Mliswa says only two ministers would survive if Mugabe got rid of all corrupt ministers!

HON. MLISWA:  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank you for recognising the independent candidate – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – Sorry, the independent Member of Parliament.  Mr. Speaker, I want to support both sides.  May I begin by saying, His Excellency, the President of the Republic of Zimbabwe, Cde. R. G. Mugabe is to record in this august House of speaking about zero tolerance to corruption.  The first time I got into Parliament before I was expelled, he spoke about that, on my return to Parliament, he equally spoke about it.

I am one who is fortunate that whenever I am in Parliament and the President addresses, corruption is topical in his address.  Equally, I read the message from the leader of the MDC denouncing corruption amongst the councillors from MDC.  I want to pounce on corruption because the report by the Public Accounts Committee clearly exposes the lack of accountability and political will to deal with corruption.  For as long as we do not deal with corruption, we have no business to talk about, it has become cancerous.  If I recall, in my first term of being a Member of Parliament, this House tried to propose an ad-hoc committee to deal with anti-corruption.

Mr. Speaker Sir, it was important that Members of Parliament who have oversight over the Executive equally have a mandate to be able to supervise and scrutinise anybody, because our oversight is of everyone.  That ad-hoc committee was crushed and corruption escalated to alarming levels.  Sadly, on my return to Parliament, it is even worse. We have just had a situation where the Auditor General has constantly and has a Constitutional mandate to be able to report on how Government departments are spending or are held accountable.  The reports have been terrible, to say the least.  There has not been any action taken as a result of the reports, which implies that Government is wasting money paying people who are doing their job but there is no follow up on those reports.

It is important that the Auditor General’s Report, who is mandated to look into the accountability of all Government departments, is taken seriously.  Ministers have become an embarrassment to this nation, they do not have shame, despite them being asked to account, they are not prepared to account.  Mr. Speaker Sir, you cannot avoid talking about ZANU PF, which is the ruling party.  In fact, I would like to say the governing party, they govern, they are the Government of the day and it is made out of ZANU PF.  ZANU PF itself protects corruption by even setting up a special committee in the Politburo to protect Professor Moyo.  When the Prosecutor-General himself has written a letter which is an arm of Government empowered by the Constitution to investigate, that does not happen.  We see a situation where, even the Minister of Home Affairs, when I questioned him about the letter from the Prosecutor-General, he professed ignorance but the letter is there.

It is pretty clear that the President must walk the talk on corruption.  We are not school going children who are excited.  The very same party will find it difficult to be in power.  I look back because some of you will not come back as a result of corruption.

THE TEMPORARY CHAIR (HON. MARUMAHOKO):  Order, address the Chair.

Continued next page

(656 VIEWS)