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NATIONAL ASSEMBLY HANSARD 10 SEPTEMBER 2024 VOL 50 No. 80

PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE

Tuesday, 10^th September, 2024

The National Assembly met at a Quarter-past Two o’clock p.m.

PRAYERS

(THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER in the Chair)

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER

PETITION RECEIVED FROM THE ZIMBABWE HUMAN RIGHTS ASSOCIATION OF AVATON COURT

THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: I have to inform the House that on 6^th September 2024, Parliament of Zimbabwe received a petition from the Zimbabwe Human Rights Association of Avaton Court, 99 S. V. Muzenda Street, Harare, beseeching Parliament to urgently review the Vagrants Act in line with the dictates of the Constitution of Zimbabwe and Zimbabwe’s obligation as a member of the African Union and United Nations. The petition has since been referred to the Portfolio Committee on Defence and Home Affairs.

HON. HAMAUSWA: Thank you Madam Speaker Ma’am for giving me this opportunity to raise a point of national interest. As we all know the Government of Japan, through JICA, supported Government of Zimbabwe to establish baseball as a game that has since developed and currently Zimbabwe is number 3 in Africa and in Southern Africa it is number 2. Because of the support that Zimbabwe has received, we currently have three baseball players namely Lovejoice Saungweme, Shepherd Sibanda and Blessing Matore who are actually raising the flag of Zimbabwe. Unfortunately, baseball is not being given the adequate support that it deserves and it is not being treated as is the case with other sports.

In December, Zimbabwe is supposed to host South Africa and this is an opportunity and it is a first of its kind to bring women in sports to Zimbabwe. Unfortunately, again, the ground that was developed through the support of the Japanese people is under threat. City of Harare is threatening to take over this ground; meaning that we are supposed to host South Africa but we do not have a national ground. It is unfortunate to have a ground that was developed through a partnership between two sovereign countries and we are now not supporting or protecting that ground. I do not think it will be a good thing for our reengagement efforts and also for international relations for Zimbabwe.

Considering the importance of sports and also linking with sports tourism, we have heard that the Government is developing grounds or sporting facilities in Victoria Falls to support sports tourism. When we come to baseball and other sports, there is some kind of discrimination and SRC is failing to give adequate support to baseball players. At some point, the players had to receive their clearance letters from SRC at the border when in fact they were supposed to be given in advance. My prayer to the Executive is to request the Minister responsible for sports to bring a Ministerial Statement explaining the current status of baseball in Zimbabwe and also to make sure that the hosting of South Africa which is supposed to be confirmed this September is adequately sponsored.

The Zimbabwe Baseball Association requires a minimum of US$50 000 to refurbish the ground so that they can confirm the coming in of South Africa. There is no support. It will be sad if we are going to fail and we cannot fail as Zimbabweans.

My request is that may the Minister responsible come to this Parliament and explain to the people of Zimbabwe the plans that are being put in place to make sure that baseball is supported, the grounds are protected and refurbished. I so submit.

THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you Hon. Hamauswa. You have raised a very valid point of national importance and your concerns have been noted. The responsible Minister will be requested to bring a Ministerial Statement so that Hon. Members will have a chance to ask more questions on that.

HON. DR. KHUPE: My point of national interest has to do with the issue of energy. I listened to the 7^th SADC Summit Industrialisation Public Lecture on 15^th August 2024 where one of the presenters alluded to the fact that without energy as SADC, we cannot develop. Zimbabwe is a very rich country which is endowed with enormous resources such as methane gas. Lupane District is one area with such a mineral resource among the six God given minerals we have in Zimbabwe, which remains untapped.

The Lupane-Luvimbi methane gas project has been on the cards for a long time now and was granted a national project status in 2007. The sad reality is that up to now, 17 years later, nothing has come out except talk only. It is high time Government moves away from what I call “talk only and no action” and translate talk into action in so far as this project is concerned. This project has seen a lot of ribbon cutting events meant to kick start it but up to now, it has not started. This mineral resource is worth billions of dollars and has a potential of generating thousands of jobs in line with NDS1, which anticipated creating at least 760 000 jobs in five years. This is over and above generating energy. According to findings, Zimbabwean gas reserves that are estimated to be more than those of other countries in the region.

         It is estimated that Zimbabwe has more than 40 trillion cubic feet of potentially recoverable gas in Lupane - Lubimbi area. The methane gas in Lupane - Lubimbi area has a capacity of generating about 6 000 megawatts, which is more than enough for Zimbabwe with an excess which can be exported to other countries in the SADC region.  I therefore implore Government to put more effort in finding a big investor on a build, operate, transfer basis who can deposit USD20 billion to Zimbabwean coffers and then extract the gas for about 25 years and then transfer it to Zimbabwe. This will avail resources towards developing our country and at the same time, we will have enough energy for industry and other sectors to operate efficiently and effectively.

         More importantly, we will have an excess that can be exported to other countries in the region thereby increasing our revenue. Energy is one of our enablers in economic development and I request that the Minister of Energy and Power Development brings a ministerial statement to advise Hon. Members on how far they have gone with this project since it was given a national project status in 2007. I thank you.

         THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Thank you Hon. Dr. Khupe. On that note I advise you to put your concerns in writing and ask the responsible Minister to bring the response to this House on a Wednesday. Thank you.

MOTION

BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE

         HON. KAMBUZUMA: Madam Speaker Ma’am, I move that Orders of the Day Numbers 1 to 10 be stood over until Order of the Day Number 11 has been disposed of.

         HON. NYANDORO: I second.

         Motion put and agreed to.

MOTION

COMPENSATION FOR TEXBOOK AUTHORS, MUSICIANS

AND PENALTIES FOR PIRACY

Eleventh Order read: Adjourned debate on motion on the surge of cases of piracy.

Question again proposed.

HON. I. NDUDZO: Thank you and good afternoon to you Madam Speaker. I want to thank Hon. Dr. Mutodi for having brought this very important motion to this august House. It is a motion of strategic national importance as it touches on many aspects of our lives. It is important to note that as a nation, we are signatory to many international conventions and agreements that uphold the protection of intellectual properties. We also, as Parliament of Zimbabwe, pass legislation that protects the origination, creation and innovation of works.

However, he said that there is a conspicuous lack of enforcement mechanisms and systems to make sure that we promote and we propel the creation of original and innovative works. We cannot afford to be a nation which allows piracy to thrive. We cannot be a nation of incompetency and we cannot be a nation without our own Zimbabwean brand that we can sell to the world. William Shakespeare died 100 years ago, but even today as we speak, his works continue to be read and to be sold throughout the world for great profit to the economy where these words originated from.

It is simply because there was protection and there is enforcement of protection of intellectual property, but it is sad that in our own country, we have many talented authors, but they cannot earn a livelihood through their works because there is weak enforcement of intellectual property rights. If you go to the United States, we all know of the famous Hollywood. In Nigeria, they have come up with their own Nollywood and in India, they developed their own Hollywood. What happens there is the generation and creation of billions of dollars through identification of those who have talent to perform. They are nurtured and whatever works they originate, are properly registered and protected and then they are exported throughout the world.

At the end of the day, money flows into those economies because it is the protection of intellectual property rights. I do not believe that Zimbabwe is incapacitated and I do not believe that even from within our population, we do not have able and competent artists, but what is lacking is that we do not have the supporting infrastructure of making sure that when someone originates something, work of art, that work is duly protected.

Madam Speaker, it is not just only in respect of creative works which are largely protected through copyrights, but even in the field of designs, we are realising less and less registration of industrial designs because there is just no framework for the protection and enforcement of intellectual property for those who are innovative and who create works that can enhance and improve the livelihood of our people.

I often wonder, so many people in our midst have gone to universities and have passed engineering. Engineering to my understanding, is when you come up with a solution that addresses the need of people. We have so many people who can be titled engineers, but who have not been given the space or who have not demonstrated to us their creation of any design, any pattern or anything that we can say this has originated from Zimbabwe. What is now happening is that if someone comes up with a good idea, they will migrate from Zimbabwe and they will register that industrial design in another jurisdiction and the benefit will flow into that jurisdiction. Never mind that the origination of the works was from Zimbabwe.

It is important for us to do everything we can as a nation to uphold and to ensure that there is due implementation of the laws that we presently have in respect of upholding intellectual property rights. Intellectual property rights protection must also extend to trademarks. We have a lot of entrepreneurial Zimbabweans. As you move across the breath and length of our country, you come across very innovative Zimbabweans in different fields, but we can see that we have stagnated in moulding and developing genuine Zimbabwean trademarks where even if you are walking in the streets of Geneva in Switzerland, you can say that is a Zimbabwean brand.

         If you are anywhere in the world and you come across Toyota, there is no doubt that it is a Japanese brand.  Anywhere in the world, if you buy a bottle of Coca-cola, you are taking an American brand.  The question we must ask ourselves is, is it that we do not have people who can come up with our own brands?  The answer to that question is simple, we have got very capable, talented and very able people, but we are not supporting them because of lack of enforcement of intellectual property rights.  It is therefore, my submission that we need to raise awareness, even in our primary school curriculum.  We must create spaces and we must inculcate knowledge and discipline within our young children to have an understanding that you must be able to express yourself.  If you have got a talent in writing; if you have got a creative talent; if you have an artistic talent; if you have a performing talent; if you can generate and come up with anything, you must know that there is a whole legal system that is there to protect and to promote your works, through registration and through enforcement.  Assure them that we will never allow anyone to carry your works as if they were their works.  You must have that assurance and we must come up with a culture.  It must be a culture that we have where we protect intellectual property protection and development which is presently missing.

         It is therefore, my view that the motion by Hon. Mutodi needs to be supported and the prayer that he has brought to this House must be supported and we must go beyond what he has asked.  We must have standing taskforces that from time to time, review the effectiveness of the measures that are in place, inter-ministerial; inter-institutional, collaborative efforts that must always review the works that we have and make sure that we protect those things.  One of the things that Zimbabweans treasure the most is education.  Everywhere, you will find that people are building schools; people are investing in schools but if you look at the text books that are being used in those schools, most of them are now works that are being created from outside and we import them.  If our own had to write their works, they do not have the safeguard or the security of making sure that their intellectual property works will be protected.  So, we must do everything that we can to make sure that we protect our intellectual property rights.  I therefore, fully lend my support to the motion by Hon. Dr. Mutodi.  I thank you.

         HON. J. TSHUMA: Good afternoon Madam Speaker.  I rise to second this very powerful and pertinent motion that has been brought to this august House by our very own Hon. Dr. Mutodi.  I would also like to thank the speaker who has just left the floor, who has articulated this issue very well.  I am going to stand in for just a couple of issues that have gotten me worried.  We had once a great singer called Lovemore Majaivana who used to sing very brilliantly.  His songs till today, are still very wonderful. We use them in most of our parties and they augur very well, but that man ended up leaving that industry because it was not paying. 

         You would find that whenever he produced his music, but mostly they were cassettes, those cassettes were being sold all over the place.  People made money all over the show, except for him, he who made that music.  So, that alone becomes a threat on the survival of the very person who is giving us entertainment and providing us with a very valuable genre that is still relevant today, yet it was done in the 1980s and early 1990s.  Such laws therefore, I need not say that they are actually very pertinent and should be brought up and actually firmed so that we do not have such kind of practices whereby some people benefit on someone else’s sweat.

         We have got people who do street arts and stuff like that.  I was wondering, I saw one of the most prestigious events, Miss World, where one of our own had a show, that was a theme song.  That song was Chitekete, if I am not mistaken.  I was wondering if that guy was remunerated accordingly to the status and the kind of aura that comes with such an event.  All that comes back to the Property Rights Bill that Hon. Mutodi is crying about.  At times people are abused, you bring a very good thing but you do not get anything out of it, yet those people who use it benefit a lot and become millionaires.  It becomes so unfair.  I stood up today merely to speak about these kinds of discrepancies that happen to our local artists, singers, actors, et cetera.  Please let us enact a law and make sure that we do not just enact a law.  Let us also have a system that follow-up on such things.  This is happening almost everyday and people are doing it willy-nilly. People are selling CDs.  Right now, if you go into town, the Avenues area, they are selling new CDs of songs that are being made by somebody who would have sacrificed their time, sweat, probably even their money for recording those videos and they are not make anything at all.  Then there goes somebody making money every day, in spite of them not having put any effort at all, except for them to take a CD, burn it and reproduce.

         Let us have deterrent measures and people should actually go to jail for such things because it is as good as robbery.  It is as good as someone going into my kraal and steal a cow that I have worked hard to get.  If someone steals a cow, he is sentenced to 15 years, but the person who would have stollen my intellectual right is let to go scot-free.  People must know that if you burn a CD, you are going to be sentenced 10 years in prison.  If you steal someone’s idea, you are going to spend 10 years in jail.  Only that way shall we protect our artists and shall we make sure that our industry and the people that participate in that are respected and earn accordingly.  I so submit Madam Speaker Ma’am.

