- Version
- Download 44
- File Size 198 KB
- File Count 1
- Create Date October 13, 2013
- Last Updated November 13, 2021
SENATE HANSARD 16 OCTOBER 2013 VOL. 23 NO. 12
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Wednesday, 16th October, 2013.
The Senate met at Half-past Two O’clock p.m
PRAYERS
(THE DEPUTY PRESIDENT in the Chair)
ANNOUNCEMENTS BY THE DEPUTY PRESIDENT
APPOINTMENT TO THE STANDING RULES AND ORDERS
COMMITTEE
THE DEPUTY PRESIDENT: I wish to make a correction to the
announcement on 15th October, 2013, relating to the nominations of membership to the Standing Rules and Orders Committee. Nominations received from ZANU PF included the name of Hon. Sen. Mathuthu instead of Hon. Sen. T. B. Mohadi. I therefore declare Hon. Mohadi duly appointed as a member of the Standing Rules and Orders
Committee.
Pursuant to the announcement made yesterday, the Speaker and the
President of the Senate have made the following appointments to the
Committee on Standing Rules in terms of Section 151 (2) (h) of the Constitution:
Hon. B. Chikwama appointed by the Speaker, Senator P.
Mupfumira appointed by the President of the Senate, Senator Chief Charumbira is a member of the Committee in terms of Section 151 (2)
(g).
REPRESENTATION TO THE PAN-AFRICAN PARLIAMENT
AND SADC PARLIAMENTARY FORUM
THE DEPUTY PRESIDENT: In terms of the Protocol to the
Treaty establishing the African Economic Community relating to the
Pan African Parliament, Article 4, Sub-paragraph 2 states that each Member State shall be represented in the Pan African Parliament by five
(5) members, at least one of whom must be a woman.
Sub-paragraph (3) of the same Article states that the representation of each Member State must reflect the diversity of political opinions in each National Parliament, or other deliberative organs.
Article (5) Sub-paragraph 1 also states that the Pan African
Parliamentarians shall be elected or designated by the respective National Parliaments or any other deliberative organs of the Member States, from among their members.
I have received the following nominations:
Presiding Officer, Hon. Sen. C.C.C. Chimutengwende;
ZANU PF, Hon. J. M. Gumbo, Hon P. Mupfumira; Chiefs
Council, Hon. Sen. Chief F. Z. Charumbira;
MDC-T Hon. T. Mashakada.
The five nominations meet the requirements of Article 4 Subparagraph 2 of the Treaty establishing the Pan African Parliament.
I therefore declare the above members duly elected to represent Zimbabwe at the Pan African Parliament. The National Assembly has elected the same five members to the Pan African Parliament.
Article 6 Subsection 3 of the Constitution of the Southern African Development Community (SADC Parliamentary Forum) states that the forum shall consist of the Presiding Officers and five representatives elected to the SADC Parliamentary Forum by each National Parliament; provided that in the election of the five representatives to the SADC Parliamentary Forum, each National Parliament shall ensure equitable representation at the SADC Parliamentary Forum of Women and Political Parties that are represented in that Parliament.
I have received the following nominations:
ZANU PF, Hon. Sen. T. Mohadi, Hon. Dr. S. Mukanduri, Hon.
Sen. M. Mutsvangwa, MDC-T, Hon. I. Gonese,
MDC, Hon. J. Toffa.
The Five nominations received meet the requirements of Article 6
Sub-section 3 of the Constitution of the SADC Parliamentary Forum.
I therefore declare the above members duly elected to represent Zimbabwe at the SADC Parliamentary Forum. The National Assembly has elected the same five members to the SADC Parliamentary Forum.
SWITCHING OFF OF CELLPHONES
THE DEPUTY PRESIDENT: I wish to remind hon. Senators to
switch off their cell phones before commencement of business.
MOTION
PRESIDENTIAL SPEECH: DEBATE ON ADDRESS
First Order read: Adjourned debate on motion in reply to the Presidential Speech.
Question again proposed.
*SENATOR MATIIRIRA: I want to start by congratulating the
President of the Senate, Hon. Madzongwe and her Deputy for coming back to the Senate as leaders. I also want to congratulate the President of this country, Cde. R. G. Mubage, for winning the election which shocked the whole country. Mr. President, I want to thank President Cde. Mugabe for encouraging us as women and also giving us preference to become part of the leadership charged with crafting of legislation.
I want to emphasise on the words that were given by the President especially in agriculture. I stay in Uzumba-Maramba-Pfungwe and in line with where I come from, especially the district of MarambaPfungwe, it is an area that receives very little rainfall. I know the Government was experiencing economic hardships, but my request is that if possible, dams must be built so that there is irrigation and people will have something to sustain them.
On the issue of development, this area is underdeveloped; it is lagging behind in terms of development. For example, people want to develop that area, they should look at the issue of road construction especially Marutsetse road, it is a road that comes from Murehwa, Mazowe bridge, Mutoko and Mudzi. At this moment the road is not accessible especially in this rainy season. We also want to encourage people to engage in agricultural activities and to ensure that they grow the relevant crops in their areas. On the issue of development, the farmer needs health and water so the ministries should unite and ensure that development takes place. Mr. President, this is a setback in terms of development in Maramba-Pfungwe.
