisons”. It does not say that we need to rename the prisons. It says we need to recognise and turn them into monumentals and I want to support that. Like the motion is saying, other countries have done it in South Africa and so forth.
Madam Speaker, if we really look at what our leaders went through, without them we would not have got our independence. They were imprisoned and they were humiliated and put under very difficult conditions in these prisons. It does not say ….
- MAHLANGU: On a point of order.
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon Mahlangu, I have not
recognised you.
MRS. NYONI: It does not mention any political party. It mentioned our heroes’ and our heroes are those men and women who went to fight for this country. Who were detained and restricted for this country and when things did not change through detentions and restrictions, they took up arms and went out of the country to wedge a war of liberation. Therefore, they deserve to be recognised and those paths they walked through deserve to be recognised.
I am also very happy that we are not just recognising the people who went to war. We are recognising the war collaborators, restrictees, detainees and by doing so we are saying we are recognising people who made a significant contribution to our history. Wherever they walked or were detained, - [MR. MAHLANGU: Order!]- We need to recognise that path. …
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Minister, Order! Hon. Mahlangu
what is your point of order?
- MAHLANGU: My point of order, with due respect to the Minister whom I respect so much but I think that the mover of the motion or the seconder of the motion are the ones that should actually correct the House about their motion. I think the Hon. Minister is now trying to tell us what the motion means and explain the motion to this
House. I think that is not her duty. What she was supposed to just do is to come here and debate the motion. After all, do the ministers have the right to debate in this House because you seem to have given favour to other ministers? If they have that right, then they must be told because other ministers have not been given that right.
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Your Point of Order is overruled.
May I say you do not talk on behalf of other ministers. They must know their rights. If they must debate then they can. If they do not know their rights, it is no one’s fault.
THE MINISTER OF SMALL AND MEDIUM
ENTERPRISES AND COOPERATIVE DEVELOPMENT (MRS.
NYONI): I am debating and I am a Member of Parliament as well as being a minister. I have a right to debate. I have a right to put my point of view.
- HOVE: On a Point of Order. The Chair has already made a ruling and therefore it requires that the hon. member who is debating should just go into her speech rather than making a second ruling.
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon. Minister, may you just talk to
the motion please.
MRS NYONI: I want to support the motion that we honour these men. You will remember that we now have Township Tourism and we are honouring our heroes through making their houses monuments. It is the same thing when they were detained, when the struggle started, I think we need to do that from where the struggle started to where they lived after the struggle. All these monuments are important for our nation and children to remind them of where we came from, who our heroes were.
It is very important for us to recognise each other. It is also very important to be grateful to each other and to recognise each other when other people sacrifice. For instance, if you come to my constituency in Nkayi North, there is a place in Gwelutshena where the people who came from Lusaka, the War Veterans rested. We want to recognise them as our children and as sons and daughters who fought for us. When they came back, they rested under that tree and they were addressed by the late Joshua Nkomo under that tree. We want to recognise that tree so that our children will remember that their grandfathers and grandmothers went to fight for them and this is what happened. There are so many places apart from these places of detention that I think we need to recognise.
Having said that, I am also happy that the way that our prisons are being organised today is much different from the way they were organised during the colonial days. I want to admit that we are short of resources despite the fact that we are now calling them Correctional Service Centres. When you look at what is happening in there, it is really correcting the behaviour of our people. It offers them skills such as music, arts and crafts. All that should be commendable.
What this motion is reminding us is that, whatever we do as Zimbabweans, for our country, we do not need to throw out of the window. We need to remember, recognise, and also live landmarks for our children to remember what other people did for them to bring the peace that we are now enjoying in this country.
THE MINISTER OF SMALL AND MEDIUM
ENTERPRISES AND COOPERATIVE DEVELOPMENT: I move
that the debate do now adjourn. Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Wednesday, 13th February, 2013.
ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE DEPUTY SPEAKER
AMENDMENTS TO MOTIONS
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: I wish to advise hon. members that
if they would like to make amendments to this or any other motion, they are supposed to submit a signed copy to the Clerks-at-the-Table, hon. members will then have the option to debate both the original and the amendment.
On the motion of THE MINISTER OF SMALL AND MEDIUM
ENTERPRISES AND COOPERATIVE DEVELOPMENT, the
House adjourned at Fourteen Minutes past Five o’clock p.m.
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Wednesday, 12th June, 2013
The House of Assembly met at a Quarter-past Two O’clock p.m.
PRAYERS
(THE ACTING SPEAKER in the Chair)
ORAL ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
- MAHLANGU: My question Mr. Speaker Sir, is directed to
the Minister of Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs, Adv. Matinenga. Hon. Minister Sir, when is the Parliament going to be dissolved?
THE MINISTER OF CONSTITUTIONAL AND
PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (ADV. MATINENGA): May I thank
the member for that question and the answer is very simple and clear. Firstly, the only person who dissolves Parliament in certain circumstances is the President of this country. If circumstances answer to the constitutional requirements, it is only the President who can dissolve Parliament and unfortunately, I am not privy to what his views are in regards to that dissolution. That is the first aspect of the response but secondly, if the President does not dissolve this Parliament by the 29th of June, this Parliament stands dissolved by operation of law. So, if he does not dissolve Parliament by then, the law forces him to dissolve Parliament on the 29th of June. So on the 30th of June this Parliament will no longer be in existence. I thank you Mr. Speaker.
- MLAMBO: My question is directed to the Minister of
Agriculture, Mechanisation and Irrigation Development, Dr. Made. Could you please tell us about the position of our harvest this season as a country?
THE MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE, MECHANISATION AND IRRIGATION DEVELOPMENT (DR. MADE): Mr. Speaker,
this is not a policy but a technical question although I can answer it. This season, we are aware that in most areas like Matabeleland South and the southern parts of Midlands and Manicaland, there was a drought. Most crops were a complete write-off and that is why we are already
importing food from Zambia and as you know, it is 150 000 metric tonnes initially so that we can help those areas.
The second crop assessment is almost ready but I have to first report to Cabinet before I can talk about that but generally the production is low. That is what I can say. I thank you.
- CHIBAYA: Thank you Hon. Speaker. My question is
directed to the Hon. Deputy Minister Chidakwa, we have heard that the
Government bought the Quality International Hotel for the Parliament of Zimbabwe. So, could you please appraise us on this issue since it is more than three years now when the deal was said to have been struck but on the other hand, there seems to be nothing happening at the building? Could you please tell us about the current state of affairs pertaining to that effect?
THE ACTING SPEAKER: I do not know if Hon. Deputy
Minister Chidakwa got the question and whether her ministry was the one which was involved in the purchase? - [Minister Chidakwa having spoken to the Acting Speaker] So Hon. Chibaya, you may redirect your question to the relevant Ministry.
- MATSHALAGA: My question is directed to the Minister of
Agriculture. Given the effects of climate change and the propensity for areas to suffer from drought and low crop yields of the majority of our people who derive the livelihoods on agriculture, what policy is the ministry putting in place to encourage farmers to grow drought resistant and small grain crops. I thank you Hon. Speaker Sir.
THE MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE, MECHANISATION AND IRRIGATION DEVELOPMENT (DR. MADE): I want to
thank the hon. member for raising that question. On the effects of drought, of course we have to look on the fact that there are several ministries involved since it has to be a multi-sectoral approach. There are several inistries which are involved in looking into this problem and the initial response is to intensify irrigation schemes in areas where the pattern of rainfall is such that you still have precipitation but it does not come evenly. So that will be the natural first point of reaction.
The second option to irrigation is of course to look at the different approaches as the hon. member has suggested but even in those drought resistant crops, we also have to supplement with irrigation even those crops. The small grain crops have been traditionally grown in the drier parts of the country but I think what is more important is to understand that inputs to farmers must always be provided on time and traditionally grown in the drier parts of the country but I think what is more important is to understand that inputs to farmers must always be provided on time and particularly early. You may be able to harvest in some areas if you plant early. This is why I am emphasising Mr. Speaker, that we must take a multi-prompt approach in looking at this particular problem. We must also intensify livestock and not crops alone. We should also look at suitable livestock for those areas as well. I thank you Mr. Speaker.
- CHIMHINI: Thank you Mr. Speaker. To the Minister of Agriculture, given that we all understand that we have serious drought in the country, what policy measures have you put in place such that once we have maize that is coming into the country; it is fairly distributed to avoid allegations where people will talk about politicisation of food?
THE MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE, MECHANISATION AND IRRIGATION DEVELOPMENT (DR. MADE): Mr. Speaker,
that question is very important. The food that is coming into the country or even the food that we have in the country must be fairly distributed. We have our structures on the ground and I want to appeal using the hon. member’s question that we all have to be alert. Wherever there is a problem, at least, I want to undertake that if that problem is brought to my attention, I will be able to also interfere. Otherwise, there is a structure that is in place. It starts with the Governors of the provinces and they work with a local committee. So far, I have not heard of any major problems. Already, if you look at our Press, somewhere today, it was already reporting that there is maize that is being distributed in
Matabeleland North, Matabeleland South, parts of Midlands, parts of
Masvingo and I know there is grain now that is moving to parts of Manicaland. So, if there is any problem anywhere, I urge members of the public to bring it to my attention.
- CHIMHINI: Minister is talking about structures, can you clearly state which structures you are talking about?
- MADE: The grain distribution structures have always been there. Like I have said, they are headed by the Provincial Governors. It is a committee and it includes also the traditional chiefs and so on. I do not have the list with me but there are existing structures that deal with the grain loan scheme as well as the distribution of grain to the vulnerable. It includes the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Ministry of Local Government, etc. It is quite a list of the committee that is involved at the provincial, district and at the local levels. As I have said, if there is a complaint anywhere, let it be brought to my attention.
*MRS. CHADEROPA: Thank you Mr. Speaker. I would want to ask the Minister of Agriculture. We have ARDA Estates in
Zimbabwe that fall under the Government. Some of them, for example, at Sanyati, the ARDA Estate is now being called the Game Loft and there is no farming that is taking place. There used to be some farming activities and they would deliver their grain to the GMB but now, there is no activity going on. Instead, they are busy slaughtering beasts that were left by ARDA.
As the Minister, are you aware of that and we would want to know whether Government is benefiting from the Game Loft?
THE MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE, MECHANISATION AND IRRIGATION DEVELOPMENT (DR. MADE): I do not think
that is a policy issue, it is a technical issue. The hon. member has to put it in writing.
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Hon. Chaderopa, your question
might need a detailed explanation. Can you put the question in writing so that you get a detailed response?
- NCUBE: Is there any policy to protect our beef industry against the imports?
THE ACTING SPEAKER: Hon. Minister, if you have anything to do with the beef imports that you may want to share with the House, you can go ahead and respond.
THE MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE, MECHANISATION
AND IRRIGATION DEVELOPMENT (DR. MADE): Mr. Speaker,
I had the privilege of listening to the hon. member whispering ‘imports from Argentina’. Generally speaking, from a policy point of view, we look after our farmers first and we look after our agriculture sector in terms of the overall policy. As the hon. member and the House are aware, currently we are importing livestock from Botswana in a programme that is agreed to between the two countries. We also have an appeal at the moment, from Namibia because all these countries are also affected just as we are, by the drought but they do not have the capacity to offload so many animals in terms of the capacities of their abattoirs. As member states, in the SADC region, we do consider relationships that are brought up because of those natural factors that I have mentioned. Today it is them, tomorrow it will be us; thus the consideration that we give but we do weigh also the position of the consumers. Our burden is to look after everybody but we are obligated to look after each other in terms of the regional interests as well. I thank you Mr. Speaker.
- DZIRUTWE: Thank you Mr. Speaker. My question is directed to the Minister of Agriculture. Not too long ago, there was some kind of get together between the ministry and the Committee on Agriculture where we were trying to promote the stakeholders in the industry of millers. They were supposed to fund maize or flour production like tobacco out-growers’ farmers but in yesterday’s paper, they were explaining that only 2000 hectares of wheat had been put under cultivation by deadline. So, this disconnects what was recommended and what is on the ground. How do you explain that?
THE MINISTER OF AGRICULTURE, MECHANISATION
AND IRRIGATION DEVELOPMENT (DR. MADE): The hon.
member is correct in stating that, that is the position but we must also relate to the timing of that.
First and foremost, the farmers and the bankers or anyone who supports farmers also considers the security of wheat growing in terms of electricity. Wheat is not a crop where you grow and you take chances in terms of rainfall, you have to have 100% security in terms of electricity. It is totally dependent on full irrigation. I would say, that is the most critical factor and a good number of farmers as you know right now, have their electricity switched off because they owe ZESA money. That is the most critical factor and the bankers as well as the investors also look at that. So that is the most difficult part of the winter crop.
- CHINYADZA: I know that some aspects of this question were asked last time when we had question time but I would like to have clarification from Minister Matinenga with respect to what is actually going on relating to the issues of elections, dates of elections and the registration that is taking place. We know that there is a mandatory 30 day voter registration that is supposed to be taking place and yet we know that at any station, in fact, it has been publicised that it will take only four days on the outside, in some cases only two days. I do not know whether this has got any impact in terms of our timetables for the general elections, and obviously taking into consideration the ruling by the Constitutional Court that elections should be held before the 31st of July, 2013.
THE MINISTER OF CONSTITUTIONAL AND
PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (ADV. MATINENGA): May I thank
the Hon. Member for the more than one question which he has posed.
Let me begin by making reference to the judgment of the Constitutional Court, a judgment which obliges the President to proclaim harmonised elections for this year by the 31st of July, 2013.
Mr. Speaker Sir, the judgment of the Constitutional Court as our most senior court is a final judgment and this Government or anybody associated with it is obliged to accept that ruling. The law does not sanction the impossible and even when the most senior court makes a ruling, if that ruling is impossible to carry out then there are other recourses to follow in order to enhance that judgment of the
Constitutional Court.
Mr. Speaker, we have got a brand new Constitution which imposes obligations on all our part before the holding of the harmonised elections. What are these obligations? The first one as the Hon. Member has pointed out is the obligation to carry out an intensive voter registration exercise. We are all aware, and the Registrar General’s office and ZEC have made it very clear that this exercise only commenced on Monday, 10 June, 2013. In terms of Schedule 6, Section 6, sub-Section 3 of our Constitution, this voter registration exercise must take at least 30 days. What it means therefore, is that this voter registration, if we want to follow our Constitution, will take us to the 9th of July, 2013.
Again, in terms of our Constitution, a period of 14 days is mandatory from proclamation to nomination court but one cannot have a proclamation or nomination before a roll is closed. So it stands to reason with respect, that you can only have a proclamation when that roll is closed on the 9th of July, 2013. What it means therefore, is that if one has to factor in the constitutional provision for a nomination court which must be at least 14 days from the date of that proclamation, then you only need or you start counting from the 10th of July, 2013 and the nomination will be on the 24th of July, 2013.
Thereafter Mr. Speaker, and again this is our Constitution, polling must then be held 30 days after nomination court day. If your nomination court day is on the 24th of July, 2013, it means that 30 days thereafter will be the 25th of August, 2013 which is now your polling day. What this means then is that your constitutional judgment, unfortunately, has ordered the impossible. So what must be done in the circumstances? Nobody, and I want to repeat this, nobody is saying that we must be or that the President must be in contempt of the Court. No, but there are legal avenues which can be explored in order to, in fact, give credence to the Constitutional Court position. What does one do?
Mr. Speaker Sir, one can approach that Court which gave that decision, in this instance, the Constitutional Court, and seek an indulgency to carry out the Order in an extended period. What should be done with respect is that an approach should be made to that same Court and that same Court, on proper convincing, will not find any difficulty in extending that Order of performance which it set for the 31st of July, 2013 so that it gives possibility to the various processes which are set out in our Constitution. By so doing, we are in fact enhancing the power of the Constitutional Court. It is not being in contempt but it is to realise that certain things can simply not be done within the time this Constitutional Court says it must be done.
This is not something new. Indeed, there are a lot of situations where, for some reason or other, a court has not been favoured with all the factors it should have taken into account when coming to a decision. When that court is approached, it is being approached in humility with respect and it is being advised that there were certain factors which were not placed before it when it came to a decision. Again Mr. Speaker, hon. members will be aware that in respect of the three by-elections in Matabeleland North, the President saw it fit to approach the court to seek an extension within which he was supposed to announce those dates.
There is nothing inconsistent in what the Constitution says. There is nothing inconsistent with the dates which I have set out because that is perfectly within our Constitution and that is perfectly within what our courts are able to do under the circumstances.
Hon members will agree with me that it would be very unfortunate if our brand new Constitution, which is bringing in these new values, is breached well before the ink is dry on that very document. Obviously, when one looks at the dates which I have set out, we are already encroaching on the period when the UNWTO is going to be held. Obviously, these are the other exigencies which may not have been placed before the Constitutional Court when it came to make its decision. When this is done and when there is this clash, obviously, one will have to say we need to weigh our priorities. I can say you look at an election in this country, maybe it can be held in the first two weeks of September.
- CHINYADZA: My question relates to the issue of voter registration and the interpretation of the law itself. When you say 30days, does it mean 30-days of the Registrar General’s Office going out or it is 30-days of people registering at a particular ward or registration centre? What does the law say?
ADV MATINENGA: I thank the hon. member for the question
and maybe I should apologise to him because this question was actually part of the first question which he raised which I inadvertently did not address.
When you look at the Constitution, the interpretation given to Schedule 6, Section 6 subsection (3) in regard to the intensive voter registration is very clear and unambiguous. That provision speaks about the conduct of an intensive voter registration exercise in terms of this Constitution. That conduct, as I said in my earlier response, is a conduct which clearly recognises the office of the Registrar General, supervised by ZEC, going out to carry out that exercise.
Those two offices have been very clear as to when they commenced the conduct of an intensive voter registration exercise. It is the 10th of June 2013, two days ago.
- MAHLANGU: You have mentioned about the voter
registration and voter inspection which is currently taking place now.
Since there is voter registration and inspection, what will happen to those new voters when they are registered in terms of inspecting the voters roll? Are we going to have another voter inspection exercise again?
ADV MATINENGA: I thank the hon. member for this question.
Again, I want to go back to the provisions of the Constitution and the provision which we are addressing today talks about voter registration and inspection. That is what the provision says.
In practice, what is happening is that, when these teams go out at a particular site to do what it needs to do, firstly you have a line where a person who is attending will have to check whether his name is registered or not. If that person is not registered according to the roll at that particular station, that person then goes into another line where he is registered. Assuming that person does not qualify or does not have a national registration card, he then goes to a line where he can get an identity card. You have at a particular registration station a combo of services which answers to all the complaints which may arise at any particular given time.
Where that person is a new registrant, what we have said and we have agreed to this in Cabinet is that, at that stage when he registers, he must be given a slip so that the slip can be taken to a polling station and he can be able to vote with that slip together with his identity card. There is no need for him to go again and inspect because already he has got that registration slip and he cannot be prejudiced in him trying to exercise his right to vote come election time.
- MATONGA: In his presentation, the minister seems to have
indicated that the Constitutional Court, in its wisdom or absent of it, coming to a judgment may have been misled into coming to a judgment. Could the hon. member highlight the information that was either withheld of misleading to the Constitutional Court in coming to their decision?
ADV MATINENGA: Let me thank the hon. member for
misinterpreting what I said. I never said that the Constitutional Court was misled. In fact, Hansard will vindicate me on this aspect. What I said is this – when a court makes a decision, it makes a decision on the facts which are presented to it. The Constitutional Court made a decision on the facts which were presented to it and I said that a court does not seek to make a decision which is impossible to carry out. If a person can be able to go before it and say in terms of the provisions of our Constitution, we are unable to do a, b, c, d, and convince the Supreme Court, then the Supreme Court will act accordingly.
- CROSS: Thank you Mr. Speaker. I would like to ask the
Minister of Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs to outline to this House what legislative programme lies in front of it in the next two weeks? We have two weeks remaining for this House after which it will be dissolved. In those two weeks, we have to pass a number of pieces of legislation related to the implementation of the Constitution, the first of which was approved by Cabinet yesterday. I would like to ask the minister what pieces of legislation does he envisage coming to this House in the next two weeks and when does he expect them to be presented to us?
THE MINISTER OF CONSTITUTIONAL AND
PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (ADV. MATINENGA): Thank you Mr. Speaker. May I thank the hon. member for the question he has asked. It is a question which is important, particularly as we look at our new Constitution and as we go for elections. It is indeed true that the Electoral Bill was presented in the Cabinet yesterday. Cabinet discussed that Bill, a Bill which is the product of negotiation between the three main political parties.
I am glad to report that Cabinet did reach a consensus on the presentation yesterday. Before I left Cabinet yesterday to come to Parliament, I specifically asked the Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs as to when he anticipated bringing this Bill to Parliament. What he told me is that he is only able to do so next week. Mr. Speaker Sir, I am unfortunately unable to tell the member how many pieces of legislation are going to be brought before this august House before it is dissolved on the 29th of June 2013.
The reason why I am unable to do so is that in terms of the manner in which we operate, each particular ministry is mandated with administering various statutes and the responsibility to bring to Parliament any amendments or any repeals in regards to those statutes rests with that particular minister. If I had the responsibility to look at all legislation to see that it complies with our Constitution, I would be looking at a lot of pieces of legislation. You have your Rural District Councils Act, Urban Councils Act, Political Finances Act, Defence Act, Police Act, which must be realigned with the Constitution.
As I said, these particular pieces of legislation are the responsibilities of the various ministers who administer those pieces of legislation. One is always hopeful that those ministers will be allowed the irresponsibilities and that they will be able to then bring those pieces of legislation in so far as they impact on an election which is going to come very soon. I thank you.
- J. M. GUMBO Thank you Mr. Speaker. In view of the answer that the Hon. Minister has given and the number of the pieces of legislation that he thinks can be brought to the House, what will happen in the event that the President prorogues Parliament before those Bills come into the House? Does it mean that the Minister is going to recommend that the life of this Parliament gets extended or what happens? Thank you.
ADV. MATINENGA: Thank you Mr. Speaker. I would like to thank the hon. member for that question. The life of this Parliament is not going to be extended, at least not on my recommendation. I say so
Mr. Speaker, yes, Parliament’s life can be extended but it can only be extended in certain prescribed circumstances. For instance, if we are in an emergency or in a time of war. Despite the various fights we have, I do not really believe by any iota of imagination that we can qualify for the extension of Parliament.
So what it means is that come the 29th of June, 2013, if what needs to be done has not been done, then we just have to proceed in that manner. But, the President still has in reserve the temporary Presidential Powers Act. It is a piece of legislation which I am not fond of, but in the event that the President feels that it is necessary to give effect to certain issues which cannot be given effect to come the 29th June, 2013, he may care to look at that piece of legislation but as I said, it is not a piece of legislation which I would recommend anybody to look at.
- KANZAMA: I still have a problem hon. minister. So I still want to refer my question back to the issue of elections. I do not know whether it is a suggestion or whatever explanation. You are saying if none of you in cabinet approaches the court to seek extension of their ruling, how are you going to compromise for the country to go for elections by 31st July, 2013?
ADV. MATINENGA: Thank you Mr. Speaker. I want to thank the hon. member for that follow up question. Let me make this clear. The judgement of the Constitutional court is final but it does not mean that there are no ways to seek an extension for the performance of a duty imposed by that judgement. So what it means is this; if the President does not want to be in contempt, then he must find common ground with his partners. They have to agree on a date and then to approach the Constitutional court to seek an extension so that elections are then held by that date which is agreed by all the parties.
*MR. CHIMBETETE: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. My question
is directed to the Minister of Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs. I do agree that the 30 days which is agreed upon for the re-registering has started. So if they are taking 30 minutes to serve one person, how many people will be registered in a day? I do not know what could be done to see how many people are being registered at each centre so that they have covered enough people.
THE MINISTER OF CONSTITUTIONAL AND
PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (ADV. MATINENGA): Mr. Speaker
Sir, let me thank the hon. member for that question. It is a technical question but thank God from the experience I have had in my Constituency, I can answer this question.
Firstly, Cabinet has decided that we are going to do a seven-day registration per ward. After that seven-day registration, we are going to reassess the position. If we have to go back to certain sites, we are going to do so, so that everybody who needs to register has been registered.
What is happening on the ground Mr. Speaker Sir, I had the fortune to phone my Constituency during the lunch hour because there is a unit at a place called Nerutanga Primary School which is registering people as I speak. The information I got is that as of 1330 hours, 736 persons had been registered from Monday. Yesterday, the registering unit went well into the night to finish everybody who had attended.
So, as long as we are able to track what is happening at these sites, we should be able to bring corrective measures in the event that this process is not going properly. What the Minister of Justice has undertaken is to be available every time so that this information is put either to ZEC or the Registrar-General, so that any problems which are arising at any given Constituency or at any given site are addressed as soon as possible.
So, indeed if there are problems in Nyanga South as the Member of Parliament seems to suggest, I am quite happy to get the details. If he does not want to approach the Minister of Justice, I can approach the Minister of Justice on his behalf, so that whatever problems being experienced can be addressed.
MR DZINGIRAI: As you are well aware, the life of Parliament comes to an end on the 29th June, 2013. What is the situation regarding the outstanding allowances?
THE MINISTER OF CONSTITUTIONAL AND
PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (ADV. MATINENGA): I wish we
can change seats so that the Clerk of Parliament can come and answer that question. Yes, whilst I sympathise with the question raised, I am sure that this is a technical administrative issue. The Clerk of
Parliament will circulate a minute to tell members what the effect of the dissolution of Parliament, with regards to their allowances is going to be.
- GWIYO: My question is directed to the Minister of Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs. Is it correct to also assume that the decision of the Constitutional Court has the effect of amending the requirements in terms of the timeframe of calling for an election?
THE MINISTER OF CONSTITUTIONAL AND
PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (ADV. MATINENGA): Thank you
Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker Sir, there are there arms of State, you have
the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary – [AN HON.
MEMBER: Aahh, legislature haina basa] - Do not worry, there is going to be light at the end of the tunnel. This new Constitution will look after that.
Mr. Speaker, when the Constitutional Court or any Court for that matter sits to decide on a particular matter, what that Court is doing is not to take the power from another arm of Government but simply to exercise its power in terms of the Constitution. What the Constitutional
Court was doing is simply to interpret the Constitution, in this case, the
Lancaster House Constitution Section 58 and Section 63 of that Constitution and to determine as to when the obligation to call for an election was to be.
That does not mean that the Constitutional Court is rewriting the
Constitution because it cannot do so. It has got no competence to do so.
In fact, when we look at the judgment, particularly the judgment of
Justice Malaba, he says very clearly ‘that whilst a Constitution may say something which you do not like, that does not mean then that we fight against that Constitution because there is something we do not like’. The Constitution may say anything, whether you like it or not, that is the Constitution.
So, whether you like it or not, the Constitution has set out various stages in respect of which we need to go through those stages before we go to an election. We then do not follow those stages, we face our Constitution peril.
MR CHIMHINI: My question is directed to the Minister of Constitutional and Parliamentary Affairs. Can you clarify the position regarding the registration of aliens? Reading today’s paper, there is a lot of confusion. What is the correct position?
THE MINISTER OF CONSTITUTIONAL AND
PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (ADV. MATINENGA): Thank you
Mr. Speaker, may I thank the hon. member for that question. I think Constitutional provisions regarding what are called aliens or not aliens have never been clearly understood in this country. If you look at the
Lancaster House Constitution, that Constitution clearly said that anybody born in Zimbabwe of a Zimbabwean origin or a parent who is a Zimbabwean citizen is a citizen of Zimbabwe. What it meant was the following; assuming your father came from either South Africa, Mozambique, Zambia or Malawi and your father then married somebody from Dotito or from Buhera, it then meant that one of your parents was a Zimbabwean citizen by birth and you were automatically, in terms of the Constitution, before this new Constitution, you are a citizen of this country’. What we then experienced was, I do not know whether it was a completely misunderstanding of the position by the
Registrar-General’s Office or just a refusal by that office to implement that provision because we know that the Registrar General was taken to court on numerous occasions by persons similarly situated.
We always used to refer to these people as aliens when in fact they are not aliens in terms of the Lancaster House Constitution. So we need to be very clear that before the new Constitution, that was the
Constitution dispensation despite the fact that the Registrar General did not follow the law with respect to aliens.
When we come to the new Constitution, we have carried that same provision which makes that person who is an alien or who was described as an alien to say look, this person is not an alien, he is a Zimbabwean citizen. But we have gone further and we have put in place what is contained in section 43 of the Constitution which now looks at those persons who are born of parents who come from SADC countries. So what it means is that, your father is born in Mozambique, he comes into Zimbabwe. Your mother is born in Zambia, she comes to Zimbabwe. They came to Zimbabwe at different times, and they fall in love and as a result have got a child. They bear a child in Zimbabwe, that child in terms of our new section 43 of the Constitution, is a citizen of
Zimbabwe by birth. So there should be no confusion at all in regards to what is a so called alien or not.
However, there is one thing which people must be able to distinguish, is that whilst the progeny of these two people is a Zimbabwean citizen by birth, the mother and father are not necessarily citizens of Zimbabwe by birth for obvious reasons. So, they need to go through the process of acquiring Zimbabwean citizenship if they want to be Zimbabwean citizens.
Questions without Notice were interrupted by the Acting Speaker in terms of Standing Order No. 34
WRITTEN ANSWER TO QUESTION WITH NOTICE
CRITERIA USED IN THE SELECTION OF BEAM
- MR GARADHI asked the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture to explain to the House the criteria used in the selection of Basic Education Assistance Module Beneficiaries.
THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION, SPORT, ARTS AND
CULTURE (SENATOR COLTART): The Community Select
Committee established at each primary school will select the vulnerable and neediest children from those that submit applications and consider the following:
Orphans with both parents deceased and have no one to pay for their fees and levies;
Orphans with one parent who are unable to pay;
Children in school but failing to pay or having difficulties in paying levies, tuition and examination fees;
Children who have dropped out of school due to economic circumstances;
Children of school going age who have never been to school due to economic reasons;
Children in special schools with disabilities;
Children from child headed families; and
The support for each pupil will be re-evaluated annually provided they continue to meet the requirements.
Community Selection Committee (CSC)
Councillors, who are civil leaders elected democratically convene meetings of communities living in the catchment area of a primary school and preside over the election of the CSC;
At least six months community representatives are elected by the community members;
Three members of the school Development Committee, one of whom is head of the school are elected into the CSC but cannot be office bearers;
Each CSC should ensure that at least 30% of their memberships are women;
The CSC shall have a term of office of one year;
After the elections, the CSC will call for, receive and vet applications for assistance for children in their community at both primary and secondary school level as per submitted budget;
The CSC will prepare and submit approved lists of beneficiaries to the district Education Officer who check together with the District Social Welfare Officer consistency and corrections before passing on to the PMU for disbursement of funds; and
The District Office will compile lists to the PMU and provincial Education Director for information and onward transmission to Head Office.
MOTION
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
THE MINISTER OF CONSTITUTIONAL AND
PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS: I move that Orders of the Day,
Number 1 to 3 be stood over until all the Orders of the Day have been disposed of.
Motion put and agreed to.
MOTION
FIRST REPORT OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON
MINES AND ENERGY ON THE DIAMOND MINING WITH
SPECIAL REFERENCE TO MARANGE DIAMOND FIELDS
- CHINDORI CHININGA: I move the motion standing in
my name, that this House takes note of the First Report of the Portfolio Committee on Mines and Energy on the Diamond Mining with Special Reference to Marange Diamond Fields.
- MUNENGAMI: I second.
- CHINDORI-CHININGA: The Committee on Mines and
Energy through its oversight responsibility conducted an enquiry into the diamond mining sector for the period 2010 to 2013. The purpose of the enquiry was basically to hold the Executive accountable for its programmes, policies and actions in the sector, taking into account the fact that the financial hopes on revenue proceeds for Government, in 2012 and 2013 have been premised on the buoyant performance of the diamond sector. The findings and observations of the Committee span over a period of four years. The delay in tabling this Report has largely been due to two reasons. Firstly, there was a contestation of power between the Executive and the Legislature over access to information and entry by the Committee to carry on site visits in Marange. Secondly, the Committee was compelled to keep pace with rapid changes and developments in the sector, which made it imperative to base the findings and recommendations on relevant and accurate information.
