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SENATE HANSARD 27 OCTOBER 2016 26-10
PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE
Thursday, 27th October, 2016
The Senate met at Half-past Two o’clock p.m.
PRAYERS
(THE HON. PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE in the Chair)
MOTION
FOOD SECURITY AND NUTRITION CHALLENGES
First Order read: Adjourned debate on motion on malnutrition among urban and rural communities.
Question again proposed.
SENATOR D.T. KHUMALO: Thank you Madam President for
giving me this opportunity to thank the august House for debating my motion. I may list your names: Hon. Sen. Makore, Hon. Sen. Ndhlovu, Hon. Sen. Goto, Hon. Sen. Timveos, Hon. Sen. Marava, Hon. Sen.
Bhobho, Hon. Sen. Juba, Hon. Sen. Mawire, Hon. Sen. Shiri, Hon. Sen.
Machingaifa and Hon. Sen. Chief Musarurwa. Thank you very much for debating my motion.
I would really like to thank you for the contributions because I would like us as Members of Parliament to recommend for adoption of the motion. We brought the issue of the information. We need information on nutrition to be available to all of us so that we can be able to discuss nutrition issues when we go out and do our job. So, we are requesting that the Ministry make the information available to us so that we are part of the discussions. In our deliberations, we requested that while we are being given inputs for maize and small grains, we also request that other varieties we be given the information on how to supplement the maize and small grains. This is because these grains would still continue giving us the malnutrition among children and also adults who do not know how to eat. So we are really thankful for being given the opportunity to discuss this motion. We are therefore recommending that the Ministry should come and inform us at the beginning of the Session on what nutrition is. I know two of my friends who have become diabetic and they have a problem of high blood pressure, it is because people do not know what to eat and what not to eat. So, the Nutrition department should come and give us information so that we know the best foods to take and avoid some of these preventable diseases.
Madam President, the Nutrition department or the President’s
Office is working on a programme on nutrition which is called the Sun Movement Programme. It talks about the issues of 1000 days, we need to know about these 1 000 days so that as Members of Parliament we can go and talk about them. Madam President, I believe this motion was a very good motion. I move that the motion be adopted:
That this House:
NOTING that the first cluster in ZIM ASSET is food security and nutrition and addresses challenges of food insecurity and under nourishment;
CONCERNED that despite Government efforts to prioritise its programmes and projects to address the country’s economic challenges, malnutrition is taking its toll among the urban and rural communities.
FURTHER CONCERNED that children of school going age are
the most vulnerable as they easily fall victim to starvation thereby impacting negatively on their ability to effectively comprehend their lessons, a situation which creates nightmares for teachers;
COGNISANT that poor nutrition affects health of individuals and communities and retards economic growth and health standards;
ALARMED by lack of awareness on basic nutrition, even among leaders who do not appreciate the consequences of undernourishment in economic development;
NOW, THEREFORE, resolves that Government provides adequate information to community leaders including Members of Parliament on how to reduce incidents of malnutrition among children and adults in the country.
Motion put and adopted.
HON. SEN. MARAVA: Madam President, now that the
Ministers are here, can you not be kind enough and let the House revert to Oral Answers to Questions Without Notice.
HON. SEN. CHIPANGA: I second.
THE HON. PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE: Hon. Sen.
Marava, we had a Minister in here, no one showed an interest in posing any question. So, I do not see any reason why we should go back only to come back to Order No. 2 again. Anyway, it is always good to be fair and the wishes of the Senators are my command, so we will adjourn this and go back to Oral Answers to Questions Without Notice – [HON. SENATORS: Hear, hear] – Thank you Ministers for obliging.
ORAL ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
HON. SEN. MARAVA: Madam President, my question is
directed to the Minister of Sport and Recreation, Hon. Hlongwane.
Zimbabwe is experiencing a lot of talent as regards to sport, especially in rural areas, there are a lot of talents out there. Do you have any programmes that are tangible and visible on the ground to tape this talent in rural Zimbabwe? Thank you.
THE MINISTER OF SPORT AND RECREATION (HON.
