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NATIONAL ASSEMBLY HANSARD 19 JUNE 2013 VOL. 39 NO. 26

PARLIAMENT OF ZIMBABWE

Wednesday, 19th June, 2013

The House of Assembly met at a Quarter-past Two O’clock p.m.

PRAYERS

(THE ACTING SPEAKER in the Chair)

ANNOUNCEMENT BY THE ACTING SPEAKER

SUSPENSION OF STANDING ORDER NO. 104 (1)

     THE ACTING SPEAKER:  I have to inform the House that

pursuant to the provision of Standing Order No. 104 (1), I have received an urgent application by the Minister of Finance requesting for a waiver of the requirement that all Bills must not be introduced in either House of Parliament before the expiration of 14 days from the day of gazzeting.  In support of the application, the minister highlights that Zimbabwe is obliged to immediately and urgently pass a law addressing issues of money laundering, failure of which its trading partners will instruct their financial institutions to restrict dealings with our financial institutions.

Such a move will have ruinous effects on our economy.  In this regard and noting the urgency of the matter, the Minister of Finance seeks a resolution of the House to waive Standing Order No. 104 (1).

ORAL ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

  1. MAHLANGU:  My question is directed to the Minister of Energy and Power Development Mr. Elton Mangoma.  How far has your ministry gone with the installation of prepaid meters?

THE MINISTER OF ENERGY AND POWER

DEVELOPMENT (MR. MANGOMA):  I would like to thank the

member for his question on prepaid meters.  What we have done is that we have concentrated more on the high density areas.  As of last week, we had installed 206 000 meters.  We still have to install less than 50% on the prepaid meters.  We have got a programme where we are installing about 20 000 meters a week.  We are still hoping that we would have finished the installation of the prepaid meters by August.

I would also like to inform the House that in the low density areas, we are advocating the installation of smart meters which will have the prepaid function as well but we also want to be able to ration the power that goes into the low density areas.  This will ensure that the system of rationing of electricity will avoid having to load shed anyone.  It is a process we believe in and already, the kind of meters and suppliers are being looked at so that we will be able to use the electricity that we have and everybody will be able to have some electricity all the time without load shedding.

  1. MAHLANGU: There has been an outcry on these prepaid meters. Your ministry has been installing these prepaid meters in hospitals and clinics.  This has affected the quality of health service delivery system because if they do not have money to buy power, it means that they can go for some days attending to patients especially maternity wards, without electricity.  What is Government policy towards that?

 

  1. MANGOMA: Thank you Mr. Speaker. I think the issue of prepaid meters must be fully understood as a way of making sure that electricity that is used is paid for.  ZESA does not get a subsidy from Government and therefore ZESA is not in a position to subsidise anyone else.  Therefore, the position is that every consumer must have a prepaid meter.  It does not matter whether that consumer is a hospital, clinic, police station, water source or anything.  They must have a prepaid meter.  What must now be the issue is to prioritise the payment.  If electricity is important, then money for electricity must be found.

This is where the change of culture is going to be important.  If electricity is used and nobody pays for it, then we will not all have electricity in the end.  It is therefore important that for the little money that we get, we prioritise the paying of electricity.  So you will find those people who say they do not have money to buy tokens for electricity and yet they juice their phones everyday.  Therefore it is a question of priority as to where it should be and I can assure you, there are allocations that are going into all these hospitals, clinics and all these sectors.  It is just because electricity is not being taken seriously that people do not prioritise the payment of electricity.

By having put in prepaid meters, what we are saying is, use it when you can.  If you do not have the money, at least you will not use it.  I can still assure you that at the price of electricity, you will always find that the cost that you have to bear on electricity is much less than if the electricity was not there.  The alternative means are much more expensive.  I would urge people not to look at it from an emotional point, but look at it from a practical point and say that everyone needs to pay electricity to be available.

  1. DZIRUTWE: My question is directed to the Minister of Energy. Circumstances have arisen during our economic hardships where ZESA is unable to get new customers connected.  They have been asked to provide funding for the poles or the cables so that they get connected.  What is Government policy on the issue in view of the fact that some people are asked to bring these things upfront and they do not get reimbursed, yet the infrastructure becomes ZESA property?