During the enquiry the Committee was also cognisant of the fact that a lot of negative information on Marange diamonds had been churned out by both national and international media, hence it was also important for the Committee to get accurate information, which it could convey back to the citizens as their elected representatives. The enquiry was fraught with a number of challenges but there were also positive outcomes which emerged during the process such as the KP certification of most of the mining companies in Marange. The Committee unearthed a number of irregularities and loopholes at each of the different stages of the diamond value chain. Despite these challenges, the Committee believes that if proper mechanisms, strong administration and adherence to both national and international laws are observed, the country would be able to derive maximum benefit from its diamonds.
1. Background Information
There are a number of diamond mining companies operating in Zimbabwe which include: River Ranch, Murowa Diamonds, Mbada
Diamonds, Anjin, Marange Resources and Diamond Mining Company (DMC). Government, through ZMDC entered into joint venture agreements with a 50/50 shareholding in the following companies,
Mbada, Anjin and DMC. Marange resource is owned 100% by ZMDC. When the Committee began its enquiry in 2010, another company was in operation known as Canadile Miners but it has since been de-listed by
Government and its special grant was taken over by Marange Resources. The sector has remained largely small for a very long time until the huge discovery of deposits in Marange. It is estimated that the country now has the capacity to supply 25% of the global diamond market.
2. Methodology
The Committee held several consultative meetings and conducted three on-site visits. Two meetings were held in camera upon request from the witnesses. During the data gathering process, the Committee noted with concern that there was no free flow of information because some of the witnesses were either too defensive or uncooperative or unwilling to attend the Committee's meetings.
The key stakeholders in this enquiry were: the Minister of Mines, Hon. O. Mpofu; the former deputy Minister of Mines, Hon. M. Zwizwai; the KP Monitor for Zimbabwe, Mr. A. Chikane; the former Permanent Secretary of Mines and Mining Development, Mr. Musukutwa, former and current Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation (ZMDC)
Board and its officials, Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe
(MMCZ) officials, ZRP Minerals Unit, Mbada Board members,
Canadile Miners Board Officials, Murowa Diamond Mining
Officials, River Ranch Mine Officials, Marange Resources officials,
DMC officials and Anjin Officials. The Committee also met the Taskforce on Relocation of the community affected by mining operations.
The Committee conducted its first field visit in 2009 where it went to Murowa Diamonds in Zvishavane, River Ranch in Beitbridge and
Marange Resources in Chiadzwa. During that period, Government had not yet signed any joint venture agreement with any company to operate in Marange. After a number of joint venture agreements were signed from the period 2010 onwards, the Committee was denied entry twice to conduct on-site enquiries. The Committee was only granted entry into Marange in 2012, two years later after the enquiry had begun. The Committee had an opportunity to visit four mining companies operating in the area, that include, Anjin, DMC, Mbada and Marange Resources.
Mbada Diamonds and DMC were not very co-operative during the Committee's visit whilst Marange Resources and Anjin were forthcoming in sharing information and showing the Committee their operations. The Committee failed to conduct a public hearing with the community living in Chiadzwa and was advised that it was inappropriate due to security reasons. However, the Committee managed to visit Arda Transau where some of the re-located communities were now living.
3. Findings
3.1 Ministerial Accountability to Parliament
During the four year period of the enquiry, the Committee observed with concern that the Executive and its officers were generally not willing to be held accountable by Parliament. This was evidenced through the Committee's experiences as it conducted this enquiry. This goes against the basic universal principles of Ministerial Accountability to the Legislature as enshrined in national or international law. Erskine May, the well renowned writer on Parliamentary Practice says 'Ministers have a duty to Parliament to account and be held to account for the policies, decisions and actions of their departments; it is of paramount importance that ministers give accurate and truthful information to Parliament, correcting any inadvertent error at the earliest opportunity.... [1] In other words, Parliament has a universal right to hold the Executive accountable and to acquire accurate information for it to effectively discharge its constitutional obligations. These were the experiences and observations of the Committee as it tried to hold the Executive Accountable:
3.1.1 Committee's Witnesses
Standing Order 167 empowers Portfolio Committees to call anyone except the Head of State, to appear before it to give evidence. In 2010, on several occasions the Committee invited the mining companies operating at the time, Mbada Diamonds and Canadile Miners to appear before it to give evidence on their operations. There was resistance from the two companies and the Committee was left with no option but to invoke Section 9 of the Privileges, Immunities and Powers of Parliament Act, which states that Parliament may issue summons, delivered by the police to a witness to attend before it. It was only then that the company officials attended the Committee's hearings. The Committee also observed that there seemed to be a lot of influence by the Ministry of
Mines in discouraging these company officials from attending the Committee's hearings.
The second incident was where the former board Chairperson of ZMDC, Ms. G. Mawarire lied twice to the Committee whilst giving evidence. This was clearly in violation of section 19 of the Privileges Act which says “any person who willfully and corruptly gives before Parliament or a Committee a false answer to any question material to the subject of enquiry ….shall be guilty of an offense”'[2] The Committee observed that the lack of disclosure of accurate information by some witnesses was due to fear of being reprimanded, by someone in authority in the parent Ministry. Erskine May goes on to say one of the principles of Ministerial accountability to Parliament is that 'Ministers should require civil servants who give evidence before Parliamentary
Committees … to be as helpful as possible in providing accurate, truthful and full information in accordance with the law [3] The Committee observed that some of the officials from the Executive and from the mining companies were not very helpful in terms of providing accurate information.
3.1.2 Denial of Entry into Chiadzwa Diamond Fields
Apart from Committee meetings, oversight over the Executive is also achieved by conducting field visits. Over a period of two years the
Committee was denied entry to conduct on-site inspections of the
mining companies operating in Marange. The first attempt was made in April 2010 where the Committee was denied entry when it had already camped in Mutare. The first attempt was very unpleasant because the Committee was constantly mobbed by security agents during the three day encampment in Mutare. The second attempt was in August 2010 where the Committee was denied entry before it had even left the precincts of Parliament building. On both occasions, the Committee was denied entry on the grounds that it needed clearance from the police since the area was protected under the Protected Places and Areas Act. What baffled the Committee was that while it was being denied entry some of its stakeholders during the enquiry that included, the KP Monitor on Zimbabwe, Mr. Abbey Chikane and other international monitoring groups were allowed free and easy access into Marange.
Permission to tour Marange was finally granted in April 2012.
3.2 Financial Contribution of the Sector to both Treasury and the Economy
3.2.1 Contribution to Treasury
The Committee observed with concern that from the time that the country was allowed to trade its diamonds on the world market, Government has not realised any meaningful contributions from the sector. This is despite the fact that production levels and the revenue generated from exports has been on the increase as shown on the table below. There are serious discrepancies between what Government receives from the sector and what the diamond mining companies claim to have remitted to Treasury.
YEAR | PRODUCTION
(CARATS) |
EXPORTS (US$) |
2011 | 8,719,000 | 233 741 247 |
2012 | 12,000,000 | 563 561 495 |
2013 | 16,900,000 (anticipated) | - |
Table 1: Diamonds Production Levels and Revenue Generated from
Exports
(Source: Budget Statement: 2013)
In June 2012, the Chairman of Mbada Diamonds, the largest producer of diamonds in the country informed the Committee that their company had remitted over US$293 million to Treasury. The breakdown of the remittances is shown in the table below:
NB: This section relates to correspondence we wrote to ZMDC and Ministry of Mines and Mining Development. The Committee sought to secure information from the Ministry of Finance in writing. The Ministry of Finance advised us to obtain information directly from companies and/or through Ministry of Mines. They stated that, for purposes of safeguarding the confidentiality of information received from tax payers, release of such information to the Minister is restricted as provided through section 34A (3a) of Revenue Authority Act. This legislation limits the provision of information only to total as opposed to disaggregated amounts. A similar letter was written to the Ministry of
Mines and no response was received.
The only company that was willing to provide this information is Mbada Diamonds which is as follows;
Line Item | Amount US$ |
Royalties | 76 192 302 |
Resource Depletion Fee | 33 943 338 |
Marketing Fees | 5 965 412 |
Dividends | 117 202 859 |
Corporate Tax | 43 515 858 |
Withholding Tax | 17 829 562 |
Table 3: Remittances submitted to Treasury by Mbada Diamonds[4]
However, the Minister of Finance in 2013 Budget Statement lamented the low proceeds to Treasury and in 2012, Government only received a total dividend of US$41 million. This was also the same amount that was remitted to the fiscus in 2011, yet Mbada Diamonds claims it remitted a dividend of over US$117 million which is far above what Treasury received for the combined period of 2011 and 2012. Notwithstanding these poor inflows in 2011 and 2012, Treasury still hopes in 2013 to receive US$400 million from diamond proceeds to fund critical national programmes such as the referendum, the harmonised elections and the UNWTO to be held in August this year.
These were the observations of the Committee on the financial discrepancies:
(a) Sanctions
The United States of America has placed sanctions on diamond companies operating in Marange. This has made it difficult for the companies to effectively market and trade their diamonds at competitive prices. Currently, the diamonds are sold at below 25% of the normal price. In the process, the sanctioned diamond companies are trading their diamonds through unconventional means because major international banks, insurance companies and couriers do not want to be associated with Marange diamonds. As a result of these financial restrictions, a number of loopholes have been created leading to fiscal leakages, promotion of corruption and national insecurity. The USA seems adamant not to remove the sanctions because a letter was written in 2011 by the Minister of Finance requesting for the removal of restrictions because of the impact it was having on the socio-economic development of the country. In an act of solidarity, the World Diamond Council also called for the removal of the sanctions at a Diamond Conference that was held in Victoria Falls in 2012.
The irony is that the companies operating in Marange were certified as KP compliant, hence should have the freedom to trade equally like all players on the world market. However, these companies have been denied that privilege based on unconfirmed allegations that they were involved in undemocratic practices aimed at undermining democracy and human rights abuses in Zimbabwe. The Committee believes if the situation remains as it is, the country will not be able to realise optimal benefits from its diamonds.
(b) Taxation System
Generally, the mining sector has a poor taxation system. This is probably one of the reasons why there are discrepancies between what Treasury claims to have received and what the mining companies would have remitted. In the past few years, the Ministry of Finance has introduced piecemeal measures to improve on revenue proceeds from the mining sector. Taxation from diamond sector is in the form of corporate tax, PAYE, VAT, royalties and other levies. The Committee observed that the Ministry of Finance usually targets an increase of royalties on diamonds without necessarily looking at the other forms of taxes. In 2012, the same Minister approved a Statutory Instrument which regulated fees and levies for the mining sector. The Statutory Instrument introduced astronomical charges which is choking the growth of the diamond sector and other sectors in mining. The Statutory Instrument was certified as invalid by the Parliamentary Legal Committee and constitutionally has to be repealed but the Executive took no action. It is the Committee's contention that revenue proceeds to the fiscus will continued to be low and irregular if the Ministry of Finance does not introduce a comprehensive taxation law.
(c) Legal and Policy Framework
Government has been procrastinating in introducing a comprehensive law to regulate the operations of the diamond sector. Such a law is critical in that it will clearly highlight the financial system to regulate the industry and to hold any offenders accountable. The Committee noted with concern that there was divided discourse within the Executive on whether to introduce a Diamond Bill or to amend the Precious Stones Trade Act as the principle law to govern the diamond sector. Such delays in introducing the law will have a negative bearing in promoting financial accountability and transparency of revenue proceeds from diamonds as well as clearly laying out the policy framework for the benefit of potential investors. Although a diamond policy was formulated in 2012, it does not have the force of law in ensuring there is compliance, transparency and accountability in the industry.
3.2.2 Investments made by Joint Venture Companies
One of the ways in which the economy grows is through direct investment. The Committee observed that Government may have been prejudiced through the overstated amount of investments that were made by its joint venture partners. In 2010, the Committee was informed that the shareholders agreement stipulated that Mbada Diamonds and Canadile Miners were to contribute US$100 million each, for purposes of financing the operations. In 2012, Mbada Diamonds informed the Committee that it had made investments worth US$185 million. However, ZMDC in its due diligence report expressed reservations on this matter when it stated that 'the acquisition of equipment and other assets for the joint venture company, tender procedures and valuations must be observed and values be agreed to by both parties. This is important in order to avoid overpricing by investors'.[5] ZMDC also told the Committee it had not done a full audit of the investments made by the two companies.
The Committee observed with concern that the true value of investments made into the country cannot be ascertained in the absence of a proper valuation from Government agencies. It is possible for these companies to finance their operations from the proceeds of the mining operations which is in violation of the Companies Act. At the same time, the Committee was concerned about the manner in which certain equipment was brought into the country, for instance in 2010, ZMDC was given a directive to purchase equipment at Hot Springs that belonged to J W Lotter for R5.6 million and ZIMRA was paid US$46
- However, the owner of the equipment demanded a further US$125 000 for transport charges and yet under normal circumstances when duty is paid it includes transport.
3.3 Transparency and Accountability in the Diamond Sector
Since the inception of formalised mining in Chiadzwa, the Committee observed that the sector has been dogged with issues of transparency and accountability in the production, marketing, fiscal contributions and general administration. The Committee noted with concern that there was lot of work that still needed to be done to improve on transparency and accountability in the entire value chain of the country's diamonds. The key areas that the Committee observed which touched on transparency and accountability include: the aborted auction sale, the selection process of joint venture partners, corporate governance systems in the joint venture companies, the smuggling and leakages of diamonds from Marange as well the mining contracts signed by Government.
3.3.1 Aborted Auction Sale
When formalised operations began in Marange in 2009, there were two companies operating, namely, Mbada Diamonds and Canadile Miners. In January 2010 Mbada Diamonds attempted to auction its diamonds, in violation of both national and international law. The aborted diamond auction sale opened a pandora's box, revealing several irregularities and loopholes in the entire diamond value chain. These were the observations of the Committee following the aborted auction
sale:
- Relevant Government institutions that are involved in the entire diamond value chain professed ignorance about the auction sale.
This was a sign that the institutions were not well coordinated in the production and marketing of the diamonds in Marange. The relevant institutions include ZMDC, MMCZ, ZRP Minerals Unit and the Ministry of Mines. It seems Mbada Diamonds took advantage of this weakness and attempted to auction the diamonds without the knowledge or presence of these institutions. At the same time, out of the ten board members of Mbada Diamonds only two members, Dr. Mhlanga and Mr. Kassel admitted of having knowledge of the attempted auction sale. So a major decision of auctioning the diamonds was made by a minority board decision which is uncharacteristic of any healthy company.
- The relevant Government institutions probably knew about the auction but because of fear of reprisals they would not admit it to the Committee. This is based on the fact that the aborted auction was announced through the State media and it is improbable that a subsidiary company of ZMDC would make such
bold pronouncements without informing its overarching board and the parent ministry.
- Mbada Diamonds displayed a 'big brother' syndrome such that some of the Government institutions were rendered powerless to question Mbada's decisions or actions. The Committee noted that this was emanating from the manner in which Mbada was selected to partner with Government and also in the manner in which the board members were appointed to sit on ZMDC's subsidiary boards.
3.3.2 Selection Criteria of Joint Venture Partners
In 2009, Government through ZMDC entered into joint venture partnerships with Reclaim and Core Mining companies, leading to the establishment of two companies, Mbada Diamonds and Canadile Miners respectively. The number of companies operating in Marange has since increased to four excluding Canadile Miners which has been de-listed. The Committee noted with concern that the selection process of the companies to operate in Marange had a number of flaws. These were the observations of the Committee:
- The selection of Reclaim and Core Mining to enter into joint venture partnerships with ZMDC was not done in accordance with any known precedents, procedures or with reference to any legislation in the country. The former ZMDC board chairperson, Mrs. Mawarire tried to mislead the Committee into believing that the choice of the two investors was made through a Cabinet decision. Later, she withdrew her submission when the Committee informed her that it had documentation of the Cabinet decision pertaining to that issue. The Cabinet minutes of 22nd July and 27th August 2008, simply encouraged ZMDC to enter into joint venture partnerships and did not specifically state that ZMDC should enter into joint ventures with Reclaim and Core Mining.
The Minister of Mines, Dr Mpofu, in a separate meeting with the Committee could not be drawn into revealing who chose the two investors to partner with ZMDC but stated that 'I was a new Minister and directed to go that way and that is the way it is'.[6] However, the Minister went on to justify the selection of two joint partners on the grounds that the economic situation prior to the formation of the inclusive Government was untenable and very few investors were willing to risk investing in Zimbabwe. The Committee observed with dismay that the minister and his officials did not want to disclose who selected the joint venture partners. They created the impression that the selection process was done by an unknown person or body and this is clearly unacceptable.
- There were a number of potential investors, during the period when Mbada Diamonds and Canadile Miners were chosen, who were willing to invest in Chiadzwa. The Committee was informed by the former Minister of Mines, Amos Midzi, that during his tenure in office, there were three companies that were willing to partner with ZMDC and that Reclaim and Core Mining were not among the three suitors. The question that the Committee could not find answers on was whether the two joint venture companies, Mbada Diamonds and Canadile Miners were the most suitable choice.
- The selection process created several administrative problems for ZMDC and for the parent ministry. The ZMDC board conducted a due diligence exercise on the two companies and the fact that the board had to accept the two joint venture fait accompli would not have changed the outcome of the due diligence. ZMDC seemed to have been coerced into accepting these two companies. It was not clear who or what exerted pressure on ZMDC to accept these two companies without following the normal acceptable standards and procedures.
- The due diligence report by ZMDC revealed that two investors were probably not the best suitors for the country. The due diligence report highlighted that the investors 'have no diamond mining as part of their vision and growth strategy. However, the enthusiasm to enter diamond mining in partnership with ZMDC
was noted. The two investors were chosen mainly for their capacity to provide financial resources and state of the art security systems.
- The failure to get information on the process used to select the two initial investors was highly frustrating and could not motivate the Committee to seek further information on how the rest of the other investors, namely Anjin and DMC were selected or how future investors would be selected.
3.3.3 Corporate Governance Structures in the Joint Venture
Companies
The Committee noted with concern the manner and the type of people who were being appointed to serve on ZMDC's subsidiary companies. These were the observations of the Committee:
- Board appointments to ZMDC's subsidiary companies were being made by the Minister of Mines, in clear violation of section 5 (2) of the ZMDC Act. In a letter written to the ZMDC Board Chairperson, the Minister stated that 'all appointments of Board members to subsidiary companies are done by the Minister of
Mines and Mining Development ...Any appointments that have been done outside this procedure are null and void”. Section 5 (2) of ZMDC Act, empowers the Minister to appoint the ZMDC board members only and not the board members of the subsidiary companies. The ZMDC board then has the responsibility in consultation with the minister, of appointing members to its subsidiary companies. The ZMDC board was rendered powerless when it came to the selection and appointment of members who sit on its subsidiary companies. It's only function is to regularise the appointments made by the minister. This is probably one of the reasons why the ZMDC board has little control and information over its subsidiary companies, namely Mbada, Anjin and
DMC.
- Mbada Diamonds showed no respect to the ZMDC board in a number of ways. The due diligence report by ZMDC board highlighted that, 'there is need for Reclaim (Mbada Diamonds) to recognise the
ZMDC board's authority, independence and effectiveness vis-a-vis Reclaim's interaction with the Ministry of Mines and Mining
Development. Reclaim as an investor should appreciate the importance of the ZMDC board to process the investment proposal through its
7 This observation was made before the investors governance process’. had begun operations in Marange and this was a warning indicator that ZMDC was most likely going to face problems with its joint venture partners.
- Due to the unilateral appointments to the subsidiary companies by the minister, certain individuals with a conflict of interest were appointed. The following people; Obey Chimuka, Ashton Ndlovu, Cougan Matanhire and Dr. Mhlanga had a conflict of interest. Dr Obey Chimuka used to be a board member of Marange Resources and yet he owned a company which traded in diamonds. Mr. Matanhire was a board member of Canadile Miners and yet he had links with MMCZ. Dr Mhlanga as Chairman of Mbada Diamonds was listed in the due diligence report of ZMDC as a shareholder of
Liparm, which is part of Reclaim Group but later crossed the floor,
7 Due Diligence Report by ZMDC, pg 3
from being on the side of the investor to represent the interests of Government. However, the Committee observed that if ZMDC board had been allowed to perform its legal mandate, such kinds of conflicts may have been avoided.
3.3.4 Smuggling and Leakages of Diamonds
In one of its hearings in 2010, the Committee was disheartened to hear that two senior security officers employed by Canadile Miners were found in possession of 57 pieces of diamonds at a ZRP road block at Hot Springs. This information came against a backdrop of disturbing articles circulated by the media concerning the historical profiles on some of the investors in Marange who were being accused of underhand dealings, such as drug trafficking and diamond smuggling. In one of the Committee's meeting, the joint venture partners denied the media allegations but in another separate Committee meeting, the Minister of Mines conceded that globally the diamond industry is run like a mafia, with very few 'clean' individuals. The Committee's worst fears were confirmed in November 2010, when Canadile mine was blacklisted by the Government following revelations that the company was involved in underhand dealings such as smuggling of diamonds.
3.3.5 Mining Contracts with the Joint Venture Partners
- Contract with Grandwell: The contract with Grandwell (Reclaim) leading to the formation of Mbada Diamonds showed that Government may be prejudiced in a number of ways. Of major concern is Clause 25.1 of the Shareholders Agreement where a 5% management fee will be paid to Grandwell (Reclaim) from the total turnover of the company's profits. At the same time, clause 25.5 provides a payment of 5% to Marange Resources in the form of a Resource Depletion Fee. Therefore by equating the 5% management fee with a 5% resource depletion is fundamentally flawed, unjust and not in the best interests of the country. The Committee also noted with concern that the 5% management fee on gross turnover is unrealistically high taking into consideration the fact that the same shareholders are entitled to an equal share on dividends.
- The Committee made a comparison of the management arrangements in the different joint venture agreements. There was no shared management between (Grandwell) Reclaim and ZMDC whereas in Canadile which is no longer in operation, there used to be shared management. In essence, it implies that Mbada Diamonds has full reign of all the operational and financial activities of the mine. Whatever profits or dividends are declared by Mbada, the Government has to accept it in good faith. The
Committee is of the opinion that the same arrangement reached by ZMDC and Canadile Miners of shared management, should also prevail in Mbada Diamonds and in the other joint venture companies. There is no justification for different kinds of management arrangement taking into account the fact that Government has similar interests and one arm of Government,
ZMDC which is representing its interests in all the companies.
In 2012, the Board Chairman of ZMDC, Mr. Masimirembwa confirmed to the Committee that the parastatal was not involved in the day to day running of operations of most of its subsidiary companies but believed that the information that they were given was correct. On a field visit to Marange in 2012, the Committee observed that ZMDC was more active in Marange Resources where Government has a 100% ownership whilst in the other companies, such as Anjin, Mbada and DMC, ZMDC behaved more like a bystander and yet Government has a 50% share ownership.
3.5 Relocation of the Chiadzwa Community
The Committee was informed that about 4 300 families will have to be relocated from Chiadzwa and about 1 800 will be relocated to Arda Transau near Mutare. Since 2010, a total of 693 families have been relocated. At least 780 households and 6 businesses have been evaluated and are set to receive compensation. The financial obligation to relocate and compensate the families and businesses has been placed on the joint venture companies and Government, through the Manicaland Provincial Relocation Committee headed by the Governor, provides technical and logistical support. The Committee had an opportunity to visit Arda Transau farm and was impressed with the infrastructure that has been put in place, such as houses, schools, shops and clinics. The Committee observed with concern that only 780 households have been evaluated and yet there are about 4 300 households that would be re-located. This will most likely prejudice the rest of the households from getting fair compensation. The Committee was also informed by the Provincial Administrator for Manicaland that the mining companies were not willing to co-operate in the construction of an irrigation project at Arda Transau so as to build stable and sustainable livelihoods for the communities. The Committee would like to implore the mining companies to re-consider their positions and build an irrigation scheme for the community.
However, the Committee was disappointed in that it failed to hold a public hearing with the community to hear of their re-location experiences and to get an understanding of how the valuation of their properties for compensation purposes had been done. At the same time the Committee observed that ZMDC and the Provincial Task force did not have a clear re-location policy to guide the mining companies in the re-location programme. It was left to the discretion of the mining houses. During the Committee's field visit in 2012, DMC stated that its primary purpose was to make profits and that the exhumation and re-burial of the communities’ graves was secondary.
The Committee had requested to hold a public hearing to hear from the community on the impacts of the mining operations and the impending re-location programme. Parliament Secretariat informed the Committee that authority to hold the hearing was refused by the relevant authorities. The Committee also noted with concern that there was lack of effective communication between the mining companies, the provincial relocation committee and the communities on the relocation programme. As a result, some households still living in Marange suspended most of their livelihoods such as farming on the grounds that they would be relocated. As a result, this caused anxiety and food insecurity within the community.
Below, is a table of the relocation status by the mining companies.
Company | Total number of
Houses to be Constructed |
Total Number of Houses Constructed | Total Number of
Households Allocated |
Anjin
Investments |
474 | 474 | 474 |
Mbada
Diamonds |
487 | 100 | 100 |
Diamond
Mining Company |
114 | 30 | 30 |
Marange
Resources |
350 | 184 | 116 |
Jinan
Investments |
350 | 110 | 31 |
Rera Diamonds | 92 | 0 | 0 |
Total | 1947 | 989 | 751 |
Out of the construction, Anjin has done far much better than the other companies. Discrepancies in CSR mandate Government to come up with a standard.
3.6 Empowerment of the Indigenous People in the Diamond
Sector
The diamond industry has the potential to stimulate substantive socio-economic growth through the development of upstream and downstream industries. The Committee observed that this will be difficult to achieve in the absence of a strong policy and legal framework. These were the observations of the Committee:
3.6.1 Cutting and Polishing Industry
The diamond policy that was adopted by Government in 2012, stipulates that 'a quota of all locally produced rough diamonds as set by the Minister of Mines and Mining Development shall be reserved for local beneficiation.'[7] In a meeting with the association of local cutters and polishers, the Committee noted with concern that Government was not very supportive in developing this sector. This was evidenced by the vague policy by Government in terms of the quota and the quality of gems to be supplied to the local cutters and polishers. At the same time, some local cutters and polishers lost their money to Government after paying licence fees without a corresponding duty of accessing the diamonds. The Committee would like to implore Government to seriously consider the development of local cutters and polishers as this has the potential to create more wealth and employment for the economy. The country's diamonds are being exported in raw form, creating more jobs and wealth for other countries. This is indeed a travesty of justice.
The Committee noted with concern that some of the diamond producers had plans to actively participate in the cutting and policy industry. This creates a conflict of interest and has the potential to stifle the growth of upcoming local cutters and polishers. The growth of the local cutters and polishers was also being impeded by exorbitant licence fees which were increased in 2012 to US$100 thousand renewable every year and yet there was no guarantee of receiving a parcel or reimbursement if the parcel is not delivered. Although the licence fees have since been reduced to US$50 thousand, the Committee observed that the majority of keen Zimbabweans would not be able to effectively participate in the sector. As a result, a number of local cutters and polishers had to fold up their operations and yet they had invested heavily through the acquisition of machinery and training of personnel.
The third observation made by the Committee was that Ministry of Mines had the responsibility of licensing the cutters and polishers and yet other players who are involved in value addition such as granite cutting and polishing as well as steel making, were under the responsibility of the Ministry of Industry. Government should come out clearly on which ministry should spearhead value addition of the country's resources to avoid inconsistent policies applying to the same industry.
3.6.2 Supply Based Empowerment
The upstream industry in the form of local suppliers of goods and services have not benefited much since the establishment of diamond mining companies. The Committee had an opportunity to meet the business community of Manicaland who highlighted that it was almost impossible to supply goods and services to companies operating in Chiadzwa. As a result, there has not been much development in Mutare, the capital city of Manicaland. However, the Committee observed with concern that the business community, through its affiliates such as the Confederation of Zimbabwean Industries (CZI) did not have a structured position on how the province could fully benefit from the resource. Some well renowned cities such as Dubai have become world centre attractions with huge volume of business and trade following the discovery of minerals such as oil. Given that the Marange diamonds is considered to be one of the largest recent deposit discoveries in the last decade, significant socio-economic developments should overflow into the nearby towns and communities.
3.6.3 Mining Communities
The KP Joint Work plan adopted in Swakopmund in 2009 which was submitted to the Committee states that Government should identify and develop small-scale mining so as to curb illegal mining by panners. The area of Chiadzwa has very low rainfall patterns and hence there is not much agriculture that takes place in the area. The Committee noted that not much progress has been made towards empowering the local communities by involving them in small-scale mining. Currently, the mining community has to rely on Corporate Social Responsibility by the mining companies, especially when their fields do not yield a good harvest. The community expressed interest in actively participating in small-scale mining. At the same time, the Committee observed that the mining companies were not keen in buying directly agricultural produce from the mining communities. This was one way of promoting sustainable livelihoods of the mining communities.
3.7 River Ranch and Murowa Diamond Companies
In 2009, the Committee had an opportunity to visit River Ranch
Mine and Murowa Diamonds to get an appreciation of their operations. Both companies are KP compliant. However, the Committee observed with concern the glaring absence of Government officials at the two mines given Treasury’s outcry of low revenue inflows from the sector.
Both companies told the Committee that they would like to see a review of the Mines and Minerals Act so as to promote sector's growth through investment. There have been some changes, for example, the presence of ZRP Minerals Unit and Zimra Officials at the mine.
3.8 Global Monitoring Resource Groups
During the enquiry, the Committee had an opportunity to meet members of the Kimberly Review Team on Zimbabwe which comprised of NGOs and World Diamond Council Members. The Committee also had an opportunity to interact with the KP Monitor on Zimbabwe, Mr.
- Chikane. The members of these global resource monitoring groups provided some insights on how the diamond sector could be developed.
The Committee concurred with some of the insights which included:
- allegations of human rights abuses in Marange should be handled by other internationally recognised bodies such as the SADC or the African Union and not by KPCS.
- sanctions imposed on diamond producers have to be removed because the companies operating in Marange were KP compliant.
- there was need to establish a tripartite relationship between Government, business and civil society so as to build confidence in investors and buyers of Marange diamonds. However, the
Committee noted with concern that the relationship between Government and civil society groups working in Chiadzwa was still very shaky.
3.9 Future Outlook of the Diamond Sector
The Committee was informed by the mining companies that their operations had a lifespan of about 20years. The Committee observed that the future outlook remained uncertain in a number of areas which include:
3.9.1 Exploration Work
The Committee was informed that diamonds in Chiadzwa are found in an area covering 123 thousand hectares, the greater part of which has not been fully explored. Therefore it becomes imperative for Government to set aside resources for exploration work before inviting more investors into the area. This will enable Government to negotiate contracts from a strong and informed position. Mining of diamonds in Chiadzwa on mining areas for Mbada Diamonds, and Marange Resources is moving from alluvial to conglomerate mining as mining of alluvial is limited in their present areas of mining. Anjin has been mining conglomerate while DMC is for now limited to alluvial diamond mining. The mining of conglomerate requires major investments in explorations, drilling, blasting and process equipment, capital, experts and labour by Mbada Diamond, Marange Resources and Anjin in order to continue mining the diamonds and determine the potential of future diamond mining in Chiadzwa.
3.9.2 Demilitarisation of Chiadzwa
A lot of land in Chiadzwa is still under the protection of the army and inadequate studies have been conducted to ascertain the presence of the diamonds. The Committee observed that de-militarisation of
Chiadzwa is going to take a long time and it was important that it’s done in phases so as to reduce any negative perceptions about Chiadzwa.
4. Recommendations
4.1 The Executive and its officials must, by law respect the constitutional oversight authority of Parliamentary as this is one of the prerequisites for efficient and effective governance and a working democracy.
