Full debate on how Finance Minister Mthuli Ncube was grilled in Parliament

THE HON. SPEAKER: Order, just a second. Hon. Members, when Hon. Ministers are giving their responses and you are in disagreement or you want certain position to be explain, you must wait to pose your supplementary question. I think we need to be disciplined in that regard.

*HON. MATAMBANADZO: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir for giving me the chance to make a follow-up on my initial question. The Hon. Minister of Finance has said measures have been taken to rectify the problems faced by workers in the form of US$. The Minister says they injected US$60 million so that the salaries could be increased. Now, taking into account that we are dealing with an intelligent man and he was elected by the President because he is the best Minister of Finance, when we look at the amount which was given to workers, I understand that the workers were given an allowance. According to the monies given, this was supposed to be the amount given and the calculations made are so clear.  The Minister stated categorically that the RTGs and the US$ were not equal, which means that salaries were supposed to be multiplied by 250%.

I think we should not look down upon our intellect.  I know I am a grade two drop out but common sense tells me that there is something wrong with this arrangement.  As we speak – [HON. MEMBERS:  Inaudible interjections.] –

THE HON. SPEAKER: Order, order.  Hon. Member, your question has been understood and there is no need for repeating.  Do not be emotional when you are asking your question.

*HON. MATAMBANADZO:  Please allow me to make an addition.  The Minister also talked about the Delta issue.  He said he would want Delta to reduce the prices of drinks.  If we look at the price of drinks, they were sold at twenty cents and it is now a dollar.  He is saying the price should go down.  He is also saying that salaries were increased by 26cents.  The salaries should be according to the rate of the day so that people benefit on the value of what they would have contributed – [HON. MEMBERS:  Inaudible interjections.] –

HON. PROF. M. NCUBE: Once again, I thank the Hon. Member for his supplementary question including the entertaining parts of his question such as – [HON. MEMBERS:  Inaudible interjections.] – reference to grade two education which obviously is entertaining indeed.

On the first aspect where he is seeking that we link salary increases to the US$ exchange rate, we cannot do that neither should we do that.  What we are trying to do is to link salary increases to price increases as measured by inflation.  There is a basket of consumption which is the basis on which inflation is measured.  When we negotiate wages, you would want to link those wages to increases in inflation and not increases in the exchange rate.   That is a wrong way to think about negotiating for salaries.  I hope I am getting through to the Hon. Member and to everyone else who thinks in the way he is trying to express this issue – [HON. MEMBERS:  Inaudible interjections.] –

On the issue of Delta, I was mainly using that as an example…

THE HON. SPEAKER:  Order, order.  Hon. Members, can we exercise decorum before I ask one or two members to leave the House.

An Hon. Member having risen to give a point of order.

THE HON. SPEAKER:  The Hon. Minister was holding the floor. Can you please sit down?

HON. PROF. M. NCUBE:  Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir.  On the point of the example of Delta that I used to explain the point of prices coming down, that was not an instruction or persuasion to the company.  I was using Delta as an example that companies are realising that demand is falling.  Our policies are working – [HON. MEMBERS:  Inaudible interjections.] – There is no justification for prices to increase because demand is falling and they have decided to reduce their prices to be able to meet the demand available to them within the market place.

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