A peak into the lifestyle Zimbabwe Parliamentarians want

HON. CHIKWINYA:  Hon. Chair, only today – the 20th of December, the Minister announced a new board for ZIMRA.  On that board is the permanent secretary for the Ministry of Finance.  I was seated across to understand his wisdom on why he put a permanent secretary to sit in the board.  His reasoning is why I did not stand up to raise a point of order because I could understand that they need a technical person who interlinks between the Ministry and the Board. The very same principle must be applied for Members of Parliament.  We need researchers to interface between the Constituency and the parliamentarians – [HON. MEMBERS:  Hear, hear.] –  The very principle of having a technical mind interfacing with politicians because board members are policy makers and like politicians, we also need researchers to be able to understand the technical input from the Constituency to the parliamentarians who then present as a matter of policy to Parliament.

The $2 380.00 allocated under the PCIC is not enough to employ even one individual at the minimum Government rate of $400 for even three months.  At that rate, we are going to be employing our personal assistants at $94 and this is on the assumption that it is a one as to one in terms of the regime.

My third and last point under Parliament is that you would recall that three weeks ago, heavy rains befell this city and affected Parliament.  It was an embarrassment to see water locked in Parliament.  There is need to support our secretariat to carry out the mandatory repairs in this Parliament.  Our secretariat cannot even function.  I have not even touched on issues of welfare because I want to believe that he has totally ignored that.

Therefore I move that the Vote 2 be restored to where it was in terms of the proposal and where do we get the money?  In the Budget, there is $70 million which he allocated to himself and did not qualify how it is going to be used and it has got a special name.  I therefore propose that the Budget of Parliament takes away a chunk from that $70 million and present it to Vote 2 for us to be able to have a way forward.  I thank you.

HON. E. NDLOVU:  Mr. Speaker Sir, I stand here to acknowledge the presentation by my learned friend…

THE CHAIRPERSON:  Hon. Member can you address the Chair.

HON. E. NDLOVU:  Hon. Chair,  I would like to respond to the issues raised by my learned friend from Kwekwe – [HON. MEMBERS:  Inaudible interjections.] –

THE CHAIRPERSON:  Can we have order in the House.  Less noise in the House Hon. Members!

HON. E. NDLOVU:  I appreciate that we, as the Government of Zimbabwe have limited resources.  Our envelop is limited and our money is limited.  We do not have enough money to allocate Parliament.

THE CHAIRPERSON: Hon. Member can you approach the Chair?

Hon. E. Ndlovu approached the Chair  – [HON. MEMBERS:  Inaudible interjections.] –

THE CHAIRPERSON: Less noise in the House Hon. Members please.

HON. T. MLISWA:  Thank you Chairman.  I do not blame the Hon. Minister Ndlovu for wanting to debate the budget because she is in the Executive.  She is not a Member of Parliament.  She has two cars, she has bodyguards and many allowances  – [HON. MEMBERS:  Inaudible interjections.] –   I really understand.

We now go back to the three pillars of the state and we ask ourselves we are supposed to be equal.  The Member of Parliament are entitled to one car for five years.  Ministers are entitled to two cars plus those of the subsidiary that they have.  They have allowances.  They have everything that they want.  This is one pillar of the state which is the executive.  We have got the judiciary as well, the judges, magistrates….

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