All state institutions have the obligation to adhere to the rule of law and to promote good governance and democratic principles which must permeate through natural resource management.
4.2 The diamond industry is operating without a clear legal framework and administration to provide assurance that the people’s resources are being protected.
The country must have put in place all necessary institutions and regulations to improve on diamonds extraction and commercialisation. The Government must desist from signing new contracts before the institutions and legal framework have been properly reformed. For this reason, the Ministry of Finance, diamond producers and the Ministry of Mines need to engage in dialogue to remove impediments that contribute to low revenue flows to Treasury.
4.3 Government must put in place an advocacy strategy to ensure that sanctions imposed by the USA on entities producing in Marange are removed taking into account the fact that the producers are KP compliant and the sanctions have resulted in low revenue inflows to Treasury.
Government, mining companies and civil society, in the national interest, must work together and call for the removal of these sanctions.
4.4 The Ministry of Finance should speedily enact a comprehensive taxation law which will address some of the taxation discrepancies in the mining sector hence improve on revenue inflows to the fiscus. However, most of the discrepancies that occur in revenue collection find their origin in how mining contracts were negotiated. It is now common practice for negotiation of contracts to be
scrutinised by the public through their parliamentarians and communities and civil society should be allowed to make comments on the contracts before they are implemented. The law should allow for mining development agreements to be overseen by Parliaments. For this reason, the clause of confidentiality has lost its relevance. To enforce transparency and access to information mining contracts must be published.
Equally these ministries, including the MMCZ, ZMDC and ZRP must have sufficient capacity to manage key information, such as production figures, statistics, sales, taxes and other data in order to track the sector’s performance.
4.5 Government should consider establishing a one-stop mineral administration systems with sufficient capacity to deliver on their critical mandate.
4.6 Because of the discrepancies that exists between the amount that companies pay to Government and what Government
report to have received, companies are encouraged to publish what they pay to Government and Government is equally encouraged to publish what it received from companies. It is therefore important for Government to operationalise a domesticated Zimbabwe Mining Transparency Initiative
(ZMTI).
4.7 The Ministry of Mines should be encouraged to put in place a comprehensive law, whether a Diamond Bill or amendments to the Precious Stones Trade Act in order to promote legal certainty, introduce a level of predictability to lure investment [and layout the fiscal regime for the sector—This part can be deleted . It is already suggested in 5.4].
4.8 To avoid transfer pricing, an audit should be done to ascertain the true value of the capital investment injected by the joint venture companies so as to reduce the possibility of the investors financing their operations from the diamond proceeds. Equally, a proper evaluation of new investment in
the project is critical to limit the overpricing by mining companies.
4.9 In many SADC countries, revenues from extractive companies are not equally distributed. Many times concession agreements are biased in favour of extractive companies due to the weak negotiation capabilities of the host Government; it seems Zimbabwe is not different.
The Executive should clearly layout the selection criteria for joint venture partners in the mining sector. Equally, contract negotiation with venture partners must be led by a legitimate institution of the state. The principle of complete public transparency must operate prior to the awarding of contracts and the contracts themselves must be made public.
- Government must develop the necessary human capacity to negotiate contracts effectively. Contract negotiation must be all inclusive[8] and cover areas such as environmental mitigation and protection measures, land use and rights, displacement and resettlement of local communities and their rights, mining closure, corporate social responsibility, disaster management and water use.
- Negotiations can only start after due diligence studies have been conducted to ascertain whether the company has the technical and financial capability to actually mine to avoid selecting companies with no mining experience like in the case of Mbada.
- Government needs to ensure that results of due diligence exercise on potential suitors are taken into consideration in order to attract the best possible partners.
- A law should be developed that will enable Parliament to ratify all major mining contracts. This will enable Government to sign credible contracts.
- Stern measures should be taken by the Ministry of Mines to discipline any company in mining of diamonds for the illegal attempt to auction or illegally sell the country's diamonds. Government has the right to apply sanctions retroactively to discipline a mining company; just as Government has the right to renegotiate dubious mining companies.
- The Ministry of Mines is duty bound to observe the law in the appointment of people to sit on the ZMDC board and its subsidiary companies or any state enterprise. Personnel appointed to sit on the ZMDC boards and its subsidiary companies should be thoroughly vetted, employed based on merit to ensure they do not have a conflict of interest. ZMDC needs to be more pro-active in protecting Government's interests in the joint venture companies so that the country's investments are protected whilst at the same time reaping maximum benefits. ZMDC must also provide regular reports to the public on its participation in the joint venture and the health of the mining project
- A standard re-location model should be developed by the national and provincial task force on relocation of communities to reduce any inconsistencies and ensure that the communities concerns are treated in a humane manner. The development of these standards should be done in consultation with all relevant Government institutions, communities and civil society
- There is need for Government to enact relevant legal statutory measures to reserve a quota for indigenous players to supply goods and services to diamond producers and all mining companies so as to promote the growth of upstream and downstream industries. Diamond companies and all mining companies must prioritise the procurement of local goods and services in a transparent manner in order to promote local development and development of local industries in manufacturing, civil engineering, construction etc
- MMCZ should be encouraged to carry out a study on ways of developing the growth of cutting and polishing industry so as to generate more wealth and employment for the country. Government should encourage local entrepreneurs to get involved and it should deliberately set favorable conditions for local entrepreneurs. Similarly investment policies and fiscal regimes must be put in place to encourage foreign investments in joint ventures with local entrepreneurs in cutting and polishing industry.
- The local cutting and polishing industry should be moved from the Ministry of Mines and placed under the Ministry of
Industry in line with best practices
- Exploration work should be conducted by Government in partnership with investors so as to ascertain the true value of the minerals. This will enable Government to sign credible contracts which will benefit the country. Put differently,
Government must be in possession of correct geological
data on the quantity and quality of its resources before entering into negotiations.
- A strategy to integrate community participation into the diamond sector should be developed by both Government and the mining companies so as to empower the local communities.
- There is need for tripartite dialogue between Government, the diamond producers and civil society groups in order to manage the negative perceptions about the sector both nationally and internationally. The tripartite engagement must go beyond just dialogue to provide space for real consultation and participation by civil society in policy formulation and monitoring of the diamonds industries. The civil society must put national interest first in their engagement with
Government recognising that Government is elected and both have a national role to play in the economic development of Zimbabwe. Government must recognise that they registered and authorised civil societies operations to play a role that support national building.
- Many communities are being relocated without proper resettlement plan which put communities in danger of losing their livelihood system, especially access to fertile land. Government must develop a national land use plan complimented by other laws at the relevant administrative levels, which define land use plans according to the suitability of the land and the quantity and quality of resources, in order to guide investments.
6. Conclusion
The challenges that have beset the diamond sector in the last few years are not insurmountable. It is possible that with the presence of a modernised administration founded on the principle of transparency and accountability, and strong legal and policy framework as well as its implementation, this sector could become the bedrock of the economy, as in other countries such as Botswana. The sector also has the potential to create many jobs through the establishment of upstream and downstream industries. At the same time, the Executive, the Legislature and civil society should be encouraged to work together in order to rebuild the battered image of the country due to the bad publicity over the diamonds in Marange. Last but not least, the rights of the re-located communities should be respected and observed in line with the country's laws.
Finally, we must congratulate the Minister, the Ministry of Mines officials and the Diamond Mining companies for the investment and work they have done to make diamond mining in Chiadzwa a reality and for working hard to make Zimbabwe diamond KPCS compliant. We encourage Government and the diamond mining companies to take all measures necessary to properly resettle the Chiadzwa communities and provide adequate compensation to the villagers and business people.
Government should consider developing a town plan for Hot springs Business Centre and encourage companies mining diamonds in Chiadzwa to build their operational and administration offices at Hot Springs as well as encourage banks, shopping centres and industry that support the mining and community to be developed. It is encouraging that BancABC has already built and opened operations at Hot Springs.
THE MINISTER OF CONSTITUTIONAL AND
PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS: Madam Speaker, this is an extremely important motion and because of its importance and to give members sufficient time to debate it, I move that the debate do now adjourn.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Thursday, 13th June, 2013
On the motion of THE MINISTER OF CONSTITUTIONAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS, the House adjourned at Seven
Minutes past Four o’clock p. m.
[1] Erskine May: Treatise on the Law, Privileges, Proceedings and Usage of Parliament; 22nd Edition, pg 63
[2] Privileges, Immunities and Powers of Parliament Act
[3] Erskine May: Treatise on the Law, Privileges, Proceedings and Usage of Parliament; 22nd Edition, pg 63
[4] Oral Evidence by Mbada Diamonds Chairperson
[5] ZMDC Due Diligence Report, pg 3
[6] Oral Evidence by the Minister of Mines
[7] Zimbabwe Diamond Policy, pg 7
[8] Governments must be held accountable for all contracts they enter in, especially, when it concern non-renewable resources, the need for scrutiny is even more pressing.
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Wednesday, 13th February, 2013.
The House of Assembly met at a Quarter-past Two O’clock p.m.
PRAYERS
(MR SPEAKER in the Chair)
ORAL ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
- CHIKWINYA: I rise to ask the Minister of Finance that, considering that the nation is about to enter into a referendum on the new constitution, are there any funds allocated towards the programme?
- SPEAKER: Hon Chikwinya, that is not a policy question that you have asked but however, I will allow the Minister of Finance to respond since this is a question of national interest.
THE MINISTER OF FINANCE (MR. BITI): It is a tricky
question Mr. Speaker Sir. As hon. members are aware, the budget set aside USD$50 million for both the referendum and the elections, but as all members will also know, our budget is a cash budget. We eat what we kill, in other words we collect and then we pay.
Developments in the first two months of the year, that is to say
January and February, have been very depressing on the economic front. This also follows the developments of our budgets to the end of 2012. I need to say that to the end of 2012, the total revenues that we collected were US$3.495 billion against a budget target of US$3.64 billion. We had a budget shortfall in excess of US$70 million.
There was a marginal performance of our tax revenues. The bulk of our non performance had to do with diamond revenues where we only collected US$47 million against a target of US$600 million. Even on the tax revenues, the only reason why there was a marginal increase is that in December of 2012, the Government of Zimbabwe actual borrowed money for short gap financing of US$76 million, which we used to pay service providers that owed money to ZIMRA, like your NetOne and TelOne. The money immediately came back to us. If you discount this US$74 million, the underperformance on the tax revenue would have been US$30 million, that is, excluding diamond revenue and you deal with your normal tax revenue, the underperformance was US$30 million.
The reality of the situation in January and February is that in the month of January 2013, our targeted revenue for the month of January was US$294 million. What we collected was a mere $239.3 million - that huge shortfall between $294m and $234m. Normally, what happens is that, we have got our first salary date being on the 11th of the month to cover soldiers. We only had a mere $7m that we carried over from January to February, which means that the statement that we are living from hand to mouth is actually metaphorical as it is literal in the case of Government of Zimbabwe.
What we have done through the direction of the Principals is that we have embarked on a massive fund raising exercise that includes a request to United Nations for electoral funding. The Minister of Justice and myself, co-authored a letter on the instructions of the Principals that went to United Nations on the 4th of February 2013. I am pleased to report that on the 8th of February 2013, we had a response from the UN that is now inviting us to initiate the abc, that needs to be done in terms of that process.
We are also engaging in certain fund raising exercises which I cannot mention in this House but for the benefit of hon. members this may include the disposal of family silverware. This may include a look at potential additional fiscal measures – I cannot disclose which ones but the bottom line is that, it is a matter that the Government is versed with. We need time. This process needs time. We cannot prejudge the date of the referendum. It is a date of the Principals but what we can say from the Principals is that as Treasury, if we have to dispose of the constitutional duty that we have of looking for money, we need some bit of time.
I hope I have answered you adequately Hon. Chikwinya.
- CHITANDO: From the way you have said that the
Government is not getting a lot of money, is there any chance for us to host the UNWTO?
THE MINISTER OF FINANCE (MR. BITI): I think
unfortunate statements have been made in the media and let me make it very clear that Zimbabwe will successfully co-host the UNWTO Conference in August of 2013. Let me also assure hon. members that this is the position as far as the industry is concerned. What is required to host that conference is the following – we need accommodation. We have more than sufficient accommodation between Zambia and Zimbabwe. That is resolved.
The second thing that is required are meeting rooms for specialised meetings. We have got more than adequate facilities at Victoria Falls, in particular, at the Elephant Hills Hotel for the meetings.
The third thing that is required is the venue for what are called plenary sessions. At the present moment, Victoria Falls does not have that facility. The facility that hon. members are familiar with – the one on the first floor that you normally have your budget consultation, is not adequate. They have to construct a structure that can sit a thousand people. I can tell you that they are in discussions with a regional financial body to secure the $6.4m that is required for the construction of this facility. Our role as Government was to ensure that there was a guarantee. The guarantee came from one of our established banks to provide the guarantee to this International Financial Institution.
The fourth thing that is required now is the temporary or permanent structure to hold the opening ceremony. There is an agreement that we can either go for a temporary infrastructure and that will cost much less and this will be housed at the aerodrome of the Elephant Hills Hotel and not the golf course. I think it will be at the front of the hotel where there is that little helipad. This is where it will be housed.
We are in serious discussions with the industry in order to see what kind of structure we can put up there that can house two thousand people. That is the only thing that the Government can do. Those of you who are familiar with these temporary infrastructure, you will not even know whether it is temporary or not. Some of our companies and just to mention one of them, Rooneys, they actually have that facility even as we speak right now.
The other thing that we have to do is the issue of publicity. As Treasury, we are releasing some money. This week, I cannot mention the exact amount, but we are releasing some amounts for the extensive publicity to do with the hosting of this conference.
I also want to say that there are two Statutory Instruments that we have passed to facilitate the hosting of the conference. The first Statutory Instrument 124 of 2012 has to do with the importation of vehicles to be used by the tourism industry during this period. We have renewed that Statutory Instrument as hon. members will know. The second Statutory Instrument 119 of 2012 which deals with allowing the industry to import capital goods for the refurbishment of their facilities. This includes curtains, carpets, cutlery, refrigerators, linen for beds, flat screen televisions and everything that is necessary to transform those facilities into first class facilities. Those Statutory Instruments are alive and we are going to maintain them alive until the UNWTO is held.
There was another issue that was hampering the sector. COPAC owed the hotels $1.4m. I am pleased to say that we paid the hoteliers the sum of $1.4m through COPAC on the 20th of January 2013. Let me say that, despite Nicodemus statements that are being made in the media,
Zimbabwe will be ready to host a first class conference in August of 2013.
- MUDARIKWA: What is the national policy of Zimbabwe
in as far as the use of plastic money is concerned? Are we going to see a Statutory Instrument compelling all hotels in Victoria Falls to have facilities for someone to be able to use plastic money? Are we going to see the situation improve at Beitbridge so that everything that goes through ZIMRA will use plastic money so that we combat corruption that is happening in some of these Government institutions where revenue is collected?
- BITI: The issue of plastic money and a cashless society is the one that we have been battling with the liquidity challenges that we have in Zimbabwe and also the general shortage of coins and bills in Zimbabwe.
This is what we have done. As way back as 2009, we placed a duty free platform on the importation into Zimbabwe of all products of an ICT nature including mobile phone cards. That is why you saw them dropping from US$30, now you can get them for free. The importation of point of sale machines - remember when you have got your card, you need that point of sale machine. All those things are being imported into Zimbabwe duty free. We did that in July of 2009.
Notwithstanding this, Hon. Speaker, there is a significant resistance to the use of ICT plastic forms, e-commerce, e-money and ebanking. I want to give you my own personal experience. During
Christmas, I moved around mini malls including Sam Levy’s Village. I was very disturbed to note the serious non-use even of cash registers. I saw people buying televisions for US$2 000 and being given a receipt that is written in long hand. I also saw serious non-compliance with certain businesses run by certain of our friends from South East Asia, the Chinese.
There are serious issues of evasion and avoidance. The law is very clear, cash registers have to be there and fiscalised machines have to be there. What we have done with the cooperation and in consultation with the Central Bank, instead of legislating, Hon. Mudarikwa, we have negotiated a Memorandum of Understanding with the banks which was signed on the 30th of January 2013 which the Governor announced in his Monetary Policy Statement. That Memorandum of Understanding deals with the key questions of bank charges, minimum rate of interest and upper rate of interest. It also deals with the key issues of how to encourage a cashless economy.
What this Memorandum of Understanding also does is to lower the charges of using cash money. For instance, the withdrawal charges of taking your money from an ATM have been reduced and also the use of your card at a point of sale has also been reduced. The Memorandum of Understanding most importantly, now makes it compulsory for banks to issue a debit card to any Zimbabwean who has got an account in Zimbabwe. So when you open an account, you must be issued a debit card without applying which will not be charged, but ukazorasawo zvako, they are allowed to charge that. What we have agreed is that, for now, we will allow this agreement to hold sway but we will then review it to see whether it is working. If it is not working, the understanding is that we will go the legislative route which some of us are not very willing to do.
Mr Speaker, for now, any Zimbabwean must go to his bank and demand a debit card because a debit card is just a mirror of what you have or you do not have. It is different from a credit card which is contractual. A credit card is contractual, you have to apply and your Bank Manager has to say, are you credit worthy or not. A bank card is a constitutional issue. That is the position and we will review the situation. Business people must use cash machines, fiscalised machines, in particular our friends from South East Asia. Secondly, people must use these cards and we have made banks to compulsorily issue debit cards to serve us in Zimbabwe.
- GWIYO: Deputy Prime Minister, what is Government
policy towards safeguarding of the extraction of minerals so that they do not go for a song? This is in particular reference to the Essar crisis.
THE DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER (PROF. MUTAMBARA):
I want to thank the hon. member for that question. The challenge is that when African countries achieve their independence – 1957 for Ghana, 1980 for Zimbabwe, 1994 for South Africa and so on, we were very quick in changing the political laws, that dealt with our human rights and our voting rights. Our political laws were changed but we did not change the economic laws in particular the mining laws. If we look at Ghana, the mining laws or the laws governing their resources, oil - they are colonial laws. If you look at Zimbabwe, the mining laws governing our minerals are colonial laws, the same applies for South Africa.
Therefore, the starting point hon. member is that our laws in this country are working against our interests. Our Mines and Minerals Act in this country is criminal. Unless and until we change the law, we are going to have problems where our minerals, our natural resources are not benefiting Zimbabweans. That is the fundamental problem and I am happy I am in Parliament, where laws are made. You and I have a duty and obligation to change the Mines and Minerals Act because it is criminal. It allows Zimbabweans to get the short end of the stick in terms of our natural resources. What are we saying? We are saying that, our laws allow us to give claims to companies for free. You give them a claim for free, they go to Australia with your claim, they list in Australia and borrow against your claim and they tell you that your claim is valueless in Zimbabwe while in Australia or Canada it suddenly has value.
We need to change our laws so that we can put value to the asset underground. The un-mined mineral has intrinsic value. What is that value? Our laws are not addressing that. This is the background behind the Essar deal. The Essar deal is a problematic deal but it was done within the laws of Zimbabwe. Those laws allowed us to give away our natural resources for a song. That is our number one problem.
Number two problem Mr Speaker is that sometimes we are blind, deaf and dumb, we are not smart enough – (laughter) – When Essar comes to Zimbabwe, when Zimplats comes to Zimbabwe, they come with 30 lawyers and 30 consultants and we have ministers negotiating as individuals with one friend or associate. What we are saying is that there is ignorance and lack of capacity by Zimbabweans – [laughter] – When we engage Zimplats, when we engage Essar, we need to make sure that we put our best foot forward. We bring our lawyers, our consultants and we get our act together, otherwise when we do not do that, we get short changed because of ignorance and lack of wisdom. That is problem number two that we have in Zimbabwe that when we negotiate, we are not very clever. We need to wake up as a nation.
The third problem Mr. Speaker is greed and more greed. This is the cancer afflicting the Zimbabweans involved in these transactions.
The danger is that a few individuals are given peanuts; crumbs and they sell this country for a song. We need to make sure that we mitigate and manage greed among our people and officials involved in these arrangements are paid peanuts, they are paid crumbs and they sell the country for a song. Mr. Speaker, if we do those three things, fixing our laws around minerals, build our capacity around negotiations and transparency, and remove opportunity for greed, we shall overcome. We must use independent consultants who can advise us vis-à-vis the outside people. Let us mitigate our greediness so that we do not sell the country for a song.
Without going to the details of the ESSAR deal in particular, I have given you a tutorial on the broader issues. These matters affect all the mining companies in Zimbabwe. Mr. Speaker, it is a South African problem, it is a Ghanaian problem and it is a Zimbabwean problem. Our natural resources in Africa are not benefitting us, they are benefitting foreigners or investors. We need to address this matter in Zimbabwe and build a Pan-African consensus on the solution. I thank the hon. member for that question.
MR F M SIBANDA: My question is directed…
The Hon. Member Dzingirai having entered the Chamber and hon. members started shouting Renco, Renco Manager, Renco Mine Manager.
MR SPEAKER: Order, order, Hon. Sibanda continue.
MR F. M SIBANDA: I direct this question to the Deputy Prime Minister, Prof. Mutambara. What is the policy of Government if the quality of work is below standard? I have observed the G5 Construction network in our roads, it appears to be poor. They are using sub standard machinery, rugs and sacks to spill material on the road. What should we do when we discover such poor quality of work?
THE DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER (PROF. MUTAMBARA):
Mr. Speaker, it is a very specific question for the Ministry of Transport.
I recommend that the Hon. Sibanda puts that question in writing to the Minister of Transport. However, we believe that infrastructure is a key enabler of our economy, so, transportation, roads and rail are part of that infrastructure in addition to water, ICT, energy and other types of infrastructure. We believe in quality infrastructure, quality roads, quality rail networks and quality airspace facilities. Consequently, I want to assure the hon. member that it is our ambition and desire to build and design world class roads in Zimbabwe. I thank you.
- KANZAMA: My question is directed to the Minister of Finance. It is in relation to the remittance of funds to the Government by other diamond companies other than the Marange ones. I am referring to companies like Murova, River Range, Unki, Zimplats and Mimosa. We have never heard the media or the Ministry of Finance talking about how they are remitting funds to Government. Why is it that you are always talking about the Marange ones? Can you enlighten this House whether they are remitting funds regularly or not?
THE MINISTER OF FINANCE: Thank you Mr. Speaker. I
think it is a very important question. I want to thank Hon. Kanzama for that. I think if you looked at the 2013 Budget, I made the point that the resources and commodities of Zimbabwe must sweat for the country. It includes not just the new commodities at Chiadzwa and Marange but also the other mines in the country. If you recall in the 2013 Budget Statement, we proposed a number of things that included backwards and forward linkages. Forward linkages include the issue of beneficiation.
Why should our platinum for instance be processed in South Africa? Why can we not have a processor here in Zimbabwe? In fact I was speaking to the Chief Executive Officer of Mwana Africa who actually assures me that Bindura Nickel has got a processing capacity to process what has been produced at Zimplats, Mimosa and Unki. I hope that the Government can move to direct that the processing is done.
I also referred to what I called backwards linkages. This deals with the issue of procurement. Mining houses are major, major consumers of goods and services. If you look for instance at our imports bill, we spent in 2012 about US$2.2 billion through the importation of services. I am quite sure that many of those services are actually domestically available. I think it is critical that mining houses procurement be actually done domestically.
Mr. Speaker, we also recall that we spoke of special linkages of mining and in the Budget Statement I made the point that the problem with mining is that whilst it is high value, it is low impact. Why can we not have mining models that are both high value and high impact? I gave the model of Zimplats for instance which is both high value and high impact. Why cannot mines build universities, build roads, airports and so forth?
On the issue of revenues, the mining houses that you are talking about Zimplats, Unki, Mimosa, even the other sectors of the mining sector. It again touches the issue that the Deputy Prime Minister was talking about which is the issue of our mining legislative structure. We have got the Mining Act which for all intends and purposes was actually crafted in 1923 and its model is based on extraction. You just extract whether it is gold, copper or platinum and you export it in its raw form outside Zimbabwe. The only obligation of the mining house is to pay taxes. Yes, the likes of Zimplats, Mimosa, Unki and Metalion are paying taxes to Government of Zimbabwe in the form of corporate tax which is very low and it is 25 percent. In-fact, the effective mining tax in Zimbabwe is eight percent, which is the lowest in the region. Our tax law has got so many expenditure and rebates. This is one of the reasons why we are coming up with a new Income Tax Act. We are removing about 34 Schedules that offer incentives, protection or rebates to the mining sector. They also pay royalties and royalties have been the key instrument that we have been able to extract rent from the mining sector. By any standards, our royalties are quite high because we have 10 percent for gold, 15 percent for diamonds and so forth.
I think there is need for an urgent overhaul of our taxation models. Other countries like Australia, are toiling around with the issue of an additional profit tax. The mines at Marange are paying these taxes, the royalties and corporate. The Mbada, Anjin and Diamond Mining Corporation (DMC) and the Lebanese outfit is also paying corporate tax and royalties. These are dues that are collected by the Zimbabwe
Revenue Authority. The bone of contention lies with the dividend because the difference between ZimPlats, Unki and Mimosa with Anjin, Mbada and DMC is that we own 50 percent of these companies.
Since we own 50 percent, we are also entitled to 50 percent of their income at gross level, not profit and that is a universal model. If you go to Botswana, they collect 82 percent from every dollar that is mined because they use the gross model. The reason why we do this for the diamonds is that they are so tangible and in the case of our diamonds, they are largely alluvial. The capital that the investor puts is unlike that for Zimplats where you need $400 million to start mining because you can start diamond mining with your shoes – [Laughter] – It is a 50 percent on the gross because there is minimum investment that is required. If you roughly calculate and say 50 percent on the gross plus, let us say, an effective 15 percent on diamonds, then add minor taxes, the VAT plus 4 percent tax on non residence; we should be getting at least 75 percent on the dollar, but we are not getting that. On royalties last year, we got $47 million but listen to this; diamond exports last year in 2012 were $711 361 262. I have got a breakdown here of mine by mine: Mbada Resources $293 323 000, which is almost $300 million. Automatically, we ought to have gotten at least $150 million but globally we got $47 million. Marange Resources got $64 million and automatically we were entitled to get $34 million. I then come to Anjin Investments which is one of the biggest culprits. They got $200 million and the Diamond Mining Corporation got $91 million. There is another company which I do not know, but they keep on sprouting like mushroom, that is DTZ, that got $1.2 million and Volks Industries got $500 thousand. Drizing Mining, I have never heard of it, got $388 thousand. So the total diamond export is $711million and we got $47 million. We should have gotten at least $300 million because it is 50 percent of the gross and will be put together with what comes through ZIMRA and your tax. So we are being ripped off.
Hon. Deputy Prime Minister, you spoke of Zimbabweans being
stupid, if ever there is evidence of our stupidity, it is on this issue of diamonds. Some people are getting rich and so forth because of these diamonds.
*MR. MAZIKANA: My question is directed to the Minister of Education ….
- SPEAKER: Order, order. Hon. Mazikana with due respect, we do not work on assumptions and taking issues for granted because of the serious nature of the question that you perhaps want to ask, I will suggest that we get a microphone for Hon. David Coltart, if they are there or you use the other permissible language.
- MAZIKANA: Thank you Mr. Speaker. I will direct my question to the Minister of Education, Culture, Sport and Arts who was born in Zimbabwe and – [HON. MEMBERS: Laughter] – MR. SPEAKER: Order, order, order.
- MUTOMBA: Mr. Speaker Sir, I would like to ask the
Minister of Finance that on our roads, we are seeing quite a number of new structures of tollgates beside old structures, could the Hon. Minister of Finance inform this honourable House whether Treasury has released some money to pay for what seems now to be a shoddy job that was done? Could he tell us whether that money was paid, is Treasury going to get a refund and who is going to pay for that refund?
THE MINISTER OF FINANCE (MR. BITI): Honourable
Mutomba, the tollgates that you see being constructed are not being funded from Treasury. It is the Ministry of Transport’s issue and I believe the road fund, (ZINARA) is funding the construction of those tollgates. I am not sure under what kind of contractual arrangement, whether it is BOT or Triple P, I cannot say but what I can confirm is that Treasury is not funding the construction of the more permanent tollgates in the country. ZINARA is our money but directly, we are not funding them.
ZINARA is a Statutory Fund which Parliament created through the
Roads Act. So, we are not funding it directly as Treasury but, I think ZINARA is doing that. I thank you Hon. Speaker.
- D. SIBANDA: Thank you very much Mr. Speaker. My question is directed to the Deputy Prime Minister Hon. Mutambara.
I wanted to know Deputy Prime Minister, is there any Government policy in regard to the miracle money which we are seeing in the newspapers these days?
- SPEAKER: I am failing to appreciate the import of your question Hon. D. Sibanda but if the Deputy Prime Minister feels comfortable to respond, he may do so.
THE DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER (PROF. MUTAMBARA):
Miracle money – once you say miracle money, you are talking about miracles and you cannot have any reconciliation between science and miracles. There can be no reconciliation between financial laws and miracle money. Miracles, by definition, do not respect or obey science; do not respect laws of physics and laws of finance. Once you accept the notion of miracles, there is a violation of science. There is no compatibility between miracles and science. There is no consistency no accommodation between miracles and human laws.
So, any attempt by anyone to say there is reconciliation between miracle money and banking laws, is futile and is an unmitigated manifestation of ignorance. In so far as we are concerned as
Government, we operate on the basis of laws and science. We are in the field of science and human laws. The preachers and the pastors can talk about miracles but in so far as running the country, we drive the country on science and on laws, not on miracles. Miracles must remain in the church and they are certainly not part of the national political economy of Zimbabwe. I want to that the hon. member for that question.
- CHIMBETETE: I would like to ask the Minister of
Education, Sport, Arts and Culture. Minister, could you please update this House as to why the pass rate for our 2012 ‘O’ level examination was so low, when you had 171 000 registered and only 32 000 passed with five subjects?
THE MINISTER OF EDUCATION, SPORT, ARTS AND
CULTURE (MR. COLTART): Thank you Mr. Speaker. I am
indebted to the Hon. Member for asking this question because it has been a subject of a lot of debate. If you may allow me Mr. Speaker, to use this opportunity to trace some of the history of ZIMSEC and the examination pass rates.
When ZIMSEC was set up in the mid 1990s, it was decided to replicate the Cambridge ‘O’ and ‘A’ level system. It was recognised that ‘O’ levels would be directed towards children with an academic bend. In other words, our ‘O’ levels had an academic orientation.
If we think in Biblical terms, in Corinthians, it talks about the body having many different parts. There is an arm and a leg and they are different, but each part of the body plays its function. The deficiency of having an examination system which is focused on children with certain talents namely academic talents is that, it does not cater for those children who are more practically orientated. That was a deficiency recognised by the Nziramasanga Commission in 1999.
It said, as good as our education system is, it is academically orientated and it excludes children who are practically orientated. When the ‘O’ level system was devised back in the 1990s, it was understood that the optimum pass rates of all the children writing ‘O’ level would not be more than 25%. In other words, it recognised that we are actually only catering for about half of our children.
You cannot apply science to it – which child is academically orientated or practically orientated. But, in countries throughout the world, you can in essence say that, there is an almost equal balance between children who are academically orientated and practically orientated. So, our educationists have always held that 25% pass rate is an acceptable rate to aim at. If we consider the historical pass rates in ZIMSEC going back to 1995, you will see that in most years, we have been below not just 25% but we have been below 20%.
In fact, if we study the pass rates between 2000 and 2008, we will see that in 2000, the pass rate was down at approximately 13.7%. Because of the chaos in the education sector, it dropped as low as 9.78% in 2007. It rose slightly in 2008 to just over 14%. If we are to graph the progress since 2008, we can see a steady improvement in the pass rate. In 2009, it went up to 19%. In 2010, it dipped down again to 16%, went up to 19.5% in 2011 and dipped by 1.4% back to 18.4% this past year.
