Biti says Mthuli Ncube did not present a supplementary budget but a brand new budget

Number one, that we will have a predictable exchange rate.  Number two, that inflation will be stable. Number three, that we will have a decent rain season.  Number four, that there will be growth rate of at least 6%.  The concern is that the underlying assumptions made by the Minister were so far off the mark that hardly more than six months later, he has had to come to this august House to ask for a 100% increase in his budget.  So we question the legitimacy and credibility of all the processes that we are doing.  It is a waste of time that we are asked to sit here when the Minister is going to go and be off target by 100%.  This is the Minister who has cut his teeth on the mantra of surpluses.  So what it means is that before six months is out, this budget is already out by 100%.

Bear in mind that we already have a Financial Adjustment Bill tabled in February, 2022 in respect of which the Minister is asking for condonation by this august House of over expenditure in 2019 and 2020 of $103 billion.  If you look at $103 billion for 2021 and for 2020, it actually means that he has been having a parallel budget that is more than the original budget.  The only thing that he has done in his favour this time around is, at least he has come to Parliament to ask for condonation.  Otherwise in the last years – 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021, he has just been running parallel budgets and then seeking post condonation by Parliament through the Financial Adjustment Bill.

Our prayer now is that the Minister must respect Parliament.  The Minister must respect the Blue Book; the Minister must respect the Appropriation Bill that we pass as Parliament and live within his means, so that Parliament is not put to the embarrassment that it becomes a rubber stamp of excessive Government expenditure engineered by the Minister of Finance.

I come to the second point I have Madam Speaker.  What are the issues that are affecting our country at the present moment?  I will submit that there are seven key issues that are affecting this economy.  The first one is hyperinflation.  Inflation in Zimbabwe right now is the highest in the world.  Even with the reduced inflation of July, our inflation is still above 500% with month on month inflation more than 60%.  The definition of hyperinflation is when inflation exceeds 50% per month.  So we are back in a hyperinflationary mode but this is regrettable because less than 10 years ago, we had the second highest inflation in the history of mankind at 500 billion percent, only less than Hungary in 1956.  That is problem number one.

Problem number two; we have got the challenge of collapsed exchange rate. The parallel market rate is over 1: 800.  A few days ago it was 1:1200.  The third problem we have is disposable income.  Public servants are being paid paltry incomes which are not reflective of the reality out there.  The poverty datum line to survive in Zimbabwe, for a family of six you need at least US$800 per month, yet all of us including Members of Parliament, we are earning less than US$100 per month.  Most of us are earning 60 000 RTGs; 60 000 RTGs cannot buy you four loaves of bread; it cannot buy you four bottles of cooking fat.  It cannot buy you four bottles of mazowe. About 79% of our people are wallowing in poverty, surviving on less than US$1.20.

The fourth thing is the collapse of the public service system.  Hospitals are closed, there are no drugs, there are no syringe machines, our people are dying of ordinary simple diseases.  Teachers have not been going to work for literally two years.

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