To end my speech, I want to thank you Mr. President for the opportunity that you have given me to contribute in this august Senate.
Thank you.
SENATOR MOHADI: I move that the debate do now adjourn.
SENATOR MAHOFA: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Thursday 17th October, 2013.
MOTION
REPORT OF THE 62nd SESSION OF THE EXECUTIVE
COMMITTEE OF THE AFRICAN PARLIAMENTARY UNION
(APU)
Second Order read: Adjourned debate on motion on the Report of the 62nd Session of the Executive Committee of the African Parliamentary Union (APU).
Question again proposed.
*SENATOR CHABUKA: Thank you Mr. President for giving
me this opportunity to say a few words. I want to thank Madam President even in her absence and the members of the delegation that she went with, Senator Mathuthu, Senator Chitaka and the technical team that accompanied them. I want to take this opportunity to thank them for the work that they did. I also want to thank Senator Mathuthu and Senator Chitaka for the report that they gave. Many a times, people go out and do not give feed-back forgetting that the people who elected us want us to do that work. We also forget that the country needs to develop, so we need that information from outside.
Mr. President, I also want to thank the role that was taken by the women at the APU, for ensuring that our country is peaceful. I want to thank Madam President for chairing that Committee. It reflects that as Zimbabwe, we are taking into consideration that women have a role to develop the country and the women in Africa now have gained some mileage on the work that should be done by women.
I also want to thank the delegation as a whole because they have shown that they are people who are free. The contribution that they made and the feed-back that they have given us has assisted a lot and it will continue to assist us as we conduct our business here. It will assist us not to have a Senate where we sit for two days, then two days later, we are gone. Rather it urges us as senators to work together like what Senator Chitaka, Senator Mathuthu and Madam President did. I want to thank you for representing us well. Thank you.
SENATOR MUMVURI: Thank you Mr. President for
recognising me to debate on this motion. Mr. President, I want to add my voice to the Report on the 62nd Session of the Executive Committee on the African Parliamentary Union. Let me start by thanking the mover, Hon. Senator Mathuthu and her seconder, Senator Chitaka.
I also want to give gratitude, Mr. President, to the Government of Zimbabwe for allowing our National Parliament to be a full member of this organisation, the African Parliamentary Union. Such forums allow us African states and nations to get an opportunity to discuss and proffer solutions to some of the problems and critical issues which bedevil and affect our continent of Africa.
However, Mr. President, let me briefly outline my own observations which I derived from our participation in meetings of this organisation, the African Parliamentary Union. Firstly, there are very few nations from our region of Southern Africa, who are members of this organisation as it was noted by the mover of the motion. Out of a total of 40 plus states, only five National Parliaments from this region, are members of this organisation. To name a few, these are: - Angola, D.R.C, Malawi, Namibia and our own Zimbabwe.
Mr. President, by far the majority of these National Parliaments are either French speaking or Arab states. Southern Africa, therefore, tends to be overshadowed in most of these deliberations. The vocal ones which I have mentioned above always express their wishes and they have their way of doing things. Let me dwell on the Arab nations in particular, these nations’ religion is pre-dominantly Islamic and their way of convicting individuals to a faith is by force as opposed to persuasion, the way which the Christian nations use. It is interesting to note the word Jihad itself refers to religious conquest which they boast of. So, these nations always want to practice activities to spread their influence in their region and beyond. Some of the studies which I have done on the conflicts and conflict resolutions indicate that the existence of both religions where Christianity and Islam exist predominantly, this causes perpetual conflicts in several African states. Examples are Nigeria, Sudan, Mali and others and more recently in Kenya. What is going on cannot be ignored. In each of these countries and many others, you observe that the civil strife is between the Moslem North against the
Christian South.
In Zimbabwe, we are spared this agony at the moment because we are for now, predominantly one religion only, that is 99% Christianity. Let us enjoy this peace and tranquility Mr. President, while it lasts. I want to believe that the same situation prevails in our sister countries such as Malawi, Namibia, Angola and DR Congo who are also members of this organization. The point I want to make Mr. President, is that we must be apprehensive of the ultimate influence of the vocal Arab nations and the French speaking nations. In order to counter and balance this, we must encourage members from this region to join in large numbers to penetrate this organization. Especially, the English speaking countries, so that we maintain and may also advance our influence through such forums as the African Parliamentary Union.
Let me point out that the case of other nations not joining is not clear. When this organization held its meeting in Equatorial Guinea some two years ago, South Africa, our big brother in the southern region, came as an observer. But at the end they did not join and until now, they are not members of this organization. That worries us. Maybe we can play a friendly hand and try to persuade them to join so that we can have this dominance as well.
Coming to the aspect of auditing of the organization’s accounts as it was given by the earlier speaker, this is a weakness which must be rectified very soon. The concept of self-auditing, in all fairness, Mr. President, the role of oversight which must be exercised by an outside partner. On the arrears of the organization, which again was mentioned earlier, it is a pity that the organization is under threat through under funding. Small nations have accrued some debts which they may not be able to clear in the foreseeable future.