Mr. Speaker, from those statistics, these are not my statistics but they were supplied to me by ZIMSEC. You will see that far from seeing a dramatic rate in our pass rate, it is within the norm and in fact, we can see that there has been a steady improvement in our pass rates since the commencement of the Inclusive Government. Are we satisfied with this drop of one percent – no, but we should not just look at the ‘O’ level
results in isolation.
We also need to consider for example, the Grade Seven results which have improved both in terms of quantity and the pass rate since
- And, the ‘A’ level pass rate has for example Mr. Speaker, risen from 67% in 2009, to the 82% of this year. What hon. members need to understand, and this is the one silver lining in the attention given to this, is that the education sector remains in crisis.
The education sector in real terms has been underfunded for two decades. Since late 1980s, we have not invested in education like what we did in the first decade after independence. That situation was compounded by the chaotic situation that prevailed in the education sector, especially between 2005 and 2009.
Let me give you a few examples. In 2007 and 2008, we lost 20 000 teachers. The textbook: pupil ratio dropped to 15 is to 1 – fifteen children sharing one textbook at least. In 2008, educationists tell me that we only had 27 full teaching days that entire year and the tragedy is that we now have a batch of children going through our education system whose education has been impaired.
Mr. Speaker, as you know, the critical years of any person’s education are between Grades 1 and 4. Those are the years when every child learns the basic concepts literacy and numeracy. If you miss out on most concepts, especially in Zimbabwe, we have had a policy for a long time which was not to hold children back but to allow them to proceed to the next grade. If a child fails grade seven, he will proceed to form one. That has been our policy but the problem is that those deficiencies in a child’s education are never addressed. The ultimate tragedy is that we now have many children who are in form one and two who have very low literacy rates. Those are being affected in these pass
rates.
We are doing much within the education Ministry and I will respond to the debate to elaborate. We do not have time today to do that elaboration but we are working on a variety of programmes. We have out of school programmes which will draw children whose education has suffered during those times of chaos back into the system.
In conclusion, I would just want to assure hon. members that whilst this is a very serious situation, I do not come here in any way complacent or trying to justify. The amount of this hype around this alleged dramatic drop in the pass rate is not actually borne out by the facts and on the contrary, the education sector is stabilizing and plans are afoot to restore excellency to education in Zimbabwe.
- MADZIMURE: It is a fact that one of the biggest contributor to the dramatic drop in the pass rate was the chaos at schools. Schools would be closed willy-nilly for the children to attend meetings and bases to be put at those schools. We are going for elections again, what measures have you put in place to make sure that places of education are left for the education of our children?
- COLTART: There are three broad policies that we are implementing. The first one is that I have an open door policy with the three teacher unions. They know that if any teachers are subjected to intimidation or threats, they have a direct avenue to my office and our policy over the last three years has been to respond immediately. I am pleased to say Mr. Speaker, in this regard, for two years now, we have not had any threats leveled directly against teachers and I hope that that will continue. All hon. members have got a role to play.
Let me just digress for a moment. We can show clearly that where teachers are intimidated, they want to move and that has resulted in qualified teachers moving out of rural areas to urban areas or safer places. The people who suffer are children in those areas. So if hon. members in this House however turn a blind eye to this conduct, the people they are hurting the most are their own Constituency. It is incumbent on all of us to ensure that schools are peaceful zones for our children; that is number one – very clear lines of communication.
Number two relates to legislation; I am in the final stages of new education regulations. We have consolidated all the education regulations over thirty years and we have introduced new provisions that are designed to buttress this policy that schools should be non partisan, political free zones in our society. I have also spoken very directly to teachers; teachers should not engage in partisan political activity in schools. They have a constitutional right to do that outside schools. They should not indulge in that conduct within schools and these regulations make that very clear.
The third and final thing is the point that I raised yesterday in Cabinet; that is to make a plea to all political parties that in the run up to the referendum and elections, as far as possible, we should hold the referendum and elections if possible and I stress if possible, outside the school term. As we know Mr. Speaker, schools are used as voting centres and teachers are used as electoral officials. With that far too much distraction in our education system in the last 12 years – I think we all need to give support to that and as far as possible exclude certainly our children and our schools from the electoral process.
- MUZA: Hon. Minister of Education, we agree with the
response but there are issues which are internal as regards the line of authority from the grade zero level up to form six. When pupils are writing examinations; say for the past ten years, we approach ZIMSEC for past examination questions and possibly model answers accompanying the respective questions that were put forward to pupils. Up to now, there is no model answer which anybody who is serious in revision can refer to. We have established a quality council within the institution of learning. Why for example do we not have that domain addressed to enhance performance on the face to face attention by the teacher and the pupil?
The second issue is where we are, for example using last year when the examinations were about to be undertaken for both ‘O’ and ‘A’ levels. We had a disturbance because the institutions had not fully prepared in terms of resources to make sure that there is smooth voyaging from the start and finishing time of examinations. The marking exercise must begin and end, what is your institution doing typically to address such issues? We can have instances where examiners…….. –[HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections]-
- SPEAKER: Order! Order! Can you finish up your question?
- MUZA: My question is; what is the Ministry doing to address that issue so that examiners will not end up venting their emotions on the marks allocated to students? Even those who would have passed will be failing.
- SPEAKER: Order! Hon. member, that is not a supplementary question. Actually, it is quite substantive, but anyway since I allowed you to continue, I will allow the Minister to respond.
- COLTART: Thank you Mr. Speaker and I also want to
thank the hon. member for his elaborate question. It seems as if there are three parts to the question. He spoke about past papers, the conveyance of papers to examination centres and thirdly he spoke about spiteful marking. I will address those three.
Firstly, the issue regarding past papers, I think it is a very good idea. It is not so much of a policy question but I give an undertaking to the hon. member that I will raise it with the ZIMSEC board. There will undoubtedly be past examination papers Mr. Speaker. ZIMSEC is in the process of converting to computers and electronic communication so that that might facilitate putting these papers on the website or internet and schools can access.
The second thing relating to the distribution of the examination papers. There was one incident last year, I presume that you were alluding to that, where a Headmaster of a school in Matabeleland North lost papers.
The problem that we face regarding ZIMSEC is that Government has deliberately tried to keep ZIMSEC fees down - if you write
Cambridge ‘O’ level, for example, you will pay US$40.00 per subject.
What Government has agreed is that we pay US$12.00 for a ZIMSEC subject but you will see from that, that ZIMSEC charges almost a quarter of what Cambridge charges, which means that ZIMSEC cannot run its operations as effectively or as efficiently as it would like. Ideally Mr. Speaker, ZIMSEC should have a fleet of vehicles and in that way, it could ensure that it delivers the papers direct to Examination Centres, but because of these financial constraints, it has not been able to do that.
As a Government, we have had to try to balance the two – in the interest of making them affordable on the one hand, so that your poor, especially rural parents, can afford to pay for ZIMSEC examinations against the need to make it run more efficiently. I believe that we have established a reasonable balance. Last year, I think, we had one major incident like that but if you think of the fact that we have got eight and a half thousand examination centres and hundreds of thousands of children writing those examinations. I think that we have to all agree that they did a reasonable job in the circumstances.
Your final point regarding spiteful marking - I do not believe that this is a fact, with respect Hon. Member. We need to recognise the high caliber of teachers that we have in this country. I am a Lawyer; I am not an Educationist by profession as you know. So, I did not know much about our education system prior to taking office, but what I have learnt in the last four years is that, we have a unique body of teachers in this country. They are summed up in one word, ‘passion’. As we know, the vast majority of our teachers work in very difficult circumstances in the rural areas and the vast majority of them actually deserve our praise. They are found at their posts, we have relatively low incidents of abuse in this country and as demonstrated in these results - we are still turning out a very good caliber of students.
I would question that our teachers or the vast majority of our teachers would engage in spiteful marking just because perhaps their payment has not been made on time. If the hon. member has specific examples of this, then I would encourage him, Mr. Speaker, to write to me and we will investigate that and deal with it if we find it had some basis.
Questions Without Notice interrupted by MR. SPEAKER in terms of Standing Order No. 34.
ORAL ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS WITH NOTICE
VIP HOUSING SCANDAL
- MR. CHEBUNDO asked the Minister of National Housing and
Social Amenities to explain to the House the status of the VIP housing scandal of the mid 1990s where Government officials and politicians were reported to have illegally benefited and (a) Make public the Commissioned Inquiry Report led by Mr. R. S. M. Hoza and confirm whether culprits paid back loans improperly advanced to term; and (b) Provide statistics of the current national public houses; and (c) Clarify whether there are still public houses occupied by non-government and civil service employees at the expense of bona fide employees.
THE MINISTER OF NATIONAL HOUSING AND SOCIAL
AMENITIES (MR. MUTSEKWA): Mr. Speaker, Sir, indeed a
Commission of Inquiry was commissioned to look into the VIP housing issue that occurred in the mid 1990s. However, the detailed findings of the Commission were never made public that time and have not been made public up to now by the convening authority.
What is on record is that the then Ministry of Public Construction and National Housing compiled a comprehensive debtor’s schedule which it handed over to the Civil Division of the Attorney General’s Office for debt recovery.
The Hon. Member, Hon. Chebundo, can also acknowledge that the issue dates back to some 23 years ago and it is my honest belief that it might not be of any value at the moment. However, I thank him for asking that question because I think, it is pertinent.
The stock of ‘National Public houses’ – commonly referred to as Civil Service housing is 6 551 country-wide. However, there is an ongoing verification exercise on Government stock currently underway.
Civil service housing is either in the form of pool or institutional housing. Pool housing is allocated to any civil servant on rental basis and is meant to cater for cases of transfer and new recruits to the Public
Service. Institutional housing is constructed within a government institution and allocated to civil servants working for that particular institution on rental basis.
Mr. Speaker Sir, this is the last part of Hon. Chebundo’s question. Former civil servants are expected to vacate civil service housing on retirement or when they leave the service but other cases of noncompliance are handed over to the Civil Division for eviction. To date,
22 cases have been handed over countrywide to the Civil Division of the Attorney General’s Office for these members to be evicted.
- CHEBUNDO: My question is based on the statement that he made that it is almost more than 20 years now since that event took place. Given that we still have some of the people who were mentioned then and that was within the same government that we have today. Also bearing in mind that the country is trying to move forward with a clean sheet and do away with corruption. Even the President and the Prime Minister are on record against corruption. We build our future basing on the past and present. Why then should we turn a blind eye on something that we use to pay for the country as we go forward? I think it is very valuable that we look into that Mr. Minister.
- MUTSEKWA: I certainly do appreciate the concerns raised by the Hon. Member. I am equally concerned but it is also a fact, as I have stated in my earlier response that the convening authority at that time 23 years ago, chose to make a commission of inquiry. They did not also make it public. Even myself as the present Minister of National
Housing, I am not aware of what that particular commission established. I am, however, informed that the culprits that were established through that commission were subsequently handed over to the Attorney
General’s Office, so that they are asked to pay back the loans or the monies that they had swindled from the public funds.
I am equally concerned and I must stress that and thank the Hon.
Member but unfortunately, 23 years ago I was not even a Member of Parliament. I condemn what happened during that time in the strongest terms. All I can assure the Hon. Member is that this particular issue will not happen under my leadership. I thank you.
- KANZAMA: Minister you have given us reference that the matter was referred to the Attorney General for recovery of the amount owed. In view of the fact that it happened 23 years ago, how do you intend to recover this money particularly in this case where we are in the US$ era? How is the money going to be converted and I do not know how to explain it for those owing to understand?
- MUTSEKWA: Let me thank Hon. Kanzama for that
question. The response to that particular issue Hon. Member was that at that time, and I am talking about 23 years. After the commission of inquiry was commissioned, as a result of that commission, members who then owed the state money were handed over to the Attorney
General’s Office, so that they pay back to the state. It is not as if this is being done today. So 23 years ago, those people were asked to pay in the currency that was obtaining that time.
MOTION
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
THE MINISTER OF FINANCE: I request, with the leave of the House, that Order Numbers 1 to 7 be stood over until Order Number 8 has been disposed of.
Motion put and agreed to.
MOTION
RESTORATION OF THE BILL TO AMEND THE SECURITIES ACT
ON THE ORDER PAPER
THE MINISTER OF FINANCE: Pursuant to the notice I gave
yesterday, I move that the Securities Amendment Bill which seeks to amend the Securities Act Chapter 24:25, the Collective Investment
Scheme Act Chapter 24:19 and the Asset Management Act Chapter 24:26 that will provide for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto, which was superseded by the prorogation of Parliament be restored on the Order Paper at the stage which it had reached in terms of Standing Order No. 131. I so move Hon. Speaker.
Motion put and adopted.
On the motion of THE MINISTER OF FINANCE, the House
adjourned at Quarter to Four o’clock p.m. to Tuesday, 19th February, 2013.
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Tuesday, 14th May, 2013.
The House of Assembly met at a Quarter-past Two O’clock p.m.
PRAYERS
(MR. SPEAKER in the Chair)
ANNOUNCEMENT BY MR. SPEAKER
MEMBERS’ ATTENDANCE
- SPEAKER: I wish to urge all Party Whips to encourage their members to attend tomorrow’s sitting in order to meet the two thirds majority which is 144 members, requirement for the Constitution of Zimbabwe Amendment (No. 20) Bill [H.B. 2A, 2013] in terms of Section 52 of the Constitution. The Bill has been amended by the
Senate and this entails that the House considers the said amendment.
MOTION
BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE
THE MINISTER OF FINANCE: Mr. Speaker Sir, I move that Orders of the Day Nos. 1 and 2 be stood over until the rest of the Orders of the Day have been disposed of.
Motion put and agreed to.
MOTION
RATIFICATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS CONVENTION ON
THE RIGHTS OF PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES
THE MINISTER OF LABOUR AND SOCIAL WELFARE: I move
the motion standing in my name:
THE WEREAS Subsection (1) of section 111B of the Constitution of Zimbabwe Provides that any Convention, Treaty, or Agreement acceded to, concluded o executed by or under the authority of the President with one or more foreign States or governments or international organisations shall be subject to approval by Parliament; AND WHEREAS the Government of Zimbabwe now desires to ratify the United Nations convention on the Rights of Persons with
Disabilities which was adopted on 13th December 2006;
AND WHEREAS in accordance with its article 42, the Convention and it Optional Protocol opened for signature by all states and regional integration organizations at UN Headquarters on 30th March 2007;
NOW THEREFORE, in terms of Subsection (1) of section 111B of the Constitution, this House resolves that the aforesaid Convention be and is hereby approved for accession.
My Ministry which administers the Disabled Persons Act seeks your approval for signature and ratification of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and its Optional Protocol. As you are aware, Zimbabwe was one of the first countries to have a Disabled Persons Act but up to now we have not yet aligned to this important international instrument that addresses the needs of the disabled persons.
Why A Convention for the Disabled?
Firstly, the Convention was crafted to respond to an overlooked development challenge. Research shows that approximately 10% of the world’s populations are persons with disabilities (over 650 million persons). Approximately 80% live in developing countries.
Secondly, it was in response to the fact that, although pre-existing human rights conventions offer considerable potential to promote and protect the rights of persons with disabilities, this potential was not being tapped. Persons with disabilities continued being denied their human rights and were kept on the margins of society in all parts of the world. The Convention sets out the legal obligations on States to promote and protect the rights of persons with disabilities. It does not create new rights.
A person using a wheelchair might have difficulties gaining employment not because of the wheelchair, but because there are environmental barriers such as inaccessible buses or staircases which impede access. Persons with extreme near-sightedness who do not have access to corrective lenses may not be able to perform daily tasks. This same person with prescription eyeglasses would be able to perform all tasks without problems.
Convention Terminology
The Convention teaches us to use respectable terms like ‘persons with disabilities’. It discourages the term ‘handicapped’, ‘physically or mentally challenged’. Please note however that preferences for terminology among persons with disabilities and among geographic regions may vary. The individual wishes of persons with disabilities should be respected as much as possible.
Convention Structure
Preamble
- Purpose
- Definitions
- General principles
- General obligations
- Equality and non-discrimination
- Women with disabilities 7. Children with disabilities
- Awareness –raising.
- Accessibility
- Right to life
- Situations of risk and humanitarian emergencies
- Equal recognition before the law
- Access to justice
- Liberty and security of the person
- Freedom from torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
- Freedom from exploitation, violence and abuse
- Protecting the integrity of the person
- Liberty of movement and nationality
- Living independently and being included in the community
- Personal mobility
- Freedom of expression and opinion and access to information
- respect for privacy
- Respect for home and the family
- Education
- Health
- Habilitation and rehabilitation
- Work and employment
- Adequate standard of living and social protection
- Participation in political and public life
- Participation in cultural life, recreation, leisure and sport
- Statistics and data collection
- International cooperation
- National implementation and monitoring
34 to 40 International monitoring mechanisms
41 to 50 Final clauses optional protocol
Convention Bodies
The Convention has two bodies namely:
- Conference of States Parties
Which meets in order to consider any matter with regard to the implementation of the Convention (biennially or upon decision by the Conference).
- Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
This is a body of independent experts serving in their personal capacity tasked with reviewing States’ implementation of the
Convention. It initially comprises 12 independent experts; rising to 18 members after an additional 60 ratifications or accessions to the Convention.
Optional Protocol
The Optional Protocol (which seeks to be ratified together with the
Convention) creates additional functions for the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
Individual communications: Committee considers communications from individuals or group of individuals claiming to be victims of a violation of the provisions of the Convention by a State Party of the party to the Protocol.
Inquiries: Committee member may conduct an inquiry on a State Party, following information received indicating grave or systemic violations of the Convention by State party.
Conclusion
Hon. members, let me conclude by saying that the challenge of ratifying and implementing the Convention is now. There is urgent need for training, capacity building, awareness raising, good practices collection and validation, knowledge management.
There is need to mainstream disability in all development activities. There is need for implementation of Convention principles in the internal operations of Government.
And finally there is need to include persons with disabilities in all stages of implementation and build capacity of organisations of persons with disabilities to do so as the persons with disabilities echo the adage
“NOTHING ABOUT US WITHOUT US”.
I therefore, seek for approval from this august House, to sign and ratify the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities together with its embedded Optional Protocol.
Motion put and agreed to.
MOTION
RATIFICATION OF THE AFRICAN UNION CONVENTION FOR
THE PROTECTION AND ASSISTANCE OF INTERNALLY
DISPLACED PERSONS IN AFRICA
THE MINISTER OF LABOUR AND SOCIAL WELFARE
(MS MPARIWA): I move the motion standing in my name:
THAT WHEREAS Subsection (10 of Section 111B of the
Constitution of Zimbabwe provides that any Convention, Treaty, or Agreement acceded to, concluded or executed by or under the authority of the President with one or more foreign States or government or international organisations shall be subject to approval by Parliament;
AND WHEREAS the Government of Zimbabwe now desires to ratify the African Union Convention for the Protection and Assistance of
Internally Displaced Persons in Africa (Kampala Convention);
AND CONSCIOUS of the gravity of the situation of Internally Displaced Persons as a source of continuing instability and tension for the African States;
AND ALSO CONSCIOUS of the suffering and specific
vulnerability of internally displaced;
AND WHEREAS the entry into force of the aforesaid Convention shall be subject to Article 17 of the Convention;
NOW THEREFORE, in terms of Subsection (1) of section 111B of the Constitution, this House resolves that the aforesaid Convention be and is hereby approved for ratification.
Thank you for giving me again this opportunity. The Head of
State, His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, Cde R. G. Mugabe signed the Kampala Convention in 2009. This noble gesture demonstrated the Government of Zimbabwe’s commitment and will to protect and assist persons who become victims of internal displacement due to various factors.
Forty percent of all the people worldwide have been displaced within their own country as a result of conflict or violence in Africa. Africa has 9.7 million internally displaced persons according to the
United Nations High Commission for Refugees. There are almost four times as many internally displaced people as there are refugees in Africa. Unlike refugees (IPDs) do not have special status under international law.
The African Union Convention for the protection and assistance of
Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) also known as the Kampala
Convention came into force on 6 December, 2012. It is the world’s first legally binding instrument to cater specifically for people displaced within their own countries or boundaries adopted at the AU Summit in Uganda, Kampala.
The Convention required ratification by 15 member states before it could enter into force. Swaziland became the 15th country to do so on the 12th of November 2012, joining Berlin, Bokina Faso, Central Africa
Republic, Chad, Gabon, the Gambia, Guinea Bissau, Lesotho, Niger, Nigeria, Sierra Leon, Togo, Uganda and Zambia. At least 37 other AU states including Zimbabwe have signed the Convention but have not yet
ratified it.
Purpose of the Kampala Convention
The Convention aims to establish a legal framework for preventing internal displacement and protecting and assisting internally displaced persons in Africa.
The Kampala Convention in Brief
It reaffirms that national authorities have the primary responsibility to provide assistance to internally displaced people. It comprehensively addresses different causes of internal displacements; conflicts generalised violence, human cause or natural disasters and development projects like building dams or clearing only land for large scale agriculture. It recognises the critical role that civil society organisations and the communities which take them in play in assisting IDPs and obliges governments to access the needs and vulnerabilities of the accessibly displaced and the host communities, in order to address the plight of people uprooted within their borders.
It was adopted by the African Union and currently legally binds 15 African countries to prevent displacement, assist those who have been forced to leave their homes, and find safe and sustainable solutions to help people to rebuild their lives and homes. A total of 37 African countries (including Zimbabwe have demonstrated their commitment to the Convention by signing it, but are not yet legally obliged by its contents.
Structure of the Convention
The Convention is structured as follows:
Preamble
Article 1, Definitions
Article 2, Objectives
Article 3, General Obligations Relating to States Parties
Article 4, Obligations of States Parties relating to Protection from
Internal Displacement
Article 5, Obligations of States Parties relating to Protection and
Assistance
Article 6, Obligations Relating to International Organisations and
Humanitarian Agencies
Article 7, Protection and Assistance to Internally displaced persons in
Situations of Armed Conflict
Article 8, Obligations relating to the African Union
Article 9, Obligations of States
Article 10, Displacement induced by Projects Parties Relating to
Protection and Assistance during Internal Displacement
Article 11, Obligations of States parties relating to Sustainable Return,
Local Integration or Relocation
Article 12, Compensation
Article 13, Registration and Personal Documentation
Article 14, Monitoring Compliance
Article 15 Application
Article 16, Signature, ratification and membership
Article 17, Entry into Force
Article 18, Amendment and Revision
Article 19, Denunciation
Article 20, Saving Clause
Article 21, Reservations
Article 22, Settlement of Disputes
Article 23, Depository
It is against the above background that approval of this honourable House is sought to ratify the signed Kampala Convention for the betterment of IDPs in Zimbabwe. I thank you Mr. Speaker.
- F. M. SIBANDA: Mr. Speaker, I need to thank you for allowing me to speak and also thank the Minister to have brought this overdue Convention. I think this is an opportune time that this Convention be implemented without any delay. I am also happy to say that the Constitution that we have just adopted five days ago also take cognisance of a child under 15 who would be found roaming around the streets would automatically become a Zimbabwean. That alone serves this contention, but I want also to be aware and to be told how we are going to deal with our internally displaced people, particularly whom we call izibonda, people who are psychiatric, people who are insane, people who have been devastated by wars, unemployment, poverty, orphanage and also violence caused by us or by politicians?
We may find that there is a lot of people in the outlyning cities where you find people are now living like slaves in their country. They are running away from politically motivated violence. They have no food from the rural areas. They go to towns with a belief that they would be employed and they end up having no employment and they get mentally ill because of these social problems.
Zimbabwe is also recorded in international books that it is known for human trafficking. When human trafficking is not controlled, you would find that people from other countries would come to Zimbabwe and then there is an influx of the population whereby we now have problems of sharing the economy of the country. There are war refugees that I need the Minister to take cognisance of, economic refugees that are also in Zimbabwe and abroad. We also have social refugees. On this issue what about documentation of people without anybody to vote for.
Children, even adults that are roaming, for example in Magwegwe, where people wanted to register for these coming elections; they could not be registered because they wanted somebody to vote for them. So it ends up increasing a lot of refugees and displaced people. So in a nutshell, we have to minimise conflicts and minimise devastation of habitats like Murambatsvina which has caused a lot of untold harm in this country. So I am thankful that the Minister has brought this Convention it might lessen the problems that we have been facing throughout the country.
- GWIYO: I would also like to also take this opportunity to congratulate and welcome the motion by the Hon. Minister of Labour and Social Services. I would like us to note the fact that it is not enough to ratify the Convention but we would like to urge the Executive to take appropriate measures that are consistent with the procedures that are required when you are following up a Convention that has been ratified.
Mr. Speaker, this Convention is quite appropriate in that it applies to our situation, from independence to date. The most event prevalent that everyone will remember is Operation Murambatsvina. So it is also my hope that those issues that have not been attended to by the demolition of people’s houses would be rectified. I am also hoping that this Convention would also speak to local authorities that initially allow people to build dwellings and then all of a sudden, it decides to demolish the buildings. Like I said, I obviously welcome this Convention but we need to speak to it through the issue of budget allocation. Without funding, some of these Conventions will remain on paper. I thank you.
*MRS. ZINYEMBA: I would like to thank the Minister for bringing this motion to Parliament which deals with the migration of people. I would also like to thank the President for signing these two Protocols. This shows that our President, the leader of the country, is aware of the people that are suffering, that is why he committed himself and signed the two Protocols. In our Constitution, the disabled and the elderly are catered for in the human rights.
I would like to comment on what has been said by the previous speakers, on the issue of Operation Murambatsvina. Operation Murambatsvina led to Operation Garikai. Let me explain the difference between these two. About 90% of houses demolished under Operation Murambatsvina, most of these people had stands and they were referred to as landlords. They would build houses at the stand, and people would migrate into towns as bachelors, as spinsters and they would come and lodge there … - [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections]
- SPEAKER: Order, hon. Member, order. Hon. Member, you are required to debate the principles of the Convention, you may continue but restrict yourself to the principles.
*MRS. ZINYEMBA: Thank you Mr. Speaker. We want to treat this fairly because we can get lost as people. What I want to emphasise is that, people would get employed …- [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible
interjections.]
- SPEAKER: Hon. Zinyemba, I have already made a ruling, you are not doing any comparisons here. You are here to debate the principles of the Convention that have been raised by the Minister of Labour and Social Services.
*MRS. ZINYEMBA: I cannot go on arguing with you but I wanted to debate. The previous speaker has referred to Operation
Murambatsvina and I wanted to respond to that. Before Operation
Murambatsvina, people would die as lodgers but when Operation
Garikai came, people now own their own houses. If we the people of
Zimbabwe – [AN HON. MEMBER: Akadhakwa.]
- SPEAKER: Order, there is an hon. Member at the back there who said, “she is drunk”, can you stand up. Hon. Member who said, “she is drunk”, can you stand up. At the back there, I am looking at you, hon. Member, can you stand up. Hon. Member, I am looking at you. Hon. Member at the back, if you are honourable, stand up – (AN
HON. MEMBER: Unodzingwa shamwari, chisimuka, unozikanwa) –
Hon. Member who said, she is drunk, stand up.
- MARAMWIDZE: I withdraw.
*MRS. ZINYEMBA: Let me continue. I have always debated in this House that as MPs in this House, leaders of the country, we should not dilute the important things that are brought into this House. When we see Conventions like this one, instead of saying this and that, it is water under the bridge Mr. Speaker. Let us go forward in rebuilding our country, doing good for our people, so that after we have served our generation, they will congratulate us that we have done something to our nation. Thank you.
THE MINISTER OF LABOUR AND SOCIAL WELFARE
(MS. MPARIWA): Thank you Mr. Speaker, I want to thank the hon. members who have actually contributed to this particular motion on the ratification of the Convention on the Assistance of the Internally Displaced Persons.
Indeed what they have raised is actually what we seek to do once this Convention has been adopted. Talking of unemployed and the indigent persons, this is exactly what this Convention intents to cater for once it has been ratified by Parliament. So, in short let me take this opportunity and also to express my gratitude to the Chairperson of the
Portfolio Committee on Public Service, Labour and Social Services, Hon. Zinyemba. Thank you very much for the support and all the hon. members who have supported this particular motion.
Motion put and agreed to.
SECOND READING
THE MICRO-FINANCE BILL
Fifth Order read: Adjourned debate on the Second Reading of the Micro-Finance Bill.
Question again proposed.
- CROSS: I want to first of all express our appreciation from the Budget and Finance Committee to the Minister for permitting us this extra time for consultations. The Committee has concluded its consultations on this particular Bill. We wish to now make our proposals known to the House and we will provide a copy of this to the Minister after this debate.
As part of its oversight function, the Portfolio Committee on Budget, Finance and Investment Promotions has undertaken a full analysis of the Micro-Finance Bill. The Committee commends the Minister for coming up with this piece of legislation which will bring some sanity to the financial sector. It has its challenges at this moment, particularly in so far as the borrowing public are concerned. The Committee wishes to raise concern over some provisions of the Bill which needs nullification in order to enhance the content of the Bill before it is adopted by this House.
The Committee greatly appreciates the written and oral evidence from the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe Association of Micro-Finance Institutions and the Law Society of Zimbabwe for the evidence they gave to us. The Committee would have liked to have conducted public hearings on this particular Bill as it affects the general populace but this was not possible because of time and financial constraints.
After considerations of these provisions and submissions from stakeholders, the Committee has the following concerns and recommendations for the Minister to consider. In so far as the memorandum to the Act, the Micro-Finance Bill seeks to amend the Money Lending Rules and Interest Rates Act. The Committee proposes that the Money Lending and Rates of Interests Act be repealed. The Committee is rational, it is not ideal to have a multiplicity of various legislations governing operations of micro-finance institutions. Your Committee proposes that those clauses of the Money Lending and Rates of Interests Act should be retained, be incorporated into the new Bill.
Definitions, Mr. Speaker Sir, the Committee humbly selects the definitions for money lending to micro finance institutions
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, order. On this Sir, it is no longer the sir, the Sir has gone out.
THE MINISTER OF FINANCE: May I request the hon. member
to come to the front of this table.
- CROSS: Thank you Madam Speaker, in so far as the definitions are concerned, your Committee humbly submits that the definitions of terms - money lender, micro finance institutions, micro financier, micro finance business are not very clear and they confuse.
To avoid this confusion, the Committee recommends that there should be only two categories of Money lending Institutions (MFIs”, “or credit only MFIs” and “deposit taking MFIs”. This would then exclude from the application of the Act, those money lenders functioning at the informal and smallest sections of the microfinance industry. This particular recommendation was supported very strongly by the Reserve Bank as the regulator.
Similarly, it would be desirable to have a simple distinction by having “credit only microfinance business” and “deposit taking microfinance business”. The definition of the term “microfinance institution” in the Bill, excludes deposit taking and this is a departure from the generally understood meaning of the term. The definitions suggested to the Reserve Bank by Ernst and Young, were regarded by the industry and the regulator as being more appropriate in the circumstances.
Definition of Chief Executive Officer (CEO)
The Committee notes that the definition of CEO in the Bill refers to the “banking business”. The Committee proposes that this be restated to refer to “microfinance business”.
Definition of financial institution
The Committee also notes that there is need to revisit the definition of the term “financial institution”. The Bill defines the term “financial institution” by making reference to the Banking Act but the Banking Act does not define “financial institution” as such. Instead, the Act defines
“financial entities”.
Application of the Act
Madam Speaker, the draft Bill provides that the Act shall apply to subsidiaries and divisions of banking institutions already registered under their respective Acts. The Committee feels that the microfinance business of a division or department of a registered bank should not be subjected to the Micro Finance Act as the bank is governed in terms of the Banking Act. The Committee recommends that where the microfinance activities of a commercial bank is carried out by a separate, but wholly owned company, that the subsidiary should be required to apply for an MFI license.
Prohibition in relation to conduct microfinance business
Madam Speaker, the Bill provides that only a company may be registered as a microfinance institution. The Committee notes that the definition of “microfinance institution” does not necessarily include a money lender. Therefore, the requirement to be a company does not apply to an applicant who wants to be a registered money lender only, who may register as an individual or as a partnership. The Committee recommends that the requirement to be a company should apply across the board to include money lenders as well, since enforcement of legislation or policy is easier on companies as opposed to individuals. All micro financiers would therefore be required to operate through a corporate structure registered under the Companies Act.