HLONGWANE): Thank you Madam President and many thanks to Hon. Sen. Marava for this very important question. Madam President,
Cabinet did pass the National Sports and Recreation Policy in August. Provided for in that policy is decentralisation, devolution and changing of a narrative of how sport and recreation are structured in our country. The consisting reality right now is that pre-independence sport and recreation structures have not been boldly challenged to migrate away from that set up to a more democratic dispensation that is inclusive of the huge constituents of talents that resides within our communal areas.
As a result of the passing of the National Sports and Recreation Policy and as part of the implementation process of that policy, we have developed in the month of September what we call the sport and recreation club system; that is to standardise the organisation of sport and recreation across the country. The process is currently going on throughout the country in all the districts and the process is to introduce organised sport the micro level of Government planning, which is the ward.
To decompose that further, what it means is that we have identified 20 out the 60 sport codes. We have identified 21 priority sport codes that we said, if we could introduce these throughout the country in an organised fashion and change the status quo where only organised sport is only present at the national level or at elite level and devolve it to the community structures. We will go a long way in unlocking the talent that resides within our communities.
As we speak right now, there is a process that is underway of implementing the community sport and recreation club system for cricket, football, rugby, hockey, tennis and so forth. The community club system means that working with community leaders in each ward, you are going to be seeing sports structures being put in place for various sports codes, the 21 that I have alluded to. That means they have a Constitution that is in place, they are organised by way of an election but most crucially, they are then registered by their National Association so that they get a licence to be recognized as a club that is a legal entity that has legal life and is allowed to function within our country as blessed by the National Federation. What that is going to do is that not only is it going to unleash the talent that resides in our communities which your utmost concern onto the national stage, regional stage as well as global stage.
We have also provided for a mechanism to career that talent from the community structures all the way to the National Youth Games. This is done introducing a competition structure that does not leak the best talent that we have at each tier from the best of the pyramid to the district, Province and all the way to the national level. Also, what it is going to do it is going to stimulate an economy of grassroots sport. For example, in respect of football those elite clubs the 16 that we have that are in the Premier League can no longer go to the rural areas and pick an individual and say you have been awarded a contract and therefore, you should come and play. They have to purchase that player follow the rules that are laid out by ZIFA, FIFA and so on and provide money to that club. So, whether we are talking about the vertical transaction or we are talking of the horizontal transaction in other words inter community club transactions, it will involve money. Beyond that, the umpires the referees and all the technical officials are going to be trained by their National Federations. That immediately begins to stimulate a large employment base for grassroots sport.
So, I want to assure the Hon. Senator in the House that we are doing something about that and certainly once the programme has been concluded, sometime we hope before the end of this year, we should be able to have a vibrant sport structure at the base of the pyramid in community structures to enable that talent o be funneled through so that it is able to participate in elite sport. I thank you. –[HON. SENATORS:
Hear, hear.]-
HON. SEN. SHIRI: Thank you Madam President. Hon. Minister
may you shed more light on how inclusive the policy is in regard to persons with disabilities?
HON. HLONGWANE: Thank you Madam President and thank
you Hon. Member. The policy is very inclusive, in fact and it has a whole section that speaks to equity and inclusion. Under the aspect of equity and inclusion we speak a lot in elaborate terms. We speak to disability sport or paralympic sport as it is known.
How to mainstream paralympic sport into mainstream of sport and recreation structures within our country, that is clearly provided for. Also we speak - whilst we are there, around paralympic sport-we talk of issues to do with access, our infrastructures enabling disabled athletes to be able to participate in our sport and recreation activities. That is being addressed in the policy with an anticipatory view of saying, going forward, all infrastructures that are being built by the Government and local authorities and mines and so forth, should address the whole question of how to enable disabled athletes to access the infrastructures.
Apart from that, in that same thematic area of equity and inclusion we also speak about the involvement of women or the integration of women into mainstream sport and recreation structures. What is very clear right now which is contemporary is that our country seems to be doing very well on the back of the participation of women, to the extent almost, of redefining the contours of sports and recreation in our country around the issue of women participating as a comparative advantage area.