         *HON. GANYIWA: Thank you Madam Speaker Ma’am for giving me this opportunity to add my voice to the motion which is quite pertinent, which was brought by Hon. Dr. Mutodi.  This issue is a very emotional one.  An issue which is quite concerning which needs our input together in this august House so that we look at the issue of the violation of intellectual property rights of originators of such works, which are prospective and which bring sustenance into the artists’ lives. I am going to give an example of a few people like Aaron Chiundura,  Patrick Chakaipa, Solomon Mutsvairo, Mordecai Hamutyinei and other creative writers. Even Hon. Dr. Energy Mutodi and other writers who have authored books which are used in schools as set books. Some of the books which we also used when we were at school, books that empowered us to be who we are today. We are able to articulate ourselves because of what we were taught through the books that were written by authors who took their time to gather and research for such intellectual property.

We need to enact laws which protect and give our children freedom. We enact such laws but we fail to promulgate deterrent laws which will be applied to prosecute those who violate intellectual property rights of artists. Madam Speaker, let me say that we need to enact laws in this august House. Laws which will culminate in the formation of a Commission which looks at the implementation of the laws that apply to intellectual property and content creators. This could be done so that it benefits the nation. We need the police or a Commission within the force which would look at how they discharge their duties.

In the streets, we see photocopied books being sold by vendors. You cannot continue selling on street corners like Leopold Takawira and Bank Street. You find people selling on such corners, they take their children to school. Some engage in piracy till they reach old age, by selling other people’s intellectual property.  Therefore, it is important to have a Government arm which would look at this. It is important to have an inspectorate which will focus on compliance in terms of protecting intellectual property rights.

Hon. Ndudzo spoke about this. He reminded me that those who work will tire if they do not get their dues. If their works are not protected, we will lose intellectual property. We will also lose creatives which might benefit the nation because they are not being protected. What has been alluded to, for example, the patterns and trademarks of intellectual property holders should be clear so that people know the originators of such works. This will deter people who pirate original works.

We want to have a generation which creates new ideas. You would find out that people are just regurgitating old stuff. When you look at music, you will discover that it is easy now where you find people just composing songs using vulgar language because we do not promote the original works of those who came before, which will inspire the young so that they understand the importance of sitting down and compose creative and palatable music, which can be sold the world over and sustain their livelihoods.

Young people now do not take their time composing and thinking about new ideas which they can portray in their music. Some are just taking other people’s original works, remix and redo music which was done long back. There is no depth in that because there are no steps that have been taken by authorities. As a nation, we have not sat down and deliberated on deterring or prohibiting those who take other people’s works and pirate them.

There is an artiste who sang a song which was alluded to earlier, where there was a global beauty pageant in which Leonard Dembo’s Chitekete was used. It is difficult to understand whether he got his royalties because the works were considered to be global in nature and were considered to be relevant to that beauty pageant. That artiste sang quite touching songs like at one point, a song Chinyemu, which spoke about taking advantage of someone who has worked, taking their dues and using them whilst they are wallowing in poverty.

Most times Madam Speaker Ma’am, we do not encourage our children to be creative or to do jobs which give them income. We will be looking down upon artistic works because of what we would have seen. We will be comparing to artists of a previous generation, looking at their lifestyles. Where they live and how they live will despise artistic works saying that artists are destitute, yet sometimes fame and income do not go hand in hand because of poverty, which we sometimes see in such great deeds that are done by artists.

Madam Speaker Ma’am, my prayer is, whilst supporting the motion that was moved by Hon. Dr Mutodi, I would like to say that as an august House, we need to support the enacting of a law which will deter piracy or pirating of our artists, whether they are literary arts or musical and performing arts. I thank you. 

         *HON. ZVAIPA: Thank you Madam Speaker Ma’am.  I felt that this issue cannot just pass before contributing to it.  Indeed, it is true that those who work should be remunerated like what was said by Leonard Zhakata in Mugove.  There are some who pilfer other peoples works, such pirates who were alluded to by Macheso in his song, Muronda Tsimba. 

         Indeed, it is painful, I remember a big artist Paul Madzore who is well-known.  This man at one point sang songs which motivated us in this august House, for example Mupata weJeriko but when you look at his lifestyle, he is not living well.  Madam Speaker Ma’am, I believe it is important that there should be laws which deter pirating of books, music and other artistic works – [HON. TAFANANA ZHOU: Inaudible interjection.] –

         THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER:  Order! Order! May we have order in the House? Hon. Zhou!

         *HON. ZVAIPA:  Thank you Madam Speaker Ma’am.  I believe it is important that those who are pirating other peoples’ artistic works should be prosecuted.  As an august House, we need to enact a law which is going to deter such behaviour.  I thank you.

         *HON. ZIKI:  Thank you Madam Speaker Ma’am.  I want to add a few words to this motion which is quite pertinent.  Musical artists have lost a lot of money in their livelihoods, have been affected because there was no protection of their works.  I remember a popular artist which I saw dying in poverty after doing great works - I can name a few like Solomon Skuza who was quite prominent and his story was run on television and other channels.  People were looking for money to assist him when he was sick, yet he did a lot of projects which could have sustained him.  Such projects are a revolving fund, they do not stop generating money and the money that is generated can take care of the family, the same with Marko Sibanda.  As I stand here, at one point I earned some money after recording with Grammar and Metro Studios.  We would get royalties but such royalties did not continue coming because of the hyper inflationary era and the changes that came. 

         Madam Speaker Ma’am, I managed some artists like First Farai and I earned royalties.  I had another group and I would earn royalties but all those did not continue earning money for the artist.  Indeed, I want to say that it is quite important to have laws which protect artists.  You find books being reproduced and being sold at a dollar and the artists do not get anything.  

There are Shona books which were alluded to for example, Shona literature books which were mentioned by the Hon. Member who spoke about the creative works.  You find such books being pirated and the artist does not get anything.  We need to have laws which protect such people from different artistic fields whether they are books, music and other creative works.  Books should be patented, they should be registered and they should be protected so that the family or the beneficiaries benefit from the original works.  I thank you. 

         *HON. MAPIKI:  Thank you Madam Speaker Ma’am.  I want to add my voice and I want to start by thanking Hon. Dr. Mutodi who brought this issue to this august House.  An issue which requires that we stand together because when you look at intellectual property, we need to sit down and think deeply.  We are looking at good original works which were being done by our forefathers from the dawn of the 19^th Century, those who know about medicines from our trees.  At one point, there was an issue of ZINATHA which was tasked with coming up with such indigenous knowledge systems.  I believe that when you go to China, you would find that there is aloe vera.  When it is referred to in foreign languages despite the indigenous knowledge systems, you would find that our original trees and other routes when exported, come back with fancy names and they will be expensive. 

That is why it is important that there should be local groups, people who know such indigenous systems.  For example, you would find that some will say that zumbani can treat flu and other things, then you are told to write your name in that but you would find that when these go outside the country, some people patent such medicines.  There is a law which is called the flora and fauna which protects the intellectual property of traditional medicines. 

         Madam Speaker Ma’am, I want to refer to an issue which was alluded to by Hon. Khupe, regarding cancer. I believe that those who know such medicines in Zimbabwe should collate that information so that there is a database of such medicines. This will benefit our people who suffer from cancer and such information would be quite helpful but we are losing out a lot as a nation because we do not have laws to protect such.  I want to support what Hon. Ganyiwa said regarding the formation of a Commission which will be responsible for that. 

There is an issue of an innovator named Daniel Chingoma who formed the Taisek Engineering Company and introduced water pumps. Some people stole his original idea and he died a pauper.  On his helicopter which took quite some time being displayed, some people frustrated him and the project died a natural death.

*HON. GANYIWA: On a Point of Order Madam President!

THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order Hon. Mapiki!  What is your point of order?

*HON. GANYIWA: I wanted to say that Daniel Chingoma is alive.  He is very much alive.  He is not dead.  I just wanted to make that point of correction.

*HON. MAPIKI: Thank you Madam Speaker Ma’am, I had said that the innovation just died a natural death. I did not say that he died but I had said that his knowledge was just lost.  Let me continue saying that this august House should look at what was read by Hon. Mutodi. 

There is another issue which will take away our intellectual property.  The issue of artificial intelligence, where technology is overtaking human effort and labour.  This is also taking away people’s jobs, be they jobs that were being done by men or women. Such works are going to be overtaken by artificial intelligence.  So, this is going to disempower people because this form of technology is taking over.  We are talking about people who were duplicating records and this is going to be reduced because when you go to Tiktok, Facebook or other social media platforms, you will discover that many jobs are being taken over by artificial intelligence.  When you go to Tiktok, you see that there are preachers who are preaching.  There is a man who preaches in a church but insulting people.  You would find that sometimes people can clone voices and use such voices using artificial intelligence and modern technology.  When we look at the duplication of discs and pirating of original works, you would discover that artificial intelligence is going to overtake a lot of jobs.  So, we really need to come up with laws which will protect our artists because such laws will also protect the interests of the nation.  You find that man and women are losing their jobs as they are being taken over by technology, which means that things are not well.  I thank you.

HON. ENG. MHANGWA: Thank you Madam Speaker for giving me an opportunity to add my voice to this debate.  I acknowledge and thank Hon. Dr. Mutodi for bringing this motion. In addition to the proposal that has been given that there is so much need to legislate and protect the industries, the originators of content, especially the musicians and our creatives.  I want to come in with a different view that talks to the times that we are in currently. Hon. Mapiki has spoken about Tiktok, he has spoken about artificial intelligence. Instead of taking this as a threat to me, it is an opportunity.  Whereas Parliament may choose to protect the CDS, to protect the original work, there is one element that has not been spoken about.  The greatest saboteur to content creators in my view has been some institutions that are public institutions. A case in point is ZBC.  Zimbabwe and Nigeria were the first African countries to have television in 1960.  One country chose a trajectory that has allowed the growth of the industry.  One country has created millionaires and created a billion-dollar economy out of its industry, while the other, out of fear of the unknown, has chosen to destroy an industry.  Once upon a time when we were young, we had yellow card, we had Nigeria, we had various movies coming out of Zimbabwe.  If we had continued with this trajectory Madam Speaker Ma’am, we would not be crying about piracy today. All musicians are entitled to royalties.  These royalties many a times do not come or they come at a rate that is far unfair to the person who has originated the work.  It is important Madam Speaker Ma’am, that as we speak and think about these things, let us think about the opportunity cost that we have lost as a country.  If only we had a multiplicity of TV stations.  If we had many private stations that would have brought in the much-needed money to make the industry very competitive, Madam Speaker, we would not be crying that our people are working for free. In as much as we celebrate that, we have more than one television or radio station, the majority of our television stations, if not all of them, are state owned and they have to struggle for resources to make an industry that should otherwise be making billionaires, an industry where the content creators can only be ready for pittance where the content creators are not making a living out of an otherwise very lucrative market.  When I think of Aaron Chiunduramoyo, very few people world over are as talented as Aaron Chiunduramoyo.  You would have had a chance to see his dramas.  For many of them, he re-inverted himself.  He came up with Studio 263, and he further reinvented himself and came up with Tiriparwendo.  That was far before we had internet or piracy. He had got to this level but there is nothing to show for such prowess.

 Madam Speaker, this House has to think outside the box, beyond merely bringing a law but it should come and talk to the real things.  One entrepreneur Strive Masiiwa, once upon a time came with a television station called Kwese.  Instead of us supporting Kwese and giving Kwese an opportunity maybe opposite this Parliament, we would be having our own Kwese Village, we would be having our own Hollywood if we had supported our own people.  This industry is not just about creatives, but it is an industry that attracts entrepreneurs.  So, it is important and incumbent on this House that as we debate, we think beyond the current status.  We think beyond merely having television and radios as an opportunity for sending news, but it is an industry that can be bigger than many industries that we talk about.  It is an industry that has helped Nigeria leapfrog, South Africa to become the biggest economy in Africa.  I so submit Madam Speaker.

*HON MUNEMO: Thank you Madam Speaker and good afternoon to you. I want to support this motion by saying that it is important to have laws which protect intellectual property for posterity because when we look at our artists, Sulumani Chimbetu at one point sang, kana zvanetsa batai munhu. People end up being vigilantes after noting that they are working for nothing. Most artists die in abject poverty.

When we look at those who sing, you would find that those who perform skits on WhatsApp or Tiktok platforms are making more money than the originators of such works. There is an issue which was raised by Hon. Mapiki relating to traditional healers. There are a lot of medicines that we are not getting nowadays and this is because when such medicines are known, those who have that intellectual property are not recognised. Looking at diseases like cancer, in the past, our traditional healers could heal cancer but now you would find that such traditional healers are not known. They would rather die with their knowledge.