Renewal of Registration
Clause 10 of the Bill states that the registration certificate shall be valid for a period of a year. The Committee accepts the submissions made by the microfinance institutions and the regulator on the burden imposed by the need to renew licences on an annual basis. It was also noted that such a restriction would preclude micro financiers entering into agreements or contracts that run for periods longer than a year. The Committee recommends that the licences should be perpetual, with a requirement for annual fees paid at least two months before the expiry of a date when the institution was previously registered. This brings this particular regulation into line with Security Act proposals.
No provision is made in the Act for the Ministry of Finance to have oversight of the level of fees being set by the regulator and this should be corrected to ensure that such fees are set at reasonable levels.
Cancellation of registration
Clause 12 (1) (k) provides for cancellation of the MFI license of a subsidiary of a Banking institution that has ceased to operate or been deregistered. The Committee’s considered view is that where the MFI is an independent company, it should not be affected by deregistration of an associated or parent company.
Public notice of registration and cancellation of registration
Clause 13 provides that the Registrar publishes every registration as well as cancellation of registration of a microfinancier. For purposes of reducing expenses, the Committee urges the Minister to consider revising the clause and allow the RBZ to publish the registration and cancellation through the available means that are available to the RBZ at the moment including Monetary Policy Statement and the RBZ website.
Requirements for loan agreements
In so far as the clause which spells out requirements for a loan agreement, the Committee urges the Minister to extend this to incorporate lease agreements to the clause as some of the transactions might involve leases.
Principal Officers of a microfinance institution
Clause 31 (2) compels an MFI to notify the Registrar of the appointment of a chief executive officer and chief accounting officer. It is recommended that the requirement should be to seek regulatory approval prior to the appointment and not post the appointment.
Requirements for lending by microfinance institutions
Clause 26, (3) (b) states that, if a microfinance institution makes a loan or advance without complying with subsections (1) or (2), in other words, informing the debtor of the implications of what he or she is doing, the capital sum of the loan or advance shall not be recoverable unless a competent court has condoned the institution’s failure to comply with the provisions concerned. The Committee feels that the provision is draconian and puts a disproportionate burden on the lender and urges the Minister to revisit the provision to allow only the loss of interest payable on the loan or advance.
Expenses of investigation
As far as expenses for the investigations are concerned, Madam Speaker, Clause 41, provides for the recovery of expenses from an institution which has been investigated. The Committee recommends that the expenses be recovered from the fines levied against institutions found guilty of the offence or offences.
Disciplinary Committee
As provided for in Clause 45, this spells out the composition of the disciplinary committee for purposes of an investigation. The Committee requests the Minister to consider an additional member from the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe, being the watchdog of consumer rights. In addition, the Association of microfinance institutions requested that a representative of their Association be included to represent the interests of the industry and the Committee felt that this was a reasonable request.
The Minister should note that the subsequent section 46, the draft actually refers to the Secretary of the Committee without any provision for such a post or any description of the Secretary’s function. This should be corrected.
Madam Speaker, this Bill is an important addition to our legislative framework and it provides adequate measures that seek the protection of both the depositors and borrowers from MFIs. The Bill also promotes Government’s efforts to ensure financial inclusion of the
previously ignored sections of society. Thank you Madam Speaker
- MUDARIKWA: Thank you Madam Speaker. The issue of micro finance is just one of our national problems in Zimbabwe. Zimbabweans have no confidence in the banking sector. Zimbabweans have no confidence in most of these money lending institutions because, as stated in the Micro Finance Act, the main player is the Reserve Bank. The Reserve Bank issues out the licence, does the evaluation and the monitoring of the microfinance. There is a need for another player to register the microfinance, then the Reserve Bank does the monitoring.
There is more money circulating outside the banks in Zimbabwe because people have no confidence in the banks and in the Reserve Bank. In my communal land, Madam Speaker, there is a song that people sing which says, dzimba mbiri dzandakavenga, chipatara nebank. Two institutions that I do not want to see are the hospital and the bank because in the hospital, you walk in and then you come out through the mortuary. Then the bank, you put your money and you will never get the money.
So, what is actually needed is a paradigm shift on the current situation where we have one institution doing everything. The current Micro-Finance Act, actually if you borrow US$5 000, you pay $1 000 administration fee, 50% per month and other charges. If you convert all the costs, it comes out to something like 1 000% per annum. Most of these people who own the microfinance institutions have been in this bank, they run it down and go to the next bank and they run it down again. There is no provision in the Act where we actually blacklist the individual. We have been blacklisting companies and not individuals.
There are certain individuals who must actually be banned to say they must never be seen say, 10 m away from any banking institutions because they have taken our people for a ride. Most of the Zimbabwean bankers, when you see them walk, they walk like a baboon because they are always looking at the back thinking that somebody is going to ask them to say, where is my money. We have taken Zimbabweans for a ride for too long and time has now come for us to correct the situation because we cannot have a nation where people deposit their money and it also disappears.
Also as Government, we have also taken people for a ride. We budgeted US$6 million to retire the Zim Dollar and this money was never given to our people. This propensity to steal from people emanates from Government, goes to the Reserve Bank and then to the banks. This is unacceptable and we must not allow such a situation to continue. In East Africa, the microfinance controls the banking industry.
It is cheaper to borrow from the microfinance because there is sanity. There is no element where you just get a few guys controlling everything. All these bankers, for example here in Zimbabwe, every Sunday they go to church to ask God to pardon them for the crimes that they have committed to the people. That is the money that they have stolen from the people.
We also face a situation in the current scenario in most of the microfinance institutions where, after you have signed everything, you supply the security and you sign the forms that are known as voluntary surrender forms. They come at anytime of the day and take away everything. Also, they have illegal debt collectors who just come, take everything without consulting the court. They do not even go to court but just come, take and go. Even on our pay slips, these criminals are allowed to advertise and it shows that the people running the microfinances are part and parcel of the financial services of this country.
The other major problem we also face is that of the growth of microfinance institutions. We must allow people to invest money and if we allow them to do so, we must not stop them from withdrawing their funds. This is the major problem that we are facing. For example, just to bring your attention to the new Income Tax Act coming, we must not continue to give unnecessary controls. Also, Minister, we have a situation in Murewa where Michael King gave money to farmers and the farmers sold their maize to GMB. GMB is a State institution and it is protected by law and you cannot attach anything from GMB.
The Hon. Minister is a lawyer and so, GMB is an accomplice to theft because people are now continuing to pay interest whilst their money in GMB is not earning any interest. So, if parastatals have no money, they must not take anything from the public. It is supposed to be the opposite. People must not give a subsidy to parastatals but it is the parastatals that should actually give the subsidy to people.
The other thing is the issue of one-year licences, it does not work.
Where on earth do you get a financial institution with a yearly licence?
Most of these financial deals are 5 year, 10 year and you need more time to go. Madam Speaker, I want to thank the Minister for wanting to bring sanity in the financial services of this country but he must also move into the banking sector and also into the insurance sector. I had a life policy where I contributed for 42 years and what I am going to get is $32. This means, I am going to be earning less than a dollar a year for my contributions from Old Mutual and here we say, our Old Mutual is doing very well.
As Government, we are supposed to protect the poor people but we are actually assisting these institutions to steal from the poor people to make sure the poor people remain very poor so that we implement the unnecessary controls over our people.
Finally Madam Speaker, the other thing the Minister must at this stage look at is the issue of how one determines, like what came out in the paper - microfinance, the capital requirement was $25 000 and all of a sudden tomorrow, it is going to be $5 million. This is what killed most of the indigenous people who were in the insurance industry because all of a sudden the figures shot up. This is also what is killing some of the banks because all of a sudden the figures shot up. Then, why is it that in any situation where a bank collapses, those people if they are to be arrested, they just go to Harare Central for two hours, they come back and continue to create another bank. We must come to a situation as Parliament where there are these controls.
Lastly Madam Speaker, we need to create a situation where these microfinance institutions can be situated in different parts of the country but major banks must be told that yes, so much money must go to this industry – agriculture, financing industry. The situation should not be as is happening now whereby in most of the banks and the microfinance institutions, no money goes to the productive sector. It is all going to consumption.
So, this is what I feel must be looked at. Madam Speaker, I want to thank you for allowing me to contribute and I also thank the Minister for trying to deal with this very difficult situation. He has to continue with the whole thing and we also want to find out when the Minister is going to do amendments to the Banking Act but the Minister must allow the Committee on Budget and Finance to do public hearings so that when people come here, we discuss and debate from an informed position, what the people of Zimbabwe have said.
- HOVE: Thank you Madam Speaker. Firstly, I would like to commend the Minister of Finance for bringing such a noble Bill to this House. However, there are about three issues I would want the minister to revisit or at least explain in order to protect the depositors who are going to entrust Micro Finance Institutions with their cash.
On Clause 30, it says, “no Micro Finance shall knowingly extend credit to…”. In law, we are told ignorance has no defence, so when you say knowingly - if someone pleads that I did not know then that would lead to the person going scot free according to this Act. On that same clause it says, “any person who holds a significant interest in the institution…” should not be extended loan”. Again, what is significant? Are we saying people who hold something less significant can access loans? I feel the minister needs to look at anyone who has an interest in terms of shares no matter how little or huge, should never be allowed to borrow from those institutions because they will take advantage.
We have situations whereby someone like myself, I can divide my shareholding amongst my children to make sure that I qualify to get these loans. I will say my son Eugene, will get 5% or 10% then my daughter Maureen will get another. At the end I will use that to access loans or use my interest to access loans.
Another clause which I feel the minister should take a closer look to ensure that he tightens the screws, is the issue of Micro Finance Project Promoters. I feel they should never be allowed to be directors of the Micro Finance Institution. They should never be directors. They should excuse themselves from running that institution and should surrender it to professionals to ensure that there is no conflict of interest.
On Clause 37, I feel that there needs to be an addition in that whoever would have lost or prejudices his investment in that Micro Finance Institution, he needs some form of restitution because we have instances whereby if a Micro Finance Institution has been registered as a company, you will find that much reference is to talk about fines of level 5 or level 10. I feel there needs to be an inclusion of restitution of investors and that restitution should go on to people who would have caused that loss to have happened. In that way it will protect investors and the general public.
THE MINISTER OF FINANCE: I really want to thank the hon. members that have contributed to this important debate Hon. Cross representing the Budget Committee, Hon. Mudarikwa and Hon. Hove. I think they have all made very good points and I will respond to them.
As I explained last week, you will recall hon. members that we gazetted the Bill in November of last year and I would have liked a situation where there will be fuller public consultations but that has not happened, including the Securities Commission Bill. I appreciate the comments that have been made which really reflect that people are thinking seriously about these issues.
I want to deal with the comments made by Hon. Hove and just say that your point about visiting liability on the owners or founders of these institutions is very important. We did not do it for the Micro Finance Bill because we have separated deposit taking micro finance institutions which will be covered by the Deposit Protection Fund and then the smaller lenders.
Hon. Mudarikwa, you asked a very important question – when is the Banking Amendment coming? I am pleased to say that we approved the major amendments last week and I hope that in the next two weeks they will be gazetted. I want to tell hon. members that one of the things that the Banking Amendments will do is to actually lift the corporate veil, pierce the corporate veil and deal with the issue of a shareholder particularly the dominant shareholder who is the shareholder, the board and the management. Where that bank has collapsed, depositors’ money have been eaten, for lack of a better word, we can pierce the corporate veil.
I want to say in terms of the law, a law cannot be applied retrospectively. The question was, do these criminal provisions of criminalising shareholders for the sins of their bank in the event of default, should they apply retrospectively? Some of us argued like lawyers that you cannot do that. The strong position by members of the Cabinet Committee on Legislation was that it should apply retrospectively. We are going to go to Cabinet next week, I do not know how it will sail but I am raising this that there is a strong feeling that you cannot have a situation where banks default and ordinary people suffer, yet the owners of these banks are seen driving funny things parked at Sam Levy Village. So, that is coming.
On the issue of your comments around Section 30, you asked correctly two things. The first is, no Micro Finance shall knowingly extend credit for the benefit of any offence. It does not add anything whether we remove the word, “knowingly” or not. It does not take away anything. When you commit a crimes your mental intention is important. If you go into a court of law, the court will have to ask about your mental intention. There are two things that are tested when you commit a crime, that is, you actually have a mental intention and did you actually commit the offence? There are times when you have the mental intention but you do not commit the offence. For example, if I buy a twist of tomatoes and smoke them thinking that they are dagga, I have not committed an offence in terms of Section 9 of the Dangerous Drugs Act. I wanted to but smoking tomatoes is not illegal. The more fundamental question you raise is, what is a relative? The answer is in the Act because the Act itself is saying, “…which exceeds such percentage as may be prescribed”. The regulator is going to prescribe the level of percentage and that is where your question comes in of why the founders should be allowed to own Micro Finances. The law will prescribe a certain percentage.
I will just tell you what we have done for the Banking Act. For the
Banking Act, we have said if you are an individual - if you are John Chibadura from Dotito, you cannot have more than 10% of a bank in your own right. If you incorporate yourself into a company, you cannot own more than 25% but of course this does not apply to holding companies, provided the holding company itself complies with that rule and fortunately, it is now an international rule.
Hon. Mudarikwa, I really appreciate the comments and the concerns. This is something which we should have done a long time ago because people are being abused by Micro Finance and its institutions. Mr. Speaker, I now want to move on to the Chairman of the committee or the Acting Chairman. We have made three distinctions. We have got a Deposit Taking Micro-Finance Institution, a Non-Deposit Taking Micro-Finance Institution and a Money Lender Mr. Cross. In the original draft, we do not have a money lender. The money lender is an individual. The Micro-Finance Institution has to be incorporated as a company.
So when we raise this, there was a strong feeling that you are now discriminating because if I want to incorporate my business as a sole trader and if I want to incorporate as a private limited company, I should have that right. There was a strong feeling that it will be unconstitutional to determine whether I want to operate as Nyamuzihwa, or I want to operate as Ex-Private Limited and so forth. Some also said that insisting that we all have Private Limited companies would be an unnecessary hindrance to the real small people who also want to enter into this. That is why we reached on this compromise. That is the background.
Our own draft from the ministry had two distinctions, Deposit
Taking Micro-Finance Institutions and Non-Deposit Taking MicroFinance Institutions. So the point is well taken but I think those who argue that it is unconstitutional are right. If I want to operate my business as John Dotito, that is fine and if I want to operate my business as Eddie Cross Pvt. Ltd, that is fine and that is also my constitutional right. I am sure that the Chairman of the committee would agree with those who made us change the Bill.
I also take your comment on the absence of the definition in the Banking Act on Financial Institutions. Those are minor amendments that we will deal with in the Finance Act. We are going to come up with a Finance Act in June when we do the Mid Term Statement. So some of these minor things, we will deal with them there. I also agree with you that on the issue of the one year licence duration; let us take the model of the search. The Securities Act and we give a licence in perpetuity which is subject to that. I also agree that the Minister should have the power of regulation on the capital requirements.
For the burning Act, we have actually given that power. So I think it is another amendment that we will effect. I also agree with you that we need to put someone from the Consumer Council of Zimbabwe in respect of Section 45. I have no problem at all with putting someone from the members of your Committee. I know you are arguing from self interest and we are going to do that. Those are the things that I happily agree with you.
There are things that I do not agree with you and I will explain why. The first one is your suggestion that if a bank is operating a subsidiary, that subsidiary should not be covered by the Micro-Finance Act. We have to do that because what happens is that if you look at the definition of banking, banking only covers those classifications of banking which are covered in Section 6 of the Banking Act. So if it is a subsidiary, it is a new company in another business. Part of the problem in our current Banking Act is that a bank is allowed to participate even in retail. One of the things that have been happening nowadays is that a customer of a bank defaults. His security was Chiendambuya Supermarket. Then the bank says we are now taking over the supermarket but it is a non performing loan. So once it is a non performing loan, then the provision of bad debts in the accounts must apply.
So we should actually restrict the issue of subsidiaries doing all kinds of things and when they do any other kind of thing, they should be regulated by that particular law in that particular industry and that is what we are doing. It also applies to your contention that when a bank collapses, this is what you are arguing. You are saying if a bank collapses and it had a subsidiary that was doing Micro Finance; the Micro Finance should not be de-licenced. On the experience of what we have seen in the last two, three years, you actually have to deregister everything because of the collateral effect. One of the things that have been happening, I know you have read the reports, is that you have a holding company like in the case of Renaissance. You had a
Renaissance Holdings which owns the bank. Renaissance Holdings also owned shares and are free. Renaissance Holdings also owned shares in Rainbow Tourism Group.
All these coterie of companies became feja, feja. An omission happening in the company is hidden in the insurance company. An omission in the insurance company is hidden in the Rainbow Tourism
Group. So I think that once a bank has defaulted, in fact in the Banking Act we have said when the Reserve Bank issues curatorship against a bank, that curatorship must also affect other associated companies because part of the problem is that if the bank collapses, but the shareholders remain reproducing themselves in other businesses where the capital was being siphoned in the first place, to feed these other beasts where they were operating from.
So it will be wrong to demarcate. I do not agree with you on that one. I also do not agree with you that notification should not take place as defined in the Act. The issue of registering a Micro Finance is so important. You cannot wait for a Monetary Policy Statement by the RBZ to say let us gazette, just like we do banks, that this one is operating and this one is not operating. The most important thing is that you suggest that where an illegal lending has been made, this law is saying, if you lend money not in accordance with this Act, either in terms of whether you are registered or not or you are breaching the lending requirements. You are doing what honourable Mudarikwa was saying that interest can go to a thousand percent. In this Act, we are saying the transaction becomes void not voidable. In other words, if you give me US$2 000.00, it becomes void. If you give me US$500.00, whatever the Micro Finance Act will provide, you have not complied with the law.
The person who suffers is the lender. The suggestion from the committee is that there should be no taking away of their interest. If you take away their interest, they will keep on coming back. So to make sure that there is proper compliance with this law and to make sure that we do not have Shylocks in this economy, let us hit them where it hurts most. If you do an illegal transaction, it is void and not voidable. When we did public consultations, this was one of the most popular things, this particular provision.
So I differ with you on that one. The issue of US$5 million is very important because a Deposit Taking Micro Finance Institution is a bank by another name. If you are going to deposit your money in any institution, somebody has to have his own money. So he must show that he has got some money, not US$12 million or US$20 million like a bank. But, if I am going to put my money in yours, you must not make your money from my money that I have put for you, which is the problem with most of us vanaNyamuzihwa, navanaGushungo. You must not make money with someone’s money. If I say I am keeping someone’s money, I should also show that I have my own money. If you do not have money, we will give you just a Micro Finance, but if you are going to take our money, kuti zveshuwa mari yangu iri hard earned, I earn US$800 ndonoisa mari yangu imomo, unofanira kuratidza kuti uneyakowo.
So there, I also disagree with you. Show us that you are a woman or a man and you have got your own money. Then we can also put our money in there. I see no reason with US$5 million. I undertake some of these small amendments; we will do them in the Finance Act like the Licencing one which is coming very soon. June is very close by but with others I respectfully beg to differ with the committee, but I appreciate all the points that they have raised. I thank you very much Madam Speaker.
Motion put and agreed to.
Bill read a second time.
Committee: with leave forthwith.
COMMITTEE STAGE
MICRO-FINANCE BILL (H.B. 2, 2012)
House in Committee.
Clauses 1 to 63 put and agreed to.
First and Second Schedules put and agreed to.
House resumed.
Bill reported without amendments
Third Reading: With leave; forthwith.
THIRD READING
MICRO FINANCE BILL [H.B. 2A, 2013]
THE MINISTER OF FINANCE: Madam Speaker, I move that
the Bill be now read the third time.
Motion put and agreed to.
Bill read the third time.
SECOND READING
SECURITIES AMENDMENT BILL (H.B. 1, 2012)
Sixth Order read: Adjourned debate on motion on the Second Reading of the Securities Amendment Bill, (H.B. 1, 2012).
Question again proposed.
- CROSS: Madam Speaker, again I would like to express my appreciation to the Minister for permitting the Committee on Budget and Finance time to do consultations on this amendment. The operation of the Stock Exchange in Zimbabwe is an extremely important economic function. It is an institution which is likely to play an important role in the long term development of the country. Therefore, these amendments are important to all of us. It is a highly technical subject Madam Speaker and I hope that the House will be patient with me while I present these requests to the Minister.
We consulted both the Stock Exchange itself and the representatives of the brokers and they made the following representations to us.
On the question of methodology, the Committee received oral evidence from the Stock Exchange after the institution had itself conducted consultations with stockbrokers. Officials from Asset Management Company also made their submissions to the Committee.
The Committee’s findings:
Amendment of Section 2, the Interpretation
The Committee proposes a number of amendments to the definitions contained in the Bill. Amongst them, we proposed the following:
“Investment advisor” would mean a person who gives other persons investment advice or recommendations (including about holding and disposing of investments) in relation to securities or other assets.
“Principal officer” of registered exchange, means a person who is responsible for the daily management of the principal office in Zimbabwe of the institution.
“Compliance officer” means a person employed by any licenced exchange responsible for ensuring compliance with the Act.
“Records” they made strong representations in this respect Madam Speaker, of a registered exchange, means documents and information in the ordinary course of business of the institution, whether in written form or kept on microfilm magnetic tape or any other form of mechanical or electronic medium. They pointed out to us Madam Speaker, that the present definition, in fact, precludes such modern means of data collection.
“Securities” means each of the following
- shares in or debentures of a company, a corporation or an unincorporated body;
- stock, bonds, certificates of deposit or depository receipts of treasury bills issued or proposed to be issues by the Government; (c) interest and instruments prescribed for the purpose of this definition; and
(d) derivatives
“Extension of time” means that the Commission may, on application, extend the time for compliance with, or a period prescribed by a provision of the financial services law, and may do so before or after the time for compliance of the period prescribed has passed.
“Securities dealer” means any of the following-
- a member of the securities exchange as defined by the Act;
- a person who buys or sells securities on behalf of other persons;
(b) a person who regularly buys or sells securities on his own behalf otherwise than through a licensed securities dealer;
“Securities exchange” the interpretation of security exchange Madam Speaker, means a market, exchange, place or facility that provides for bringing together on a regular basis, buyers and sellers of securities to negotiate or conclude sales of securities.
“Self regulatory organisation” means a body declared to be a self
regulatory in terms of sub section 15 (1)
“Self regulatory organisation arrangements” means arrangements described in subsection 15 (2)
“Stock broker” means a person who carries out :-
- the business of purchasing and selling or purchasing or selling listed securities on behalf of other persons; or
- regularly purchases and sells or purchases or sells listed securities on his own behalf.
Disclosures by investors
The Committee’s view is that there is need to include a section on “Disclosure of information” where an investor has acquired 15% of issued capital of a listed company. In other words where an individual investor bears more than 15% of the listed company, he should be required to notify the exchange of that fact.
Communication
The Committee proposes that the market side communication from the Stock Exchange Commission should be channeled through the securities exchange. Communication to individual stockbroker dealers or firms should only be undertaken in the course of investigation.
Anti-Money Laundering requirements
The Committee feels that there should be provision in the amendments for the commission to take action against money laundering and other illicit activities which might be involving any of the exchangers under his jurisdiction. There is no provision at the moment in this Act. In addition to these provisions Madam Speaker, the Stock Exchange requested that the Minister incorporates a section on self regulating organisations in the Act. This has, in fact, been excluded from the Act altogether and in fact they make a substantial provisory on the specific wording as they require in the Act. I would prefer not to read to the House this afternoon but to convey this to the Minister in writing.
In addition, the Stock Exchange has requested that the term
“stockbrokers’ license” should be referred to as a “stockbroking license” and not a securities dealer. This will lead to the traditions of the Stock Exchange and they will regard stockbrokers as highly professional individuals in their right. They feel that there is need to retain this term in the amendments to the Act.
Madam Speaker, the Committee acknowledges the critical role that the Stock Exchange plays in the economy and it is looking forward to other exchanges being established in due course in Zimbabwe. The establishment of the Securities Commission should boost investor confidence and ensure that the activities on the market are fair and efficient. The Committee recommends the Bill in its present form to the House. I thank you.
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, Honourable Cross, can you
go and switch off that microphone.
THE MINISTER OF FINANCE: Madam Speaker, once again, I
would like to thank the Committee for very valuable comments. The definition sections, remember we are not covering them in this Bill but I think that the Committee is doing, is to propose improvements on what is existing but it is not the subject of this Bill. What I would say is that because it is something new, I will take this to the Attorney General and we will look at it. We can use the general amendment, the Banking Act or the Finance Act because they are not covered by this Bill. I hope
Hon. Matshalaga, you see my point.
There are two issues which you raised. The first one, I agree with you that if someone or an investor acquires a significant stake of 15%, I think there should be disclosure. So I agree with that one.
On the second one of anti-money laundering, I want to assure the Hon. Member that we have a comprehensive Bill that is going to deal with anti-money and terrorism which is consistent with the UN protocols. In fact, right now we are actually on the threat of sanctions because of us not passing this Bill. In fact on Thursday, the Cabinet Committee on Legislation is going to meet on that one.
The only one I disagree with you is the issue of self-regulation. The problem with the Stock Exchange is that it has been run since 1893 when it was set up, it has been run like an old boys club – you know it. So you cannot touch them. They operate like a cabal. They are hunting wolves and there are lots of incestuous things that happen which you know better than I – pushing a share price or collapsing a share price.
So, self regulation does not work anymore.
You actually now have four layers. You have the Committee of the Stock Exchange which is the brokers themselves. It is there and we are not dismantling it. So they have their own internal self regulation on rules. The Stock Exchange opens at twelve and we cannot control that, neither the Commission. Then we have another new layer now – the
Board itself. Then we have the Commission and then we have Government through the Ministry of Finance.
One of the problems with the Stock Exchange as currently constituted is that if you look at the current Stock Exchange Act, it just sets up a market. There will be traders but it does not actually define who owns this market.
So the stock brokers actually become the players and the umpires and it is a result of this self-regulation. One of the things why we are now moving towards demutualization is that we want people who are able to say we own this thing. We are appointing a Board and this is best standard throughout the world, the issue of demutualization.
The second thing also which is partly covered by your desire of 15% disclosure is the issue of automation of trade and the Central Securities Depository (CSD) because once you have those now, it means that Mai Ezra can leave Chiendambuya and actually go on the back office and see who has bought shares. What we are doing also in this Act is that, a lot of our people are operating through nominal companies.
Hon. Chinyadza buys a multiple share of companies – he is not there.
So you have Bindura Private Limited, Chiendambuya Private Limited.
Just to give an example, there is a businessman called Van
Hoogstraten – a notorious businessman. It is the beauty of Parliament Mr. Speaker, I am protected by privilege. So, he is a major shareholder in Hwange, he is a major shareholder in RTG. Now, if you go to the Registrar of Rainbow Tourism Group, you will not find Van Hoogstraten anywhere but you will find Hamilton this and Hamilton that. It is almost like 18 Hamilton Companies. So, the issue now of the CSD, is that it obliges the piercing of the corporate veil. So, if there is
Chiendambuya Private Limited, we must know that the principal of Chendambuya is Webster Chinyadza. If we do the CSD, it might not be actually necessary but I think that one is a good thing to put it and we put it in the amendments to the Banking Act.
But, I appreciate Mr. Speaker the quality of the contributions, it shows that hon. members are doing their jobs and they are not mere rubber stamps of what the Executive does. Because, sometimes the Executive can mislead Madam Speaker and I want to appreciate that and we will definitely take it into account. On the other definitions which were not the subject of our Bill, I will refer to my officials some of whom are sitting there and the Attorney General and then we improve them.
Thank you very much Madam Speaker, zikomo kwambili.
Motion put and agreed to.
Bill read the second time.
Committee Stage: with leave forthwith.
COMMITTEE STAGE
SECURITIES AMENDMENT BILL, (H.B. 1, 2012)
House in Committee.
Clauses 1 to 38 put and agreed to.
Schedule put and agreed to.
House resumed.
Bill reported without amendments.
Third Reading: With leave; forthwith.
THIRD READING
SECURITIES AMENDMENT BILL [H. B.1, 2012]
THE MINISTER OF FINANCE: I move that the Bill be now
read the third time.
Motion put and agreed to.
Bill read the third time.
On the motion of THE MINISTER OF FINANCE, the House adjourned at Twenty-eight Minutes to Five o’clock p.m.
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Tuesday, 15th October, 2013
The National Assembly met at a Quarter-past Two o’clock p.m.
PRAYERS
(MR. SPEAKER in the Chair)
ANNOUNCEMENTS BY MR. SPEAKER
INVITATION TO A CLEAN-UP CAMPAIGN AND
ENVIRONMENTAL DAY
- SPEAKER: I wish to inform hon. members that the
Anglican Church of the Province of Central Africa and Proudly
Zimbabwean Foundation are inviting all Members of Parliament to an Anglican Communion Clean-up Campaign and Environmental Day to be held at Avondale shopping centre in Harare on Saturday, 26th October, 2013, from 0800 hours to 1630 hours. His Excellency, the President,
Comrade R.G. Mugabe will attend the event. Members who wish to attend should confirm with the Public Relations Department.
APPOINTMENT TO THE STANDING RULES AND
ORDERS COMMITTEE
- SPEAKER: Section 151 (1) of the Constitution provides that Parliament must appoint a Committee to be known as the Committee on Standing Rules and Orders for purposes of supervising the Administration of Parliament, formulating Standing Orders, considering and deciding all matters concerning Parliament and exercising any other functions that may be conferred or imposed on the Committee by the Constitution or by Standing Orders or any other law.
Section 151 (2) of the Constitution provides that the Committee on Standing Rules and Orders must consist of the Speaker and the President of the Senate and the following Members of Parliament: the Deputy
Speaker; the Deputy President of the Senate; the Minister responsible for Finance and two other ministers appointed by the President; the Leader of Government Business in each House; the Leader of the Opposition in each House; the Chief Whips of all political parties represented in each House; the President of the National Council of Chiefs; two members who are not ministers or deputy ministers, one being a senator appointed to the Committee by the President of the Senate and the other one being a Member of the National Assembly appointed by the Speaker.
In terms of Standing Order No. 14 of both the Senate and the National Assembly Standing Orders and the provisions of Section 151 of the Constitution, I therefore, inform the House that the Committee on Standing Rules and Orders shall comprise the following:
Hon. Advocate Jacob Francis Mudenda, the Speaker of the National Assembly and Chairperson; Hon. Sen. Edna Madzongwe, President of the Senate and Deputy Chairperson; Hon. Mabel Memory Chinomona, Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly; Hon. Sen. Chen Chenhamo Chakezha Chimutengwende, Deputy President of the Senate; Hon.
Patrick Chinamasa, Minister of Finance, Hon. Dr. Sydney Sekeramayi, Minister of Defence; Hon. Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa, Minister of Justice, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs; Hon. Sithembiso Gile
Gladys Nyoni, Minister of Small and Medium Enterprises and Cooperative Development; Hon. Thokozani Khupe, Leader of the
Opposition; Hon. J.M. Gumbo, ZANU PF Chief Whip in the National
Assembly; Hon. Innocent Gonese, MDC-T Chief Whip; Hon. Jasmine Toffa, MDC Chief Whip; Hon. Innocent Gonese, MDC-T, Chief Whip and Hon. Jasmine Toffa, MDC Chief Whip.
Section 151 (2) (i) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe, also states that the Committee on Standing Rules and Orders shall also comprise of eight members who are not ministers or deputy ministers; four being elected to the Committee by the Senate and four being elected by the National Assembly. The membership of the Committee must reflect as nearly as possible, the political and gender composition of the combined Houses of Parliament.
We have now received eight names, six from ZANU PF and two from MDC-T: Hon. Dr. D. Shumba; Hon. Tsomondo, Hon. K.
Kazembe and Hon. N. Chamisa.