         THE MINISTER OF ENERGY AND POWER

DEVELOPMENT (MR. MANGOMA):  Thank you Mr. Speaker.  I would like to thank the honourable member for the question.  I think what we must all realise is that ZESA was equally affected by the economic problems that befell this country.  Indeed, it has been through the efforts of many individuals that ZESA continues to provide the electricity that we see.

ZESA has not been receiving any subsidies from anyone.

Therefore, just the cost of maintaining the generating equipment has been very high. Mr. Speaker, just to be able to produce the electricity that we are producing now and to be able to have achieved that without any assistance from anyone is important to know.  Therefore, when you are having difficulties in maintaining your base to expand that resource by making sure that you are connecting new customers, it becomes a problem.  So there are places where it has been possible for ZESA to actually carry out expansions.

We also have had facilities from the Rural Electrification Agency where a number of rural grids have been extended on the back of the funding that goes to the Rural Electrification Agency.  Also, it must be pointed out that that money is collected from the consumers who are paying and it is simply being own-land for use by the Rural Electrification Agency.

So, when there is a customer who wants electricity to then urgently, one of the things that we have agreed is that they can provide the materials and then ZESA will be able to extend that facility.  What ZESA does not have is the money, but where it then becomes a problem, for example, I got a story that has not yet been substantiated. Mr. Speaker, where they say bring us poles, bring us this, you can actually provide them with that equipment and the other materials but I have heard someone claiming that ZESA said bring us the money and not the materials.  I think that is not Government policy.  If the issues that are required are specifically mentioned to you and you can provide them, that is the policy extension that we have allowed them to do.  Certainly when the economy is performing much better and ZESA itself is doing fantastically well, then it will be possible for all these things to be done through ZESA.

Instead of actually blaming ZESA, we should be able to look and say what has caused the economic downturn in the first place.  That has caused all these problems that we are trying to recover from.  I think that, as well as people asking for some electricity where ZESA itself is not yet ready to expand into that area, they should be able to assist.

  1. DZIRUTWE:  Mr. Speaker Sir, my question is where people

have supplied the material.  Is it possible to reimburse them in the form of electricity, say if they have availed poles worth about US$280, is it possible for them to be reimbursed worth of electricity so that then it becomes a fair deal.  Thank you.

  1. MANGOMA:  I think one has got to go through and actually look at the actual circumstances.  From my own experience, if I want an expansion somewhere else, it has always been ZESA policy that you pay for the transformer, you pay for that.  The item continues to remain a ZESA property and there is no reimbursement for that.  It has only been in the housing complexes and mostly in the high density areas where the extension by ZESA has been done by ZESA itself and they provide all the things that have been required.  You also know that as I said during the bad times, even when your transformer was burnt, consumers were forced to have either no electricity or they were to contribute to buy a transformer so that they get electricity and not because ZESA will then reimburse it.

I think where ZESA has got a programme to be able to expand particularly in high density areas, they will continue on that path but if anyone wants to be able to get electricity outside of what the expansion programme is in those areas, they must be prepared to pay.  Otherwise, that is how you get to jump the queue.  Otherwise if it is the issue of reimbursement, it now must go back onto the normal programme of ZESA.  I thank you.

  1. MUDARIKWA:  In Zimbabwe we have a critical shortage

of electricity.  What we are generating is far lower than the demand.

People got out of their way to get generators, now Zimbabwe Energy

Regulatory Authority (ZERA) wants these people to register with them and pay a fee.  Meanwhile EMA is also coming to anyone with a generator; you are now charged a fee.

Mr. Speaker, these people who have imported generators are assisting the country.  There are people with constitutional obligation to give us electricity but we cannot start penalising people who have generators in the country.  I wanted to find out, what is the national policy regard to with generators?  Do you want people to remain in darkness when there is no electricity?  Are we leading a darkness policy?

THE MINISTER OF ENERGY AND POWER

DEVELOPMENT (MR. MANGOMA): Mr. Speaker, I must say that I

am not aware that ZERA is requesting that those people with generators must pay a registration fee.  I think generators being registered, I do not see a problem with that but certainly paying a registration fee, I would have a problem with that.  I am not aware that that is the case.

