A peak into the lifestyle Zimbabwe Parliamentarians want

HON. SIKHALA:  Thank you Mr. Chairman.  Hon. Members, I want to remind you of a very important statement which our Speaker told us during the day of our induction at Pandari Lodge.  The Speaker said, the powers belong to the Members of Parliament for them to see the votes to pass in Parliament.  I have had a number of debates by Hon. Members on this vote, Mr. Chairman, which is up to the Members of Parliament today to see whether they are going to exercise their powers as the third arm of Government.  The Legislature is part of the three arms of Government, Mr. Chairman, including the Judiciary and the Executive.  Overlooking the interest of this Legislature where we are taken as kindergarten children, that hour must come to an end.

Mr. Chairman, the most concerning issue why I want to contribute to this vote is that Hon. Minister, do you understand that our Parliament is a member to a number of international organisations where we participate in various activities as part and parcel of international integration.  The Zimbabwean Parliament is a member of the SADC PF, IPU, ACP-EU and Afro PAC.  Our members who have been attending those meetings, Mr. Chairman, come back home humiliated when Zimbabwe’s membership arrears are 10 years back.

I still remember when I went to Geneva to attend the IPU meeting with the former Speaker, the late Hon. J. L. Nkomo.  Zimbabwe was among only five states that had outstanding arrears to the IPU.  If we ask the Speaker today and his delegation to the IPU, Zimbabwe is still in arrears 12 years back.  Does the Minister know that?  When Parliament made its bid, it was based on its…

HON. CHINOTIMBA:  On a point of order – [HON. MEMBERS:  Go and read your Standing Order, this is a Committee of Supply.] –

HON. SIKHALA:  Mr. Chairman, what I want to impress on the Minister is that he must not be oblivious of those obligations.  So specifically we urge him to reconsider the parliamentary vote.  I thank you.

THE MINISTER OF FINANCE AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT (HON. PROF. M. NCUBE):  Hon. Chairman, if I could respond to the input from the Hon. Members questions starting with the Hon. Member Gonese.  He raised a number of issues.   Obviously, the first issue which cuts across is about the size of the resource envelope that the $101 million that we have allocated to Parliament is not adequate [HON. MEMBERS:  It is Hon. Chikwinya.] –

It is Hon. Chikwinya who came to talk to me and also contributed, my apologies Sir.  So he raised the issue of the size of the resource envelope and that cuts across the three contributions from Hon. Members of $101 million.  I submit that this is a 25% increase from the previous year’s budget.  We do work in terms of increments per annum.  Twenty five percent is quite a bit from the $80 million from the 2018 budget to the $101 million for the 2019 budget.

Coming specifically to the issue of vehicles, this issue is under control; we are dealing with it.  Members of Parliament, you will get vehicles and I think we had even agreed on the model and if my information is correct unless they have changed, the model, it is a Hilux twin cab – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – if I can proceed Hon. Chair, we can debate the model of the car offline – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections ] –

Continued next page

(423 VIEWS)