This scenario, Mr. President shows that Africa is a poor continent and yet it has got vast resources which other nations are taking advantage of. Before the brutal attack of the oil rich Libya and the subsequent murder of Colonel Gaddafi, several Nations, several national Parliaments who are members of this organization had their subscriptions paid by the gallant son of the soil in the name of Gaddafi himself. He carried out projects which he called the Lybian Projects. We saw this when we went to Sudan. So, I am saying Africans must help each other to clear these debts. There are other rich nations, but now that Gaddafi is gone, there are no other people who are paying for the poor nations.
Mr. President, I would not be prudent if I end my debate without commending Madam President and her delegation which went to Abidjan for this august meeting. They represented us well and we want to say congratulations. To the secretariat which was headed by Mr. Gandiwa, I want to say well done for producing a timeous report which is giving us this feedback. With those few words Mr. President, I want to thank you.
*SENATOR CHIEF CHISUNGA: I want to thank you for giving
me this opportunity to give my contribution. I want to thank hon. Mathuthu and Hon. Senator Chitaka. What is important to note in such gatherings is, that is where as countries we can meet and give each other these practices as African Nations to assist us in development. There is something that is always being said and I believe that if we are to take this as children of Africa, we will be able to develop. That is the issue that we are a poor continent, if you look at the dictionary, it explains that poverty is the failure to use the resources around you, the failure to use them in order to develop and improve life, that is what is called poverty.
The last speaker said that our continent Africa has a number of natural recourses, some of which we have not even discovered as yet and some we have not yet started extracting as a continent. If you look at many countries, you find that oil is in abundance. This shows that the issue of poverty in Africa is wrong. If we use our intelligence and exchange notes in Africa, we can actually alleviate poverty. I want to give an example, the last speaker touched on some of the issues that I wanted to speak on. But I will try and explain them. We have our relative Colonel Gaddafi was able to do quite a number of things with the money that was acquired in Libya. Libya is a desert, but through the little that they had, they were able to change that country into an area that was ever green with irrigation, but they do not have good soils like us. This is only possible if people are able to be innovative and to use their knowledge.
Mr. President Sir, I want to say that, as the country of Zimbabwe, we were represented well by the senators who were part of the delegation. It was realised that Zimbabwe has good leadership and also in leading different kinds of works in those areas. I actually look forward that all these good works can actually be deterred if we are unable to pay our dues as we are supposed to. If I listened carefully, we were told that we paid around 40% of subscriptions; so I urge the Government to assist the Parliament of Zimbabwe to pay these subscriptions so that we can stand as full members. As a nation, we can also add our voice in such meeting as the one with a report being presented. For example, the year that Col. Gaddafi was murdered, if we had the right to be members of the club or union, with South Africa, we would have been able to vote against that. I just want to show how important it is for us to be in such fora in Africa. Whenever such things happen, as Zimbabweans, it enables us to also give our voice, so that Africa cannot back track. If
you look at the Security Council, there are countries that really surprise me, probably because of the powers that they have, the United States of America, France and Britain, no matter whatever they want to push for, if China vetoes this, nothing happens. If Russia vetoes this, nothing happens. It is very important that Madam President and her team were able to represent us as a country. We look forward to them further representing the country; also representing us in terms of peace and conflict.
If you look at the Arab countries, they have a lot of conflict in terms of democracy but at the end, nothing comes out; they are in worse problems than they were before. As Zimbabweans, I think that we act as a light to them. I want to quote from the Bible “we are the light of the world” as the light of the world, we should be able to stand with authority and assist Africa so that it does not follow the same route that
Libya and Egypt followed. With these words, I thank you Mr. President.
SENATOR MOHADI: Thank you Mr. President for giving me
this opportunity. First and foremost, I want to thank the mover of this motion Hon. Senator Mathuthu, seconded by Senator Chitaka.
I also want to thank this delegation because you will find that most of our foreign delegations; most of the time when they come back, they do not give a report. This team has showed us the way – [HON SENATORS: Hear, hear] – I also urge senators any senators who will go out of the country, to follow suit; to come and report to this Senate. This is the only way we can impart knowledge, because it is not all of us who will have the chance of going, but all of us in this august Senate need to know what is happening elsewhere. It is a very good example to us all. It is an eye opener as well as a good thing to be exposed to other countries because as you go there, you learn a lot and you impart knowledge to others. Those who will not have got the chance to go will have to get the knowledge from others. It is really a good gesture to me. Lastly, I would want to thank the delegation that went to the
African Parliamentary Union because Africa is one, we are one nation, so we should work together. I thank you Mr. President.
THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR MIDLANDS PROVINCE
(SENATOR MACHAYA): I move that the debate do now adjourn.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Thursday, 17th October, 2013.
On the motion of THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR MIDLANDS PROVINCE (SENATOR MACHAYA), the Senate
adjourned at Seven Minutes past Three o’clock p.m.