What we always have, ZERA starts to deal with mostly those people above a certain generation capacity.  So, they probably would want to know how much and how many generators are we having so that they know the generation capacity in the country.  From a statistical point of view, which I will fully support, I think that if they are trying to charge, it is well within Government policy to stop them from charging.  Now that you have raised it, I think it is something that I will talk to them about.  But as far as remissions are concerned, although it is not my ministry, I think that generators do remit carbon dioxide and therefore I think it is within EMA’s ambit to charge all those who cause emissions. We certainly do not want people to be in the dark. The more lasting solution especially when you talk about generators, you know how much the cost of buying and maintaining a generator is, it is an expensive solution. The best way of providing reasonably priced electricity to all the citizens of Zimbabwe, is to make sure that our utilities are functioning well and to make sure that we get new generation capacity into the country, through the state companies and also through independent and private players. That is what we are aiming for and that is what we are trying to do and what we would want to see so that in the very near future, everyone will be able to forget their generators and rely on the modern electricity that is available through the grid, I thank you.

  1. MUDARIKWA: Thank you hon. Minister, the issue with

EMA is when we import diesel and we buy diesel, there is a cost of carbon tax which is obviously meant to cover the carbon emission. Now there is what we call double taxation and it is not viable for anyone now to pay double taxation because he or she will be using a generator. I thank you.

THE ACTING SPEAKER: Hon. Member, that one seems to be a

comment and not a question.

  1. MUDARIKWA: It is a question.

THE ACTING SPEAKER: Can you then rephrase it and make it

a question.

MR MUDARIKWA: Mr. Speaker, the way I can rephrase it is, we have agreed in principle, are we now allowing double taxation because when we import diesel we pay carbon tax upon importation and now we are paying another carbon emission tax to EMA. There is double taxation and is it allowed?

THE ACTING SPEAKER: How I got the question hon. Minister

is that the Minister of Environment and Natural Resources should have attended to that particular question or may be the Minister of Finance who deals with the issues of taxation. Hon. Minister Mangoma do you have any response to that?

THE MINISTER OF ENERGY AND POWER

DEVELOPMENT: I agree with your comments Mr. Speaker.

THE ACTING SPEAKER: Hon. Mudarikwa, I advise that the

Minister of Finance is here, you can then redirect the question to the Minister of Finance. I give you the opportunity to ask the question Hon.

Mudarikwa.

  1. MUDARIKWA: Thank you Mr. Speaker, my question is

directed to the Hon. Minister of Finance. There is a critical shortage of electricity in Zimbabwe and when diesel is imported, people pay carbon tax but EMA is now charging carbon emission tax for generators so there is an element of double taxation. When diesel is imported we pay carbon tax and when I have a generator at my place, EMA is now coming and saying you must pay carbon emission fee and yet when we imported diesel, we paid carbon tax. Does not that carbon tax cover the emission of the carbon on my generator?

  THE MINISTER OF FINANCE (MR. BITI): Mr. Speaker, I

thank you and Hon. Simba Mudarikwa, I thank you for that question. The position is that only Treasury in terms of the powers that it has been given in terms of Section 103 has got the power of levying a tax. Treasury itself derives that power from Parliament so the power to levy the tax actually is derived from Parliament. That is why every budget and Appropriation Bill in the budget is normally accompanied by the Finance Bill. The Finance Bill being our revenue measure will be our request to Parliament that please we are asking you to raise carbon tax, to raise Value Added Tax (VAT), to raise excise duty and to increase the levels.

What is happening right now is that, that power is delegated to us but there are some laws that give certain bodies the power to levy penalties, the power to levy fines and you will find some of those powers in the Roads Act for instance. Some of them you will find in the criminal justice system. In the criminal justice system, it is a very different regime. It is not a fund raising exercise. They are given direct powers from Parliament to regulate behaviour through deterrence or to just punish people.

I think that if you look at the Environment Act, the Minister of Environment is allowed to impose levies to deter or to proscribe certain behaviour like pollution but where the nominal justification of a diesel levy on the generators is to regulate the issue of pollution that you and I know comes from generators.

I agree with you that if we have already covered that pollution, through the carbon tax which is part of our law, levying the generation levy in terms of the Environmental Act may actually amount to double penalty and double jeopardy. So what I would suggest is that we will liaise with Minister Nhema and look at his regulations and draw his attention to the provisions of the carbon tax because diesel has already been taxed. It does not matter whether you are going to use it at your farm or for your grinding mill; it has already been levied anyway.