With the advent of technology, you would find that authors are wallowing in poverty. Most of them are living as destitutes. I believe that since we have noted this as Parliament, it is important that we protect the people. When we look at the hit song, Chitekete by Leonard Dembo, it sold close to 100 000 copies, which means that if he was selling this song for a dollar, he would be very rich. When we look at all his sales, he was supposed to be a rich man. This law came in a bit late but we need that law as soon as possible.

HON. CHIGUMBU: Thank you Madam Speaker for giving me this opportunity to contribute to this important debate that has been brought by Hon. Mutodi. First and foremost, I would like to say that it is important for us to have measures to protect people who are innovative and who would have created ideas that outlive their generation. We have seen it in many countries, they take this idea seriously but as we are debating, it is also very important for the mover of the motion to guide the House to the level which he thinks we must come up with IPs and regulations. Do we need excessive IP regulations and restrictions or we might need to adopt flexible IP regulations?

I am going to give a submission as far as this issue is concerned and I would like to take the House through the advantages and disadvantages of us having IP laws so that it guides the House.

Firstly, in terms of having IP laws as a country, there is need to protect what I call start-ups. Start-ups are institutions or people who are at the inception of whatever ideas that they might be formulating. These people usually only have ideas. They do not have the financial muscle to protect whatever ideas that they might come up with through maybe some legal interventions. By coming up with IP laws, we will be protecting these start-ups. If you follow closely what is happening around the globe, you find that most of the ice breaking interventions that we have had in this world, they have been brought about by these start-ups. For instance, Facebook is one of those platforms that we are enjoying that has been started by people who were just college students.  For us to have such laws, it ensures that our innovative young minds who are studying in various institutions around the country have their ideas and concepts protected.

It is so sad that most of these young minds have had their ideas stolen by even the institutions that are supposed to be protecting them. If you speak and engage young people who are in universities today, they fear to share their ideas with institutions which might benefit from utilising those ideas because when they present the ideas, the following morning they find the ideas being exploited by those institutions. The person here speaking is one of those victims who had his idea stolen and used by an institution that was supposed to help me implement the concept.  This is going to be a very important area that this debate should also focus on.

The other advantage is that it gives a competitive advantage to our organisations. I have heard one Hon. Member saying that we have had great musicians in this country who have failed to be prominent at the global stage not because their music was sub-standard, but because the recording houses that they were working with could not afford to do that which is necessary for them to put that particular musician on the global stage. These recording houses would be producing musical products but they are not benefiting or gaining anything from their work because  there is somebody in the streets, there is a tuck-shop somewhere in Mbare where these CDs are being produced in large quantities and they are being given to street vendors to sell them. That particular recording house that would have supported sponsors and printed copies, placing them in the designated places where they can be sold will not be benefitting anything because in the stores they put, they would have placed them in, they might be selling for USD2, but you find the vendor selling that particular copy in the streets for 50 cents.

         So, what it means is that these recording houses will not be able to generate enough income and they will not be able to stand up to other recording levels around the globe. Without addressing this, we will not give our gifted producers the monocles of this country to put up their work to be at that global state where they can compete with renowned global recording levels. With strong IP regulation, we are able to attract research and funding. If you check the budgets of other countries and the support that other countries have received allowing the issue of research and development, it is because those countries have strict and clear IP laws which gives confidence to whoever would want to fund any research.

For example, have you wondered why in this country it might be difficult for us to have people being funded to carry out a research on our traditional medicines? It is because there is no guarantee that if somebody funds a certain research project, they are going to benefit something out of that endeavour because there are no laws to protect such findings that would have been brought about by funding the research. These laws will be able to attract funding in the area of research.

The other advantage is that us having the kind of proposed IP laws enables the industry to grow, it incentivises creativity and I think it is something that has also been alluded to by the previous presenters. We have heard great content creators, great musicians and great writers in this country, but these people are living in a miserable condition because they have got nothing to show for the work that they have done. Most of these people if you check, have now resorted to farming.

Imagine a person who has been a writer for the past 50 years of his/her life then decides to get into farming simply because the trade that he/she has known for the rest of his/her life is not rewarding for him or her.  It is sad that these people are living in very poor conditions yet they have their work out there which we are still enjoying up to this day. If we want our creative industry to grow, we must ensure that their work is protected. We must also ensure that they earn a living out of their work. That is their workplace. Having such laws will also go a long way to ensure that our creative industry grows.

The other advantage Madam Speaker Ma’am is that IP protection also incentivises innovation. Innovation is a word that most of us abuse. However, those who are innovators, like myself, know what it takes to come up with an innovative idea, product and with an innovative solution. I understand that most of the people here have had their ideas which have failed to sail through. That is the hardest part of being an innovator. It takes a lot for someone to then say that I have an innovative idea, I have an innovative product. Why would someone put pain on himself/herself to come up with a product that will not benefit him or her in the long run? There is no point Madam Speaker Ma’am.

If you are to come up with these laws, there is going to be an incentive for people to start to be innovative. That is why now you find that many people are no longer innovators. They would rather just copy an idea. They would rather copy a finished copy from somewhere and they would go to India. They know that many people do not follow what is happening in India. They would just take a product from India, come with it and then say that we are being innovative but that idea or product would not be speaking to the circumstances that we want it to address as Zimbabweans.

If you check especially in the digital world, we have just had replicas of systems, replicas of solutions that are already working out there and these replicas are coming without considering the contextual moves of this country. So, we have become so lazy and are no longer innovators. The unfortunate thing like what the other Hon. Member has said is that those who have ideas that are capable of cashing in millions,  will never launch the ideas here in Zimbabwe. It is sad that we have our genius minds which end up benefitting other countries and these people would have been educated in Zimbabwe.

These people would have had their health issues addressed in Zimbabwe. When it comes to giving back to the nation, they cannot give back through their ideas because there is no protection and there is no guarantee that if they loan their ideas here, their ideas will sail through. Whilst I finish on the ideas, I would also want to appeal to the entire Government to support innovation in this country. It is so sad that because people are cutting deals with international partners, they would want international partners to come and address solutions that can be addressed by our young people and by Zimbabweans. They would disregard such solutions opting for solutions that are being created by people in China and people in America.

This is because they will have their kickbacks if they are to get them operating here in the country. I would want to appeal to the Government to say whenever there is need of solution that can be generated by Zimbabweans, I would want to urge the Government to first consider Zimbabweans, but it is also going to go a long way in incentivising innovation and also give innovators and creators of icebreaking ideas to protect their intellectual property.

As I conclude, I would also ask to consider the downsize of us having excessive IP regulating. I am saying this so that we balance our approach.  We balance whatever that we want to achieve with this motion to say that we need to understand the pros and cons of us either having excessive IP regulation or a moderate one. So, you find that we are now in a different era where content is now all over the internet. This has really worked in our favour as a developing country. How we have managed to have access to certain technologies that we could not have afforded if we were to follow proper channels, most of you here you have got unlicenced Windows Operating System.  Most of you here have got unlicenced cracked antiviruses, cracked softwares.  If you are to leave Zimbabwe, you will not be able to use those softwares because they are licenced to be used and it is part of intellectual property. So, sometimes, there is a little bit of lenience and this has helped Africa.  Most of you cannot afford to pay, let us say USD100 to use Window Suite.  Most of you may not be able to pay, say USD200 a year to use the Adobe Suite.  So, in as much as we would want to have strict IP Laws, we should also consider that the lenience has also helped us to get access to the kind of technology and knowledge that we might not have been able to get it if we have had those strict IP Laws.

         The other thing is that this will also have us exacerbating the digital device that we witness as a nation.  How, Madam Speaker, we had had access to gadgets; access to platforms may be through third parties and it has helped us to have our marginalised areas getting access to some of these technologies.  So, us having strict IP Laws might not be in our favour as a nation, as it is going to exacerbate the currently available digital divide.  The other thing is that it might also affect user rights in the sense that we have what we call fair use of intellectual property.  There are some speakers who have spoken about TikTok; Facebook and other social media platforms where people are fairly using intellectual property…

         THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER (HON. TSITSI ZHOU): Hon. Chigumbu, you are left with five minutes.

         HON. CHIGUMBU: Thank you Madam Speaker Ma’am.  I am one person who usually goes even on TikTok and also excited to see that you now have people in 2024 who know more about John Chibadura and these people are not even Zimbabweans.  It is so exciting.  Why, because now people are fairly using the content that was created by John Chibadura.  Now we have got people in South Africa who would say, who is the owner of this song?  If you follow the comments on those platforms, it is so exciting, Zimbabweans will be proud because we would have people dancing to a song done by Leonard Dembo in 1994 but this is ama 2k, now re-using that content.  To me it is a fair use of intellectual property.  So, whatever decisions that you are going to come up with; whatever intervention that we want to be brought in as far as this issue is concerned, we must take cognisant of the fact that we should not affect  user rights, especially those who would use intellectual property fairly.  As I conclude, I would want to urge the House to adopt a fair and balanced position as far as this matter is concerned.  I thank you.

         +HON. MASUKU: Thank you Madam Speaker Ma’am.  I would like to support the motion that was brought into this House by Hon. Dr. Mutodi.  This is a painful issue because one would have used their funds to produce content that they will use to survive, like we see with our musicians.  However, it is disheartening to see someone pirating one’s original work.  Indeed, I support this issue which encourages us to put punitive measures in ensuring that people re-originating other people’s work are punished.  This hurts us as Zimbabweans because if this is left to continue, it will make these content creators lose interest in may be becoming musicians or poets because they will know that whatever they will work on is likely to come out before they are done with their original work.

         As Parliament, let us discourage the issue of accepting pirated work.  Let us be exemplary in ensuring that we enact laws that will prohibit such acts.  Like I have mentioned that quite a number of Hon. Members have added varying views on this issue, in our country, our President, Hon. Mnangagwa has always been in the forefront saying, Ilizwe lakhiwa ngabanikazi balo.  This country is built by its owners.  Let us encourage our musicians, poets that they are able to earn a living out of their creation.  I thank you.

*HON. KARIMATSENGA-NYAMUPINGA:  Thank you Madam Speaker. I hope I am not going to repeat most of the things that have been said by Hon. Masuku because I did not understand what Hon. Masuku was saying. I did not have the gadgets/headphones to be able to follow the interpretation. Thank you for affording me this opportunity to also add my voice on this motion on intellectual property rights.

Madam Speaker, I would want to take you back. Maybe some of us were not yet born. During the war of liberation, there was a song that people used to sing, Kune nzira dzemasoja dzekuzvibata nazvo. They would always say, pay for whatever it is that you get in a rightful manner. That is what I am going to emphasise. In 43 years, have you forgotten that we were supposed to pay for what we take in a proper manner?

Madam Speaker, if we use an example of the motion raised by Hon. Mutodi, which is a pertinent motion, I wish the Hon. Member had defined what this motion is all about. I believe that everyone in this august House would have added their voice to this motion. I would like to give an example of the late John Chibadura, a musician that I used to love during our time. He was a cool musician. I would also want to bring into attention another musician from the West, Michael Jackson. We are all aware that both are now late.

When Michael Jackson died, his family, including his children, brothers and sisters remained extremely rich and they continued to be rich because everything that Michael Jackson sang is now being bought. People are searching for his songs and the family is selling them and getting proceeds out of the sales of these songs. If we then look at the late John Chibadura, his family is suffering. His family is in abject poverty. He sang a lot of good songs and they are still there and they are being sold but because the copyright for those songs are not protected, his family is losing. They cannot get anything.

If you go to John Chibadura’s village in Chikomba, he has nothing to show for all his famous musical songs, having been a superstar at one time because we are using things that belong to others without paying for them. We are entertaining ourselves and benefiting ourselves with money through the use of John Chibadura’s ideas when he sang his songs. At the end of the day, his children are getting nothing out of it.

Madam Speaker, you know that I am a disability champion. Paul Matavire also composed a lot of songs. If I was able to do what he could do in performing his songs, I would have done it. Everyone in this House, at one time, played songs by Paul Matavire and loved his songs. Everyone loved him, blind as he might have been. Stealing from someone is not good. Secondly, it makes it worse when you are stealing from someone who is blind, stealing from a blind person and at the end of the day his family gets nothing out of it. I am touched by such issues of using people’s resources without repaying them.

If you talk of power being usurped by others or blood being sucked by others, what about the issue of John Chibadura who is not getting anything from the songs he is selling when his family is getting nothing? It does not end there. Madam Speaker, if we look at those actors, during our time, we would go and watch movies that we would call bioscopes and Tiki was popular but when Tiki died, they had nothing to show for it. Even Timmy and Bonzo, when they died, had nothing. They had nothing at all. Those who went to the funerals saw how abject poverty was attacking the families. One would have been touched by the death of a person who had gained such popularity, even outside the country.

We have those that are in the diaspora, people gather and at times they do not understand what the song is all about but they stand up and dance until the morning, however, such musicians are reaping nothing. Some would know Mukadota, we would run to the radio because we had no televisions. We had small radios at our communal homes and would have several people gathered around it listening to Mukadota, Mai Rwizi and Mai Phenias. When Mai Rwizi died this year, did you see that there was nothing to show for all the exploits that she did and famous as she was. We were entertained and there are some people who are still seeing some of these DVDs because some of them were now on DVDs and others are still watching them today.

