Masvingo Central MP, Dzikamayi Mavhaire is at it again. Debating the Parliamentary committee report on the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation during which MPs called for the dismissal of Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa and Finance secretary Charles Kawaza because of their blocking a deal that could have earned the troubled parastatal billions of dollars, Mavhaire said it was pointless for Parliament to recommend that the Executive fire the two because “the report before us clearly shows that the Executive has failed to service the nation.”
Mavhaire said the report clearly showed that the Head Of State and his deputy were not listened to by the minister and his permanent secretary, so if Parliament passed a recommendation to the executive to fire the two, who was going to implement it?
“You have a Head of State and his deputy who were witnesses to this report. Where is the report going? I do not understand. This is the reason we had said at the initial stage there must be a separation of powers.
“If you concentrate power on one arm of government, and there is a problem in that arm of government, then the fish rots from the head. The problem is uncorrectable. . .. Who does not know that permanent secretaries say openly ministers come and go but permanent secretaries remain.”
Mavhaire said the country was now at a crossroads. If there had been genuine power sharing, it would not be difficult for the Head of State to discipline the culprits.
Some of the permanent secretaries, he said, should have been fired years back because every year their accounts are qualified. They were not doing their work and everybody was quiet.
Mavhaire said Parliament should be supreme because as things stood people appointed to permanent secretary posts were only appointed by the Head of State without vetting by Parliament. If Parliament were involved then the best people would be appointed to such high posts.
He said it was pointless blaming Murerwa for the poor performance by the ZBC.
“If we are to say heads must roll, let us simply say, fine this is the document for ZBC but let us be fair to everybody.
“Let us go ministry by ministry. Let us go to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and see the disaster that goes on there and records are there.
“Let us (look) at what happened in the Ministry of Transport, DDF Department, NSSA — if heads are supposed to go, let them all go. This is a good clearance operation. . .. . ..if we do the clean-up operation now, we will not even need to down-size the government because they will do it on their own without any problem.”
He noted that although the committee had done a wonderful job, it was likely that no action might be taken.
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