Mliswa asks why Mnangagwa is dishing out the country’s natural resources to foreigners when he says nyika inovakwa nevene vayo-updated

THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Hon. Mliswa, you are left with five minutes.

HON. T. MLISWA: Madam Speaker, on that one, it is something which I was going to bring as a point of order. I do not know where they pick this time up because yesterday they gave me a certain time and unbeknown to them, I was timing. I had spoken for twenty-three minutes in my whole conversation. Hon. Biti got up to extend by ten minutes, so it was supposed to be 30 minutes. While we are there, what source of timing do they use because there must be a bell. We can have a bell which tells us 5, 10, 15 and 20 minutes. We cannot rely on human beings. This Parliament must be professional. There must be a timer there which tells me I have spoken 5 or 10 minutes and while I am speaking, I am watching the timer. These times we are given are not true. I want to know the source of the timing and we start from there.

THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: There is a watch over there Hon. Mliswa.

HON. T. MLISWA: There is no watch over there. Why were we not told that we are starting at this time so that we can refer? I cannot refer to that time. To me, I want to be honest and I see that it usually happens with me when I start debating and hitting where it hurts, and they now say ‘five minutes Hon. Mliswa’. Twenty minutes is a lot. All I ask is, can we have a timer. I think this Parliament has got money to put a timer and rings five or ten minutes. Madam Nyawo, unfortunately you are not a good source for timing. Can we just have it there so that we deal with it? I therefore propose that you put a timer so that when a person has the floor and debating, they can see the time. Even munhu anomhanya 100 metres, haungoti hauna kubata time iyo time iripo. Mumastadiums ese zvirimo.

THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: Please, may you debate the motion Hon. Mliswa. You are now wasting time speaking about time.

HON. T. MLISWA: No, it is very important. Madam Speaker, we had the issue with FDIs. To us, that SONA was supposed to give figures to every foreign direct investment but they did not give figures to the President because those FDIs are not working. Every FDI has a figure and we have signed an MOU. What has come in and at what stage is it at? To me, that was lacking and it becomes very difficult for us to be able to do that.

The Indigenisation Act was very clear, 51/49. I cry every day, why did we really remove that one? No-one argued with it. Even the people investing in this country had agreed that they would stay. The mining houses you see today were supposed to give 10% to the local community, 10% to the workers and 31% would go to sovereign wealth but now we cannot do it. Now, they are telling you that law is not there but the likes of Biti can tell us. Does the law work in retrospect because the deal was signed? Today ZIMPLATS has not given 10% to its people and Mimosa and Unki, I do not know.

To me, what was the point of the law? We must be able to come back to that law because that is the only law that guarantees us. While the Constitution is very clear in terms of Section 13 (4) that local communities must benefit, it is up to the company to do that but it is not law. Indigenisation Act was law and that has got to come back. It was important that in the SONA, that was the critical point after our debates and we all agreed on that. So, why is it that the things we talk about at pre-Budget are not factored in there? The people will continue to suffer for as long as they do not control their resources.

Agriculture is a painful one. One white man told me that you think it is easy to farm. We were excited when we took over farms and these were white farmers who were well-funded but while they were well-funded, it was still difficult. This land reform which happened, actually most of them did celebrate –

Continued next page

(362 VIEWS)