Wine matures with age. That is how these films are now being treated by people. If you come across these rare dramas of Mai Rwizi and Mukadota, they are now expensive but their families are not reaping anything out of it. If we go to our universities, we have professors who write on various subjects that assist us as has been mentioned by the Hon. Member. They are teaching us for what we are, but they are not going to be getting payment that is commensurate with their works. At the end of the day, they leave the country and feel it is better to export the knowledge that they have because it is much more appreciated outside. That education, ideas and the innovations are important for the future. In the end, Zimbabwe remains poor.  

Madam Speaker, people are not being adequately compensated for the exploits of their innovations and this is not helpful. Yesterday I went to Air Zimbabwe. We are supposed to table that in our report but I saw that there are certain things that need to be said. We went to one of the workshops.  They used to have 40 artisans who used to do work but the majority of the people have left and only one person is left to do that work. They left because of poor remuneration. The same applies to those that lose their intellectual rights for us to have entertainment from what they do.

Even soccer players, they would sell jerseys. I am sorry because I am not conversant with football, but you would see a depiction of someone who is kicking the ball and they would ask for the t-shirts. They would say they got them from second hand clothes shops and they will make a lot of money out of the name of a player who used a lot of his time practicing to be a better player, but was never consulted so that he would get royalties from the sale of those t-shirts. The same applies to Matavire.

I strongly support the motion raised by Hon. Mutodi. It has once been referred to by Hon. Munemo when she looked at traditional healers. I know of a traditional healer who would treat cancer. I know him because he has treated my grandfather.  At Harare Hospital, when a patient becomes extremely ill, you would be advised to take them to their communal home. He had a serious abscess on the thigh and on the side. The old man was fed on porridge. He would eat the porridge and also apply it until it spurts and then the old man would smell it after it had bursted and he would say he was going to feel much better.  He went to the grave with his knowledge because he was afraid that you would get his intellectual property and end up getting money out of that without him getting anything.  If there was a copyright - because I saw that he treated my relative.  My relative was cured and a herd of cattle was given to him.  We should ensure that intellectual property rights are maintained and there is legislation to secure it.  His prayer was as it was delivered in this House, there should be a law so that everyone would know that whatever it is they are doing at the end of the time, in eternity - I should be using Mr. Sani’s knowledge to cure people with cancer and make a living out of that through the intellectual property of grandfather or uncle.

         Madam Speaker, I will not labour much because I will continue talking until the calves come home.  My plea to this august House is that we should all support this motion raised by Hon. Dr. Mutodi.  He was once a Member of Parliament in my area and he is aware of Mr. Sani and his knowledge.  There should be intellectual property rights to secure this kind of knowledge so that children can benefit from their grandfather, grandmother for us to see a father or an uncle who will be able to sustain generations to come.  Whenever people refer to Shakespeare, they quote him but we do not have such type of knowledge of people being quoted.  We thank you Hon. Mutodi for bringing such a pertinent motion.  This august House should accede to the motion and prayer. Thank you Madam Speaker.

         THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER (HON. TSITSI ZHOU):  Hon. Members on my left, if you want to debate, you need to see your Chief Whip.  Hon. Tafanana Zhou, please proceed. 

         *HON. HAMAUSWA:  On a point of order Madam Speaker. The debate on intellectual rights is a good motion. I also wanted to debate on it.  We are now getting to after four p.m. and we are still debating the same motion.  Members end up going for coupons and we end up debating motions after people have left.  There is the Finance Bill, there is the issue of ZiG being rejected so we want to debate the Finance Bill but we are not debating the Finance Bill, the Minister is here.  We spend the whole day debating a single motion like cricket. 

         THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER:  Well noted Hon. Hamauswa.  The Chief Whip will take note of that. Hon. Tafanana Zhou, may you please take the floor.

         *HON. TAFANANA ZHOU: Thank you Madam Speaker Ma’am.  I rise to support the motion raised by Hon. Dr. Mutodi.  I would want to thank him – maybe he also suffered by experiencing such issues. Maybe he also needs to be helped in that regard.  Some of us want to identify with Hon. Dr. Mutodi because he wants people to be compensated from 2011 to 2024. We are talking about people like the late Chibadura and the late Dembo.  They were already in the music industry.  The other writers who wrote a lot of these books are maybe being left behind.  I believe the majority of the people in here learnt set books by several writers who are now deceased.  If we forget about such people, we will not have done justice to the motion.  My wish is let us look at compensation being applied to all talented artists, those renowned as was the case when the late Dr. Mutukudzi when  he died, he was recognised by the Second Republic of Dr. Mnangagwa and he was declared a national hero. 

It is my plea that when this issue is being considered, the contribution of an individual should be the key criteria for deciding.  Also, in support of other Hon. Members, specifically Hon. Nyamupinga who spoke before me, it is quite a pity that as we are in this august House, we hear of the death of the mother of the late Matavire who has passed on.  It is quite painful when both the child and herself are poor.  They should have been given some of the royalties from the music of her late child as the motion that has been raised in this august House dictates.  If ever there is need for compensation, all families of the deceased artists and meaningful people in the various industries should also be considered so that their parents may also benefit from the children’s talents. 

Madam Speaker, I am also touching on the issue of musicians who are plagiarising music of others.  As an august House, going forward, we know that there is a law, we urge that when such matters are before the courts, they should not take longer than necessary because justice delayed is justice denied.  I take the issue of Jah Signal and Pastor Charamba, six years down the line, the case has not been concluded.  He had sued Jah Signal, when such matters are before the courts, they should be quickly disposed of so that the person is compensated in good time lest such matters may be forgotten by the courts.

I will not say much Madam Speaker because a lot has been said by those that debated the motion before me.  I support the motion, hence my rising to add my voice.  I thank you Madam Speaker. 

HON. TOGAREPI:  I move that the debate do now adjourn.

HON. NYANDORO:  I second.

Motion put and agreed to.

         Debate to resume: Wednesday, 11^th September, 2024.

MOTION

BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE

         HON. TOGAREPI: I move that we revert to Order of the Day Number 1 on today’s Order Paper.

         HON. NYANDORO:  I second.

         Motion put and agreed to.

MOTION

FINANCE BILL: 2024 MID-TERM BUDGET AND ECONOMIC REVIEW

First Order read: Adjourned debate on motion that leave be granted to bring in a Finance Bill.

Question again proposed.

HON. CHIDUWA:

   1. Introduction  

The Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion presented the 2024 Mid Term Fiscal Policy Review on July 25, 2024, as per the requirements of Statutory Instrument 135 of 2019 (Public Finance Management (General) Regulations 2019) and Statutory Instrument 127A of 2021 (Public Finance Management (General) (Amendment) Regulations, 2021 (No. 1). Along with this review, the 2025 Budget Strategy Paper (BSP) and the Statement for Public Debt were also presented, ensuring compliance with the relevant statutory instruments. After analysing the Mid- Term Fiscal Policy review as part of the Committee's oversight responsibilities, it also considered the submissions from the public to compile this report. The report represents both the public's perspectives and the Committee's stance on the Mid-Term Fiscal Policy Review.

2.	The 2024 National Budget
	The 2024 approved budget was premised on an initially projected Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate of 3.5%.  However, the growth projection had been revised to 2% on account of the impact of the El-Nino induced drought that affected agricultural output for the 2023/24 season. The revision also takes into account the impact of the declining mineral commodity prices for key minerals such as lithium and platinum group of metals.  The 2024 National Budget was presented during the time when the Zimbabwe dollar (Z$) was the functional currency with a revenue projection of Z$53.9 trillion, (18.3% of GDP) and expenditures of Z$58.2 trillion, resulting in a financing gap of Z$4.3 trillion (1.5% of GDP). With the introduction of the Zimbabwe Gold backed currency (ZiG) as legal tender on 5 April 2024, the approved 2024 Budget of Z$58.2 trillion redenominated in to ZiG resulting in a revised budget envelope of ZiG87.9 billion.  The 2024 Mid Term Fiscal Policy Statement indicated that total revenue collections to June amounted to ZiG36.5 billion with expenditure amounting to ZiG38.9 billion. This resulted in a budget deficit of ZiG2.4billion during the first half of 2024. With this performance, the Budget remains on course to achieve the desired fiscal deficit target of 1.5% of GDP by year end. Committee Findings

3.4.1 Revenue Performance  

• The Value Added Tax (VAT) revenue accounted for 25.3% of total revenue, a decrease from 26.5% in the first half of 2023. Despite the 2024 budget reducing VAT zero-rated products, Treasury needs to evaluate the policy's impact. Moreover, the reintroduction of VAT exemption on live animals is a reversal os a policy announced 7 months ago, hence may create policy inconsistence. This lack of policy stability hinders business planning and requires clarification.
• During the period January to June 2024, tax revenue collections amounted to 9 billion (92.9% of total revenue), while non-tax revenue amounted to ZiG2.6 billion (7.1% total revenue) resulting in total revenue collection of ZiG36.5 billion.
• The Corporate Income Tax (CIT) contributed 9.7% of total revenue in the first half of the year, down from 14.7% in the same period in 2023. This decline is despite an increase in the Corporate Income Tax rate from 24% to 25%. The reduced share of CIT revenue may be due to slowdown in commodity prices, tax avoidance, and challenges in formalizing the informal sector, which are currently contributing through presumptive taxes and withholding tax on tenders.
• In comparison to the same period in 2023, the relative share of personal income tax collections improved to 20.7% of total revenue from 19%. This increase could be attributed to bracket creep as wages are reviewed, leading to greater taxable income.
• Tax collections from excise duties remained largely unchanged in 2024 at 12.3% of total revenue collected, compared to 12.6% of total revenue collected in 2023.

3.5 Expenditure Performance

The Committee noted that during the period from 1 January to 30 June 2024, a total of ZiG38.9 billion was spent, amounting to around 44.2% of the approved budget as configured to ZiG. This marks a significant improvement in fiscal discipline compared to the 82.3% of the approved budget that was spent during the same period in 2023. The stability of the ZiG currency has effectively contained inflation, providing a stable foundation for financial planning. This has enabled the government to prudently manage expenditures and prevent the excessive budget overruns that occurred during the same period in 2023.

3.6 Budget Utilisation

Whereas the budget utilisation level appears to be good to suggest that the Executive was prudent in financial management, the Committee found out that there were certain Ministries that have already exhausted their budgets by mid-year whilst other Ministries utilisied more than 70% by mid-year. The top 5 include Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure Development which has utilised 245%, Zimbabwe Council of Chiefs 119%, Office of President and Cabinet 92%, Ministry of Finance and Investment Promotion 85%, Ministry of Local Government and Public Works 72%. This suggest that additional resources may be required to sustain operations of the above-stated Ministries to year end. This will require a supplementary budget unless if the unallocated reserve (10% of the approved Budget) will be sufficient to meet the envisaged operational requirements to year end.

 3.7 Public Debt  

The Committee expresses apprehension regarding the growing accumulation of public debt. In US$ terms, total debt stock, as at end June 2024 increased by 18.6% from US$ 17.7 billion as at September 2023 to US$21 billion in June 2024. This growth in debt against an economy projected to grow at a rate of 2% suggest that the country is gravitating towards unsustainable levels. The Annual Public Debt Bulletin indicated that the stock of total Public and Publicly Guaranteed (PPG) debt as at end December 2023 amounted to Z$129.3 trillion, representing 96.7% of GDP. The Committee was concerned that the stock of debt had exceeded the legislative limit of 70% in terms of Section 11 of the Public Debt Management Act [Chapter 22:21]. In this regard, the Ministry of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion should present strategies being adopted to bring down debt to sustainable levels, in line with Section 8 of the Public Debt Management Act [Chapter 22:21].

3.4. Proposed Fiscal Policy Measures 

3.5.Exemption of Live Cattle, Pigs, Goats, Sheep and Bovine Semen from VAT

The Committee agreed that it is administratively difficult to collect VAT from animal sales especially in unorganised markets such as backyard poultry activities and sale of animals by communal farmers who are not registered for VAT. VAT exemption on live animals thus removes the administrative burden on the Revenue Authority to follow transactions occurring randomly in unorganised markets. Notwithstanding the administrative hurdle, suppliers of meat will buy livestock for slaughter at affordable prices. VAT exemption on bovine semen reduces the cost of breeding. The measure, thus promotes growth in the stock of livestock and consequently, the supply of livestock products such as milk, meat, hides, which are key inputs for the manufacturing industry. 