Maybe if they wanted to be ingenuous or disingenuous they should have put in place a noise levy for the use of generators but not a carbon levy because that has already been factored in. So, the answer is that we will discuss with the Minister of Environment but he can still get his money through a noise levy because generators can be very noisy. I thank you Mr. Speaker.

  1. CHIMBETETE: I wanted to ask the Minister of Finance but

he ran out.

  1. MARE: My question is directed to the Minister of Energy and Power Development, Mr. Mangoma. Why is the prepaid meter connected on the consumer side and not on the ZESA side?

THE ACTING SPEAKER: Can you please go over your

question again?

  1. MARE: Mr. Speaker Sir, this is a technical question and what I am saying is, why is the prepaid meter connected on the consumer’s side? What I am saying is, the prepaid meter will be consuming my electricity that I would be paying.

THE ACTING SPEAKER: That is as you have already said. Can you take your seat?

  1. MARE: Why is it connected to the consumer’s side because it is supposed to be connected on the ZESA side where ZESA is supposed to pay for its own electricity because the equipment is for ZESA not my equipment?

THE ACTING SPEAKER: As you have already said, this is a technical question that might require the Minister to consult so that he gets a technical answer to the technical question that requires an expert’s  answer.  If the minister is in a position to answer, he may but I think that this is a technical question that requires expertise in electricity which the minister can only get from his technical people.

  1. CHIMBETETE:  My question is directed to the Minister of Finance.  You made an allocation in the 2013 budget towards the tarring of Binya Road.  Could you kindly advise as to when the work is going to start?

THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER:  Order, Hon. Chimbetete, this

is a specific question that would require the Minister to research.  So, can you put it in writing?

  1. CHIKWINYA:  Thank you Mr. Speaker. My question is

directed to the Minister of Finance.  May he state the position of financing the voter registration exercise seeing that there has been a divergent measure by the Registrar General’s Office from the Constitutional provision of 30 days per ward to a maximum of three days per clustered wards in our constituencies?

        THE MINISTER OF FINANCE (MR. BITI): Thank you very

much Hon. Speaker Sir, and thank you very much Hon. Chikwinya for that question which is very important in light of the current shenanigans by certain people in this country.

Mr. Speaker Sir, there are two things: the first one is that we provided US$5 million to the Registrar General for voter registration.  This amount was used for the initial voter registration from the end of

April to the 22nd of May, 2013.  You can call that phase one.  You recall Mr. Speaker Sir that, that was the voter registration exercise that was so fraught with irregularities.  There were challenges around aliens being refused to vote, and challenges around women in unregistered customary law unions being told that you have to go back to your original home.  If you are married in Nkayi, you have to go back to Bocha where you came from originally, to get a birth certificate.

There were challenges for instance around the process of the voter registration in some cases particularly in the urban areas, they would come at nine and finish at four.  Sometimes you would not get voter registration slips and so forth.  So, we then agreed that the intense voter registration exercise defined in Part 3, Schedule 6 of our Constitution should commence.

What we then did was that we looked at the budget for this exercise as requested by ZEC and the ZEC budget was around US$18 million.  We said fine, we will give you US$20 million.  So, by hook and crook, we looked for money under waters, trees and we got this money.  When we got this money, we then gave it to ZEC so that the intense voter registration exercise could start as soon as possible.

When the Constitution became law on the 22nd of May, it meant that the obligation to start the voter registration exercise was not there but the constitutional provision says after the passage of the election.  So, it could have meant 5 June or whatever after the 22nd of May.  Be that as it may, it actually officially started on the 10th of June, 2013 and it is scheduled to end on the 9th of July, 2013.

We have provided US$20 million for this exercise.  What should then happen in terms of the law is that this intense voter registration exercise should be a thirty-day period in every ward and an intense voter registration period in every ward.  In fact, the agreement in Cabinet was that at every polling station, there must be voter registration.  We now have conflicting reports on money between what ZEC is saying and what the Registrar is saying.  What we do from our calculations is that the money that we have given to them, the $20 million, is more than enough to do voter registration exercise for 30 days in the ward and not the current revision which is now 30 days in a district.