I am talking here about Kirsty Coventry who is a multiple medalist at the Olympics. I am talking here about the fact that for netball we are the current Africa gold medalist. I am also talking here about the famed Mighty Warriors who have done well to participate at the
Olympics which is at the highest level of participation by any athlete. Beyond that we have also qualified to the African finals for women football which they participating next month in Cameroon. I am talking here about the National Hockey team which has qualified to the World
Cup in Chile in the middle of next month.
I can go on the list, so women are doing very well and that is almost defining itself as an area of comparative advantage.
So, I want you to know that it is Government focus and policy that clearly we need to promote equity and inclusion to the extent it speaks to women involvement and participation as well as paralympic sport. I thank you. –[HON. SENATORS: Hear, hear.]-
HON. SEN. MASHAVAKURE: Madam President, my issue has
been taken by others.
HON. SEN. CHIPANGA: Thank you Madam President. My
question is directed to the Deputy Minister of Industry and Commerce. Quite a number of months ago, there was a lot of talk about Statutory Instrument no. 64 I think it was. How successful has that been up to date? We would also want to know how the local industry has responded after the temporary ban of the items which we think are readily available in this country. Also, how have our trading partners responded to our temporary measures to ensure that our industry takes off?
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE (HON. MABUWA): Thank you Madam President. I
would like to thank the Hon. Sen. for the question regarding the impact of Statutory Instrument no. 64 since it was deployed, the impact to industry and trade. Firstly, I will touch on the impact to industry. As far as our monitoring is concerned we have on record some industries that have been able to increase the capacity utilisation as a result of the control measures that saw the introduction not only of Statutory Instrument no 64, but also of other Statutory Instruments that have come in support of these control measures of imports.
So, there is capacity utilisation increase in specific industries and also, we have seen with interest that there has been keen interest by investors to move to want to come into the country and establish the industries that have been importing into Zimbabwe. This has been of course influenced by the control measures of imports and it has also been influenced by and large by the agreements that we get into, specifically sitting the Tripartite Free Trade Area Agreement that we have gotten into as three parties: SADC, COMESA and the EAC. That alone-the Tripartite Free Trade Area is exposing our companies in all the participating member states to a US$640 million there about market, as compared to a smaller market like that of ours which is around US$14 million if you want in Zimbabwe here. Having a company established here in Zimbabwe would naturally make that Zimbabwean company benefit from the market share for Zimbabwe in the tripartite agreement as it were.
So, companies are taking heed and establishing themselves. I might want to cite three companies that are coming in now. We have a company as a result that has moved into establishing itself in Mutare. When we introduced control measures in the importation of cooking oil, for example, there was cooking oil which was very common here in Zimbabwe called Delite. You see that it is not in the shelves now because it is manufactured from South Africa, but we are going to be seeing a US$45 million plant being completed. It is in its advanced stages now in Mutare and it will be manufactured and seeing its way into the shelves here in Zimbabwe. That is what it is about - capacity utilisation and space occupation. PEPSI Cola is also coming in and another company from Zambia and I am talking of investments of more than $35 million each. Investments coming in from Zambia, for the company that makes soap powder and paste soaps as well as bathing soap.
Let me hasten to say that there are some challenges coming with that. While we are seeing increased capacity utilisation, on the negative side of it, we see that there are constraints in the industry, especially in accessing funds to be able to recapitalise. We have not yet been able to establish or to have our industries being able to access reasonable money that is not deterrently expensive for them to be able to recapitalise. Therefore, the recapitalisation rate is quite slow. That is it on the challenges we are currently facing as a result of the control measures.
Overally, the positives are more than the challenges that we are facing.
Regarding the issues of trade, we find that most businesses, especially the small-scale traders, had their operations somehow affected depending on the products that they were bringing in. We have been able to engage and we are continuing to engage them in making sure that we inform them of alternatives. The alternatives being basically, getting to those items that Zimbabwe is not yet able to produce so that they just shift their trading lines to trade on those lines that we are not yet able to produce. Secondly, which is more sustainable, is to influence them into wanting to get more into production than into trading.
HON. SEN. MAKORE: I am directing my question to the Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development, Dr. Gumbo, we have heard of a very necessary development of the Chirundu-Beitbridge road. Could you be in a position to inform this House how far you have gone with the relevant preparations for the particular road?