3.6.Value Added Tax exemption on Poultry meat and Kapenta

The Mid Term Fiscal Policy Review Statement proposed to exempt from VAT, poultry meat and kapenta. Considering that most of the agriculture inputs are zero rated, VAT exemption of the poultry meat and Kapenta will have no financial prejudice on suppliers of poultry meat and kapenta products. The effect of VAT exemption is that the products become affordable to final consumers. However, the exemption has been restricted to poultry meat and kapenta, suggesting that beef, game meat, crocodile meat and other meat products are charged VAT at the standard rate of 15%. The implication is that poultry meat and kapenta will be relatively cheaper than other meats, which attracts a VAT of 15%. Demand is likely to shift from other meats to poultry meats and kapenta. Therefore, the discriminatory exemption will distort the market, especially through dampened demand in the taxed products, with increased demand on exempt products.

 3.7. Special Surtax on Beverages Sugar Content

Government adjusted the Special Surtax on Beverage Sugar Content from US$0.002/g to US$0.001/g, with effect from 9 February 2024, in response to representations from the productive sector. To ensure continuity of business operations, the Mid Term Fiscal Policy Review Statement (MTFPRS) proposed to provide a reprieve through waiver of the Special Surtax on Beverages Sugar Content due for the period 1 January 2024 to 8 February 2024. This relief is in recognition of the need for ample time to allow taxpayers to reconfigure to the new tax laws.

3.8. Payment of Taxes and User Fees in Local Currency 

It has been proposed that Corporate Income Tax be payable in both local and foreign currencies on a 50:50 basis. The Mid-Term Fiscal Policy Review Statement proposes to amend legislation and compel any corporate whose revenue exceeds 50% in foreign currency to account for Corporate Income Tax on a 50:50 basis, whilst corporate whose revenue exceeds 50% in local currency, shall pay CIT proportionately to the currency of trade. This measure will ensure that the ZiG is embraced by the corporate world. Further, the Committee commends the proposal for payment of all Presumptive Taxes in local currency, regardless of currency of trade. This will significantly improve the acceptability of local currency in the informal sector. 

However, considering that ZiG is backed by Gold, foreign currency and other minerals, it is the view of the Committee that it should be acceptable as a medium of exchange for fuel, passports and other commodities that are solely priced in USD. This has not been considered by the fiscal authorities.

3.9. Review of Presumptive Tax

The 2024 Mid-Term budget proposed for a review of presumptive tax rates. The Committee welcomes the proposed reduction of the presumptive tax, which is expected to provide relief and stimulate tax compliance by operators in the informal sector. The requirement to pay all presumptive taxes in ZiG also creates demand for the local currency. 

Furthermore, Goods Vehicles, Taxi Cab or Commuter Omnibuses shall neither be licensed by ZINARA nor be eligible for vehicle insurance unless the operator submits clearance from the Commissioner General (ZIMRA), confirming that the operator is duly registered for tax purposes and has no outstanding tax debt. This requirement will ensure that operators are compelled to meet presumptive tax obligations prior to vehicle licencing thereby ensuring that vehicle operators are tax compliant, resulting in improved overall tax compliance.

3.10. Micro and Small Enterprises be mandated to transact through Point-of-Sale Machines and operate a bank account linked to the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority.

The Mid Term Fiscal Policy Review Statement proposed that Micro and Small Enterprises shall be required to transact through Point-of-Sale Machines and operate a bank account linked to the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority. Whilst this can enhance financial transparency of MSME, it should be noted that not all transactions can be done through the POS machines. Further, this measure requires complementary measures which are expected from the appropriate Minister. It is important that the policy proposal be also informed by presentations from the respective Ministry. Linking an operator’s account to ZIMRA could generate lack of interest to use POS machines.

3.11.

Excise Duty on Electronic Cigarettes

In order to curb the negative externalities associated with the consumption of electronic cigarettes, the Fiscal Policy introduced Excise Duty at the rate of US$0.5 per ml of contents of every electronic cigarette product. The Committee acknowledges that E-cigarettes produce a number of dangerous chemicals including acetaldehyde, acrolein, and formaldehyde. These aldehydes can cause lung disease, as well as cardiovascular (heart) disease. A new excise duty of $0.5 per ml has been introduced as a sin tax to discourage consumptions electronic cigarettes. This aligns with broader public health goals of reducing smoking and promoting healthier lifestyles whilst generating revenues for the Government.

3.12	Duty for Transit Fuel

The Committee is cognisant that the proposal to charge import duty on fuel imported under Removal in Transit (RIT), which will be reimbursed at the Port of Exit is a strategy to deal with transit fraud where goods that are declared as transit consignment are offloaded in Zimbabwe, thereby avoiding payment of import duty. This policy proposal attempts to address administrative challenges faced by ZIMRA. However, the Committee is of the view that the payment of duty and reimbursement at exit point will not adequately address transit fraud since transporters can offload fuel and reload with a different liquid. If ZIMRA is constrained to detect such malpractices, payment of duty and reimbursement will not address the existing challenge. Rather, it will persist.

Apart from that, the policy greatly undermines the ease of doing business for genuine transit consignments who will be required to secure additional operational funds to meet duty obligations. In the Committee’s view, the administrative burden, on the part of ZIMRA, of receipting and paying revenue which is not available for public spending is unnecessary. 

Further, financial transactions of paying ZIMRA are not always free of charge. The policy is, therefore, against the Presidential mantra that “Zimbabwe is Open for Business”. The policy's impact on doing business through Zimbabwe will be significant, potentially leading to retaliatory actions from other states. Economic agents would likely choose alternative routes in other countries due to the excessive costs and burden associated with doing business in Zimbabwe. 

The proposed policy is in violation of the existing regional trade agreements, particularly Articles 3 and 4 of the SADC Protocol on Trade, which provides for elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade, and elimination of import duties. 

It is the Committee’s view that, ZIMRA should strengthen its administrative efforts to curb transit fraud than to attempt to plug its administrative slack using an extremely bad policy. Alternatively, a commitment from clearing agent to pay duty in cases where goods do not reaching the exit point or reaching the exit port, can assist mitigating the transit fraud.

3.13. Fiscalisation of Domestic Fuel Sales

The MTFPRS proposed to introduce mandatory fiscalisation of domestic fuel sales, with effect from 1 November 2024. The measure is expected to plug revenue leakages and optimize revenues generated from CIT and Excise Duty through matching fuel imports and sales by each operator. Whilst matching can be done to ascertain excise duty revenue, it is relatively difficult to use the same approach for CIT, which may depend on a number of factors, apart from fuel sales. For example, CIT for a highly borrowed firm can be different from another firm selling the same quantities of fuel, mainly on account of tax deductibility of interest expenses. Therefore, the variation in cost structure undermine the matching concept. 

3.14. Capital Gains Tax on Marketable Securities 

Pursuant to SI 110 of 2024 the Capital Gains Withholding Tax (CGWT) will be charged at:

2024. 2% of the sales price on listed marketable securities for six months, with effect from 28 June 2024.
2025. 5% of the sales price on unlisted marketable securities for six months, with effect from 28 June 2024.
2026. Capital Gains Tax will not apply to the listed marketable securities during the specified assessment period. The amount so withheld shall be considered to be the final tax.

The proposed CGWT is in line with submissions by the Securities and Exchange Commission, except that the policy is valid for 6 months. Long term investors cannot make decisions based on a policy that lapse after 183 days. The timing on the policy should therefore be removed.

3.15. Reserved Sectors 

The Mid Term Fiscal Policy Review Statement proposed to review the First schedule of the Indigenisation and Economic Empowerment Act [Chapter 14:33] to include additional sectors for which investment can only be done by locals. These include haulage and logistics, borehole drilling, shipping and forwarding, clearing and customs and pharmaceutical retailing. In terms of section 3A of the Indigenisation and Empowerment Act [Chapter 14:33], an approval from the Minister may be required should one want to operate a business in a reserved sector.  Whilst these sectors should ideally be a preserve for the locals, it is important to ensure that locals have access to other supportive services such as financial services.

4. Committee Observations

1. Public debt has significantly increased in 2023 This may retard the economy’s growth prospects, as we target vision 2030;
2. Some Ministries have already surpassed the budget allocation approved by Parliament, while others have used less than 30% of their budget allocation during the first half of the year;
3. ZIMRA is facing administrative challenges in dealing with transit fraud as well as collecting taxes from the informal sector;
4. The government intend to increase the demand for ZiG in order to strengthen its value by proposing payment of at least 50% of Corporate Income Tax liability in local currency whilst all presumptive taxes are payable in local currency regardless of the currency of trade;
5. VAT exemption has been limited to poultry meat and Kapenta. There is need to level the playing field and extent the VAT exemption to other meat such as beef, game meat, fish, crocodile meat among others;
6. Government has heeded to the call for review of presumptive taxes which for long, have been excessively high, hence negatively impacting on tax compliance. It is envisaged that the current fee structure will bolster voluntary compliance;
7. The problem of transit fraud for fuel dealers persists, where fuel declared as transit is actually offloaded in the domestic market. This deceptive practice undermines the integrity of border control as well as excise duty revenue collections.
8. The compulsory payment duty for fuel in transit, has a detrimental impaction on the ease of doing business in Zimbabwe. The proposal also contradicts the SADC Protocol on trade hence should be reconsidered;

5. Committee Recommendations 

Ministry of Finance, Economic Development and Investment should   

• Produce a debt sustainability analysis and a Medium-Term Debt Strategy before end of November 2024 to assist in tracking the sustainability of debt.
• Provide an explanation on how Ministries which had expended more than the approved budget by June 2024 would get to the end of the year in the absence of a supplementary budget 
• Extend VAT exemption to beef, game meat and other meat produce in order to level the playing field.
• Remove duty on transit fuel and ensure that ZIMRA purse administrative measures to curb transit fraud.
• Consider a Capital Gains Withholding Tax that is not tie capped to facilitate long term investments in securities

CONCLUSION

The policy review synchronises well with the Monetary Policy Statement creating the desired complementarity of monetary and fiscal policy. However, the Ministry need to reconsider the above highlighted policy proposals in order to ensure that the policy proposals cause minimum economic distortions. I thank you. 

HON. MADZIVANYIKA: Thank you Madam Speaker for the opportunity to air my views. First of all, I would like to say I fully support the Committee on Budget and Finance for the brilliant proposals and recommendations that they have aired to the Minister, with regards to many issues that have been brought up.  I think it was a well-thought up research.

         I just want to add a few issues, I do not want to repeat what the Committee Chair has already highlighted.  The fundamental findings from this Budget Report, to me is number one, the issue of unapproved expenditure.  I think that has been clearly highlighted to the extent that we have got about five Ministries which have spent way more than what we expect in light of the fact that we are just half-year.  Imagine the Ministry of Transport, spending 245% of what was allocated by Parliament is genuine cause for concern.  I think the Minister will try to correct that.  I am not sure whether the unallocated reserve of ZW16 trillion will be sufficient to cater for such a big variation in terms of spending. I wonder what was happening, the Council of Chiefs spent about 119% of what was allocated to them.  I wonder what exactly was happening at the Council of Chiefs to warrant such spending.  

         The second issue that is of concern- the issue of the widely talked issue of education, health as well as social protection.  Government has made commitment in the past, in terms of health to say at least 20% of Government spending must go to health; that is the Abuja Declaration.  Government has also made commitments in what is known as the Dakar Convention, where they made commitment to education to the effect that Government spending in terms of education should be 20% of the National Budget.  On the issue of Social Protection Policy of 2008, Government made commitments to say that we should also support Social Protection.

         Let me put things into perspective, the Ministry of Education has utilised 26% of what was budgeted for but look at the dire circumstance of our education sector.  What is the problem, is it that the Ministry is not coming to collect cash from the Ministry of Finance or there are conditions which makes it difficult for the Ministries to get what is due to them?  I would like to recommend that the idea of Programme Based Budgeting should be dispensed with.  Why, because what will happen is that the Ministry of Finance will determine what happens to all other ministries.  So, what criteria are we using to determine if this programme is worth it or not.  What we are seeing is a situation whereby some vital ministries, which we are supposed to keep alive, lives of our people are being neglected like the Ministry of Education, which only got 26% of the allocation.  It is a cause of concern.

         Let us talk about the issue of education, as of to date, Ministry of Education managed to use 33% of its vote allocation and that is a cause for concern.  Look at the school’s infrastructure, often many times in this House, many parliamentarians are bringing questions to the Minister of Education about the dilapidated infrastructure in education.  They bring questions about the lack of education material, text books, furniture and so forth but look the Ministry of Education has been allocated 33% of what they have been approved by Parliament and it is a cause for concern.

         Let me move on to the issue of social protection.  Government should devise programmes that assist in trying to eradicate poverty and also inequality and vulnerability. The Department of Social Welfare is responsible for making sure that the vulnerable people of our societies are well catered for but look what happened, only a meagre 6.8%, less than 10% has been allocated to the Ministry.  What is the problem?  Those are the fundamental questions that we must answer because it is very important to answer those questions.  Is it that the Ministry of Social Welfare is staying back without the desire to collect money, when the Council of Chiefs are running and getting more than what they have been allocated by Parliament?  Those are multi-billion-dollar questions Madam Speaker.