What disturbs us Mr. Speaker is that, we read the complaints of the Registrar General in newspapers and not elsewhere.  What is fact is that we have given resources for the voter registration exercise and the resources are not an excuse anymore.  Therefore, the challenges that are now being experienced are not a problem of money but are of a system that does not want our people to exercise their democratic right to vote as guaranteed by Section 67 of the new Constitution of Zimbabwe.

I just want to give you some of the examples; aliens who were given a new right to vote, a new citizenship by birth in terms of Section 43 of the new Constitution are being told that you have to renounce your old citizenship and go to Room 100 at Mudede’s office.  That is unconstitutional Mr. Speaker and the majority of complaints are around aliens.  The second thing that is a complaint again, which is not a problem of money, is the issue of residence requirements.  People are being told that if you do not have a water and electricity bill; or a letter from the councillor.  That affidavit is not being allowed to people, yet the law is now very clear.  You can swear an affidavit that shows that you are a resident.  So, we have a problem.

The third problem is the issue of I.D. cards.  What we agreed in Cabinet is that wherever there is this voter registration centre, there are two people there, Tobaiwa Mudede as registrar of voters and Tobaiwa Mudede as the Registrar General of Zimbabwe who does issues like birth certificates and I.D. cards.  In some polling stations, Tobaiwa Mudede is only there as Registrar General of voters and not Registrar

General of birth certificates and I.D. cards.  So, people have problems.

In some areas where he is there in both capacities, people are being given I.D. cards, those green forms, but there is no picture.  If there is a picture, and they are attributing this to their machines, your picture is half and in the case of you Mr. Speaker who puts on spectacles, only your glasses will just appear and not your full face.

Another challenge is that of married women or rather women in unregistered customary law unions.  They are still being told to go back.  So, the net result is that the new intense voter registration, for all intents and purposes, is actually more fraught with omissions and commissions; with chitsotsi than even the previous one that everyone complained about.  I am pleased to say that this is one of the issues that the Principals of Cabinet of our Government are discussing but the bottom line is that, whatever is happening has nothing to do with money.   For instance, in Chinhoyi, a person who stays in ward 4 is being told to go and register in ward 17 which is 20 or 40 kilometres away.  In places like Chimanimani, they came for one day. Even in Mabvuku and Kuwadzana yesterday, they came for one day but the queues were from here to Masvingo, so they could not register all the people. They are still multi-tasking, trying to register people and they have got four or five phones, calling and answering to everyone. So it is not working. Why it is not working - it is a political attitude not money.

  1. CHIKWINYA: I believe the Minister of Finance, as the person or as the stakeholder distributing money to this whole exercise; and noticing that we have diverted from the constitutional provisions of 30 days per ward to a clustered system, must surely come up with policy initiatives for the Registrar General to revert back to the constitutional provisions. May he, at this time, inform this august House, what policy initiatives have they put in place so that the Registrar General, whilst using the taxpayer’s money abides by the constitutional provisions?        THE ACTING SPEAKER: I am now not sure whether it still

remains the minister’s responsibility to supervise the Registrar General as he falls under a completely different ministry. Minister, you can still come to …

* MR. BITI: The problem that I now have with that question is that I cannot go to Registrar-General Mudede to hold him accountable. That is the problem but my responsibility is just to look for money which I have already done. Registrar-General Mudede is the one who is causing all these problems. Unfortunately, I do not have the power to ask him to go and correct that issue.

  1. CHITANDO: On the amount of money which you gave out

for voter registration, was there an amount which was earmarked for advertising as we are witnessing a break-out on the electronic and print media for voter registration advertisements?

  1. BITI: The budget which we provided covered the following; voter education by ZEC, which is why from the 22nd of May to the 9th of June, you saw voter educators from ZEC in constituencies. That covered that. The money we provided covered per diems for the officers out in the field right now and covered advertisements for where they will be. That is why you saw those adverts. They came late on Monday or Tuesday last week but they were in newspapers. I think the question is that they were not adequate but they were there. So it covered that. The money we gave also covered the security of everyone who is doing this work. The money also covered something which is not being done right now but the idea was that we should separate inspection from registration.

What was agreed in Cabinet was that every school in a ward or certain selected schools in a ward should actually be given the current voter’s roll in disk and hardcopy form, so that instead of people going to join those queues where people are also trying to register to vote, you just go and check your name and not have to go and join the other queue for registration but that is not being done.