THE MINISTER OF TRANSPORT AND
INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT (HON. DR. GUMBO):
Firstly, let me thank you Madam President and the Hon. Senators and say that we enjoy coming to this House because there is sanity. The members here, unless you know them, you cannot tell from which political party they belong. That shows a lot of political maturity and focus on the work that we are doing as Members of Parliament.
I will try to give you the information that I did not want to give out at this particular time, but because of the respect that I give to the House, I hope the members will keep the information to themselves –
[Laughter] – It is not a secret that the Beitbridge-Harare-Chirundu road is on the cards. We are now at a very advanced stage. There are processes to be followed in Government before any project can be brought into operation.
We hope to sign the contractual agreement before the end of November and the construction should earnestly begin at the beginning of the year on this road. Everything is in place for now. The financier and the contractor are ready and what is remaining for now, is processes on our side as Government. I have to bring the documents to Parliament for approval because part of the funding for this road is a loan. As representatives of the people of Zimbabwe, must look at the loan, its conditions and so forth before we start the construction. That is how we are doing it.
If all goes according to plan, the whole stretch of the road from Beitbridge to Chirundu should be completed in two and a half years, because it is segmented into eight segments. There are five segments from Beitbridge to Harare and three segments from Harare to Chirundu. There is a ring road that we usually call Harare Drive, which is a ring road and will be connecting arteries to other provinces like Mashonaland Central, Mashonaland East up to Nyamapanda and Manicaland, as well as Chirundu itself.
What is of interest to Members of Parliament is that we are also negotiating, which we have done successfully, for the 40 percent work on this road to be allocated to locals so that they can benefit from the construction of this road. That is the little I can say, it is now public information, it is no longer a secret. I thank you.
HON. SEN. KHUMALO: Thank you Madam President. I am also going to the Minister of Transport. Why are we not having some flyovers when we are constructing our roads because they reduce congestion? For example, the Beitbridge road, where you are saying it should go through the ring road, why can it not be part of flyovers and not the walkovers that we see? Why are we not having flyovers in Harare, Bulawayo and other places in big cities?
THE MINISTER OF TRANSPORT AND
INFRASTRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT (HON. DR. GUMBO):
Whenever it is necessary for us to have a flyover, our engineers can plan to have a flyover like the one we see when going to Mufakose. What we are talking about goes with development. As we look into the future, our engineers are looking at coming up with what we see when we go to Johannesburg or Cape Town. We are quite aware of what you are talking about honourable.
As for now, our first flyover in Harare will be on the Harare International Airport road. When you travel from the Airport and you come down after the roundabout at the Post Office which is in Braeside or thereabout; you proceed coming to Morgan High School; when you get there where we ended, from that point there, we are going to lift the road across town into the intersection of Robert Mugabe and Enterprise Road. So that is the first one you are going to see in town. At this moment, we are already working on the feasibility study to see how much it is going to cost us so that we come up with that flyover.
I take the point and I think as we develop as a country, there is need to be looking at coming up with these flyovers you are referring to.
It is really a good point and we take note of it. Thank you.
HON. SEN. CARTER: Thank you Madam President. My
question is for the Deputy Minister of Lands. I was there at the CFU congress this morning when you answered a question about security of tenure. You talked about, maybe not ‘99’ Year Leases but you said there was a progress being made. Could you please tell this House how far you have gone with regards to the banks in terms of negotiations and communications with them? Are the ‘99’ years leases transferable and bankable or the shorter version that you were talking about.
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF LANDS AND RURAL
RESETLEMENT (HON. CHIKWAMA): Thank you Hon. Senator
Carter. On the issue of security tenure, especially long term tenure like
‘99’ year lease; we had discussions with the Bankers Association as well as World Bank. We came up with some agreements that the leases should be used as collateral documents. There are some items which need some alterations. The Ministry has now adjusted all the issues which were highlighted by the Bankers Association and the World Bank.
We are now ready to take that document to the Cabinet and Parliament.
I thank you.
