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SENATE HANSARD 23 OCTOBER 2019 29-03
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Wednesday, 23rd October, 2019.
The Senate met at Half-past Two O’clock p.m.
PRAYERS
(THE HON. DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF SENATE in the Chair)
MOTION
PRESIDENTIAL SPEECH: DEBATE ON ADDRESS
First Order read: Adjourned debate on motion in reply to the Presidential Speech.
Question again proposed.
++HON. SEN. MALULEKE: Thank you Mr. President for
affording me this opportunity to add my voice to the speech which was delivered by the Hon. President, His Excellency Mnangagwa. I would like to thank the President for what he taught us in general. He has taught us to love and help each other. Right now in my constituency there is no hunger because people are given food. We have seen that our leader really loves his people and he makes sure that his people must not go hungry. On top of that, he gives us inputs so that we prepare for the coming season. We were also given small grains like sorghum and rapoko which do better in our area. Our area is dry and even grazing area is a problem but we have seen that our President Hon. Mnangagwa always remembers us.
In his speech, he also told us about various diseases which affect us and the situation which is in our hospitals which is in a bad state. We are happy that right now we are getting medicines, people in Sengwe were recently given medicines and now all medicines are available. Mr. President we thank you. We also have more schools built in our area which will help school children not to walk long distances. He also talked about education in his speech, encouraging even old people to go back to school. He said that school does not end; it ends by one’s death.
So he wants everyone to progress in school so that we develop our country, Zimbabwe. Mr. President, I thank you very much for giving me this time to talk about what was said by President Mnangagwa.
We have seen that even those who grow cotton in our area have been supported by the President so that they continue to grow cotton and send their children to school because they get money from selling that cotton. If it was not for President Mnangagwa, you were going to hear that all the people have deserted the area to some better places but we are still there because of him. We are all happy with our children because we know we have a leader who always remembers us. There will be no other leader who can be greater than President Mnangagwa. We thank him for what he is doing for us as women. You will see that if you go to hospitals, there are women who are suffering from breast cancer. Long back we used to think that it is an ulcer which is failing to heal but because of awareness programmes, we now know that, no, it is cancer. Nowadays, if it is diagonised early, it is treated because we now have many hospitals and medicine is available in hospitals. We are very grateful.
We want to acknowledge what the Government did at Tokwe Mukorsi Dam. It is one of the biggest dams in Zimbabwe. Everyone knows about this dam, it uplifts the livelihoods of the lowveld people. Things are difficult but as I speak right now, a lot of women in our area are cooperating to do income generating programmes as a result of that dam. At the moment we want to start fisheries, this was provided for by our President, if there was no dam, we were not going to get all those things. We do not receive much rain but now we are getting water from this dam. Mr. President, we want you to covey this message to His Excellency, President Mnangagwa. Thank you.
+HON. SEN. A. DUBE: Thank you Mr. President for giving me
this opportunity to say a few things about the Presidential Speech. Our President spoke greatly about the challenges that we face. He spoke mainly about the illegal money market. He said we are encountering a challenge of people who are selling money illegally, and we commend the President for acknowledging this anomaly because it has brought suffering to our people. If you get into banks, you cannot get money, but when you go to the ecocash outlets you see those agents with money. So he realised that those people should be punished by enacting stringent laws.
He also mentioned about agriculture and indicated that
Government is providing assistance to farmers through inputs provision. He also mentioned that farmers should be trustworthy and make sure that they return their proceeds after harvesting to make sure that other farmers also benefit from the same scheme. Farmers should send their proceeds to Grain Marketing Board.
The President mentioned vulnerable children and stated that there are funds that are being provided for by Government to a tune of $67 million so that these vulnerable people can get inputs. The President also mentioned that as we are faced with the challenge of climate change, including issues of electricity provision. This is encountered mainly because of water shortage at Kariba. Therefore, they are looking into our neighbouring countries to make sure that electricity is provided for in the country. These challenges are not being created by any individual but they are coming as a result of climate changes that we are experiencing. Therefore we realised that our Government is coming up with efforts to make sure that our people are provided for.
The President spoke about a SADC meeting that was held in Dare-Salaam Tanzania where he mentioned that SADC supports all the projects that benefit this region. He indicated that all the members within SADC have resolved to make sure that on the 25th October, 2019 we come together and make sure that sanctions are removed in Zimbabwe. These efforts are commendable.
THE HON. DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF SENATE: Order.
Anything on sanctions, we now reserve it for debating on the motion presented by Senator Mbowa.
+HON. SEN. A. DUBE: Thank you President of the Senate for correcting me. The President also mentioned about quite a number of projects that are being funded by the country. He also spoke about road construction and mentioned that there is a fund that has been allocated to the development of roads. We realised that quite a number of roads are being constructed, especially from where I come from. The road from Bulawayo to Tsholotsho is under construction as we speak. Therefore, what the President is mentioning is really happening on the ground. We thank the President especially realising that since the country got independence in 1980, this road had never been attended to. This is good about our leader. There are quite a number of roads in our country that are being attended to.
