A peak into the lifestyle Zimbabwe Parliamentarians want

THE DEPUTY CHAIRPERSON: Can you listen to the Minister please.

HON. PROF. M. NCUBE: We are dealing with the issue of motor vehicles; you will get your motor vehicles.  I cannot give you the model right away because you are already disputing the model.  Maybe my information is not correct on the model but you will get your vehicles.   I also want to correct an impression that has been created in the House that the Ministers have received their cars.  That is not correct, we have not authorised the purchase of vehicles for Ministers.  I certainly do not have a vehicle that has been allocated by the Government.  In our view, we said that the Ministers should be the last people in line to receive vehicles whilst Members of Parliament receive their vehicles.  That is what we agreed – [AN HON. MEMBER: When?] – soon enough.  I am also acutely aware that the hotel costs have gone up.  I know that those who have to use hotels, you used to negotiate at a rate of $120 per night and now some of these hotels are saying you must pay $180 per night.  $220 is a higher end like Meikles and so on, we are fully aware and naturally we will be able to accommodate you in terms of adjustments.  I have got some reserves that we can make use of and we will look into those reserves and make sure they are accommodated.

We are also aware that there is another issue regarding the gratuity payment for Members of Parliament who have served one term.  A formula is being finalised and that will be dealt with.  I am now adding issues myself, they did not even raise it but I want to show that we understand these issues and we are very concerned.  Should any situation arise where we have to adjust Government salaries sometime in our lives, certainly, I do not see any reason why Members of Parliament and staff would not be included in that adjustment.

Let me come to the other issues that have been raised; for instance issues around donor agencies from Hon. Chikwinya.  Donor agencies are a key part of what we do as Government and State.  We welcome them, they support us with capacity building and I am delighted to learn that they are actually supporting Parliament.  I was going to invite more of them to do that, especially when it comes to supporting research, Paliamentarians and capacity building on issues of service delivery which I discussed at length when we were in Bulawayo at a Retreat where we can invite institutions such as the AfDB and others to support Parliament in capacity building.  This is normal, let us not miss that opportunity and ignore donor agencies, that is what they do and that is why they give us funds.  So, let us work with them.

I would also want to say that there is no risk of donor agencies influencing the debate or Parliamentary agenda.  I am not aware that they have done that in the past unless they have done so.  We should not shy away from working with them, that is what they do.  In the Budget, we budgeted about over $600 million that will be contributed to our entire budget by the donor community and we welcome that absolutely.

Hon. Mliswa raised issues over the size of the envelop itself, the role of Parliament, which I agree with.  He also raised issues of the gym, quality of the building but also Hon. Chikwinya raised similar issues in terms of the building and so on.  We are aware of this but the way to deal with capital expenditure is through the PSIP but also in a multi-year approach, we cannot fix everything in one year, that is what we are going to be doing.  However, we also allocated a budget for the New Parliament Building which is being built in Mt. Hampden.  Also what we do not want to do is to overinvest in the building that you will be abandoning instead of investing in the one that you are going to occupy in the future.  So, that is the balancing act that we have to deal with.  Imagine if we over-invest in a top gym in this building and then in another two and half years you will all be migrating to a new building, that will certainly be a waste.  I urge members to bear with us on this and focus all our investment on the new building.  However, we will spruce up whatever needs to be spruced up here so that the comfort levels can be raised.

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