Full contribution:
HON. SEN. MUTSVANGWA: Thank you Mr. President of the Senate. I stand up to support the motion which was moved by Hon. Sen. B. Sibanda, a very important motion and I also want to thank the seconder. It is true corruption has affected our slackening revenue collection in this country. ZIMRA Chair of the board is on record saying eliminating corruption could easily increase revenue threefold. Meaning that, if that is the case, then our National Budget could have been around US$12 billion – [HON. SENATORS: Hear, hear.] – then we could have fully bankrolled ZIM-ASSET within the three years, but because of corruption, we are stuck.
Mr. President, corruption is the main reason why our economic growth is decreasing. We are not living the lives that we are supposed to live. The citizens of this country are the richest in the world, going by the natural resources per capita income – [HON. SENATORS: Hear, hear.] – Mr. President, as Members who have been elected by the people to represent them, it is critical that we do our work to uphold the Constitution. Members of Parliament do read. In the past, we have been reading about leading medical aid societies unsustainably remunerating themselves with hundreds of thousands of dollars every month. At the end, those who contribute end up failing to access the service.
Mr. President, to demonstrate how corruption is now deeply entrenched in our mental faculties, young children do not want to study medicine, engineering or being a pilot but they want to be a ‘dealer.’ Commuter omnibus drivers, bribe cops in broad day light. What are we teaching our children as mothers and fathers? What are we teaching them to become when they grow up as leaders? We applaud one of the Vice Presidents of the country who was on record saying, it is high time we walk the talk on corruption and ensure that those who are on the wrong side of the law are ruthlessly punished irrespective of their position or standing in society. There should not be any sacred cows when it comes to corruption.
We need to weed out corruption, especially from our public institutions. The Finance and Economic Development Minister, Hon. Chinamasa once said, and I quote, “the tendering system in Zimbabwe is the capital city of corruption.” We do not also forget our audit reports that the Comptroller and Auditor-General had been announcing on our public institutions. Our country needs strong and accountable institutions that meaningfully contribute to economic growth.
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