The nominations comply with the requirements of section 151 (2) (i) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe. I, therefore, declare them duly elected to the Committee on Standing Rules and Orders.
May I point out that the nominations, one each from Madam President of the Senate and from me, are yet to be announced tomorrow after we have looked at the spread of those that have been nominated today.
INAUGURAL MEETING OF THE STANDING RULES AND
ORDERS COMMITTEE
- SPEAKER: The third announcement is, I also wish to inform the House that the Committee on Standing Rules and Orders will have its inaugural meeting on Wednesday, 16th October, 2013 at 1100 hours in Committee Room Number No. 4. All Committee Members are expected to attend promptly.
2013 PRE-BUDGET SEMINAR
- SPEAKER: The fourth announcement is, I wish to invite all members of the Eighth Parliament to the 2013 Pre-Budget Seminar that will be held from 31st October, 2013 to the 3rd November, 2013, at the Elephant Hills Hotel in Victoria Falls. The Seminar is an important annual Parliament activity meant to enhance the contribution by members to the process of budget formulation and prioritization ahead of the presentation of the 2014 National Budget Statement and the passage by Parliament of the Finance and Appropriation Bills.
Departure for Victoria Falls will be on Thursday, 31st October, 2013. To ensure adequate preparation and logistical arrangements, members are required to confirm their attendance with the Public Relations Department. Officers from the department will be stationed at the Members’ Dining Lounge from 1400 hours, beginning on
Wednesday, 16th October, 2013 to facilitate registration for the Seminar. Confirmation closes on Wednesday, 23rd October, 2013. Only confirmed members will be catered for.
MOTION
PRESIDENTIAL SPEECH: DEBATE ON ADDRESS
First Order read: Adjourned debate on motion in reply to the Presidential Speech.
Question again proposed.
- MHONA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir, for affording me this opportunity to contribute to the noble debate on the Presidential Speech. Mr. Speaker Sir, kindly allow me to congratulate you on your election as the Speaker of this august House. Let me also take this opportunity to thank the people of Chikomba Central Constituency for bequeathing me a clear mandate to represent them in this august House.
Mr. Speaker Sir, above all, I hereby congratulate His Excellency, the Commander-in-Chief of the Defence Forces of Zimbabwe, the First Secretary of ZANU PF; Cde. R. G. Mugabe on his election as the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, through his triumphant victory on the harmonised elections held on the 31st July, 2013, of which this election was declared as free, fair, peaceful and credible by SADC and African Union (AU) observers and sanctioned by the words from the holy Bible, found in Romans Chapter 13: 1-2: “Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever, therefore, resists the power, resists the ordinance of God; and they that resist shall receive to themselves judgment”. Congratulations, Makorokoto, Amhlophe Gushungo! –
[HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear]
Mr. Speaker Sir, the address by His Excellency, Cde. R. G.
Mugabe was an inspired speech, a prelude to the manifestation of a new
Zimbabwe driven by a historic home grown Constitution. Mr. Speaker Sir, to some of us being addressed face to face by His Excellency was a dream come true, an opportunity that every patriotic son of the soil would not boycott.
Mr. Speaker Sir, my fellow hon. members have debated at length on some of the major challenges alluded to by the President in his speech. These challenges, are causing untold suffering to the people of Zimbabwe – top on the list are illegal sanctions imposed on us by Britain and her allies and rampant corruption that has been regarded by many as cancerous. However, my debate will hinge on agriculture and transport infrastructure, with specific reference to my constituency.
Madam Speaker Ma’am, erratic rains experienced in the previous seasons coupled with unavailability of inputs, drinking water for both human consumption and livestock has really affected the electorate and funding of small scale farmers is virtually non-existent in my constituency.
Madam Speaker Ma’am, in order to mitigate the risk of recurrent droughts, it is of paramount importance to harness water and enhance irrigation farming. Construction of small dams, one in each ward will go a long way in addressing some of these challenges.
Madam Speaker Ma’am, in my constituency, in Masasa ward there is a small dam and a water treatment plant that has been lying idle for years. Through the Ministry of Environment, Water and Climate, the resuscitation of this plant is top on my priority list so that the people of Masasa, Mahusvu and the surrounding wards will have access to clean water. A number of boreholes, in my constituency, have collapsed and through a generous donation from a well-wisher, we have so far managed to refurbish over fifteen boreholes in three wards and a combined effort in rehabilitating and sinking new boreholes would alleviate water challenges in my constituency.
Madam Speaker Ma’am, we are privileged to have the following irrigation schemes in my constituency Chikwezvero, Nyahoni and Sachipiri of which, if adequate funding is channeled towards these projects, Chikomba Central will be a constituency of choice. Of utmost importance, is the rehabilitation of Sachipiri Dam that supplies water to Sachipiri irrigation and the people of Wazvaremhaka ward.
Madam Speaker Ma’am, we have over forty dip tanks in my constituency and unavailability of chemicals is causing a major threat to our livestock and the risk stares us right in the face. Due to the absence of water pumps by the dip tanks, people in my constituency have now resorted to using buckets in order to fill these tanks. Some of the tanks require over 15 000 litres of water – what an arduous task that has resulted in many people suffering from severe backaches. Rehabilitation and installation of new water pumps will be a major milestone in easing these challenges.
On transport infrastructure, Madam Speaker Ma’am, the President
clearly highlighted the essence of sound transport infrastructure in all national development issues but our roads in Chikomba Central are deplorable. It is quite disturbing to note that the so called Save bridge bordering my constituency and Hon. Musanhu’s, Wedza North
Constituency, is a dam wall constructed by one racist white farmer at the end of his farm during the colonial era. Since then, nothing has been done to rehabilitate this bridge and lives have been lost at this bridge, especially during the rainy season. The best scenario in this regard, is to by-pass this meandering narrow bridge and construct a new bridge; hence mobilisation of resources for this cause is our mammoth task.
Madam Speaker Ma’am, the following roads, in my constituency, need urgent maintenance from Garaba that is in Wedza through Kasora to Chikwezvero to Rutanhira to Mutekedza to Gwenda to Masasa to
Shambamuto to Mahusvu leading to Nharira then eventually to Chivhu.
There are also important feeder roads in Chikomba Central that have been neglected since time immemorial and now need to be upgraded as a matter of urgency. Unyetu to St. Pauls to Sadza; Masasa to Gokomere, to Duvhurwi, Rutanhira to Manyanga Business Centre; Zvichemo to Govere leading to Gandachibvuva in Buhera. The electorate cherish the good days of DDF, before the advent of illegal sanctions, therefore, adequate funding and revival of DDF is long overdue.
Madam Speaker Ma’am, transport infrastructure requires serious funding and I would want to concur with His Excellency, the President of Zimbabwe, Cde. R. G. Mugabe that public, private partnerships arrangements are key especially in upgrading and dualisation of national roads.
Madam Speaker Ma’am, let me also thank His Excellency for
assuring the nation that the plans for the dualisation of the Beitbridge, Harare and Chirundu highway have reached an advanced stage. In its current state, especially the Beitbridge to Harare highway has claimed a number of innocent souls and the entire nation shall celebrate and ululate on the day that the dualisation process is going to be completed, coupled with improved connectivity within the region.
In conclusion, Madam Speaker Ma’am, elections have come and gone and it is high time we all focus on rebuilding our beautiful country, Zimbabwe. – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear] - According to Martin
Luther King (Jr), ‘Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, what are you doing for others?’ The essence of us being in this august House is to represent the needs of the electorate, heckling and name calling is retrogressive. As long as leaders worry about who sits at the head table, they have little time for the people that they are called to serve. We do not see opportunities for services whilst our eyes are fixed on the competition.
Madam Speaker Ma’am, it is true that there are no problems that we cannot solve together and very few that we can solve by ourselves.
There are some people who if they do not know, you cannot tell them. –
[HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections]-
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, order! Can we give the hon.
member a chance to be heard in silence? If hon. members have private discussions, they can as well go and hold them outside the august House.
- MHONA: Madam Speaker Ma’am, it is true that there are
no problems that we cannot solve together and very few that we can solve by ourselves. There are some people who if they do not know, you cannot tell them. Let me reiterate that Zimbabwe is for Zimbabweans and it shall never be a colony again.
There is a Turkish proverb which says “no matter how far you have gone on a wrong road, turn back”. Likewise I advise my fellow countrymen advocating for a regime change, through continued imposition of illegal sanctions on us by the West, to turn back and call for their immediate removal and join Team ZANU PF for a prosperous Zimbabwe. Long Live Chikomba Central! Long Live Zimbabwe!
MRS. NYAMUPINGA: Let me start by extending my heartfelt
congratulations on your election as the Presiding Officer of this august
House. I can assure you that you will count, not only on my support but also on that of the people of Goromonzi West, whose unwavering support is the anchor of my work.
His Excellency, the President has had his leadership of this country overwhelmingly endorsed by those who are higher than us – the people of Zimbabwe. Nonetheless, it is still my joy and privilege to add my voice and that of the people of Goromonzi West, to the rising choruses of congratulations to His Excellency on his re-election as the President of our great country on the 31st July 2013. It is a source of pride to all of us that the stewardship of this country has remained in the hands of a tried and tested statesman of international repute. We thank our people for continuing to repose confidence in His Excellency’s able leadership.
I have come back to this House on a strong mandate than in my last term. I am very grateful to the people of Goromonzi West for continuing to afford me an opportunity to serve them and I shall serve them to the best of my ability.
Madam Speaker Ma’am, His Excellency’s Official Opening
Speech was refreshing and indeed so wide in its scope as to provide a clear direction for this First Session of the Eighth Parliament. It remains for me to highlight areas of emphasis which I believe contain the ingredients for a successful delivery of our mandate as Parliament.
As the core of my Constituency is agriculture, it is common cause that besides good land, agriculture is sustained by good rains and/or irrigation. Most parts of Goromonzi West have already experienced a devastating drought. Most dams have silted. The cumulative effect is shortage of food. Although many people in my Constituency are hardworking and resourceful, there is a limit to which they can sustain life when their agricultural base has been hit hard. For example, those involved in market gardening have not been able to get viable markets. They end up throwing away all the produce that they have produced using manual methods. I therefore, implore the Government to take urgent intervention strategies on food relief and canning plants to avoid loss of produce.
Madam Speaker Ma’am, His Excellency gave an insightful focus on infrastructural development. My Constituency is among the most deserving in the area of investing in infrastructure. While there is some progress in road rehabilitation, the state of the roads is still bad. The Constituents would benefit more from tarred roads than the current efforts focusing on gravel roads. There is an urgent need to attend to the following roads in Goromonzi West: Harare-Sasa road, HarareNyamande roard, Harare-Pote road, and Harare-Munyawiri-Bindura roads which are the main routes for most women involved in informal sector activities.
In this regard, allow me to note that dualisation of major roads is welcomed by all our people and must be given top priority as it has a direct effect on reducing the carnage on our roads. Every constituency is affected. One bus accident along the Harare-Beitbridge road may claim the lives of 240 people from 40 different constituencies in this august House.
Madam Speaker Ma’am, the success of our country must be measured by the extent to which we restore dignity to our women. They are the backbone of our families and society. The sight of urban women enduring long distances to fetch water is unconscionable for any society seeking to uplift the lives of ordinary people. A comprehensive solution to urban water problems must be found. I therefore, support the need for solutions to this problem contained in the Speech by His Excellency particularly the issue of a long term loan facility to address water and sanitation problems in urban areas. Let me say that the problem of water is not only in urban areas but is also in rural areas and Goromonzi West is one of the most affected. I therefore, implore the Government to find a solution to the water problem.
Higher Education is a key component of development efforts all over the world. It enables young people to develop their full potential after acquiring meaningful skills which are essential in their quest to sustain their livelihood. The girl child is our special focus in Goromonzi West. We are encouraging young girls to be ambitious and pursue studies in Science, Engineering and Mathematics. In this regard, I am pleased to advise this august House that the people of Goromonzi West welcome efforts leading to the establishment of the Marondera University of Agriculture, Science and Technology.
The outcome of the legislative agenda in His Excellency’s Speech shows that our work is clear cut. I wish to make particular focus on proposals to introduce the CDF Bill. It is disappointing that in the last Parliament, we were only able to access funds for CDF for only one financial year out of the five. It is my hope that the CDF Bill will address the logistical challenges which inhibited the availability and utilisation of CDF funds.
Madam Speaker Ma’am, CDF is a crucial component of community development. I have every confidence that hon. members of this august House will draw lessons from problems experienced in the past and utilise these funds for the exclusive benefit of the people of their constituencies.
His Excellency, the President spoke about the urgent need to domesticate the protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons, especially women and children. The Bill must quickly come to the House and the protocol ratified. We are a progressive country and must protect our women and children. Madam Speaker Ma’am, there is need to define trafficking in persons to our constituents because they have a different understanding altogether. Let me take this opportunity to define trafficking in persons. Trafficking in persons is the sale, transport and profit from a human being who are forced or tricked to work for others. For example, people are forced to work as beggars, prostitutes or domestic servants and even as farm labourers. We must deal and condemn trafficking in persons and support His Excellency the President’s commitment in that endeavour.
Madam Speaker Ma’am, I commend His Excellency the President for seeking to mainstream indigenisation and empowerment programmes. That must also include a clear position and modus operandi of ensuring that women have access to the programmes, and are direct beneficiaries in their own right. That will be in line with the constitutional position of 50/50 gender parity. A lot of women in
Goromonzi West and also in other constituencies, who are engaged in various economic activities, will need that legislative support in the empowerment process.
In conclusion Madam Speaker Ma’am, I would like to thank you for having accorded me this opportunity to address this august House. I would like to thank His Excellency the President for his speech, and also would like to thank the mover of this motion. I thank you Madam
Speaker Ma’am.
MRS. MISIHAIRAMBWI-MUSHONGA: Thank you Madam
Speaker. I stand to debate on the Presidential Speech. What I will try to do is to deal with the context of this Speech and the Opening of Parliament. I would also want to pick on 3 or 4 issues that were addressed in the Presidential Speech. The first part of the context Madam Speaker is the issue on the two significant things that happened on that particular day.
The first one was in my opinion historic in that the face of Parliament changed with the 8th Parliament. The face of Parliament changed significantly on the issue of gender. For many of us, who have been activists on the issues to do with women, we are excited that for the first time, this House has more oestrogen than it has testosterone. One hopes Madam Speaker that it will change the way debate is done in this House.
The reason why we have had major problems, confrontations and conflicts, is precisely because the more men you have in a place, the more testosterone, the more ego and the more you do not make sense. One hopes that with the introduction of women in this House, we will see a major difference. It is exciting also Madam Speaker in that, the difference is not just about women. It is about the inter-generational women that have come to this House. We have young women, middle aged and older women and one hopes that by bringing all these experiences together, we will be able to make a major difference. That is one issue - sex- that I think changed the context of this particular 8th Parliament.
The second issue which is not so exciting is that we were so cramped in this House. People were standing up and I think it is wrong, at all different levels. The environment that you create for debate, churns out the kind of debate that you are likely to have. As somebody who has been in Government, as a Government Minister, I do understand that indeed when you are looking at Parliament, it is treated as a poor cousin. This would not have happened if it was the Executive or the Judiciary. It happened primarily because we do not have the respect that we should have for the Legislature –[HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear]-
Madam Speaker, I am a widow and therefore everything that I do, is a D.I.Y., Do It Yourself. When I look at this Parliament, I cannot understand why in the short-term Madam Speaker, we cannot do something about this House. I am not an architect, but I think there is something that we can do to make a difference in the way that we do business in this House.
When some of us came to Parliament for the first time, in 2000, there was a certain vibe about Parliament, there was a certain energy about Parliament, but there is something that is just not there in this
Legislature. I think we need to do some introspection and do something about it because we are in a new age of new technology. I thought that as I did my presentation here, some of the research and information that I wanted to take, I would be able to get it from here. But, you sit in this House; a basic thing like just having wireless is not possible. I do not think that it costs so much to just organise and make sure that we have wireless in this House.
In most places, people twit back to their constituencies. They are connected directly to their constituencies so that people understand the issues that somebody is raising. I raise this as just one example of the things that we need to look at. I am glad that when we started, the Speaker raised the issue of the Pre-Budget Seminar. I want to encourage my colleagues that if we attend the Pre-Budget Seminar, one of the things that should be a priority for discussion is how we should make this Parliament a face age Parliament and a Parliament that is able to deliver Madam Speaker.
Having said that, let me go back to the content of the Presidential
Speech which I think should be the subject of my debate and discussion.
Madam Speaker, the President starts by raising the context. His context is that we have just gone from an election and that this Parliament comes from that election. He says, the elections were held in an environment prevailing with peace and tranquility. I do not disagree with him on the issue of peace and tranquility –[HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear]- The one thing that has been said about our values as Africans is the ability to say sorry and the ability to say thank you.
First, we need to thank the Almighty that we did not lose lives in this particular election. Even as we do so, we need Madam Speaker, to thank those processes, institutions and persons who did something about that. It is wrong Madam Speaker, for you to put institutions and people who spend their time and resources in building a legacy and after it has been done, you begin to rubbish them. I say so Madam Speaker, we would not have had peace and tranquility if we did not have the kind of political leadership that we had during the Inclusive Government. I think it is important to thank those political leaders that took a political will in understanding and communicating on issues of peace.
President Mugabe in his capacity as the President of ZANU PF and the President of Zimbabwe, President Tsvangirai in his capacity as the President of MDC-T and then Prime Minister of Zimbabwe, Professor W. Ncube, in his capacity as the President of the MDC and the Minister of Industry and Commerce at that time – they took a stance around issues of peace and tranquility – [HON. MEMBERS: Ko Mutambara wamusiirei] – I am talking about political leaders of political parties.
Madam Speaker, those three were part of the Indaba that set the tone for where we were going as a country. We called the political leaders to address members of political parties and they were addressed by those three. After that had been done, there are members in JOMIC for example, I want to mention them by name because one thing that has become a culture is we easily forget the people that invested their time and talk ill about them. These are Hon. Mudzuri, Hon. Muchinguri, Hon. Goche, Hon. T Khumalo, Mr. Mangoma and many others. They were part of the Operations Committee.
Those individuals received phone calls in the middle of the night. Those individuals went to communities to build bridges. As it is right now, it is understood that belonging to a different political party does not make you an enemy of the other. It was that work that those particular individuals and institutions did and I want to thank them. I say so because sometimes I get so hurt when I read articles in the newspapers that are beginning to devalue the whole essence of JOMIC. I think it is important that we write it in the history of this country, that it did play a role in making sure that we get the kind of peace and tranquility that we do have in this country.
Like I said Madam Speaker, we had an Election on the 31st July, 2013, unfortunately, that Election has left us at political leadership level more polarised than we were before. Madam Speaker, it takes sober minds to begin to say is this what we want as a legacy for our children? Is this what we want for the people of Zimbabwe? The first thing that we need to do Madam Speaker, painful as it maybe is to acknowledge that 31, July happened and it is done – [HON MEMBERS: Hear, hear] – we need to move on.
However, even as we move on, we need to say to ourselves ‘what is it that we should do better the next time’. What makes us so divided and so polarised. That cannot happen by us sitting on opposite sides and throwing stones at each other every other day. It may be funny, it may make you feel better but in the context of the people of Zimbabwe, it brings absolutely nothing to the table. We cannot have those that are now the ruling party behaving as if we will continue to treat these ones as enemies and we will continue to treat them and vanquish them and we call them names so that that can legitimise us. We also cannot have us as opposition, sitting back and folding our hands and saying, aah chitongai tione, in other words hoping that something wrong may happen.
Madam Speaker, leadership comes from us saying things went wrong, let us do something about it. Leadership does not come from us being angry at each other. There are many things that are justified about how we could we have had an election which would not have been contested. We could have gone to this Election with an agreed date, with a voters’ role that was agreed to. There are many things that we could have done differently but holding the different positions that we have right now, will not make 2018 any different from what it is right now. I think we need a leadership from both sides of the House that begins to say we have a problem but we will deal with it.
Just like we said in 2008, never ever again will we have an election in which people lose their lives. In 2008 and 2009 when we came up with the Inclusive Government, we were driven by the very fact that we wanted to address it so that we would never go to an election that is contested. We did some of the things but we did not do all of them. We need to make sure that we go back to the drawing board and begin to look at these things in a very sober and composed manner. Which is why I said Madam Speaker, I am hoping that the more women we have in this House, we will begin to have sense because when you are dealing with men, it is always about how I won an argument. It is not about winning an argument; it is about building a nation. Building a nation takes humility, takes taking away yourself and beginning to say in the interest of my country. We did it Madam Speaker before and I am sure we can do it again.
Madam Speaker, let me also talk about the economy, which is another issue that was raised in the Presidential Speech. I am disappointed and perhaps much more at a personal level. Until and unless we understand as a country that our economy cannot move if we are polarized and that politics make up the issues that make up the whole body of what an economy is; you will not have trade and investment in a country Madam Speaker, if that country is polarised. Capital is shy; it does not come where there is war and where there is infighting. It comes where there is stability, where there is clarity of purpose and where there is unity. We need to address that issue.
The second one Madam Speaker is what holds an economy is the issue of trade and investment. Until we are able to deal with the cross boarder issue which has held this economy together, we have not started.
The reason why I said I am disappointed Madam Speaker, at a personal level is that in this new Government, we now have decided to do away with the Ministry of Regional Integration. Madam Speaker, you cannot do anything until you agree to the issues of intra trade and intra trade is buttressed by the work that our women do as they cross borders to facilitate inter-trade. Madam Speaker, the way women are treated at these border posts, is unacceptable.
It is unacceptable for people who are fighting to bring an economy back from its knees. You cannot have a border post where you go and are subjected to the inhuman treatment that women get. Not only that, after they have gone through that inhuman treatment at the border post, as they get into the country, they find four or five other border posts waiting for them from the border post – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible
interjections].
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order Hon. Members, you are
making a lot of noise. Can you please listen to what the Hon. Member is saying. If you have any discussions, please go to the lobby.
MRS. MISIHAIRABWI-MUSHONGA: Madam Speaker, until
we begin to respect the issues around our cross borders, particularly women, we will not move in this economy. I want to call upon my women colleagues here, not to set up a committee that just goes and says, ‘we are a Parliamentary Committee,’ because people change their behaviour if they think somebody is coming to watch them. Let us go underground and stand in those queues and deal with those Immigration Officers. We will come here with a completely different view and mind of dealing with the issues around cross border trading. So, those are my concerns around the issue of the economy.
Madam Speaker, linked to the economy is the issue of corruption which was raised in the Presidential Speech. I know that there is corruption that we look at; that is exciting and sensational but Madam Speaker, the biggest threat of corruption is the services that women try and find on a day to day basis. Whether she is going to try and get a birth certificate or get a passport or anything, is where most of the corruption takes place.
We need to deal with our issues around service provision. I said to you Madam Speaker, I had hoped that wireless network will be on. There are major studies that have now shown the correlation between Women in Governance and corruption.
Just look at the parastatals in this country. If you look at the mess that is happening and the corruption that is happening, in most instances, if not all instances, they are parastatals that are headed by men. Let us change the choices that we make around leadership and let us see whether if we were to put women in some of these parastatals, it would not make a difference. There are studies that have been done to prove particularly that point.
Madam Speaker, I have waited for a long time to make this statement and I am so glad God has given me the opportunity to say it. As a rural Member of Parliament, I want to raise the issue of water and sanitation - [HON MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections]. Madam Speaker, from the time I became a Member of Parliament, in 2000, I have heard those who were representing rural constituencies standing up and saying it in a manner that they are different from everybody else and I have the joy of standing up and saying as a rural Member of
Parliament, yes, it is important to talk about water and sanitation - [HON MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections].
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon. members, order!
MRS. MISIHAIRABWI-MUSHONGA: It is important Madam
Speaker, to talk about water and sanitation as it relates to urban areas but the studies that have been done in this country around issues of water and sanitation makes sad reading. That, we still have in Zimbabwe right now, communities that have no Blair toilets; that still use the bush on a day to day basis, is so sad. I think it is important for us to begin to focus on rural communities and the rural communities have no problems doing these things themselves. They will mould the bricks themselves and they will build those Blair toilets themselves. What they need are the resources and the capacity to do that and I think it is an area that we really need to focus on and be able to deliver.
Madam Speaker, I will end up again with my most favourite subject – the Constitution. The President raised the issue of the
Constitution in his Speech and one of the things that he said was that this particular House will be tasked with the realignment of laws, haa, to the new Constitution. That means there will be a lot of work that needs to be done. However, Madam Speaker, this is the Constitution that I got from the Government Gazette yesterday [Raising a copy of the Constitution].
If we are going to have a Constitution that our people went out in millions to vote for, it needs to be a Constitution that people can hold and be able to read and take with them. In this format, Madam Speaker, this cannot be a Constitution that the people of Zimbabwe can call their own Constitution. It needs to be packaged in a manner that shows that it is a document to be proud of. It needs to be packaged in a manner that you can read it in both languages and appreciate it. I think we need to do that and we need to do that as a nation.
Secondly, Madam Speaker, we need to begin to say to ourselves, political diversity is a good thing and I am glad that even in the Presidential Speech, there is something that speaks to the issue of acknowledging our diversity and having unity in diversity. Therefore, the fact that you do not speak my language and you are not of my tribe as well as that you are not of the same race as me, should not make you a lesser Zimbabwean than we are right now.
I am happy that even in his opening address, the Speaker himself, did speak to the issue that when we are in this Parliament, there is not one who is more important than the other. We represent a nation! We are all Zimbabweans and therefore Madam Speaker, I hope that we can please get away from name calling and calling each other ‘sell-outs’ and ‘regime changers’, only because we belong to different political parties but that is what diversity is all about. Give me the right to belong where I want to belong to. You may not appreciate it, you may not want to be in it, but understand that part of the liberation struggle was to give me the right to belong to where I want to belong and to be appreciated for who I am.
Madam Speaker, as we speak about the Constitution, we set up structures in this Constitution. People were voted in using the changes that we had put in this Constitution. As we speak right now, people were voted in as Provincial Council Members but as we speak right now, those people have not been sworn-in and people have no idea what they are supposed to do. This is almost three months after the election has been done. We already have started violating the whole essence of the Constitution that we put up.
We put up structures to be respected. Madam Speaker, Hon. Chombo, as the Minister of Local Government, should, with immediate effect, call those Provincial Council Members so that at the very least, they can be sworn-in. Then, following that, we need to make sure that we do put in place that Act that facilitates for those Provincial Councils to work.
Madam Speaker – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections].
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, hon. members.
MRS. MISIHAIRABWI-MUSHONGA: Madam Speaker, the
Constitution was clear, you do not make a law first so that you swear them in as Provincial Councillors. The very moment we said, this election will elect Provincial Councils, meant that those people have to be in place even as we are creating the legal framework for them to operate. Not putting them in place is a violation of the essence of this Constitution.
We can talk about resources but we need to begin to get to the synergy between the Provincial Council members and Local Authority so that those provinces can begin to work.
I know Madam Speaker that the area of devolution was one area that created a lot of division among ourselves but we finally agreed to that essence of devolution. We should not create in anyone’s mind that because some of us were unhappy with the essence and principle of devolution, we therefore, are going to make sure that we do not put that devolution in place.
I therefore call upon us as this House to impress upon, like I said, the Minister to make sure that these people are sworn in but more importantly, let us make sure that we have a short term and a long term arrangement around those issues of putting up a Provincial Council. I believe that whilst a lot of things may be said around issues of devolution. We had major discussions around devolution and decentralisation being a major part of how we will democratise and move this country forward. I think it is important for us to stick to what we said.
In closing, I will be bringing to this House later on, a motion around how we can deal with our Parliament in terms of building a new Parliament. Having said that, Madam Speaker, I think at this particular moment, we may want to consider, if we have not done anything about this House, a different sitting place for Parliament. It will be unfair if we go into the debate on the budget and we do what we did on Official Opening. I insist the environment does make a difference in terms of what happens.
We need a place that has a specific focus on making sure that the things that are raised in this House are publicised. People behave badly if they think people cannot see them. The moment you put cameras here and people are portrayed as they really are, they will not behave like kindergarten children, which is what they do. I think we need to create a specific channel and make sure that on radio, people are able to listen to the debates. We cannot continue to have mediocrity being put on top of sober minds.
The reason why people sometimes vote for mediocrity is because they have not seen an alternative way of doing business. Let us expose those of us who claim to want to be in leadership for people to see who they really are and what is going on. The people deserve to make a reasonable choice. Some of the things that are said in this House should only be said in beer halls and not in an august House like this particular place. This is a place to work on nation building and not a place for games. I therefore call upon you Madam Speaker and your leadership, to please make sure that we find a way of making sure that the people of Zimbabwe can really tell who their true representatives are.
ENG. MADANHA: Allow me Madam Speaker Ma’am, to
congratulate His Excellency the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, Head of State and Government and Commander-in-Chief of the Zimbabwe Defence Forces on his resounding victory during the 2013 harmonised elections. This victory was indeed a practical reaffirmation of the people’s confidence in the wise leadership of President R.G. Mugabe, a strong and insistent resistance to the evil and inhuman ransom-based demands of our hecklers. They were salivating over our resources, expecting these illegal sanctions to drive our poor people into voting for their agents.
I also take this occasion to pass, on behalf of Wedza South
Constituency, my congratulations to you, Madam Speaker Ma’am, on your election to the main chair of this august House. I equally extend my congratulations to all hon. members of this House.
Madam Speaker Ma’am, I would like to support the speech by His Excellency the President of Zimbabwe, Cde. R.G. Mugabe on the occasion of the Opening of this Parliament. I would like to thank him for having laid down such a robust policy framework during his address which ushers in the legislative implementation programme of the Eighth Parliament, whose main objective is to align the existing various pieces of our legislation to the new Constitution.
As one of the new entrants to this august House, I am extremely glad that I did the right thing, of availing myself during the opening ceremony of this august House. This gave me a strong foundation on the meaning of Parliament business, but above all, my attendance was a sure sign of submission and dedication to serving the people I represent, the people of Wedza South Constituency.
Madam Speaker Ma’am, allow me to remind my fellow hon. members that this House is a hub of trusted messengers. I am a messenger of thousands of people in Wedza South. We have here present, messengers from Hwange, Bulawayo, Chipinge, Nembudziya kwaMutora, Zvishavane, Wedza North, Buhera and many more. Hon. members, the poor people who sent us here are banking on our creativity and effectiveness in crafting legislation and policy. This, they want us to do so as to further develop their lives, their future, their children’s future and their grandchildren’s future.
Let us join hands, hon. members, and espouse the fact that we all share a common denominator which is being Zimbabwean. This denominator overrides any other affiliation that we can think of. Just like churches, political parties do bear dissimilar ideologies and dogma. This difference should not obstruct us as a House to deliver to our people. I belong to a political party that believes in the permanent empowerment of the indigenous disadvantaged population through fair distribution of opportunities and resources.
Others do belong to parties that believe in their ‘rich’ friends that they will bring donations and employment to the people. We are here to serve our people and learn from each other as well. Learning that empowerment is the best gift you can give your people. Learning that these so called ‘rich’ friends are a people who also have problems in their backyard, problems more petrifying than those that you say we have.
Allow me at this point, Madam Speaker Ma’am, to turn my speech to the state of affairs in Wedza South Constituency, a constituency that I represent in this august House. Wedza South Constituency is lagging behind in terms of development and people there have high expectations from the present Parliament. Now that elections are past us, our people are now expecting nothing else but results.
The President clearly made reference to the pertinent issues and gave all ingredients to placate our beautiful Zimbabwe from the prevailing levels of poverty. As part of my contribution, I will deliberate only on those issues which I hope will have immediate positive impact for the rural communities such as Wedza South Constituency.
Madam Speaker Ma’am, His Excellency the President, clearly pointed out during his address that sound infrastructure is crucial in all national development activities. Roads and water harvesting infrastructures are of paramount importance for the development of the country and can immediately contribute immensely in the development of rural constituencies. The scourge of corruption requires urgent attention and we need to fight tenaciously to significantly reduce it if we are to realise positive results.