HON. SEN. A. SIBANDA: Thank you Madam President. My
question is directed to the Hon. Minister of Mines. What is the Government policy on mining for whoever wants to venture into mining? When I want to venture into mining, do I have to go through the ruling party or ZANU PF? I am saying so because the Hon. Vice
President said so or perhaps the media misquoted him.
THE HON. PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE: Hon. Senator, you
cannot pose a question based on what another person from the Executive said. I wish you could just pose your questions without giving that as a reason. Otherwise you will have to just pose the question to the Vice
President. So, may you ask your question without adding any quotation.
HON. SEN. A. SIBANDA: Thank you Madam President. I withdraw my question.
THE HON. PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE: I do not think that
is what I have asked. You can pose your question without referring to what was said by the Hon. Vice President because he is a member of the Executive as well as the Ministers.
HON. SEN. A. SIBANDA: Hon. Minster, I would like you to tell us more about how to venture into mining. I am one of the members of the six women who want to venture into mining. Do you encourage women to go into mining and do you also assist them?
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF MINES AND MINING
DEVELOPMENT (HON. F. MOYO): Thank you Madam President. I
also want to thank you Hon. Senator for the question. Yes, we encourage all citizens to go into mining. We do that through giving them information, resources in the form of training as well as in the form of equipment and support for them to find financial resources from banks.
The Ministry of Mines and Mining Development itself loans out equipment to members who want to go into small scale mining. All these services are provided through our provincial offices. Previously, we did not have representation of the Ministry in provinces but we now have offices in all the eight provinces. The offices are headed by a civil servant who is at the same level as all other Ministries so that when provinces are meeting, there is a head of mining who is equal to the head of Lands, head of Agriculture and Health. So, we are fully represented at provincial level. We are making efforts to decentralise so that we are at district level to ensure that our mining support teams can operate in the same way that extension officers in agriculture are operating.
However, we need to note that the mining industry sector is structured in three ways; the big mines which are multinational companies. Those tend to be reserved by themselves by virtue of the capacity to participate by the big companies. We have the medium size operations where we encourage the entry by Zimbabweans who are already into business, who have got assets for collateral in their participation at that level of mining. We then have the lower rung where the smaller operators are going to participate. We encourage syndicates, which is a group of a minimum of six people and we also encourage cooperatives at that level. Special interest groups are also encouraged at that level, youth, women and disabled people can enter at that point.
We operate together with the Ministry of SME’s to coordinate ourselves so that SME’s with the support of the Mining Ministry can nurture the small miners and grow them to a level where they can then be fully handed over to the Ministry of Mines and Mining Development to operate without benefiting from the funds that Government extends to
SME’s.
At the moment, we do have firm participation from their male counterparts in as far as the groups of syndicates are concerned. The drawback is their ability to access capital funding. They also have challenges in accessing claims because there are certain minerals that small operators cannot participate in. We would not expect more operators to go into platinum, coal and chrome smelting. We expect them to go into gemstones outside diamonds. We expect them to participate in gold and smaller minerals like tantalite because we can have a harvest of one cup and it will give you $200.00.
Those are the sort of minerals where we expect you to participate. If there is interest from Hon. Senators, we try and run an open door policy. I can assure you that my office has got more people than a doctor’s surgery, but I want to pay as much attention to our smaller members of society from a business point of view to come in and inquire through the regions, provinces or directly at our offices. You are welcome. Women are certainly the most productive at the moment. I thank you Madam President.
HON. SEN. CHIPANGA: Thank you Madam President. My
question is directed to the Minister of Industry and Commerce. We are happy to hear that Delight South Africa is coming, Pepsi Cola and some soap making company. The question is, what impact would that have on our local industry? Will it not shut out our traditional soap makers and oil making companies given that the local companies which had virtually gone down are unable to access funds for recapitalisation. I thank you.
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF INDUSTRY AND
COMMERCE (HON. MABUWA): Thank you Madam President. I
continue to thank the Hon. Senator for the question which is somehow related to the first one. The interest is about unpacking the relationship of the big companies that are coming in and the fear that they might crowd out the small companies. When we look at business, we are looking at stimulating industries in Zimbabwe. The strategies are several but the goal is one - to have the wheels of industry turn in Zimbabwe, by who and which ones is then industry or it is sector specific.