He also mentioned a lot about projects that include the Zambezi Water Project. Thank you very much because this is one of the projects that we were looking into to help us as people from Matabeleland. We have quite a number of projects like Bulawayo ARDA and because of water challenges, these projects were not succeeding. Due to the Zambezi Water Project that is under operation, we realise that irrigation projects are going to succeed in Matabeleland North.
The President also mentioned issues to do with children whereby he indicated that children should be taught to respect and know where our country is coming from. For it to be called Zimbabwe, what really happened and how did our independence come into being? He mentioned quite a number of projects where he said a lot needs to be done. He also mentioned about money in our country. Today we are crying because of money challenges. All this is made by people with satanic ideas to create disharmony within our people.
I would want to thank His Excellency for mentioning quite a lot that we are looking forward to be done in our country. Funds are being allocated to projects in our country and it shows that the country is going forward. The President also talked about job creation so that it can consume a number of youths in our country to make sure that they have something to do and avoid being criminals. He mentioned that industries are being opened and we are looking forward to have more opportunities of getting our youths into employment. Without much, I thank you Mr. President.
*HON. SEN. SHUMBA: Thank you Mr. President for giving me the opportunity to support what was said by President Mnangagwa. The first thing I want to thank President Mnangagwa is that he has a loving heart and he forgives. He feels sorry for everyone. We saw it when he came in. The first thing before he gave his speech he gave us an opportunity to respect the late hero, President Mugabe, which is a very good thing. I saw that if we have a heart similar to that of the President, the spirit of forgiving and respect, our country would go forward.
The President, in his speech, talked about a lot of things. I will just pick few things because others have already talked about them. If you look at development, he is making sure that his Government improves roads. We see that roads are being fixed. We always complain about the Beitbridge to Harare Road but if we look closely, we see that our leader is observing and seeing a lot of accidents that are happening and he is fixing those roads. If we go to Beatrice, the road is being fixed and if you go to Chivhu, it is being fixed. I keep praying that the road is always monitored. The Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development, if he could use that road when going to Beitbridge and not always use the aeroplane to see that there are areas that are no longer accessible.
The President knows that the road from Ngundu to Beitbridge is no longer accessible. There are very big potholes. I know the President will push his Ministers that they do their work. The Ministers are doing their job. They do not do the job directly but it is the companies they engage that are delaying. We always had problems from Chibi turn off to Mhandamabwe and now if you drive that road, you can even get involved in an accident because the road has been repaired. I thank our Government that the President saw it. We are seeing the results of what is being done. If we go to Mwenezi, there is a road which goes to
Zvishavane, the road is being fixed nicely and they want to put tar. In Mwenezi, there was no tarred road. Our children saw the tar for the first time because of our good President. We want to thank the President very much.
As a country, we have hunger but the President always says no one will die of hunger because food is there. We will do whatever possible that everyone gets food. Even in my area Masvingo, people are getting food. He also encouraged that because of changes in climate, let us
grow crops that are drought resistant. It was like the President was knowing what is happening in Mwenezi where we are dealing with small grains. This is the encouragement which was given to the people of Zimbabwe that hunger is added by the fact that we always grow maize which wilts fast. Let us grow small grains. We can see that the President has a vision. We need to support the vision of the President that by 2030 our country has no hunger. We need to follow his vision.
The President also touched on issues about health in our hospitals. I can see that our hospitals have enough in terms of equipment and medicine, especially referral hospitals. In our area, we have a very big hospital which needs to be adequately resourced so that our people do not suffer. The problem that we have is that the referral hospitals in Mwenezi do not have medicine but you find that doctors at that hospital have surgeries that have medicines. Can you not see that you are undoing the
President’s work? You see that there are no medicines in hospitals but if you go to surgeries you find these medicines. The doctors will always refer patients to their surgeries.
I want to thank the President very much. He has a very good vision on health. If you look at cancer, it is now a problem. The First Lady is supporting the President with ways of combating the disease and wishes to see that both women and men are screened. The President is doing a good job.
He talked about mines. If you look at our country Zimbabwe, it has mines and a lot of minerals; gold, emerald and all other minerals. We are not supposed to be poor because we have mines. As has been said, there is a motion that has been tabled and will be debated tomorrow. That is when we can talk about sanctions.
In addition, the President talked about corruption. He always says we do not want corruption. There should be no tolerance to corruption because it has destroyed the country. The President referred to the issue of money being sold on the streets and this paves way for corruption. As a nation, we have to unite against sanctions because they destroy our country. With these few words, I would like to support what the President said because if I were to go case by case, we would need the whole day to talk about that. Thank you Mr. President.
*HON. SEN. MUZENDA: I move that the debate do now
adjourn.
HON. SEN. KHUPE: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Thursday, 24th October, 2019.
On the motion of THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR
MASHONALAND CENTRAL PROVINCE (HON. SEN.
MAVHUNGA), the House adjourned at Five Minutes past Three o’clock p.m.