Is Mnangagwa still the leader of the House?

HON. MUNENGAMI:  Is he the Leader of the House, Madam Speaker? – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]- Yes, it is our right to know because there is no point for us to waste our time and to waste the Vice President’s time asking him questions which he is not supposed to answer.  Can we know the Leader of the House?

THE HON DEPUTY SPEAKER:  Hon. Member, order.

HON. MUNENGAMI:  It is the duty of the Government Chief Whip through you Hon. Speaker, to tell us who is the Leader of the House [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]-

THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER:  Order, order Hon. Members.

HON. MUNENGAMI:  We do not want to be confused.  It is simple, we want to know who is the Leader of the House.  Is that a very big issue?  It is not a big issue, honestly – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]- thank you Madam Speaker.

THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER:  Can we have order in the House.  Can we have order please?  Hon. Munengami, you had a point of order you wanted to know.  I answered you by saying Government is going to announce, then why are you worrying.  Where is your worry from – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]- Can you please wait for that.

 HON. DR. KHUPE:  Thank you very much Madam Speaker.  I am also appealing to the Hon. Members because today we have school children – they have come to listen to what Hon. Members are asking Ministers so that Ministers respond to issues affecting this country.  So, I am appealing to Hon. Members at least to be quiet.

I would have loved to direct my question to the Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Services but now that he  is not around, I am going to direct my question to the Leader of the House.  According to the ZIMVAC Rural Livelihoods Assessment Report of July 2017; 1.1 million people are going to be food insecure during the months of January to March 2018.  What is Government doing to make sure that every Zimbabwean is food secure, looking at the fact that we had a bumper harvest and we had good rains.  I thank you.

THE VICE PRESIDENT (HON. E.D. MNANGAGWA):  Madam Speaker, I am glad that the Hon. Member, the Leader of the Opposition has asked that question which will give an opportunity to Government to clarify the position.

 Correctly, she has stated that the report that she is referring to is the report of July when the projections at the time were very conservative as to the yields that would come.  But currently, we already have excess food supply in the country which will enable Government without any importation to support the needs of the vulnerable groups in our country during that period – January to March next year.  So, may I assure the House as well as the country that as  a result of our bumper harvest, we have an excess of 700 000 metric tonnes of grain in surplus of our national needs.  I thank you.

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