There are some sectors that have been affected by the period when our industries were down. Some factories were also affected by antiquated machineries. You will find that some of our factories that we bemoan today that were closed, you visit them and you find that they have got very old machinery which had stretched and over lived its working life. Also the issues of obsolescence come into account. The machines that were used when industries were established in Zimbabwe, some of them have been overtaken by time. It depends on the type of industry and the willingness of the owners of those industries to recapitalise and move with the times.
The machines that were sewing garments yesterday are not the machines that are sewing garments today. The machines that were cutting garments yesterday are not the machines that are cutting garments today, just to give a specific sector. So, it really depends Madam President on what industries. It can take specific industries. If I can have written questions following up on a particular industry, I can be able to answer to that. So, resuscitation of industry does not look at reopening the doors of old industries. Some of them are no longer resuscitable. We have got to look at injection of new machinery, industries and new players which include joint ventures and are in conformity with our own indigenisation law, and that sector the one that affect our industry.
The indigenisation law was now specified into three clusters and ours is the middle one where we say that when an investor comes to invest in the industry, it does not mean that we will take a dollar of that person’s investment. We go into joint ventures and it is working very well. Perhaps I could be favoured with written questions to specify the sector that the Hon. Senators might want me to zero in on, and I come in and say in this sector this is what is happening. Otherwise, we are using the value chain approach and we are also attracting everybody concerned in that value across new industries and old industries that are rescucitable. Thank you.
THE HON. PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE: I am sure that the
Hon. Senator is advised to put written questions for oral answer. *HON. SEN. SHIRI: Thank you Madam President. My question is directed to the Deputy Minister of Lands and Rural Resettlement, Hon. Chikwama. We want you to furnish this House on the progress of removing illegal settlers in the farms. Thank you.
*THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF LANDS AND RURAL
RESETTLEMENT (HON. CHIKWAMA): Thank you Madam
President. At the moment, it is still in the infancy because when we started it, we had not consulted the local leadership and the provinces. We have now engaged the Lands Committee and the local leadership to verify and find out how these people can be settled there. So, we have visited all the provinces except Mashonaland East and Mashonaland Central, but we will get there soon. They were busy with some other issues which made it difficult for us to engage them. As we are talking, the Inter-Ministerial Committee which is being chaired by the Permanent Secretary and the Task Force which is head by Mr. Matanga started the process of removing the illegal settlers. As a Ministry, we are thankful because when it was publicised, many people who had settled illegally vacated the land but others are complaining that when they were given the land or whether they bought it from other people, they developed the land more than the initial settlers. So, they come across such issues.
When we embarked on the Land Reform Programme, we wanted to ease congestion in our rural areas through the introduction of A1 farms so that the A2 farmers would engage in commercial farming. However, you see that the A1 have surpassed congestion in rural areas because some of them have settled in grazing areas. People cannot now engage in cattle farming and we are seized with the matter so that we reach an agreement. Thank you.
*HON. SEN. MOEKETSI: Thank you Madam President. My
question is directed to the Minister of Mines and Mining Development and is in connection with Elvington Gold Mine. The employees of
Elvington Gold Mine did not receive their salaries from 2014 to 2015. We have realised that none of their children have been going to school since 2014 because their parents are not employed. They were not informed whether the company has been shut down and would be recalled. As I speak, employees are being recalled one-by-one and there is smelting of gold. Would you by any chance have an idea of the ongoing situation?
*THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF MINES AND MINING
DEVELOPMENT (HON. F. MOYO): Thank you Madam President. I
would be very grateful if the Hon. Senator would make it a written question so that I will go and make investigations and give a report. At the moment, let me inform the august Senate that Elvington Gold Mine had a problem of mismanagement by the administration of that mine. One of the pillars which support the shaft was broken and there was a curve-in. As a result, it is now a problem for us to re-open that curvedin part of the shaft. It is dangerous for us to re-open it.