         Let me come to the issue of debt, it is clear that the debt question has gone out of hand for Zimbabwe.  Let us be honest with each other.  Only last year, by December, 2023, our debt position was US$17 billion but it ballooned by more than US$3 billion to US$21 billion.  What is that?  In my understanding, Government re-capitalised Mutapa Investment Fund to the tune of US$1.9 billion.  It also went on to assist Mutapa to buy 35% shareholding from Kuvimba at a value of a staggering US$1.6 billion. What it therefore means to me is that, if 35% of Kuvimba is equivalent to 1.6 billion then Kuvimba as a whole was supposed to be valued at 4.6 billion. Is that humanely very possible Madam Speaker? I do not think it is possible. Something is wrong with the evaluation process because if Kuvimba which has got the foreign companies; Sandawana Mine, Freda Rebecca, Jena Mines, Zim Alloys, Shamva Gold Mine as well as the Great Dyke Investments. Can you honestly tell that those companies are worth US$4.6 billion; 35% of those companies. If so, what is our duty today because if you go to other Ministries like Agriculture, you will see that this kind of arrangement is not sustainable? So, what is the problem? That problem is when we borrow, are we borrowing for high economic impact projects. That answer to me is no. Assuming Madam Speaker that we have invested for example, in the Batoka Energy Hydroelectric power generation plant at the border of Zambia, which has got the capacity to generate about 2 800 megawatts. The issue of electricity will be a thing of the past Madam Speaker but then you put some kind of money in Mutapa Investment Fund, which is not even open to Parliament. It is not open to Parliamentary scrutiny Madam Speaker. Those are questions that need answers from the Minister. We are not fighting.  We just want the Minister to provide answers so that we move forward together.

What is the problem of debt? Debt has got a problem that it affects the recurrent expenditure. The money that was supposed to be given to social protection, that is the street kids that are suffering, issue of drought and many other social protection issues is now used for repayment of debt.

Secondly, the problem of debt is that it gives us or does not allow us to borrow further for the sake of our country projects. Right now, we cannot borrow from International Financial Institutions because we are heavily indebted. We need to improve on that one Madam Speaker and we need the Minister to assist in that regard.  Actually, what we want Madam Speaker is that no borrowing must take place without parliamentary approval. No guarantees must take place without parliamentary approval. We need to know what is that we are doing.

Let me move on to the issue of qualitative information or qualitative findings. Madam Speaker, it is not the budgeting that is important. It is not the vote allocation that is important. It is the programmes to which the money has been used. That is important. When the Ministry of Education for example say, we need US$10 billion for our programmes and projects, what is important Madam Speaker is the value of the projects. We need to understand how those projects have fared.  Unfortunately, Madam Speaker, successive reports from the Auditor General are speaking different to what we expect.  Why is that we continue to have a surge in cooperate governance malpractice in this country?  Why is it that we continue to have a surge in irregularities in terms of procurement? I think the Minister needs to answer those questions because it is important to know how our money has been prudently spent. 

Let me move on to revenue measures, which is the Finance Bill. There are positive revenue measures Madam Speaker, which have been given by the Ministry of Finance and there are others that we think we need to refine or improve. We will try as much as possible to give recommendations where necessary. The issue of value added tax. In terms of collection, value added tax has slowed down than before. The same period last year, this year we have collected around 25.3% than the 26.1% last year on the same period.

However, that is a source of worry because we had standard rated many goods that were previously exempted or zero rated in our 2023 National Budget. So, we expected the receipts from value added tax to be higher but the reverse is true Madam Speaker. What does it mean about this policy? It means this policy is not effective. Is it necessary to reverse to the old time, where some basic goods such as bread, beef and mealie-meal were zero rated or exempted in terms of VAT because if there is no change, then the policy is not effective and there is no need to continue with that policy. That is my suggestion Madam Speaker.

Let me move on to the other important issue of presumptive taxes. In this case, I would like to applaud the Ministry for reviewing a number of presumptive taxes. For example, previously, if you are operating a taxicab business, one taxi per month used to pay US$100. That was too much looking at the cost structure of this company. Now, a single taxicab is now paying US$35 per month and I think it is reasonable in my understanding. It is not much and no one will want to be victimised for lack of compliance of paying US$35. I think it is reasonable and many other presumptive taxes which have been introduced. This is a good move. To make it better, all these presumptive taxes are now being paid in ZiG, a local currency, which spice up the item. 

Let me talk about fiscalisation of domestic fuel sales. Yes, it is important when it is done correctly. What do we mean by that? We are saying we put a device that ensures whenever fuel is being sold, it reports to the system to the fact that so much fuel has been sold. This has been done in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and also Slovakia. It has worked before. I do not think there can be a problem with this one. It is another good revenue measure.  

There is this tax Madam Speaker, which always worries me, the Intermediate Money Transfer Tax (IMTT). This one, I am sure, yes, we are collecting something but it has got a serious bearing on those businesses which are compliant and which are formal. Why do I say so? This tax is levied on electronic bank transfers as well as mobile money transfers. Assuming I am a manufacturer, when I go to buy my purchases, which is cost of sales, for those who are well vested about accounts. When I do my purchases, as long as I made a transfer, I get charged 2%. When I am paying for other expenses at my business, general expenses, fuel expenses and many others, I get charged 2% as long as I make a transfer. When I calculate tax to determine taxable income, the IMTT tax is not also allowed as a deduction, which will reduce the tax burden because I have been taxed. When I am preparing income tax, I should be given a deduction. Unfortunately, there is not deduction again.

Lastly, Madam Speaker, if you are distributing the profits or the dividends to shareholders, as long as you make that transfer through electronic means, another 2%. Madam Speaker, this has got an effect of compoundingly charging people who are formally compliant. This tax normally affects the formal businesses and does not affect the informal which thrives on the cash economy. Therefore, I suggest Madam Speaker that the Minister reconsiders this tax. Probably, to reduce it to 0.5% or scrap it if possible. If the Minister finds it so hard to scrap it and reduce it, can he at least allow it to be allowed as a deduction for tax purposes so that people do not suffer the tragedy over and over again.

Let me move on to the issue of removal in transit, the issue of collecting duty at the point of entry and reimbursing at the point of export. Madam Speaker, we should first understand what the problem is. In Shona they say, ziva chaita musoro uteme, for you to solve that problem. The problem is when fuel is entering the border, under normal circumstances, it must be given what we call electronic seals. The electronic seals can help to track the truck because there is a specified route which it is allowed to use.  They track that truck until the point of entry.  So, if a transporter stopped for 10 minutes or more, ZIMRA will give a signal to say what is happening and there is a reaction team which used to deal with these cases.

         THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER:  Hon. Mazivanyika, you are left with five minutes. 

         HON. MADZIVANYIKA:  Thank you Madam Speaker, so once you start levying duty at the point of entry, what does it mean.  It means there are now costs to the transporters, number one de manage costs are costs associated with warehouse when you get to park in the border lanes, you pay some fees after some specified period.  Assuming that you are allowed at law to spend three hours at the border if you spend more it means there are de manage costs. Who is going to suffer those costs?

         Number two there is congestion at our border posts, does it stop trans fraud, the answer is no.  Why because the person will pay a duty at the point of entry, put fuel, come to Harare offload and then go to Chirundu with water.  As long as there are challenges at the port of exit, they will still get away after getting a refund.  I do not think this policy will assist.  Can the Minister reconsider it so that it aligns well because against many treaties, the African Continental Free Trade Area, the SADC, the COMESA, we do not want that kind of situation whereby we are trying to work against what we have agreed with other countries.

         The proposed amendment, the Reserve Bank Madam Speaker, the Minister tried to bring the proposal to the Reserve Bank Act Section 44(g)(4), by insertion of a new section which talks about the reserves our foreign currency reserves as well as our mineral reserves.  It says the reserves who are going to be audited at least once per year, that provision to me is not correct.  Number 1, I recommend to add to that Madam Speaker that the reserves should be audited quarterly, number 1, we should allow Parliament to, at some point, maybe twice per year, inspect those reserves to see if they are available for oversight.  It is important to have that kind of situation.  I suggest it be added there. 

         Madam Speaker Ma’am, the amendment of the pay as you earn, the tax bands, the minimum tax-free threshold is 12 204 ZiG, the problem is after two months – because today the exchange rate is 13.8 as to US1. Maybe after three or four months Madam Speaker, you will realise that the exchange rate will have gone to about 1:15, it actually means that the tax bands are now back in terms of real income.  I am saying can we peg these ZiG tax bands in US dollar equivalent so that whenever they change the bracket, we will also move with the exchange rate. 

         Madam Speaker, the Hon. Minister proposed the repeal of presumptive tax on professionals and self-employed professionals.  What are those Madam Speaker, the self-employed professionals include lawyers, architects, quantity surveyors, real estate agents and so forth.  Previously they used to pay a fixed presumptive tax because it was difficult to trace their incomes.  Now that the Minister is introducing to say the professionals should now register for income tax, is it easy Madam Speaker, to administer the income tax of these professionals because as a lawyer, I can talk to my client and the client pays me cash and how do you trace my income.  I think they must also consider this because most people will under-declare their income and it is not easy to trace. 

         Madam Speaker there is the issue of the five percent withholding tax on unregistered traders.  If you want to buy from a manufacturer and you do not have a tax clearance, you do not have a VAT registration number, what it means is you are not allowed to buy.  If you buy, you will pay five percent withholding tax.

         THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER:  Hon. Member, your time is up.

         HON. NYANDORO:  I move for the extension of his time Madam Speaker.

         HON. TAFANANA ZHOU:  I object Madam Speaker – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections].

THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER: It has been objected, please allow Hon, Nyabani to take the floor and be heard in silence.

         *HON. NYABANI: Thank you for giving me the opportunity to contribute to this report which was tabled by the Budget and Finance Committee.  I want to add a few words regarding the report which was tabled in this august House.  I want to talk about businesses.  I believe that the Ministry of Finance should support businesses.  The Ministry has been giving money but there are some foreign businesses which are coming here.  We have quite a number, some are selling biscuits, that is not business, some are cooking sadza which should be done by locals.  I believe that the Ministry should come up with strategy of protecting local businesses because you find investors coming but investors cannot come to do small scale businesses, they should come with big projects.  You find some saying that they are investors selling mealie meal and vegetables.  The Ministry of Finance should reveal the businesses that are operated by foreign nationals whether they are investments or they are just bringing competition for small businesses here.   

         The second point is that Zimbabwe is known as agro-based economy which is supported by agriculture.  I want to appreciate that the Government is doing a lot in supporting farmers in rural areas and different areas.  My request is that the Ministry of Finance, when allocating funds from the annual budget, when farmers have harvested the Ministry should not just give fertilizers and inputs but you find that when people harvest, they are not paid which is affecting farmers.

 The Ministry of Finance should support and motivate farmers with incentives.  After harvesting, they should be able to sell at a profit exporting their maize and grains to Zambia and other countries like what was done in the past.

 I want to also look at the issue of companies.  The Government should look at different companies, I normally go to the industries, you find companies writing using papers.  Some do not have machines most companies will be writing on tissue papers or small papers. How is Government benefiting and are they remitting their taxes?  We are paying taxes as local businesses, but you find foreign businesses not paying taxes.  So, if Government wants to grow the economy, then there should be a review of such companies. You find some selling mining equipment but they are not remitting taxes.  They are also not using our local currency the ZiG.  They are using USD and they take the USD and put it in their vaults. That money is externalised and the Government is not benefiting anything.  They are benefiting from the country, but they are not ploughing back and they are not paying taxes.

I also want to say Madam Speaker, the Ministry of Finance should put in place a Statutory Instrument.  I am not very familiar with them, but I am saying this is from a layman’s point of view and I think that such Statutory Instruments are needed.  They must not just affect us as local businesses, but even foreign businesses.  I am saying this because if we continue saying that these are our friends, if you have a friend, whether it is in the rural areas, know that sometimes the friend is just benefiting.  We also want to benefit from that friendship. 

Then regarding taxes, I think it is a good thing for people to pay their taxes so that there is development in the country.  I remember when we were growing up that there were hut taxes, dog taxes and other taxes before independence.  Even dogs were paying taxes and those monies were used to build dams and other developmental projects.  When you say people should pay taxes, you find that people resist but it is important for taxes to be there so that they bring development. 

