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

What is lacking is the action and the action has got to start with even one of your most favourite children that you have.  Even your obedient son is equally subject to the law.  There is no one who is not subject to the law and I think it makes a mockery of the entire system of who we are.  By debating on this, I want the nation to understand that Members of Parliament are clearly failing.  They are debating in terms of corruption and I want to applaud some Members from ZANU PF like Hon. Nduna who was very clear about corruption that there is no political will which really renders us useless at the end of the day. Why we are here is the question that I was asking. Equally, the question is that why do we then have the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker when we are not able to debate issues which will then be implemented at the end of the day?

This is a Public Accounts report and in Public Accounts, Government is subject to scrutiny. I do not want at all to seem willingly to be personal with Hon. Prof Moyo but he is in charge of the Higher and Tertiary portfolio in Government. He is equally in charge of ZIMDEF and we have a body mandated to investigate corruption which is Zimbabwe Anti Corruption Commission. To date, it has carried out tasks and it has equally recommended that there should be an arrest. For your own information, members who investigate, who are part of the investigating team in ZACC are commissioned police officers. These people are recommended by the Commissioner General himself. These people have gone through a system which we all have paid money for. They have taken oath but when they then investigate and you doubt them; when we are equally doubting institutions which are in the Constitution, where are we going as a country?

If surely Hon. Prof. Moyo has no case to answer, what we know before is that he just appeared before the courts like what some of us have done before. The Deputy Minister is before the courts but what then surprises everyone is that the Deputy Minister is before the courts but the Minister is not. How could you accuse the Deputy Minister when we talk about the role of oversight by Ministers. Ministers, do not spend too much time drinking tea in Cabinet. I think you must equally spend time in having oversight over your personnel. You are responsible for the Ministry and the Permanent Secretary is not. We now need the head to really know what is going on. Failure by the head to know what is going on, you are equally implicated. How are you exonerated?

The aspect of ZIMDEF is a subject of accountability and the Public Works has a role to play. The report exposes quite a lot in terms of where we must be going. I say this today, we are getting tired coming to Parliament as if we are aiding corruption. Some of us are equally sick because we do not want to be associated with deliberations that focus on corruption. We are now being accused of equally being corrupt yet these Members of Parliament are poor –[HON MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections]- I want to applaud the Public Accounts Committee chaired by Hon. Mpariwa that despite the hardships we face as Members of Parliament, I must commend you for doing your job because in a situation like this, you are likely to be corrupted by those who are corrupt and those who have money but you have stayed away from corruption and you are actually doing the country a great service. When people are serving their country honestly, they must be rewarded by results.

Continued next page

(682 VIEWS)