The alternative we have is to open a new entrance somewhere but it is too expensive. We are now faced with a dilemma. There is too much gold underground but the mining process is expensive. We have also advised them that they should go to the mine dumps and try and seek for gold because monies gathered from the mine dumps may be able to pay the debts owed to the workers. Unfortunately, when this programme was implemented, Elvington Mine went into a contract with a South African company but the deal went sour and there was no progress. So, we are urging Elvington Mine to go it alone.
The other problem faced by the workers was that the workers were asked to continue paying rentals in the houses they were living. However, we advised management that this could not be implemented because the workers are not earning anything. The Hon. Member has raised the issue of school fees, I was not aware of it. Now that it has been raised, we need to look at it.
On the other hand, as the leadership of ZMDC, we had no mine which was profitable because we have consolidated all diamond mines. In Zvishavane, we have Sabi Mine and it is not working. The Mberengwa Mine is also not working, Elvington Gold Mine curved in and the only mine we are relying on is Jena Gold Mine. Like I am saying, it is also in the intensive care. That is why we are now in the process of recruiting new management for Elvington Gold Mine. We believe this could be the solution to the mining programme. Government is also seeking for finance to boost the operations of this mine so that they do not operate without any cash at hand.
HON. SEN. MUSAKA: Thank you Madam President. My
question is directed to the Minister of Sport and Recreation. Ngezi Platinum Stars is brilliant stuff but it is old wine in a new bottle; not new wine in a new bottle. Development of sports, like in music, I do not see any auditioning being done there. Most of the players do not do well in old clubs. There is no development of sports locally, in the primary schools, at the ward level. It should really be authentic or original. So, I wonder what the policy is Minister. I travel a lot and attend most of the marches but what concerns me is auditioning, if you take the word from music. Not much is being done. I thank you.
THE MINISTER OF SPORT AND RECREATION (HON.
HLONGWANE): Thank you Madam President. I will perhaps speak
to the elements of the question that I did not address to earlier and not take much time on the issues that I have already spoken to. The first aspect in your question is to do with auditioning; in other words development of talent. You give a specific example of the club, Ngezi Platinum and I assume that you are talking about the environs. In the area of Mhondoro – Ngezi, there is no injection or flow of talent from the communities into this club that has become elite. That is being addressed through our community sport and recreation club system that we have installed throughout the country at the ward level. It is a structured sport.
To give you an example, football is going to create 8000 organised clubs across the country, which are affiliated to ZIFA and are recognised by FIFA. FIFA have agreed to come on board to support that development programme that we have put in place as a Ministry and all those clubs are going to be licenced by ZIFA so that they are legitimate clubs and are in terms of the Constitution, in terms of how they are run and are up to date in terms of the new laws that keep on coming from
FIFA. So, that is going to affect the Ngezi community as well because it is at ward level. Once this has been done, it is my expectation therefore that the talent that comes out of the communities inadvertently will find its way into Ngezi Platinum as it will find its way into Harare and all the other clubs around the country.
School sport is an important strategy for sport and recreation development in the country. It is one of the four pillars of that process. I must make the announcement here that starting January, the new curriculum for primary and secondary education is being implemented. In that curriculum, is the mainstreaming of sport, physical education and mass displays which are all about the same thing except that physical education is more biomedical, biomechanics, et cetera which then leads to sport, therefore integrating that together with mass displays. These disciplines of sport, physical education and mass displays starting
January are going to be taught as examinable subjects from ECD up to
‘A’ level as compulsory subjects. They are going to compete alongside mathematics, geography, science and all other subjects. The reason obviously is that our education curriculum has been secluding a huge constituents of talent of our youth who are very capable in terms of sport and recreation yet they are not as gifted in terms of cognitive application within the academic curriculum in the classroom. So, that matter is being addressed at that level through the implementation of the new curriculum starting January going forward. I hope I have answered his question.
ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE HON. PRESIDENT OF THE
SENATE
PRE-BUDGET SEMINAR LOGISTICS
THE HON. PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE: I would like to
remind all Hon. Senators to check their pigeon holes for travel and accommodation information for the Pre-Budget Seminar.