Lastly, regarding the 2% tax, it is a good initiative but sometimes that is why you see that when you swipe, the bank will deduct 2%.  We want to swipe in shops but you find that the USD cash and swipe is different in shops because they will explain that when you swipe, there is a 2% tax.  So, for people to be motivated to swipe and to use mobile banking, can we not find a Statutory Instrument which would motivate buyers so that they would want to use their swipe cards. If you want to treat a boil, it must be treated well.  I want to appreciate what Government is doing in all projects that are happening and we need to know that we, as local people who are growing our economy, whether it is myself as Hon. Nyabani and other Hon. Members, you would find that some people are not found in businesses, whether it is in peanut butter or any other business. So, people should be motivated to work.  That Statutory Instrument is important and it is the S.I that I was talking about.  I want to thank you for the few words that I was allowed to say.  Whether the Minister is there or the leadership, I believe that this contribution will be meaningful.  I thank you.

         HON. KAPOIKILU: Thank you Madam Speaker.  My contribution on this mid-term budget review statement which was presented by the Hon. Minister of Finance and Economic Development is firstly, I would like to thank the Hon. Minister for tabling this report or statement before the House.  Madam Speaker, I would like to express my deeper concern regarding several critical issues that were overlooked in that budget statement.

         Firstly, Madam Speaker, we have an ongoing crisis of water in Bulawayo.  The statement is alarmingly silent on this crisis.  In Bulawayo, there is a serious water crisis Madam Speaker.  Dams that are supplying Bulawayo are 30% full, it is a crisis.  So, this statement remains silent on tangible solutions, despite the fact that the Mayor of Bulawayo engaged several Ministers on that issue.  I am aware there is an ongoing Gwayi- Shangani Dam project.  That is a long-term solution.  Bulawayo needs a quick fix solution for it to survive.  What is the quick fix solution which is there for Bulawayo? The solution is the construction of a pipeline from Mefe Dam to Mtshabezi Dam.  This requires 15 million USD. I am told if this pipeline is constructed even if it does not rain for five years, Bulawayo will be fixed.

         I humbly request the Minister of Finance to consider us when allocating funds during this period.  I humbly ask the Minister to also engage His Excellency, the President.  I have no hesitation that he is going to listen to our plea. 

I will move on to the next issue that I am concerned about, which is the allocation to the ICT Ministry.  Why I am concerned is because this Ministry is the one spearheading our digitalisation agenda.  We have one of our major state-owned enterprises in the telecommunication industry which is TelOne.  TelOne has the second largest telecommunications infrastructure in Southern Africa, second to Telcom of South Africa.  All service providers in this country ride on the infrastructure of TelOne.  That includes Econet, Telecel and many others.  TelOne is owed a lot of money by Government, amounting to $53 billion as of last year September.  By the end of the year, the amount had risen to $100 billion.  Last year in December, the Minister agreed to clear this debt.  As of March this year, the bill had ballooned to ZW$ 200 billion before converting to ZiG.  I am also informed that there is also an issue of legacy debt…

         THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER:  Order Hon. Kapoikilu.

Hon. Kapoikilu having been asked to approach the Chair.

         HON. DR. MUTODI: Thank you, Madam Speaker Ma’am.

         HON. TOGAREPI: I do not know whether I should say that to you but it would be very helpful if we knew why you stopped him from debating so that we do not repeat the same mistake.

         THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER (TSITSI ZHOU): If you can allow this to remain between the Chair and Hon. Kapoikilu. Government Chief Whip, thank you.

         We are always furnished with the Finance Bill on WhatsApp Group; the Clerk always makes sure that we receive a copy.  I advise all Members to read through and prepare for the debates adequately.  I thank you

         HON. DR. MUTODI: Thank you, Madam Speaker Ma’am.  Allow me to add my voice to the Mid-Term Fiscal Review by the Minister of Finance and Economic Development Hon. Prof. M. Ncube.

         Madam Speaker, I want to comment on the revenue side of this policy review, particularly on the fiscalisation of fuel sales.  I want to commend the Minister for taking this bold move as it will allow accountability in the fuel services sector.  It will also curb fraud associated with the fuel and also deal with the smuggling issues that have been happening in the county.  I also believe that it will also increase the revenue base through the accountability part of it.

         On financial prudence, Madam Speaker I want to applaud for refilling that half of the Ministry’s departments and agencies and spending 44% of their budgets which is in line with the SADC macro-economic conversions indicators.  This shows that the country is performing very well in terms of financial prudence.

         On the reduction of the presumptive tax from 30% to a figure below that figure which I cannot regurgitate from the head.  I think this will promote economic growth Madam Speaker since the over-taxation of companies has the effect of suppressing economic growth.

         There was also mention that the economic growth target was reduced from 3,5% to 2% and this is due to the El-Nino-induced drought, geo-political tensions, and other problems.  I want to urge the Ministry to accurately estimate the performance of macroeconomic fundamentals such that we are certain as to what level of growth trajectory we will be able to achieve at the end of the year.  However, since the Minister took office as the Minister of Finance, we have not seen any negative growth and I want to commend him for that.  I would also want to urge him to remain on that track to ensure that our country achieves the much-needed economic development.

         On the measures to create room for the newly introduced Zimbabwe Gold, I want to congratulate the Minister and his Deputy for successfully introducing the ZiG.  It is through the understanding that no country can develop successfully without control of its monetary policy.  The Minister has allowed for all payments of Government services to be done in ZiG and also the payment of all presumptive tax to be done in ZiG and this is a welcome development.  I would want again to applaud the Minister for this kind of move.

         However, Minister, there is an outcry that some people who are in critical need of US dollars may need to access the US dollars by exchanging their ZiG income to get a few US dollars.  So, I am urging the Hon. Minister to introduce effective and well-functioning Bureau de changes.  Bureau de changers which can enable people to exchange their ZiG for US dollars, maybe they would want to access medication and other things. 

         We also urge and we know that under your leadership and your Deputy, you are making sure that gone are the days when the Government would print money to finance Government expenditure, what we call in economics the monetization of the economy. During your period as Minister of Finance we have seen that you have shunned this form of practice and our economy is set to grow like any other in the world. So, the target on the year-to-year inflation must be below 5% to ensure that our people have confidence in the ZiG.

 Hon. Minister you have also introduced duty on fuel in transit and whilst we agree that they have been smuggling fuel, people have been taking fuel from Mozambique passing through the country and loading water and things like that, such as criminal activities.

 I agree with the recommendation made by the Committee headed by my colleague Hon. Chiduwa that the duty on fuel in transit be scrapped. This is because it increases the cost of doing business for fuel dealers yet internationally countries are being urged to reduce non-tariff barriers.  I am sure this is something you will seriously need to consider Hon. Minister.

In the financial services sector, there is now stability and this is a positive for your performance and for your Deputy’s performance as well. The market conditions have become predictable and the performance of the economy has been asserted.

         However, we have a request on the social safety net. There is a lot of hunger from where we are coming from. People are dying of hunger and us Hon. Members, we are having to carry the burden, the funerals and food supplies. Last week in my constituency, people were saying if we do not get food in the next two weeks, we may have to record deaths due to starvation and this must be catered for in your plans.

         We are not so sure in your Mid-Term Fiscal Review whether you are going to use unallocated reserves to mitigate against drought as this is a real need or you are going to use the reallocation method? Maybe you are going to take from those ministries which are not using their budgets and then reallocate that money towards social safety nets. We are not also sure on the funding. We know that the Ministry has done very well in financing the Harare-Beitbridge Road.

         We want to applaud you Hon. Minister for such a good thing. We do not know whether the outstanding projects are not going to be funded. We want to urge the Ministry to use US dollar ensure that our ZiG remains very strong. The President is on record saying ZiG is the strongest currency in Southern Africa. We want it to be the strongest currency in the world. We want you to make sure that it is not used to fund those projects.

         On CDF disbursements and also devolution funds, this is a point of interest to us. We have not gotten the CDF disbursements. We were told that we were going to get ZiG50 000 per constituency and we have not received the disbursement. We want to urge you Minister to release this money because this is the point where we are rated as MPs in our constituencies. We use those funds to develop some micro projects like clinics, schools and so on.

         On the devolution funds, sometimes these funds cannot be traced if they are sent to a province, they are just being used for a certain section of the province and they are not covering the whole province. So, if they were streamlined to make sure that they target certain constituency-based projects, it would help us to ensure that we also benefit as a whole.

         Overally, Minister and your Deputy, the nation pins hope on you to end financial disturbances that have occurred in the past through the revenue leakages. We have seen revenue leakages in the past such as the smuggling of precious materials or precious stones like gold and diamonds. There is also the smuggling of US dollar, externalisation of huge financial resources like companies which get tenders and fail to fulfill their part of the bargain as well as other corrupt tendencies.

         Honestly, to be a Minister of Finance, you are like the Prime Minister of the country. Your policies must focus on eradicating poverty and providing social safety nets to ascertain that the poor can survive. It also attracts investment into the country so as to increase employment opportunities and also to increase the revenue base by ensuring that companies grow and also productive sectors of the economy are capitalised through the revolving funds of the SDRs and other sources of funds. I thank you.   

         HON. MAMOMBE: Thank you Madam Speaker Ma’am for the opportunity to add my voice to the Mid-Term Fiscal Policy Review. I would want to concur with the contributions that have been made by the Chairperson of the Budget Committee and also the other Hon. Members who added their voices. I think it is important to first recognise that when we are doing the Mid-Term Fiscal Policy Review, we need to factor into account the issues of transparency and issues of accountability, which I actually think that those two issues are the backbone of us having this Mid-Term Fiscal Policy Review.

         I am happy to say that the Hon. Minister, in his budget speech, mentioned on some issues on accountability and transparency, but I think it was prudent for the Hon. Minister to elaborate in terms of the measures, strategies that the Ministry intends to take to combat issues of corruption. When we are speaking about transparency and accountability, we need to address the issues of corruption.

         I was just browsing on the website of ZACC. Since January this year, they have recorded 999 cases of corruption and these cases of corruption are not ordinary individuals. These are public officials that are misappropriating funds. You can talk about all the Government institutions. We have had public officials being corrupt and the Hon. Minister did not clearly highlight the strategies that they intend to take to combat issues of corruption.

         I would want the Hon. Minister, in his response, to kindly elaborate on the measures that he is going to take together with the Ministry to ensure that there is going to be accountability and also proper utilisation of public funds. If you look at the AG’s Report, it was presented here in Parliament and it also pointed out to a lot of corruption issues particularly in Government Institutions. As a Ministry of Finance, I think it was good for you to recognise some of these issues that were raised in the AG’s Report and also to elaborate in this House how the Ministry intends to curb such corruption.

I also want to just highlight that the Hon. Minister before he came to present the Mid-Term Review Statement the day before, he announced on national television and had a press conference where he also announced that they have 51 companies that were black listed over parallel markets. It is very good that you announced that there are 51 companies that have been black listed. In terms of gaining the money back that has been misappropriated and embezzled, that has not been elaborated in the fiscal policy.

If you look at the budget speech on point 89 where the Hon. Minister was referring that he wants to build confidence, he wants to put in place measures that will institute and clearly communicate to the market when it comes to such issues. So, I want to bring to your attention that it is very important that the Hon. Minister instead of just passing through to say as a Ministry, we are doing our best to curb corruption, we want to understand as a House, the strategies that you are putting in place to address corruption issues. Women and children, they bear the brand of corruption. The Hon. Members who have spoken before me, spoke about social services that are lacking in this country. They spoke about education and health that has deteriorated in the country. One of the fundamental reasons that has been mentioned is the issue of corruption. However, in terms of not curbing that corruption, we are mentioning; everyone is talking that there is rampant corruption in the country. How many people have been arrested – 999 according to ZACC`s statistic. However, in terms of now, what the Ministry is doing, we are silent about it. The lack of accountability, it hampers the country`s confidence, to actually have confidence on the Fiscal Policy itself.

Right now, we are talking about the drought that has been caused as an effect or result of the climate change. Instead of us addressing drought right now, we could be using that money that has been embezzled. We could be using that money to actually address issues like drought and Cyclone Idai because right now all the money is going to drought but we could have been curbing corruption so that this money can be utilised to address such issues.  Hon. Madzivanyika talked about the country’s debt. We have an external debt of 58% as we speak. We also have a domestic debt of 41%. Instead of borrowing and creating this huge debt as a country, we could also be utilising again the money that is being embezzled through corruption. We know the sums of amounts that have been mentioned in this country. The court cases that are currently happening in Zimbabwe, that have been caused by corruption. So, we need to make sure that what has been spoken by Hon. Madzivanyika saying ongorora chaita kuti musoro uteme; we need to address issues of corruption.

         The Minister of Finance, in his response, must actually highlight, what are the measures, the critical measures to curb issues of corruption and public funds embezzlement. I would not want to waste much of the time because a lot of things have been said. The funds…- [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –

         Hon. Mamombe having been responding to interjections.

         THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER (HON. TSITSI ZHOU): Order, order, manga muchitaura zvakanaka wani.  You need to continue addressing the Chair and not respond to different Hon. Members.

         HON. MAMOMBE: Definitely, I apologise Madam Speaker Ma’am. I was just disturbed, my order of presentation was disturbed.  To just add on as a last point, I want to emphasise that citizens of this country cannot continue to bleed; to be paying taxes in this country.  We are misappropriating the taxpayers’ money.  The funds that are being abused in this country are taxpayers’ funds.  So, I really plead with the Minister in his response to address issues of corruption.  I thank you.

