Independent Member of Parliament Temba Mliswa says President Robert Mugabe, as chief executive officer of the country, is solely responsible for its failure and for the economy to suffer.
He also said corruption had taken over sanctions as the main cause of the country’s collapse and accused Zimbabwe African National Union- Patriotic Front legislators of deliberately ignoring this because they were afraid that if they talked they would be expelled from the party, like what happened to him.
Contributing to the debate on thanking Mugabe for his State of the National Address Mliswa said: “It is not in dispute that His Excellency Cde. R. G. Mugabe is the President of the nation, that he was democratically elected and he is the CEO of the Republic of Zimbabwe, if we have to use the corporate language.
“It is equally not in dispute that failure for the country and the economy to suffer, the buck stops with him.”
Mliswa who was expelled from ZANU-PF for allegedly siding with former Vice-President Joice Mujuru but was elected as an independent in a by-election said he was disappointed that the government was not fulfilling its promises as set out in the Zimbabwe Agenda for Sustainable Socio-Economic Transformation
He said that the argument that the issue of sanctions was hindering progress was an old story because corruption had superseded sanctions.
“Corruption has superseded sanctions……the President is very clear in terms of zero tolerance on corruption. Some of us who are disciplined in nature will always follow what the President say,” he said.
“We were loud about people being corrupt and for them to be brought to book but instead we were fired from the parties that we were in because we followed what the President had said that there should be zero tolerance on corruption – just by bringing it up, you are expelled.
“No wonder why my colleagues on the left side are quiet on corruption because they know that they will be expelled like me and it will be very difficult for them to come back to Parliament like I did.”
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