Madam Speaker Ma’am, in Wedza South Constituency, people are mostly preoccupied with the advanced state of roads degradation. The biggest percentage of the road network in the constituency is gravel roads, most of which are impassable during the rainy season. A clear example is the road stretching from Zaire via Chigondo to Dorowa in Manicaland Province. This road passes through the middle of the constituency and requires surfacing, if the people in Wedza South are to realise meaningful economic growth.
As we all know, roads play a central part in the development of any country and can be comparable to the arteries and veins of a human body, which move blood from the heart to different body parts and vice versa. If these are clogged with blood clots, the body will not function normally.
Our country requires an all-weather road network in order to boost economic growth. Rural communities need to move goods, especially excess farm produce to markets for sale and equally, they need good roads to move various types of goods from markets back to their communities for resale. This is a befitting social benefit to the people of Wedza South, for so long a time, they have awaited. Most transporters shun using the roads network as vehicles’ operational costs are too exorbitant; eroding all profits and the rural farmer suffers. During the rainy season, movement of goods is heavily compromised as most feeder roads are impassable.
Madam Speaker Ma’am, there is urgent need to rehabilitate other infrastructure like schools, clinics, boreholes, dip tanks and dams. Agriculture is the backbone of our economy as pointed out by His Excellency, the President and if rural farmers cannot move their farm produce to markets for sale then they are not able to benefit fully from agricultural production. Allow me to equally point out that, timely availability of inputs like seed, fertilizer, chemicals and implements at affordable prices is of paramount importance.
In a rural setup, the world over, labour intensive technologies are used where communities are mobilised to work on roads and other infrastructures like small dams and bridges for a wage. This way, the communities assume a partial ownership of their local infrastructure and are fully involved in the maintenance of the same. The advantage of such interventions is that a lot of employment is created for rural people and cash is directly injected into the community through salaries earned. By labour intensive interventions, I mean the partial substitution of some pieces of equipment, with human labour wherever possible during construction operations. Hon. members here present might have seen such interventions during the trenching for ICT cables. A lot of people are employed to dig trenches instead of using retro-excavators. This is achieved using task work.
Madam Speaker Ma’am, we all know that when excavating gravel at a gravel pit, we use a bulldozer. If one has funds to hire the dozer, one can equally realise the same results using labour only. You only need to work out the task rate and determine the number of people to employ. Other activities not attainable using labour can be done by machinery in order to guarantee the quality of work. With cash earned, people can embark on other income generating projects.
Madam Speaker Ma’am, such interventions require appropriate policies which this august House can deliberate on. The same technology can be used to build small dams for irrigation, fish ponds and in the rehabilitation of other infrastructures.
Before I leave this topic, all of us are cognisant of the fact that, the illegal and punitive sanctions imposed on our country by Britain and its allies have resulted in great suffering of our people. These sanctions have left our local contractors in a predicament. They have no equipment to carry out operations and banks are charging very high interests while loans are not readily available for them to reequip. I feel it is the duty of this august House to put policies in place which promote local capacity building. This can be achieved by reserving for local contractors, a determined percentage of all contract work awarded to the well-equipped and financially stable foreign companies. Such a percentage should be revised upwards as local capacity strengthens until such a time that we completely take over whole contracts as Zimbabweans.
Madam Speaker Ma’am, the President gave great importance to water harvesting. Construction of small dams will go a long way in guaranteeing food security. The effects of global warming are visible for all of us to see and take appropriate action. Wedza South Constituency is replete with rivers for this purpose. There is also the need to rehabilitate all dysfunctional boreholes and drill new ones in order to combat cholera and typhoid. Dip tanks need rehabilitation in order to enhance national herd building.
Madam Speaker Ma’am, people from Wedza South Constituency did not fully benefit from the Land Redistribution Programme as only a handful got farms. There is therefore a need to redistribute all farming land which is lying idle to our youths so that rural areas are decongested and rural to urban migration reduced. Tackling unemployment among the youth is now a noble cause. The Ministry of Youth, Indegenisation and Economic Empowerment should distribute available funds for loans to all constituencies equitably. Only a small number of youths in Wedza South benefitted from the Ministry’s programmes.
Madam Speaker Ma’am, corruption needs to be tackled head on. It is now in the same category with cancer and AIDS. Anyone who needs to see the extent of this scourge can board a luxury coach from Roadport to Beitbridge in order to have a feeling of corruption on our roads. I am not sure how many tollgates we have on this road as there are a lot of illegal cash collection points. His Excellency, the President indicated zero-tolerance to corruption as it impacts negatively on the empowerment drive.
Madam Speaker Ma’am, the issue of working conditions requires to be looked into with the seriousness it deserves as another way to combat corruption. Those in the Diaspora should be attracted to bring that vast experience they accumulated over the years back to Zimbabwe.
Madam Speaker Ma’am, Wedza South Constituency has vast deposits of gold and iron ore, which if exploited, can contribute immensely to the development of the Constituency. There is urgent need by the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development to repossess all claims lying idle for years and allow new investors with financial capacity to mine these minerals for the benefit of all. This is an area where our youths can have gainful self employment if properly resourced instead of them spending precious time on anti-social indulgences.
Madam Speaker Ma’am, most electrical lines in Wedza South are not functional due to theft of transformer oil. These should be repaired and other alternative energy sources like solar power promoted, particularly in remote schools, clinics and irrigation projects. The
Constituency Development Fund should be revised upwards. Civil servants salaries deserve meaningful review so that qualified staff is retained.
Madam Speaker Ma’am, Zimbabwe is not at war. 18th April, 1980 is the day we gained our hard earned independence and sovereignty. Those clamouring about security sector reforms should right click and refresh their minds. The noise on security sector reforms was just a delaying tactic used by one party in the now late and buried Government of National Unity (GNU). This party wanted to prolong this GNU as it was known; for personal reasons best known to them, as well as weaken our security sector. Surely, for the noise to continue now, is unfair to the people of Zimbabwe who are now looking forward to the delivery of promises made to them before the victory of team ZANU PF in the recent elections.
Whether ZANU PF or MDC, members should be honest and
deliver to people back in their constituencies. The elections are now a closed chapter and they were a free, fair and credible indication of the people’s will with no rigging to talk about here. The only rigging I witnessed against the people’s will was after the elections when members refused to attend the opening ceremony of this august House, yet people in their respective Constituencies had voted them to
Parliament to represent them. That is rigging at its highest altitude.
I would like to end by thanking the people of Wedza South
Constituency for voting team ZANU PF Team during the harmonised 2013 elections. I vow to serve my people to the maximum and to indeed help make their lives better.
On that note, I would like to thank you Madam Speaker Ma’am.
THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND
PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (MR. MNANGAGWA): I move that
the debate do now adjourn.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Wednesday, 16th October, 2013.
MOTION
FOOD SHORTAGE CRISIS IN ZIMBABWE
- S.S.NKOMO: I move the motion standing in my name that
this House:-
NOTING that Zimbabwe was once the breadbasket of Southern
Africa and has now been reduced to a basket case;
DISTURBED by the Government’s lack of precautionary programmes to avert hunger in the face of a poor rain season;
CONCERNED by the acute shortage of food which has resulted in more than two million people facing starvation particularly in Masvingo,
Midlands, Matabeleland and Manicaland Provinces;
MINDFUL of the fact that in Zimbabwe more than 2.2 million people are in need of food to avert starvation;
NOW, THEREFORE: Resolves to set up a Parliamentary
Committee to enquire into the food shortage crisis that is currently engulfing Zimbabwe; and calls upon Government to implement an urgent non-partisan drought and starvation mitigation programme.
MRS. MATIBENGA: I second.
- S.S.NKOMO: Mr. Speaker Sir, thank you for giving me this opportunity to debate on this motion. Zimbabwe is a country endowed with vast natural resources. Our rich fertile land was one of the major causes for the colonisation and subsequent liberation struggle for Zimbabwe. Land, as a God given heritage of this country, has been the basis for the economic development of Zimbabwe.
Skewed land ownership practices characteristic of the colonial settler regime were reversed at the onset of the new millennium, owing to the fast track land reform programme. While the land was indeed returned to indigenous Zimbabweans as the rightful owners, it is worth noting that the radical transformation in land ownership also heralded a new era of unprecedented food shortages. There are cases at hand of multiple farm ownership and subsequent under-utilisation of land, much to the detriment of crop and livestock production. The victims of elite capture have been the ordinary villagers of Kezi and Siyachilaba who have to contend with debilitating food shortages following the dysfunctionality of a hitherto well laid out food market chain. In 2000/2001, maize production dropped by 680 000 metric tonnes to a disappointing 1.47 million metric tonnes due to lower planted area and yield.
Maize production has always been on average lower than required to meet national needs. Though undoubtedly noble a programme, it has become apparent over the years that the Land Reform Programme was a programme not well thought out. But, it was a sporadic reaction to a political capital in light of the energies of the new political players in a hitherto monopolised political landscape. Food handouts by NonGovernmental Organisations have been an annual feature in the country’s calendar of events. However, elements in Government, for political reasons, frustrated the NGOs by burning their operations in the year 2008 when Zimbabwe was at the height of its economic abyss leading to unchecked starvation.
Mr. Speaker Sir, I just want to say that last year, 1.7 million people required food aid. The shortages follow some of the poorest weather for years but the crisis derives not just from recent uncontrollable factors, but from some longer term and very much manmade problems. For example, in November 2011, maize was planted on 1.2 million hectares. This should be enough to produce 1.8 metric tonnes of maize which Zimbabweans consume annually. The Ministry of Agriculture delivered seed and inputs when the rains were already underway. It is a very frustrating practice which has been repeated since the year 2000.
The other issue is actually self inflicted failure. Drought and poorly implemented policies and a shift by the banks to fund tobacco and cotton instead of maize and other grains, have all contributed to
Zimbabwe’s current food insecurity. In the year 2000, when the Land Reform Programme was launched, land was seized from white commercial farmers and given to black farmers. This Act broke apart an important pillar of the Zimbabwean economy, replacing white farmers with some inexperienced farmers with insufficient –[HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections]- Mr. Speaker Sir, I said this act broke apart an important pillar of the Zimbabwe economy.
- SPEAKER: Order, order! May I draw to the attention of the hon. member that the land was not seized. The redistribution of land and the resettlement was done in terms of the law which was passed by this hon. House. So, may I ask the hon. member to withdraw the term ‘seized’.
- S. S. NKOMO: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I do respect your view and I do withdraw the word, ‘seized’.
I just want to say that this Act broke apart an important pillar of the Zimbabwean economy, replacing white farmers with inexperienced farmers with –[HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections]-
- SPEAKER: Order! May I ask hon. members to be slightly indulgent please? Hon. Nkomo, please proceed.
- S. S. NKOMO: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I really just wanted to make this point that, I did not say all of them. Mr. Speaker
Sir, I did not say all of them, my statement says ‘some’ and that is correct. –[HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections]-
With some inexperienced farmers, with insufficient planning and State support, they did not get State support. Those who got State support –[HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections]-
- SPEAKER: Order, order! If hon. members from either side have certain views on the motion, can they keep their views to their chest rather than shouting while the hon. member is speaking.
- S.S. NKOMO: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. Those who got free land contributed just 16% of the total maize output. Mr. Speaker Sir, I will give another example. One day, I was standing outside the City Hall in Bulawayo, this is just to make my point. I was standing with a friend of mine who was a Cabinet colleague from ZANU PF and we were just chatting waiting as both of us were going into the City Hall to meet the councillors.
Somebody from Matabeleland South came rushing as he was excited to see the minister. He greeted him and said makadii chef and so on. Now, my colleague said to this man, do you know this man? Then he said, no, I do not know him. Then my colleague said this is Minister Nkomo, the Minister of Water. He then turned to the minister and said, chef, he was speaking in Ndebele and I am just paraphrasing because he is from Matebeleland South. He said, ndokumbira $5 kuti ndiende kunocheka kufarm kuti zviri kufamba sei? That is what makes me know that some of them are not equipped properly –[HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear] - Some of them, Mr. Speaker Sir, sold the equipment and to me, it is all bad planning. This country has no agricultural policy up to now. The land also has no value. It is a gift – much of the land is under equipped and underutilised.
Mr. Speaker Sir, the Government has been accused of partisan distribution of food during drought and starvation mitigation programmes. It is indeed sad and primitive that a Government can deliberately starve its own populace for purposes of political expedience.
It is the essence of democracy to have divergent political ideologies with Government having the capability to rise above party politics and provide food to all deserving and bona fide Zimbabweans.
To back that up my point Mr. Speaker Sir, I have an article which I will give to the Clerks. It is from The Standard newspaper, ‘Ditch
MDC-T or starve, villagers told’. This is in Mutasa – ‘A traditional leader has demanded that all MDC-T supporters surrender their party cards and regalia or risk failing to get food aid from Government. Cephas Mashingaidze, who is Headman Chidawanyika in Mutasa Central Constituency, said all MDC-T supporters must join ZANU PF, the party that won the July 31st harmonised elections.
Chidawanyika made the remarks at a funeral at Nyarudzu homestead in Ward 17 last week, saying those who would fail to obey the order would also lose their farming plots’.
Mr. Speaker Sir, this is just to prove my point on partisan distribution of food. It has also
- SPEAKER: Order, order! For purposes of recording, could you kindly indicate the date of that publication?
- S. S. NKOMO: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir, the date of the
publication is 13th - 19th October, 2013.
- SPEAKER: Thank you.
- S. S. NKOMO: Mr. Speaker Sir, it has also become a common trend that the Government churns out millions of dollars annually in support of farmers - who 13 years after the Land Reform
Programme, are still being referred to as ‘new farmers’ and are handheld by Government with no indication of self-sustaining operations in the near future. While Government certainly has an obligation to support farmers, the current support mechanisms are not sustainable as they are characterised by an endless cycle of one way financial and input injections which are not matched by equivalent returns. It does not, therefore, come as a surprise that Zimbabwe is now a basket case from its rightful position as the bread basket of Southern Africa. – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear] - If current practices in the agricultural sector are anything to go by, Zimbabwe is poised to suffer even more food deficits in the future.
Mr. Speaker Sir, Zimbabwe’s agricultural sector is just as susceptible to the climate phenomenon. Many of our farmers have not been capacitated to align their farming practices with changing weather patterns. This has resulted in massive crop failure year in and year out as farmers are still stuck in the old farming patterns. Owing to the shifting weather patterns, farmers either plant their crops too early or too late. It would appear that there are no mechanisms in place by Government to bridge the knowledge gap which presents a valid and very serious threat to our national food security. The country’s overall climate change adaptation strategy should have a comprehensive agricultural component and specifically provide for the use of Extension officers in building the capacity of rural farmers to adapt to climate variations. This also calls for synergies with the Meteorological Services Department among other Government departments. Our small scale farmers are hardest hit by climate variations and yet these are the farmers who ensure food security at household and communal levels.
Mr. Speaker Sir, for a country like Zimbabwe, once with an agricultural sector so vibrant that it was the envy of the world, to import maize from Zambia on some “eat now and pay later scheme”, is indeed deplorable –[HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear]- and points to failed leadership and policies. It is sad indeed that we are faced with yet another acute shortage of food which the World Food Programme (WFP) says has resulted in more than 2.2 million people facing starvation particularly in Masvingo, Midlands, Matabeleland and Manicaland Provinces. This is a crisis of magnificent proportions and requires prompt action to abate a catastrophic humanitarian situation. Zimbabwe should never be reduced to a famine zone. Zimbabweans have a reputation of a hard working lot and food shortages are a dent on our national pride.
I, however, note and commend the creation of two deputy ministers for the Ministry of Agriculture and hope that the next five years will see great improvements in livestock and crop production.
Mr. Speaker Sir, driven by the desire to ensure food security for all Zimbabweans; recognising that the new Constitution guarantees right to life; acknowledging that food sustains human life. I duly move a motion that this august House sets up a Committee to enquire into the food shortage crisis that is currently engulfing Zimbabwe.
I also call upon the Government to implement an urgent nonpartisan drought and starvation mitigation programme. Mr. Speaker Sir, I wish to thank you for the opportunity.
MRS. MATIBENGA: Thank you very much Mr. Speaker Sir, for
affording me this opportunity to add my voice to this very important motion. Allow me Mr. Speaker Sir, to thank the hon. member for raising this very pertinent motion. Kindly allow me to express my indebtedness and sincere gratitude to the people of Kuwadzana Constituency who overwhelmingly voted for my party, the Movement for Democratic Change. Thus they gave me another lease of life in this august House to represent them. I shall endeavour to do that in an able manner.
Indeed, it is indisputable that the issue of food insecurity is a perennial challenge faced by our nation and that the recent survey by the Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment Committee (ZIMVAC) has indeed proved that 2.2million of our kin and kind will be in need of food aid between now and April 2014. These are the highest food insecurity levels since 2009. I must hasten to say that this number of people facing starvation is also inclusive of the urban people. It is not true that hunger knows the divide between the urban areas and the rural areas. Poverty levels are as rife in urban areas as they are in the rural areas.
I speak in this compassionate manner about urban poverty because I am a representative of an urban Constituency. There is a tendency that when mitigation programmes hit the ground and when food aid programmes are initiated by Government, they tend to take it for granted that the need is out there in the rural areas. Poverty and hunger is everywhere. Hunger and strife is in our midst. Poverty in urban areas is due to unemployment and under employment and indeed the economy which is highly informal and is normally referred to as the “survival economy”. Indeed, I want to say as a woman, the majority of those seeking survival in the informal economy are women.
Mr. Speaker Sir, it would be counterproductive and indeed retrogressive on my part to spend the valuable time you have given me to speak in this august House lamenting about the good old days when Zimbabwe was the bread basket of Southern Africa, when Zimbabwe in the 1990s was a net exporter of grain. I also would like to say, at the height of agriculture in this country, agriculture used to contribute 30% to the GDP and indeed was an employer of a sizeable number of the labour force.
In my previous life, as the leader of the working poor, I remember one of the biggest Trade Unions in this country was the General Agricultural and Plantation Workers Union which boasted of a membership of 75 000 at one time. Instead, I would like to dwell, focus and route my discussion on what I see as the way forward in making our beloved country achieve food security for the good of us all.
Mr. Speaker Sir, this dire food security situation calls for a major rethink in terms of our agricultural policies, which to my knowledge and short stint in Government, I found people grappling with trying to come up with an agricultural policy, until we left. I know and I can certainly concur with Hon. Sipepa Nkomo that there is no agricultural policy to date. Government needs to earnestly pay special attention to agricultural development. Lessons from the East Asian Development Miracle have shown that agricultural development helps to reduce poverty and also acts as a foundation for industrial development.
Making Zimbabwe’s agriculture work again requires favourable socio-political climate, adequate governance and macro-economic fundamentals underpinned by robust and responsive institutions. It will crucially be vital for Government to invest in irrigation infrastructure to offset drought vulnerability, institute reforms to ensure timely supply of inputs, a pricing and market policy that balances incentives between food and cash crops.
More importantly, the country is in urgent need of a comprehensive land policy. Such a policy should provide the basis for developing an overall framework that defines the key measures required to address the critical issue of food security such as land-tenure security, land administration, access to land, land-use planning, restitution of historical injustices, environmental degradation, conflicts, an outdated legal framework, institutional framework and information management.
Mr. Speaker Sir, a land audit should be the first step towards designing an effective land policy which should help in the consideration of issues that underpin injustices –[ HON MEMBERS: Hear, hear]. The land policy should then create the conditions for Government and stakeholders to design strategies to help revive the agricultural sector as well as to grow the economy.
The main policy objectives in rebuilding agriculture must include the following:
- Agriculture that seeks to improve food security and the livelihoods of the poor
I am glad that I am beginning to hear some nice sounds that there is a language that says pro-poor because, I think we are now beginning to adapt to what we are cut out to do and what we have been sent to do in this august House. To sustain the popular legitimacy of the land reform programme and to improve the quality of human development, the agrarian reform strategy must be supported by asocial protection programme whose objective is to improve the productive capacities and self employment of the poor. I emphasise Mr. Speaker on the poor and the disadvantaged. The second policy objective Mr. Speaker Sir;
- Agriculture for community development and self-employment.
In order to address the problems of unemployment, agriculture has a role to play in terms of self-employment. In Zimbabwe, with two million communal farmers, agriculture can directly absorb 2.5 million. If those who work in the agricultural services sector; finance, tertiary institutions, extension services, manufacturing, retail et cetera, are added to the numbers directly working in agriculture, then a significant population of our country is dependent on agriculture. Therefore, issues such as skills, farm management and the labour rights of workers in agriculture, need to be addressed.
- Enhancing agricultural efficiency to better the yields and increase output.
Opening the input markets and removing the monopoly state, which tended to use inputs for political expediency must be a priority. The farmers should have ready access to technology, water resources, labour that is fairly remunerated, credit facilities and subsidies targeting the poor where necessary in order to boost yields and outputs.
- Rebuilding agriceltural assets and infrastructure
Zimbabwe’s world-class agriculture anfrastructure has deteriorated in the last nine years and will require focused attention. However, farmers now possess inadequate assets for them to be able to translate their labour into(increased production. For this reason, Govern}ent will have to bqild the assets for the poor. At the same time, smallholder agriculvural support programmes (inputs support, marketing, pricing dt cetera, should play a critical sociAl, as well as economic poliãy function.
Mr, Speaker Sir, The priority area for Zimbabwe should be the completion gf the judicial framework gove2ning property rights especially land. The country needs tg come up with a clear and unambiguous telurial regime. The country needs to move to more secure forms of tenure to give confi`ence to the producers/ All farmers in"Zimbabwe should enjoy security of tenura defined in the form of a basket of rights that include;
- User rights: Defining what use the land cán be put to. –[HNN.
MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections]-
- SPEAKER: Order, order! I want to repeat that if you have got strong ideas, please wait for your turn to debate.
MRS. MATIBENGA: Thank you very much Mr. Speaker. The
second point I want to make Mr. Speaker Sir, is the issue of …
Hon. Chinotimba having stood up to make an interjection
- SPEAKER: Order, order. If the hon. member would like to make an interjection, you simply stand up. You do not have to switch on the microphone.
*MR. CHINOTIMBA: Mr. Speaker Sir, I want to tell the hon. member not to forget that we had COPAC and we talked about issues and people gave their input as to what the land issue should be like. This was introduced in the Constitution. There should be a position on the issue of land which was acquired and hon. members in the previous Parliament caused the adoption of the Constitution that dealt with issues of the land reform. I thank you.
MRS. MATIBENGA:
- Transfer rights: So as to be clear on the rights to sub-divide, sell, bequeath
- Exclusion and inclusion rights;
To clarify who else may have access to that land and for what purpose.
- Enforcement rights or the rights to protection by the state;
To clarify the administration and judicial provisions that will intervene and that are available for the land user to appeal to if they feel any of their rights have been violated.
Mr. Speaker Sir, the ultimate success of agriculture hinges crucially on the ability of the Government to launch a ‘fast-track smallholder improvement programme’ that can turn the formerly landless people into farmers who produce an economic surplus for the market. That is real empowerment that targets the majority of our people. The centrepiece of the revolution is the mobilisation of farmers, in particular the new settlers, who should be equipped with tools and knowledge to increase food, livestock and cash-crop production and rural employment which in turn generates effective demand for food and products from the industrial sector.
While free inputs are important, they will not sustain the sector. This needs to be backed up by organised extension and research services. Indeed our country at one time had the best organised extension and research services in Africa but underfunding and political interference caused the collapse of these services. There is therefore the need to go back to basics, enabling technical support for the small holder farmers to sustain productivity.
In conclusion Mr. Speaker Sir, the most immediate objective is to continue to provide safety nets and reduce the risks for the poorest and the most vulnerable members of our society. The imperative is therefore to maintain and strengthen the measures already put in place, in a transparent, fair and non-partisan manner. Government should strengthen its partnership and coordination with international relief agencies such as WFP and FAO.
Mr. Speaker, hazvina njere kuruma ruoko rwemunhu wakabata chingwa iwe uchihwe zhara. Thank you Mr. Speaker, Sir.
MR SPEAKER: Hon. Matibenga, I want to apologise for having called you, Hon. Mpariwa, I hope you will accept my apologies.
MRS MATIBENGA: I accept.
DR J. GUMBO: Thank you Mr. Speaker for giving me the opportunity to add my voice to this very important motion. The motion has been moved by the former minister and seconded by a former minister of the past Inclusive Government. Grapes are sour Mr. Speaker
Sir.
There are persons and honourable members who find joy in using adjectives such as ‘basket case’, referring to their own country. I do not understand why. Mr. Speaker Sir, the Inclusive Government only ended on the 31st, July, 2013. The ministers who have just spoken have been in Government for the past five years and they were responsible for steering Government policies but they did not. Only a month after this Parliament has started to work in earnest do they realise that things are bad. Mr. Speaker, for the past five years when they were in
Government, they did not see that. I did not know whether they saw that there were no rains in the country and that also contributed to poor harvest in the country.
Having said that Mr. Speaker Sir, let me not be misunderstood because the motion really speaks well, it is speaking about hunger in the country and you cannot deny it. We do not deny that but what are the causes? Are the problems caused by the Government of today? These are the issues which we should be looking at. The point I want to make Mr. Speaker again is that the hon. members who have spoken, who are former ministers, are fully aware that we had a Minister of Finance from their Party who did not do much to assist the agricultural sector.
Mr. Speaker, what is right is right and I support it. Like I am saying, it is true that we have got about 1.5 million people who need to be assisted with food, there is no doubt about that. Mr. Speaker, let us not politicize and take a position to kind of like grandstand to the public. They want to be seen as if they are with the people just for political gains.
Hon S. Nkomo, I respect him and he knows that pretty well. Like I said, before the motion is a very good one, but the way it is being put across and the way it is being debated forces us to sort of like defend the indefensible. How can you defend it when people are suffering? They are suffering not on political divisions, if they are suffering because there is no food, there is no food for everybody in the country. Mr. Speaker, it is because there was an Inclusive Government with the Minister of Finance who did nothing - [HON MEMBERS: Inaudible
interjection].
Mr. Speaker Sir, we are not inventing Government today and we are not inventing policies for food distribution today in this country. Food has been distributed to our people for many years whenever there have been such cases like we are facing today. So, for anybody to say that the policies for distributing favour a few others and so forth, that is serious politicking. All across Zimbabwe, if you go to all the wards, they were not all won by ZANU PF councillors and MPs, they were also won by MDC councillors and MPs. So, do we find the same happening where we have the MDC councillors and MDC MPs?
I am trying to say to the honourable member, I would have loved to debate this motion which has been put across by the former minister, if he had come up with some suggestions of how we should go forward and see ourselves helping our people from this situation. It was wrong to attack a system of Government of which he has been part of for the past five years – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections].
In my view Mr. Speaker Sir, there is no need for setting up a
Committee to investigate and come up with recommendations about what we know. Why do that? We already know that there are effects of starvation in the country and we know that there are systems of distributing food in the country. What are we investigating? You will be investigating what has already been investigated and what for? So, in my view, whilst I say to you Hon. S. S. Nkomo, thank you very much for bringing this matter for debate in the House, so that we as
Parliamentarians, we as legislators, playing the oversight role to the Government, can push together and make Government aware that there are people suffering out there. They need to be supported with food and I support that. That is a good point and I support that point. Let us make noise from across the House and say Government should do something so that our people can get food relief and support. There is nothing wrong Mr. Speaker Sir, about getting food from Zambia or getting maize from Zambia as well as distributing that to our people. Any country can
…
- SPEAKER: Order, order! There are two vehicles that are blocking the parking in the parking bays. Vehicle ABE 8080 which is a Prado and the other one is ABX 0036, Parliamentary Sticker No. 621 of
- If those concerned can please remove their vehicles immediately.
Hon. Gumbo, please continue.
- J. M. GUMBO: Thank you Mr. Speaker, Sir. I was just about to wind up and I was going to just thank the hon. member for bringing this motion into the House but my view of the motion is that we must take it seriously and try and force Government from our side as legislators to do something about our starving 1, 5 million people out there. Maybe; let us not take the direction of debating this motion in such a way that we end up being defensive about things that cannot be defended. Who really, across this House and out there, a Councillor or any leader, does not know that our people are starving but maybe it is the way we bring our motions that at times tend to cause people out there to assume that when Members debate, they do that on party lines. Avoiding even to come together to focus on issues which affect our people and which I think, is what we must do. I want to say that if we would listen and be Members of Parliament who debate issues the way that Hon. Misihairabwi-Mushonga debated; you can see that the level of debate and the issues which we debate can change. Let us grow from just shouting at each other on issues that are pertinent to our people. I thank you Mr. Speaker – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear].
- MACKENZIE: Thank you Mr. Speaker, Sir. I want to thank the mover of the motion and at the same time reminding hon. members that Zimbabwe has the potential to be a bread basket for Southern Africa. We still have the potential as a country to produce enough food to feed our people and for export. The delays in delivery of agricultural inputs and funding by Government can best be blamed on the movers of the motion themselves – the MDC party.
They are the people who lobbied for sanctions and for the past five years, Hon. Biti from the MDC Party has been the Minister of Finance and he is the guy who has been starving the agricultural sector in
Zimbabwe – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear]. Mr. Speaker Sir, …
- SPEAKER: Order! Can you switch off your microphone? It is unparliamentary to refer to an hon. member as a guy. Please carry on.
- MACKENZIE: Mr. Speaker Sir, I apologize for using that term. Mr. Speaker Sir, it is true that the people in Zimbabwe are starving, especially those people in my constituency. I really feel very disturbed when others try to politicize the hunger that Zimbabwe is facing. Mr. Speaker Sir, it is very sad to hear Hon. former Minister from the MDC failing to acknowledge that the land is their birth right and that the land reform exercise is a noble exercise that has restored our dignity as Zimbabweans.
I really feel that Mr. Speaker Sir, we do not have to politicize some of these issues. We need to debate openly about the starvation that we are facing in Zimbabwe as a country but trying to politicize it, I do not think that will be the best way forward as a country. Thank you.
- HLONGWANE: Thank you Mr. Speaker, for allowing me to debate this very important motion as raised by Hon. S. S. Nkomo. This is a very important motion, Mr. Speaker, given the fact that for the last several years and perhaps slightly more than a decade, we – at least some of us – have experienced a long sustained drought without
realizing any meaningful harvest every season. Therefore, it is important for us as Members of Parliament to exercise our minds on a matter like this one.
I think that the mantra that is used to refer to our current consisting situation with regards to food security is a rehash of what we normally find in the media of the West, to refer to Zimbabwe as a basket case, doing Public Relations (PR) work for the former commercial farmers that occupied the bulk of our land whilst the black majority were wallowing in abject poverty in cramped conditions in so called reserves.
I think we will do ourselves a favour if we abandon that kind of rehash and move away from looking like we are joining in PR work for people that have subjugated us for over a century. We must not accept that Mr. Speaker.
I think that planning for agriculture in our country can be improved Mr. Speaker. I agree with the previous speakers, all of them. I think that apart from the issues of climate change and apart from other intervening factors, some of which I am going to touch on, we can improve a bit on what we may do as a people in Zimbabwe. We can improve in terms of how we plan for every agricultural season, summer and winter. Often seed and other inputs arrive in various pockets of our country very late for the season.
If I give an example of the place where I come from, in Mberengwa, the soils are very hard and the little rain that we receive, every farmer needs to take advantage of. If by the time the rains hit the ground there are no inputs in the form of seed and fertilizer and other inputs, the problem is that clearly, the following season or that particular season they may not be able to harvest anything.
My suggestion would be that Government probably needs to look into how these inputs should be moved early enough in order to be able to intersect the on-coming rains in various pockets of the country. It must also be recognised that the weather patterns have changed and are not the same for the entire country. There are certain areas such as here in Harare and certain parts of Mashonaland, where rains have already started.
Where I come from the rains are not yet there. There is need to understand the various weather patterns in order for planning to be informed properly so that inputs are delivered on time. This will go a long way in terms of improving our harvest and, therefore, ensuring adequate food supply because food security, as you are aware, is a much broader term. We are looking at issues of nutrition and other factors.