         *HON. S. TSHUMA: Thank you Madam Speaker Ma’am.  I rise to add my voice to the Mid-Term Budget that was presented on 25^th July, 2024.  First and foremost, I would like to support what the Chairperson of the Committee on Finance and Economic Development has said.  I will start by the issue of the fiscalisation of domestic fuel.  It is imperative that we have such devices that record sales from service stations that sell fuel.  There is a problem that we would want the Minister to attend to as regards that issue.  First one, is the fiscal devices, the issue started a few years ago and it was meant to be compulsory to those that are in business.  It then happened that ZIMRA was giving certain companies tenders to supply or to sell such devices to the business people.  Such devices were paid for, two or three years back but up to today, some have not received those devices.  So, we urge them to look into that issue and that issue would not be a problematic.  The devices should be readily available to our people so that our country cannot lose in the fiscus.  I also urge you to investigate, not only the issue of fuel but there are also issues concerning other industries which need to be looked into, so that they will also have these fiscal devices, so that whatever they will be selling is recorded. 

         We know that mining is a second largest contributor in terms of economic earners in this country, coming second to agriculture.  A lot of people are now into mining, they have sought solace in mining.  There are some business people that are selling mining equipment and the industry is now dominated by Chinese who are selling a lot of mining goods such as pumps, cables, generators to mention just but a few.  I have noticed that in my movements, we do not see what they are doing in our country.  They sell a lot of goods but they do not give customers receipts.  This means they are not paying any taxes.  We would want the Minister to look into that so that these few big Chinese companies will be looked into.  We also hear that a lot of their money is taken out of this country; it is never banked.  As a country, we are not benefiting out of that.

         I want to talk about the issue of the reserve sectors or businesses that were started or talked about by the Minister, which we started for the benefit of the sovereign people.  A lot of these companies were mentioned but I just want to add that there are some businesses such as quarry mining and crushing in this country.  Can an investor come here to do quarry mining and stone crushing, as a foreigner, yet the machinery that is used to do such work is not expensive that Zimbabweans cannot afford to buy that machinery and be able to do that.  I am talking about the quarry mining because the issue of bricks was mentioned.  There are a lot of foreigners that are into quarry mining and if they are foreigners, there are a lot of loopholes where they will end up not paying tax. In this august House, as I face inwards, some of us are the ones that front such foreigners. As Hon. Members, we should not be the fronts for foreigners to carry out such business which will lead to the country losing revenue.

We also observed that there is a business where foreigners come to bottle still water. Like mineral water that we are drinking, they are drilling boreholes and just purifying the water and selling it. A lot of companies are doing that. As locals, have we failed to run such business? Madam Speaker, we urge the Minister to also look into such issues.

We are grateful about the issue of the user fees that he mentioned, of Zimbabweans being able to pay the amounts that are needed in paying for the Hospitals and other such areas using the ZiG as legal tender. I would also want to talk about the issue of the removal in transit of fuel that passes from Forbes Boarder Post, from Mozambique in transit to such countries such as Zambia and DRC.

 Madam Speaker, it will not be a good thing for us to say, the Congolese or Zambians should pay duty at the port of entry and be refunded at the exit point at Chirundu. We can do better than that. When I look at Zimbabwe as has been indicated by the Chairperson, there are a lot of agreements that we have entered into with SADC States.

We also travel, we do not build any motor vehicles from Japan and use Durban and Tanzania as the ports of entry for our second hand goods. South Africa allows us to carry our vehicles using carriers but they do not charge us any money. We import motor vehicles from Dar es Salaam, they pass through Zambia but we are not being charged by the Zambians except for paying for the tollgates, and maybe temporary licences that we use for entering and exiting the country.

They do not charge us any money or fear that we may leave our motor vehicles in their country, but they ensure that our vehicles leave their territory. By the same token, ZIMRA should, this is my opinion, have motor vehicles for the purposes of escorting or carrying out patrols along these highways because the majority of the fuel that is used from Forbes does not go to South Africa. It either goes to Zambia or DRC.

If ZIMRA has several vehicles such that, whenever those vehicles that have been left at the border should be escorted with a vehicle leading these vehicles at the rear, it could help us maintain better relations with others. In the end Madam Speaker, I cannot end without talking about social protection.  In the mid-term budget review of the Hon Minister, he mentioned the issue where he supported His Excellency the President, that no one should die of hunger in this country of Zimbabwe despite the fact that that we have a drought.

As we speak, while I support what Hon. Mutodi has said, Madam Speaker, where we come from in our constituencies, people are dying because of hunger. Children are no longer going to school because of hunger. The Minister mentioned that they shall be a school feeding programme, but the schools have now opened and they have not yet started that particular programme in my constituency.

It is my plea that the Hon. Minister should look into this issue as a matter of urgency before we lose lives. Secondly, before we have a lot of children dropping out of school because that is when we will be supporting and promoting drug abuse which we are up in arms with. If children fail to go to school, what they could do is to be involved in drug and substance abuse for want of better things to do. Madam Speaker, I do not want to waste time any further, I thank you for the opportunity.

 HON. I. NDUDZO: Thank you Madam Speaker. I want to greatly appreciate the 2024 Mid-Term Budget and Economic Review as presented by the Hon. Minister of Finance, Economic Development and Investment Promotion, under the theme, ‘Consolidation of economic transformation’. Firstly, Madam Speaker, I want to appreciate the milestone achievement in the area of Budget transparency. The Budget under review scored highly. We had an OBI score of 63 out of a 100 in the open budget survey conducted in 2023. This was by the International Budget Partnership.

The OBI score of Zimbabwe is above the world average of 45 over a 100. So, we outperformed the average mark by 23 points. That is commendable. I also want to appreciate that, notwithstanding the devastating effects of the El Nino induced drought, the first six months of 2024 were still characterised by a positive economic direction in all sectors with the notable exception of agriculture. Madam Speaker, this speaks to resilience it speaks to prudent management and to astute leadership in our Treasury.

Madam Speaker, I also wish to appreciate the various programmes that have come in the main budget that have been enhanced in the Mid-Term Budget Review. In particular, as a rural MP, I want to appreciate the programmes that have been developed and that are being implemented under Rural Development 8. 0. Madam Speaker, you will notice that there are eight programmes that are all calculated and intended to improve the livelihoods of the rural community where the majority of our population lives. The efforts are slowly bearing fruit as we can see the improvement in the lives of our people. Madam Speaker, we appreciate that the Hon. Minister of Finance has a very difficult balancing act because resources by nature are inelastic and are finite. On any given day there are so many demands but there is a limit on what the Hon. Minister can achieve. In that vein, it is my humble plea to the Hon. Minister of Finance that when we are in a difficult situation such as we have with the El Nino induced drought. Perhaps it is advisable to do less but to do it exceptionally well. For example, we have eight programmes, the other one deals with poultry, the other one deals with livestock, cattle, goats and things like that but I have no doubt that the majority of Members present in this House will agree with me that the Presidential Rural Development Programme where the President has undertaken to the people of Zimbabwe that there will be drilled 35 000 boreholes. In addition to the 35 000 boreholes, there will be 30 000 village business units 4 800 youth business units and 9 600 business units.

         Madam Speaker, my submission is that this is a very important programme with phenomenal impact on the livelihoods of our people - [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] - I want to humbly plead with the Hon. Minister that in the context of what we are presently experiencing, perhaps it may be ideal to pull and push more resources towards this noble programme. When you drill a borehole, everyone in the community stands to benefit. The more enterprising and entrepreneurial ones can actually begin to create horticultural businesses which can earn them an income. Not only do human beings benefit but this becomes the water source for livestock, goats, sheep and cattle. If we look at the resources that we have allocated to programmes such as the goat scheme and the livestock scheme, you can imagine if all those resources or a larger chunky of those resources had been dedicated to the borehole drilling scheme and the village business units, the results would be phenomenal - [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] -. Presently those who are in Region one, Region two and Region three are in a difficult situation because the communication that is coming from the relevant Ministry is that the focal areas, because of the scarcity of resources are Regions four and five but water is a resource that we so much need. We need to channel our resources in that direction. Once we have water,  we can always bring into line all the other programmes, poultry programmes, livestock programmes and the goats programmes but this is my plea Madam Speaker, we need more boreholes and we need them as a matter of utmost urgency and priority – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] –

         Madam Speaker, in the same vein, we have come up with very important Government units that are relevant to the issues that have to do with rural development programmes particularly the provision of water and relevant infrastructure.  We have the Rural Infrastructure Development Agency, we have the Zimbabwe National Water Agency, we also have the Department of Irrigation.  Often at times we come across these departments, well-staffed with highly competent and qualified personnel.  But when these projects and programmes are being implemented, there seems to be a preference of contracting, bringing in third party contractors yet we have qualified and competent people who are on our payroll and who have got very less and little to do.

In my respectful view, we would make the most of the available resources if we implement these programmes through capacitating our own departments to implement, monitor and continue with the programmes as we roll them out. Still on the score of human capital, my view is that Zimbabwe is an exceptionally blessed nation.  We have natural resources, we have got a good climate, we have got land, we have got all the good things.  Above everything, I am of the view that our human resources, our people, our Zimbabweans are the best resource that we have in our country, particularly the quality of the people we have in the civil service and in other departments and agencies of Government.  It is my plea Madam Speaker, that the Hon. Minister as he reviews everything else, he must seriously consider a review of the remuneration of our civil servants - [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] -and those who work in our Government Departments and agencies.  

         Madam Speaker, it is very important to retain and to motivate those who serve our Government because the success of all the plans and the programmes that we have will not materialise unless we have a motivated workforce.  I therefore plead with the Hon. Minister to do a little bit of figure tweaking and recheck his figures so that we must have some provision that gives an increment to our pensioners, to our civil servants, last but not list even to our own Parliamentarians – [HON. MEMBERS: Yes!] – Madam Speaker, this is a year where we are suffering the harsh effects of drought.  I want to thank the Hon. Minister for the provision that he has made in the area of drought relief.  However, the obtaining reality in the Constituencies where we are coming from is that there are a lot of gaps, the vision of His Excellency, the President that no one must die of hunger and no one must be omitted in food distribution is not coming to the fore most likely because of the inadequacy of resources that are available.  I humbly plead with the Hon. Minister, again to do a review and make sure that we allocate more resources on this very critical priority area.

         Madam Speaker, we also need to make sure that more resources are allocated to the health service sector.  When all is said and done, you also need a health nation but the obtaining reality in our rural health care facilities is that basic medicines and critical material are in short supply and we need to make sure that in this Mid-Term Budget Review, we have allocated more resources for that provision. 

         I want to welcome the boldness demonstrated by the Hon. Minister in April, 2024 in introducing our own local currency which is backed by gold.  It does not profit or benefit anyone in Zimbabwe for us to be a nation without our own currency.  There is no nation in the world that has progressed without reliance on its own local currency.  We cannot afford to have a weakened ZiG, we cannot afford to have a ZiG that plays second fiddle in its own country to currencies from other nations of the world.  It is very important to check where the commodities that trade the most on our economy and what quickly comes to mind Madam Speaker is fuel.  Fuel is an important commodity in our economy but it is sad that even with all that we have done with the ZiG today, it is extremely difficult to find fuel being sold in our own local currency and we need to put measures in place that ensure that we can buy and trade fuel in ZiG.  I want to believe that once we are able to do that, we should be able to promote and have people prefer to use their own ZiG.  If you go to Zambia, they are likely to show you the Bureau de change before you can transact even if you have US dollar.  The same with so many nations such as Uganda and Kenya, everyone wants to use their own money and that is also the message that I bring from our rural communities.  They want to be able to use their own ZiG in Zimbabwe and the Ministry of Finance must come up with measures that support the use of ZiG if not altogether the elimination of other currencies for domestic purposes.

         Madam Speaker, we want to appreciate our Minister and I want to say that there are three types of people in the world.  There are people who watch things as they happen and there are people who wonder what has happened and the people who make things happen.  I want to believe that the team that is at the Ministry of Finance qualifies among those people who are making things happen in our economy and we want to commend and support them.  We do not want to join the bandwagon of those who do not see good, those who do not hear good and those who do not speak good.  We can see that our Minister is doing the best that he can in the given circumstances and for that, I want to thank him. I thank you.

         THE MINISTER OF FINANCE, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND INVESTMENT PROMOTION (HON. PROF. M. NCUBE): Madam Speaker, I move that the debate do now adjourn.

         Motion put and agreed to.

         Debate to resume: Wednesday, 11^th September, 2024.

         On the motion of THE MINISTER OF FINANCE, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND INVESTMENT PROMOTION (HON. PROF. M NCUBE), the House adjourned at Ten Minutes past Six o’clock p.m.