It was a comprehensive budget but unfortunately, we are not so privy to how the money is being used. What we did this time because the problem which we had when we gave out the $5 million is that we gave the $5 million to the Registrar-General of Voters but the RegistrarGeneral of Voters is only carrying out voter registration at the special instance and request of ZEC by law. The voter registration is being done by the Registrar-General of Voters but under the supervision of ZEC. This time we gave money to the principal which is ZEC and not the agent, Tobaiwa Mudede. We thought that would mitigate things and it was our hope that, that would mitigate things but we do not see the evidence of that.

  1. MAHLANGU: Minister, after the allocation of the $20 million, we were actually surprised as the representatives of the people to be seeing ZEC moving with top class luxury cars. Did you allocate that money for them to buy those cars?
  2. BITI: Indeed, there was a capital budget in the money we allocated. ZEC clearly needs computers and vehicles, so we did allocate them but as to what kind of vehicles they bought or they could buy, I do not control that. My job as I said before is just to make sure that money is available to these constitutional bodies so that they can do their work.

You must also appreciate that if they have to do their work, then they have to go to every part of Zimbabwe; Gwelutshena in Nkayi,

Muzarabani in Mashonaland Central, Dotito in Mashonaland Central, Chiendambuya and Headlands in Manicaland. They have to travel on roads like Binya road for instance. So you cannot expect them to drive on a Morris Minor, it is not possible. I cannot comment on the cars that they have bought but if you want them to do their job, certainly they must have vehicles that will reach emaguswini eBinya road ekhaya lwaseNyanga le.

  1. NCUBE: If he can enlighten the House, how far have they gone with the money for elections since we will be having elections at the end of next month?

THE MINISTER OF FINANCE (MR. BITI): It is a very good

question and I am beginning to sound like a broken record on the question on whether the Government has money for elections. You know those gramophones that we used to put ten cents on top and if you are playing Chipo Chiroorwa it goes, Chipo Chipo and it cannot get to Chiroorwa. I am beginning to sound like a broken record on this one.

Mr. Speaker, we do not have money for elections and the budget cannot afford to fund the elections. We are looking for at least $140 million to fund the elections. We do not have money for the elections.

As I said last week, we had agreed that the United Nations should come in and it is still the position of Government but there are others who are trying to frustrate that.

We also went to SADC on Saturday this weekend. SADC is still prepared to help us look for funds. I was speaking to the Executive Secretary of SADC, Dr Tomaz Augusto Salomao who said that what he is going to pursue in Maputo, is to visit the capital city of every SADC country to look for the money and I volunteered to accompany him to some of the places.

We have been talking to donors. Donors still want and are ready to fund the election but they want two things. They want a clear transparent mechanism of disbursement so that the money goes into legitimate election processes. What is concerning everyone including SADC is that, no-one wants to put the hard earned money from his or her taxpayers into a process that is going to fail. No-one wants to put money in a black hole. So people are saying, donors are saying and SADC is saying that, we want to see guarantees that this will be a sustainable election because we do not want to fund something that is going to be a false election like the June 28 elections for instance, which everyone will question. We will have put our hard earned money into a dustbin.

So, the question of the legitimacy and credibility of this election is also going to determine whether we can attract money from donors or anyone else which is why the current discussions about the Proclamation, the legality, the legitimacy and the credibility of an election on the 31st of July, 2013 have become so central because no one will put money in something that is so self-evidently going to fail.

That is where we are. We do not have money but if we put our house in order and if we work together particularly, if Minister Chinamasa was to be able to come on board and abandoned the new found streak of insanity, we can do it.

  1. S. NCUBE: Is it the lack of political will which is failing us to get the money or there is no money?
  2. BITI: From the Government’s side – I have said this in this House over and over again. It is not possible to raise additional taxes. I cannot raise taxes. Even if I were to raise taxes, taxes are a process. For instance, I raised duty on fuel on the 9th of March 2013, we can raise US$50m from there but only on the 31st of December 2013. So that is meaningless because they will not be able to serve the current purpose.

In any event, even though I was given authority by Cabinet to raise taxes, we must remember that elections will come and go in one day. We do not want to implement certain things that will kill the economy. Some of these policies if you implement them, have got the effect of crowding out the economy and killing the economy.