I think we can also do well as a country especially in the southern and certain pockets within the northern environs, if we begin to find ways of harvesting our water, the water that just flows away to the sea without being dammed. I think this Government can invest in the construction of dams in order to allow irrigable agriculture to thrive if that water if harvested. I think that is something that can help us achieve the kind of food adequacy ratios that we all aspire to see.
The issue that arrogates the lack of food productivity in the last 10 years is the fact that land was transferred in the massive property realignment of 2000 at the turn of the century, was transferred to black
Zimbabweans is very unfortunate. I do not think that we are in the kind of situation that we are in terms of food security exposure because black farmers are now occupying land. I think that is over simplifying things.
It cannot possibly be that because certain people who were white where occupying land and therefore, were producing better. That would be an unfortunate argument to put across – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.]. It must never be allowed. I think there are a lot of interventions given the context immediately after 2000. I hear that there is a lot of skepticism and I am bringing a motion on the whole matter of sanctions to try to comprehensively interrogate that subject.
Sanctions, Mr. Speaker, are a clear intervening factor in terms of impeding our growth in agriculture and investment in that sector, deliberately designed to stifle agricultural growth in this country because certain people must not be seen to be doing well. In a comparative analysis, you find this kind of unfortunate scenario where because somebody is black, they are not able to produce and because someone was white, they were able to produce.
I think, Mr. Speaker, members will be better guided not to over simplify this matter. The investment in agriculture, the kind of investment that was there in the pre-2000 era was huge. You had commercial farmers who had title deeds for farms that they owned. Most of them owned several farms in Zimbabwe with their title deeds deposited with the Lloyds Bank in London, for instance. They would get support, not only in Zimbabwe but from multi-lateral finance institutions.
In the era of sanctions, Mr. Speaker, themselves an act of war against Zimbabwe, there are no lines of credit that are available to this country to fund agriculture and other sub-sectors of our economy. This is an important factor that we must all realise. The issue of mechanization is very important. This Government will need to invest a lot in the mechanization of agriculture so that people move away from artisanal means of farming to mechanized means of farming. I think that is important. It is obviously, as the previous speaker referred to; going to improve efficiency in terms of output if that is deliberately done. That thrust is very important.
There is also need to invest in the technology of understanding the changing weather patterns, issues of meteorological services. Our Meteorology Department is in a sorry state with antiquated equipment that does not assist in terms of understanding how our seasons are going to become. It is important to invest in that direction so that technology can assist in the Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanization and Irrigation Development and other policy makers, arrive at important decisions on how to intervene in the agriculture sector based on their understanding of how much rainfall they are going to realise that season.
They therefore can advise all farmers, commercial and none, in a correct manner. This, I think, is very important. There is need to invest in the technology of understanding our weather. There is need to invest in the understanding of our climatic shifts. There is also need to invest in this technology in order to ensure predictability as far as these seasons are concerned
I also want to suggest, Mr. Speaker that most of these commercial farmers, the farmers that got land at the turn of the century, are saddled with huge debts from commercial banks which they have not been able to pay back. Having accessed this debt in an era of sanctions and difficult micro-economic environment, I think that most of these debts, in order to ensure that productivity continues, it is important that this debt be converted into long term debt as opposed to the short term kind of funding that we see.
I also think that somebody must bring to this House a motion that tries to deal with that matter about how to fund our agriculture in this country. This ad hoc way of funding agriculture, will not take this country anywhere. It is important to put together a financial infrastructure in place that funds agriculture on a long term basis from infrastructure as far as irrigation is concerned up to mechanization. I think that is important.
A member raised the point that in the previous dispensation, before the turn of the century, there was a workers’ union that boasted of
75 000 workers in agriculture and that can now not be accounted for in the same. That is an important point, Mr. Speaker. I do not under rate or under estimate the importance of agriculture to employment and job creation, and so forth but I also want to look at the quality of that employment. I know that in that agricultural dispensation, one commercial farmer will be staying in a lavish house, mostly like a double storey. Just adjacent, are pole and dagga huts where the hundreds and thousands of workers that are working for him will be staying. I do not think that is the kind of equitability that we are looking into realizing in our new dispensation of agriculture.
We need workers in the new agricultural dispensation, Mr. Speaker, to have equitability. We need workers in the new agricultural dispensation, not just to participate, but also to have an improved…
- SPEAKER: Order! Hon. Mahlangu and Hon. Chinotimba,
can you stop the altercation that is going on between the two of you.
Hon. Hlongwane please continue.
- HLONGWANE: Thank you Mr. Speaker. I think part of
what should inform the new agricultural planning for the new agricultural dispensation, is the quality of life that is lived by our workers. That is important so that we migrate away from the squalid environments that workers in agriculture were living in.
The last point that I want to pose Mr. Speaker, is the whole issue of how we access agricultural financing. For the last 12 years, Zimbabwe has been under biting economic sanctions. Just to illustrate how long this has been Mr. Speaker, a child who was born during the time the sanctions were imposed by both the United States and Europe, is now in Form Two. This has been consistently sustained for 12 years. As Zimbabweans, we need to begin asking ourselves how we can fully make use of the Look-East Policy that was promulgated by the President several years ago.
Mr. Speaker Sir, the emerging markets– we always look down on the Chinese, for instance, we say that they do not make goods that are robust and enduring and so on. We think that there is a stigma in associating with the Chinese. What may not be known by certain people among us is that, the West themselves, have to be bailed out by the Chinese to the tune of close to USD 3 trillion Mr. Speaker. In the emerging markets, when you look at the BRICS countries (Brazil,
Russia, India, China and South Africa), there is a huge pool of capital. How do we, as a country begin to fully engage with the BRICS countries? This is not an issue that we must continue to prevaricate because it is true that we have economic sanctions that are killing, biting and suffocating this economy. - [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible
interjections]-
- SPEAKER: Order! Order!
- HLONGWANE: Thank you Mr. Speaker, they are making sounds that I do not understand. As Zimbabweans, we need to begin to agree to the fact that these sanctions are real so that we craft new ways and rules of engagement and new directional issues in as far as financial and other capital issues are concerned. I think that the issue of the
BRICS countries and other emerging markets is important. If you look at the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) market for instance, the 10 countries that make up the (ASEAN) Bloc – we are talking of a capital base that is well over 15 trillion. It is a lot of money, but do we have the tools? Can we not just do it as a country, beginning to engage these countries so that we fund our agriculture and move forward in as far as food security and developing our agricultural sector is concerned? I thank you Mr. Speaker Sir.
- CHIMANIKIRE: Thank you Mr. Speaker. Any book that is written has a preamble. Even our Constitution has a preamble. First and foremost, I have to thank the mover of the motion because if you move a motion and it provokes such active debate, it means something. Mr.
Speaker, the background to what we are discussing today is the 2000 Referendum that rejected the Draft Constitution, leading to invasions of farms targeting about 400 000 farm workers, who were voters and had voted against the Constitution. When they fled to urban areas, Electoral laws were changed so that these people could not vote.
Mr. Speaker Sir, if the quality of life drops, revise Government strategy, do not look for scapegoats. The issue of the so called sanctions that we know as targeted restrictions was applied for by members from across the benches here, through violence. When we talk about settlement in commercial farms, it resulted in fires, indiscriminate cutting down of trees, stock-theft, poor animal grazing and river siltation. These are contributory factors to what can lead to nonproductivity. Mr. Speaker Sir, traditionally, when some of us were growing up, we knew that our grandmothers would preserve or reserve seed for the next season and money to be able to buy fertilizers. I grew up in a farming area before I left this country, so I know what I am talking about.
Mr. Speaker Sir, in the early 80s, 60 percent of grain produced in this country came from small scale farmers, kumaruzevha. Today, that is all history, where did we go wrong? The Grain Marketing Board (GMB) silos have stood empty for over 14 years. Mr. Speaker, what we are looking at is that we have environmental degradation. For example in the Save Valley, Save River is silted and yet the Save Valley itself is capable of producing sufficient food to feed the whole nation and also export, if given the opportunity, just the Save Valley alone. Mr. Speaker Sir, the attitude that has been displayed, for the past 30 years – a ZANU PF Government dismissed the funding of the Zambezi Water Project, which would have benefitted small-scale farmers. It would also have solved the water problem in Bulawayo. Mr. Speaker, these are the areas which we need to revisit. Unless we embark on a programme to reclaim some of these silted rivers and get into a practical construction of the Zambezi Water Project, this country will remain a bread case. I thank you Mr. Speaker.
- R. MUZUNGU-MASAITI: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. First of all, I want to thank the people of Zimbabwe for having voted for the new Constitution, which has allowed this august House to have as many women as we have now. It also resulted in me being here in this
House. I also want to thank the people of Harare Metropolitan Province for having voted for my political party overwhelmingly, which resulted in me being in this august House.
Mr. Speaker Sir, I am going to debate this motion in a different format. First of all, I would like to give a brief background of myself. I was born in Masvingo; which is one of the provinces which is perennially affected by drought. My father owns a farm which he bought in those small scale farming areas. All my sisters and brothers managed to reach secondary education because my father was a farmer.
He never worked anywhere. This is not possible now.
Mr. Speaker Sir, during that time –[HON MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections]-
- SPEAKER: Order. Can you allow the hon. member to please speak her mind?
MRS. MUZUNGU-MASAITI: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I was saying agriculture is very important and as such because of my background, when I even went to further my education, I decided to pursue Agriculture Management with Zimbabwe Open University. The reason is because I knew the importance of agriculture. Now, as I have said that I will tackle this issue in a different format like previous speakers have already done. I am going to look at the natural disasters and the man made cause of hunger in Zimbabwe.
On natural disasters, which are lack of rainfall in this country; this has affected our country for many years. The problem we have is; when we continue to do the same thing all the time and expect to get different results, it is not possible that we get those different results. It is high time that as Zimbabweans, we now need to change our way of practicing agriculture. How do we do that? We have to look at those areas that have been mentioned by the mover of the motion Hon. Nkomo. These are Masvingo, Midlands and some parts of Matabeleland and Manicaland. We have a system whereby farmers continue to grow maize when we know very well that at the moment we cannot continue to do that because of the change of climate. What we need to do is to encourage those people from these areas to practice different types of farming. For example, they should concentrate on animal breeding which will enable them to get cash to be able to buy food from areas like Mashonaland where they would have produced enough crops so that they will be able to survive and not to wait for the Government to do everything for them.
Secondly, those people from those regions should be educated and should be assisted on how to grow those small grain crops. The reason they continue to grow maize which is affected by drought is because of lack of knowledge, inputs and market for their produce. If they can be assisted to get a market so that they concentrate on growing those small grains and they know that if they grow rapoko, they will be able to sell it somewhere else. In Masvingo, where I come from, people concentrate on growing small portions of rapoko for brewing beer.
The other thing that needs to be done is to make sure that we complete all the infrastructure that assists in irrigation. For example, the construction of dams in those areas has been idle for quite a long time. I want to talk of Tokwe-Mukorsi; ever since I came into this august House Tokwe-Mukorsi was under construction and is still under construction. I do not know for how long it is going to take to complete it so that the people of Masvingo can benefit from that dam. The same applies to Matabeleland, I know of some dams that have been constructed and are still being constructed for over twenty years now. I want to say to the people and the Government of Zimbabwe that it is high time that we take the resources that we get from our economy and from minerals. You know what God does; when God takes away with one hand, he gives you with another.
When I was growing up, we never experienced the drought we are experiencing now. But we did not have so many minerals we have in this country today. They were there but we did not know that they were there. Now that we know, we have discovered them, let us make use of the money that is coming from those natural resources or minerals to make sure that we complete the irrigation schemes or upgrade them because there are some irrigation schemes and they were there before independence. If you go there right now, the irrigation schemes lie idle. I am saying let us go back to the system of making sure that we upgrade those irrigation schemes and we complete construction of dams so that we will not continue to import food from other countries.
Mr. Speaker Sir, it is a pity that some hon. members in this House do not want to accept reality. Zimbabwe used to be a breadbasket of Africa; but now we are going to neighbouring countries which we used to feed during those days. We are going to Mozambique and Zambia to import food. We never used to do that because we had irrigation schemes that were working. Some parts of Zimbabwe used to produce even in times of drought. In Mashonaland, we used to produce a lot of maize and wheat and feed those provinces that are drought stricken by natural disasters now.
Mr. Speaker Sir, as I have already said, it is high time that as people of Zimbabwe, we accept reality. During those days, my father used to get loans from banks to be able to finance agricultural activities. At the moment, the banks are no longer supporting agriculture because – [HON. MEMBERS: It is because of sanctions]- no it is not because of sanctions they are no longer able to support agriculture because people want to depend on Government to do everything for them, instead of them being able to work for themselves.
There used to be a revolving fund for agriculture where farmers were supported and when they paid back, that money was used by other farmers and we continued producing. What is happening now is that, people are expecting to get inputs and implements and they do not pay for those things so that other farmers can also benefit. The Government has not be able to support all the farmers at the same time but that can only be done gradually provided that those who would have been supported pay back and new farmers can also be supported.
Mr. Speaker Sir, the other problem that we have in this country is that the Government has too much control over the farm produce. For example, on cotton, the people of Gokwe grew a lot of cotton. But, now they are being discouraged by the prices of cotton which have gone down. They used to grow cotton and they were able to get money and they would go to other provinces to buy food to feed their families. Mr.
Speaker Sir, during the time when I was growing up, agricultural extension was very important. –[HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible
interjections]-
- SPEAKER: Order!
MRS. MUZUNGU-MASAITI: Mr. Speaker, during the time
when I was growing up, there were so many agricultural extension officers who would train farmers so that they would know proper farming methods. But, because the agricultural extension officers are no longer well remunerated, they now lack interest to assist those A1 or A2 farmers. As a result, they cannot utilize the land productively. So, what I am saying is that, as Government and as people of Zimbabwe, we need to go back to that system of remunerating well the agricultural extension officers so that they are motivated and they will do their work properly.
When we took over land from the white commercial farmers from the year 2000 up to 2005, some of the new farmers did not even know how to farm. – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections]-
Yes, they needed to be assisted. They needed to be educated on how to farm properly. If you go around the country Mr. Speaker, during the rainy season, you will be shocked, because, most of the land that we took as black people is lying idle. You would hear some of the people saying we are growing sora beans because what you find in those farms that we took over is just sora, which is grass and there are no crops grown there. That is why they call it sora beans.
Mr. Speaker, I want to urge the A1 farmers to be able to support the A2 farmers and the communal farmers by paying land tax. In that way, it will help in generating revenue for the Government so that it would be able to support those people who would be in need of farming inputs and implements. This would help to generate funds that would be used to help those in drought stricken areas like those provinces that were mentioned by the mover of the motion.
Mr. Speaker Sir, a land audit exercise is very important. When we took over land, we did not put in methods to ensure that we put that land to good use or to be productive. So, there is need to come up with or set up an independent Land Commission that would be responsible for taking stock of what is happening on all the farms. This would help us to make sure that the land that is not being utilized can be taken away from those people and be given to those who know how to use the land productively.
Mr. Speaker Sir, on that note, I want to say that, as people of Zimbabwe, let us learn to change and move with times. I am saying this because, gone are the days when we discriminated each other as Zimbabweans on political grounds, political affiliation, race, tribe, gender or religion. We must make sure that every Zimbabwean who is able to make use of the land productively is given the land or the opportunity to –[HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections]-
- SPEAKER: Order, order! Can you allow the hon. member to wind up properly?
MRS. MUZUNGU-MASAITI: Thank you Mr. Speaker. I want
to give an example of South Africa. South Africa is able to produce enough food for its people and is able to look after the poor and the elderly. They are able to do that because they do not discriminate when it comes to farming. You would find that both white and black people are doing farming in South Africa. But, here in Zimbabwe we are very discriminatory. It is high time that we change. If someone is white, it does not mean that person should not be accorded the right to do farming. What was wrong was that only a few Zimbabweans were benefitting from the fertile land, while the majority or poor people of Zimbabwe were suffering.
As MDC, we were the first ones, when MDC was launched and formed in 1999 to come up with a policy where we said land to the people and not to the politicians. –[HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections]-
Mr. Speaker Sir, hunger knows no political affiliation and as such, as Zimbabweans, it is high time we learn to make sure that we depoliticize food distribution because as ZANU PF and MDC, when it comes to hunger, we suffer the same. Therefore, we should all be benefitting from the food aid programmes and for us to be able to do that as the Government of Zimbabwe, we must make sure that politicians are not interfering when it comes to food aid distribution. That should be done by traditional leaders – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear] –
Mr. Speaker Sir, traditional leaders should not be partisan, they should take care and look after the people whom they represent. So, when I am saying – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections] –
- SPEAKER: Order, order! Hon. members, may we control our acclamations please. You may continue Hon. Masaiti.
MRS. MUZUNGU-MASAITI: Thank you Mr. Speaker. The
problem that we have in Zimbabwe is of politicians who have politicized traditional leaders – that is our problem. If we could go back to the old system whereby traditional leaders were apolitical – we would not have a problem – [AN HON. MEMBER: Order!]-
- SPEAKER: No, no, I did not say, order. Please continue.
MRS. MUZUNGU-MASAITI: Mr. Speaker, I heard some
former speakers saying that the cause of starvation in Zimbabwe was because of sanctions. – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections] – Personally, I do not agree – why? Because we do not have sanctions in Zimbabwe but what we have are targeted restrictive measures. We need to look into the causes of those who imposed these targeted restrictive measures – why they did so? And address those issues.
It is like looking at your neighbour who continuously beats their spouse, you keep quiet and people are watching. Whereas as a neighbour, you should go and report that he abuses his partner. So, it is the same thing that was happening in Zimbabwe. The reason why targeted restrictive measures were introduced was because the Zimbabwe of that time was burning up. Neighbours, friends and the world could not just watch whilst Zimbabwe was burning. So, they tried to fence in those that were responsible to ensure that they are accountable for their actions.
Mr. Speaker Sir, in conclusion, I render my support to this motion and state that there is need for this august House to set up..
An hon. member having stood, facing the Chair, whilst Hon.
Masaiti was holding the floor.
- SPEAKER: Order, order. Why are you standing hon. member? – [HON. MEMBER: I want the hon. member to justify the term, ‘Zimbabwe was burning up’. I think, she is out of order.]- Hon.
Masaiti, you may continue.
MRS. MUZUNGU-MASAITI: Mr. Speaker Sir, I want to
conclude my contribution to this motion by saying that this august House must set up a Committee of Inquiry that should inquire why we continue to have hunger in Zimbabwe when we have so much productive land in our country; when we have minerals in Zimbabwe that can support agriculture. I thank you.
- ANASTANCIA NDHLOVU: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir,
for allowing me to add my voice to this motion. I want to thank the mover of the motion, Hon. S. S. Nkomo and the seconder for moving a motion which touches on the issues affecting the people who elected us to this august House.
Mr. Speaker Sir, it is very sad that when we are debating issues of people’s livelihoods hon. members do not seem to take it seriously. I want to urge my colleagues, through you Mr. Speaker Sir, to work in unison and deliver to the electorate, especially when we are discussing issues whose negative effects do not discriminate which political party you belong to or which province you come from et cetera – we need to be united.
Mr. Speaker Sir, I agree with the mover of the motion that our beloved Zimbabwe was once the bread basket of the SADC region. I also agree with the mover that there are indeed acute shortages in drought prone provinces including the Midlands Province – where I come from; Matabeleland as well as Manicaland Provinces.
Mr. Speaker Sir, before I move further into my debate. I disagree with the mover of the motion when he alleges that there is a lack of Government seriousness with regard to dealing with the issue that we are faced with of food shortages. As I differ, I want to take this opportunity to thank President Mugabe’s Government for committing more than US$160 million to the 2013/2014 agricultural season. This no doubt, indicates commitment at the highest level and political will from the highest office in the land. Therefore, it is not fair to allege that Government is not taking this thing seriously and that there is lack of commitment on precautionary programmes to avert hunger in the face of a poor rainy season.
I want to thank, Mr. Speaker Sir, this Government led by President Mugabe for recognising that a few years back, agriculture suffered a lot and failed to get any support from Government. Thank you Gushungo –
[HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear]-
Mr. Speaker Sir, I want to focus on this programme as it targets communal areas. This is a programme which ensures that there is food in each and every household in this country. So, we have not had such programmes in a long time and this has to be applauded. I also want to urge the financial sector, the banks to support agriculture in a more sustainable manner at the large scale level which is A1 or A2 commercial farming. When you check the records, history tell us that when it was still the white people on the commercial farms, the banks were willing to support those farmers. As soon as President Mugabe fulfilled the reason Zimbabweans went to war with the British, by empowering more than 400 000 families through the Land Reform Programme, a historic milestone done by the President to empower close to half a million families, which thing we have not seen in Africa; the detractors of this country then imposed sanctions on Zimbabwe.
We all know that our economy is agro-based and it is not possible for the agricultural sector to deliver unless it has adequate funding. I want, at this juncture, to call on all of us to put political differences aside and unanimously call for the unconditional removal of sanctions imposed on our country –[HON MEMBERS: Hear! Hear!]- which sanctions have seen our people suffering. Our economy is agro based and this is the reason why industry is not performing because the chain is broken. As such, it is important that all of us are united in the removal of sanctions.
I want to thank President Mugabe and his Government for the Grain-Loan-Scheme to avert hunger in our people before the 2013/14 season which he has funded through the grain bought from Zambia. I want to say, ‘Your Excellency, we are grateful.’ It is my hope that everyone will see the need to thank him.
As I am thanking him, I want it known to hon. members in this august House that as I speak, this grain from Zambia has already started arriving at GMB depots across the country. Even the inputs for 2013/14 agricultural season have already started arriving at depots, which means that unlike all the other years the inputs are going to get to the farmers well on time. This therefore means our chances of lacking food next year are quite slim.
I also want to move onto the second cause of food shortage in our country which is the issue of climate change. Climate change is topical globally and has not spared us. We are beginning to feel the impact of climate change more and more. Today it is very hot, the next day it is extremely cold and that is climate change which Government needs to take seriously with regards to coming up with mitigatory measures against it and adaptation schemes.
I want to make it known that it is very sad that the West does not want to take responsibility on climate change. It is so sad. We all know how much industrialisation happened in the West contributed towards climate change.
I want to make some recommendations on how we can enhance food security. Firstly, I am recommending that Government finalizes the climate change policy. Secondly, I recommend that Government sets up a climate change fund. Thirdly, I recommend that Government introduces conservation farming so that we avoid further damage to the environment. In search of food security, I recommend that Government puts more effort towards the use of renewable energy sources to avoid further harm to the climate and part of that will include the use of wind and solar as energy sources. I also urge Government to fully finalize the operationalisation of the Chisumbanje Ethanol Plant which plant has capacity to supply this country with ethanol for blending.
I want to make it known to hon. members in this House that the ethanol plant at Chisumbanje is the biggest in terms of capacity in Africa. That is a national project which should never be politicized. Mr Speaker Sir, it is very sad that some hon. members do not know developmental issues and I want to urge them to research on these topical issues.
I want to thank the mover of the motion and all the hon. members who have debated progressively before me because you love the people who sent you to this august House and I am calling on all of us to take seriously the issue of food security. Hunger and starvation do not discriminate according to which political party you belong to. As long as you are between the Zambezi and the Limpopo and you do not have enough food, you will be affected.
It is important that we are united and call for the unconditional removal of the sanctions which are affecting the economy including agriculture.
- R. MOYO: I thank you Mr. Speaker Sir, for affording me the opportunity to add my voice on the motion that has been put forward by Honourable Sipepa Nkomo. I would like to thank the people of Luveve for electing me back into the House for the second time and promise that I will do my best to serve them. I would also want to thank the people of Bulawayo for electing all the hon. members that they did elect. I would also want to congratulate all the hon. members in this House for their election.
It is said “a hungry man is an angry man”. That adage is true to our people at this time. Food is the greatest medicine and people need to feed in order to avert any other disease that may afflict them. It is very important that when we debate such issues pertaining food security, we sober up our minds and concentrate on the subject of food security.
It is unfortunate, as we debate that some hon. members would want us to believe that there were MDC-T Ministers in Government and the Chairman of the very Cabinet was not His Excellency, the President. When the Hon. Tendai Biti was the Minister of Finance, the Chairman of that very Cabinet was not His Excellency the President. I think the decisions that were made by that Cabinet were collective. If ever there was money that was supposed to be channeled by the Minister of Finance, or money that was supposed to be channeled in harnessing the water situation or any other resources that were supposed to be channeled to develop the country, it was the collective responsibility of the Cabinet to meet and decide on those issues. So it is now very unfortunate when we start to split the hair and start name calling. It is unfortunate and disturbing for Members of Parliament to stoop so low and involve themselves in such mundane issues.
Mr. Speaker Sir, my constituency is the one which has got the oldest suburbs in Bulawayo. We have got very old people and there is an old people’s home called Entembeni People’s Home. There is also an orphanage and if you go to those institutions, you will feel sorry because of the food situation there. Those people depend on donations and the situation is bad. In Bulawayo, we have old suburbs like Old Lobengula, Magwegwe, Luveve, Makokoba No. 1 and Makokoba No. 2 and
Mpopoma. If you go to these households especially the child headed households, the situation is not encouraging. It is a sorry state of affairs.
We therefore call upon the Government to find resources to mitigate the hunger situation that is faced by the residents of these areas.
We tend to expand and put more weight on the hunger in rural areas. The hunger in urban areas is even more than that because the person in the urban area has to pay rent, electricity and also find money to buy food. It is very difficult with the unemployment situation that we have. We would like to encourage the Government to also take seriously the issue of urban agriculture.
If you go to all urban areas, you find that people are trying to sustain themselves by engaging in urban agriculture. The unfortunate part is that, they may not have enough knowledge to go about this urban agriculture, hence most of the times, you find them doing stream bank cultivation and all the illegal cultivation that they partake on. Sometimes their crops are slashed by the city council. The other issue that we have is the issue of inputs. Recently, I went to a supermarket and I had a look at the price of a 5kg packet of maize seed. It is costing $11.50. Can you just imagine how a granny or a child headed family is able to afford $11.50 or half of that to plough or do something?
So we urge the Government to put in a lot of resources in terms of trying to subsidise or trying to help these people so that we avert the hunger that is faced by our people. The other issue that members have talked about which I want to put my weight on, is the issue of water harnessing. We waste a lot of time and let the water go down our rivers and we do not use effective harnessing methods so that we can have irrigation schemes so that our people can at least irrigate their crops. We will then have a situation where people can do their agricultural activities throughout the year. Mr. Speaker Sir, with those few words, I would like to thank the mover of the motion and thank you for the time you have afforded me. I thank you.
- MGUNI: Thank you Mr. Speaker for this opportunity. I would also want to thank the mover of this motion. I have got only three points. I stood up when I wanted to interject pertaining to a certain point that was brought to Parliament by another hon. member. I stayed 23 years in South Africa. The best land distribution programme that everyone is envying in Africa is in Zimbabwe –[HON. MEMEBRS: Hear, hear]- The willing buyer, willing seller that was put into practice in South Africa has now collapsed and failed. They are now advocating to have the same policy that Zimbabwe has been using –[HON.
MEMEBRS: Hear, hear]-
Recently, I saw the black farmers wearing a t-shirt bearing our President R. G. Mugabe written, President of Africa. –[HON.
MEMBERS: Hear, hear]- This means other countries can see how this man’s vision is, but other local people cannot see that. Then it is our duty to educate them. –[HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.]- Mr. Speaker Sir, I would also like to say that it is not true that Zimbabweans are not skilled. Zimbabweans are skilled and experienced in this sector that we are talking about.
It is the black farmers who were working whilst the oppressors were sitting under the trees –[HON. MEMEBRS: Hear, hear]- Most farm managers were blacks and they were Zimbabweans. So they know what they are doing. The biggest stumbling block is this thing that we call sanctions and their agents. These sanctions have got agents. Do not talk about sanctions only and leave out their agents. The mover of this motion contributed vastly in disturbing farmers’ situation in our area. The biggest monster there in our area is ZINWA. They wait for the crops to grow and when they are about to be harvested, they come and switch off water.
The second monster is ZESA. When you look at this, you will see that it is sabotage. There are people who have been specifically sent to burn down grass, plantations and some even went to the extent of poisoning animals, these are saboteurs and there are many in this country.
Mr. Speaker Sir, we are in deep sorrow that there are some people who are executing duties for their masters, who are not Zimbabweans. We would like to make it very comprehensible that our President as written by South Africans; is the President of Africa and has brought a very understandable and excellent vision on how to supply his country with food. I thank you Mr. Speaker.
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF INDUSTRY AND
COMMERCE (MS. MABUWA): I move that the debate do now
adjourn.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Wednesday, 16th, October, 2013.
On the motion of THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF INDUSTRY
AND COMMERCE, the House adjourned at Eight Minutes past Six o’clock p.m.
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Tuesday, 18th June, 2013
The House of Assembly met at a Quarter-past Two O’clock p.m.
PRAYERS
(THE DEPUTY SPEAKER in the Chair)
ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE DEPUTY SPEAKER
SUSPENSION OF COMMITTEE BUSINESS
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: I have to inform the House that due
to the primary elections being conducted by various political parties and the high prevalence of no quorums for Committee meetings, business of all Committees of Parliament will be suspended sine die with effect from Friday, 21st June, 2013 –[MR. MUNENGAMI: Why should Committee business be suspended?] – Order, order -[HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections]…Order, order, please order in the House.
I still want to talk on this announcement. I am told by the Clerk here that- [AN HON MEMBER: ZANU!] – if you say anything this time around, I am going to throw you out of the House.
Hon. Dr. Gumbo, Hon. Mkhosi and Hon. Gonese are the Chief Whips. All of them were consulted and the three of them concurred with this. So, it is your Chief Whips, talk to your Chief Whips – [HON.
MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections] – Order, hon. members at the front there. Your Chief Whip has gone to Botswana, you should be talking to him and please stop making noise in this House because we cannot resolve this issue now.
- KUMALO: I just want to put it on record that as members from the MDC, some of us are disappointed with the way the notice on primary elections ….
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, you are out of order honourable member.
SECOND READING
INCOME TAX AMENDMENT BILL (H.B.5, 2012)
First Order read: Adjourned debate on motion on the Second
Reading of the Income Tax Amendment Bill [H.B. 5, 2012] Question again proposed.
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: I understand the minister is working on the amendment to this Bill. So instead of going through with it, we are going to adjourn debate.
THE MINISTER OF CONSTITUTIONAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS: I move that the debate do now
adjourn.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Wednesday, 19th June, 2013.
MOTION
REPORT OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON LOCAL
GOVERNMENT, RURAL AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT ON THE
FOURTH QUARTER BUDGET PERFORMANCE OF THE MINISTRY OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND URBAN
DEVELOPMENT.
Second Order read: Adjourned debate on motion on the Report of the Portfolio Committee on Local Government, Rural and Urban Development on the Fourth Quarter Budget Performance of the Ministry of Local Government, Rural and Urban Development.
Question again proposed.
THE MINISTER OF CONSTITUTIONAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS: Madam Speaker, I move that the debate do now adjourn –[HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections]-
THE DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, I cannot even hear anything
from the minister.
THE MINISTER OF CONSTITUTIONAL AND
PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS: It is Bhasikiti – [HON. MEMBERS:
Inaudible interjections]- Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Wednesday, 19th July, 2013.
MOTION
ADJOURNMENT OF THE HOUSE
THE MINISTER OF CONSTITUTIONAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS: Madam Speaker, I can fully
understand the concern of members. They had come in order to discuss the electoral amendments. Basically, that was the reason for calling this august House back but there are still behind the scenes meetings which are being held. I believe that by the end of morning tomorrow, we would be having a clear indication as to where we are going. Therefore, with your leave Madam Speaker, I ask that this House adjourns until tomorrow afternoon.
Motion put and agreed to.
The House adjourned at Half Past Two o’clock p.m.