MOTION
FIRST REPORT OF THE THEMATIC COMMITTEE ON
GENDER AND DEVELOPMENT ON THE STATUS OF
CHILDREN’S HOMES
Second Order read: Adjourned debate on motion on the First Report of the Thematic Committee on Gender and Development on the
Status of Children’s Homes.
Question again proposed.
*HON. SEN. MAVHUNGA: Thank you Madam President for
giving me this opportunity to make my contribution on the situation in orphanages especially the ones visited by this Committee. We visited eight orphanages and some of these orphanage homes are run by churches whilst others are owned by the State. Others are owned by non-governmental organisations. We also realise that there were other orphanages which were under the neighbourhood who are taking care of orphans in the area.
Madam President, we observed that the state of affairs in these orphanages depended on the support they were given. We noticed that in some homes which were properly run, they do so along the family units where there is the figurehead father, the mother and the siblings; just a typical family style. The problem which we felt about the system was that since the manager will be the figurehead father, we thought children would get a feeling that it was a polygamous situation.
Let me now turn to Chirinda in Chipinge where the situation was so bad that the dormitories were in a bad state. We observed that the children who were put into those homes were introduced by the Department of Social Welfare and some of them were orphans whose parents had died during birth and some of them were picked up from the streets. It shows that the Department of Social Welfare was quite aware of the background of each individual child. Since the Department of Social Welfare was responsible for placing these orphans, they should also be responsible for the issuance of their birth certificates.
We also gathered information that in some of these orphanages, they could not tell the background of that child, hence the issuance of a birth certificate would be a problem. We are saying in the areas in which we live, in our communities, let us empower our traditional leaders so that whosoever has a problem in that area, he or she will be assisted by the traditional leader. In such a manner, there would be less cases of dumping infants because the girl child will know that if they are impregnated and the men denies paternity, they would seek for assistance from the traditional leader who would have means and ways of supporting that girl child so that they do not dump the baby at birth.
We know as Africans especially in Zimbabwe, we believe in communal ownership, hence when we have these problems and we treat them as communal problems, children will not be dumped because they belong to the community. When Government brings these children into homes, Government promises to support by giving US$15 per child per month. Unfortunately, Treasury is not in a position to fulfill this monetary obligation. This is why there are problems. Our request is that Government should give land to these orphanages and engage them in command agriculture so that they can grow their own food and be self sustained.
We are appealing to the Department of Social Welfare to honour their monetary obligations. We know the amount is not much, US$15 per month per child is not enough but put together for all these children, they may benefit something. We also say Government should support those community owned orphanages. We realised some other problem in these homes and the problems is that the child is taken into a home from infancy up to 18 years when they attain the legal age of majority. When they attain 18, they are discharged they are fired from these homes and yet they have not yet acquired the life saving skills, the profession for self sustenance.
As a result, we are appealing to the Government that when they are giving the Presidential scholarships the orphanages must also be given a quarter, so that these children who attain 18 can be assisted. We know that they are future leaders, inventors and industrialists. We do not have to stifle their potential because of lack of funding. I am also calling upon members of the neighborhood and members of this august House to visit these orphanages in their neighborhood and give support. I thank you.
THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF MEDIA, INFORMATION AND BROADCASTING SERVICES (HON. SEN. MATHUTHU):
Mr. President, I move that the debate do now adjourn.
HON. SEN. MASHAVAKURE: On a point of order. I wanted to
speak.
THE HON. DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE:
Tomorrow.
HON. SEN. MASHAVAKURE: No problem. [Laughter]
HON. SEN. MAKORE: On a point of order. Normally, the mover
is supposed to adjourn the House. This is just information to the President. I thank you very much. Normally the person who moves the motion must also adjourn the House.
THE HON. DEPUTY PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE: You
are correct, we had missed.
HON. SEN. MAKORE: I move that the debate do now adjourn.
HON. SEN SHIRI: I second.
Motion put and agreed to.
Debate to resume: Tuesday, 15th November, 2016.
On the motion of THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF MEDIA,
INFORMATION AND BROADCASTING SERVICES (HON. SEN.
MATHUTHU), the Senate adjourned at Six Minutes to Four O’clock
p.m. until Tuesday, 15th November, 2016.