What we did on the Referendum, we cannot repeat it. On the Referendum we borrowed US$40m from NSSA and Old Mutual. As a result, people cannot borrow from the banks because NSSA and Old Mutual provide 60% of the on-shore landing that is in our banking system. The smaller banks are crying right now because they traditionally depend on money that they borrow from NSSA and Old Mutual. We cannot do what we did on the Referendum, it is out of the question.

The only thing that we can do to raise money and if that money can come now, we do not have to go to anyone to ask for money, is if Hon. Obert Mpofu can be honest enough to give money from diamonds to the budget. He is not doing that. It is an issue that I am now a broken record. Last year we sold diamonds worth US$800m. We should have gotten US$400m from that and we got US$43m. This year in the first quarter we have sold US$200m, you do not have to be a rocket scientist to guess what came to the Treasury – zero, two bhobho, two bhobho. Nothing came to Treasury.

To get money from Hon. Mpofu, I do not have super powers to order Hon. Mpofu. I wish I had because I will shoot him - to get money from diamonds. It requires political will from the leader. Unfortunately, that is not coming. That is the internal aspect.

On the external aspect, we still need political will. We still need to speak with one voice. We still need to show that we can play as a team to get this money. Ever since we get closer to elections and people started talking about elections and ever since the Proclamation, the bottom line is that there is no Government in Zimbabwe. It is there normatively. It is there de jure but de facto it is not there. It is a complete breakdown. It is complete chaos and anarchy and that the donors are also watching.

Questions Without Notice were interrupted by THE ACTING

SPEAKER in terms of Standing Order No. 34. 

MOTION

LEAVE TO MOVE SUSPENSION OF STANDING ORDERS

  1. 22, 23 (2), 34 (5), 104, 105 AND 109

         THE MINISTER OF ENERGY AND POWER

DEVELOPMENT:  I seek leave of the House to move that the provisions of Standing Orders No. 22, 23 (2), 34 (5) and 104, 105 and 109 regarding the automatic adjournment of the House at five minutes to seven o’clock p.m. and at twenty-five minutes past one o’clock p.m. on Fridays, private members motions taking precedence on Wednesday after question time, the gazetting of Bills, the referral of Bills to

Portfolio Committees  and stages of Bills respectively, be suspended in respect of the  Electricity Amendment Bill [H.B. 3, 2013] and the Money Laundering and Proceeds of Crime Bill  [H.B. 4, 2013].

Motion put and agreed to.

MOTION

SUSPENSION OF STANDING ORDERS NO. 22, 33 (2), 34 (5), 104,

105 AND 109

         THE MINISTER OF ENERGY AND POWER

DEVELOPMENT: I move that provisions of Standing Orders No. 22,

33 (2), 34 (5), 104, 105 and 109 regarding the automatic adjournment of the House at five minutes to seven o’clock p.m. and at twenty-five minutes past one o’clock p.m. on a Friday, private members motion taking precedence on Wednesday after question time and that question time shall be on Wednesdays, the gazetting of Bills, the referral of Bills to Portfolio Committees and stages of Bills respectively, be suspended in respect of  the Money Laundering and Proceeds of Crime Bill and the

Electricity Amendment Bill (H. B. 4, 2013).

  1. MUDARIKWA: Thank you Mr. Speaker. The Electricity

Amendment Bill is a critical component in the society. I feel it is critical that it must be referred to the Committee because the nation is bleeding.

There is need for the Committee to look at the Electricity Amendment

Bill.

FIRST READING

MONEY LAUNDERING AND PROCEEDS OF CRIME BILL (H. B.

4, 2013)

THE MINISTER OF ENERGY AND POWER

DEVELOPMENT presented the Money Laundering and Proceeds of Crime Bill [H. B. 4, 2013].

Bill read the first time.

Bill referred to the Parliamentary Legal Committee.

FIRST READING

ELECTRICITY AMENDMENT BILL (H. B. 3, 2013)

THE MINISTER OF ENERGY AND POWER

DEVELOPMENT presented the Electricity Amendment Bill [H. B. 3, 2013].

Bill read the first time.

Bill referred to the Parliamentary Legal Committee.

On the motion of THE MINISTER OF ENERGY AND POWER DEVELOPMENT, the House adjourned at Twenty-Five

Minutes past Three o’clock p.m.

 

 

 

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