Full contribution:
HON. T. MLISWA: Thank you Madam Speaker for affording me this opportunity to debate on the ZINARA report which has been tabled by our able chairperson, Hon. Brian Dube. Before I go into it, let me also pay gratitude to the former chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, Hon. Tendai Biti for equally leading us in a manner which was very professional, full of knowledge and wisdom, especially with the background that he had as a former Minister of Finance. Equally the Committee itself for dedicating quite a lot of time into this report. We travelled far and further to ensure that the attitude and the discipline were in place to come with such a report. Again the Committee Clerk who clearly kept us on track and Parliament Administration which is quite important. Some of these reports never see the light of day because of certain incapacities, but we were well capacitated.
Madam Speaker Ma’am, the issue of the ZINARA report, to talk about Univern, we often attack our Black businessmen for being cartels which have captured the State, but we forget that while we are the majority in this country, the minority who are the Whites have more wealth than us. So how can they make wealth in a country where the majority are Black and the leaders are Black, yet the majority are poor? I want to expose the White cartels of this country who have amassed wealth through the highest level of corruption. In amassing wealth through the highest level of corruption, they have created systems parallel to Government to ensure that they are where they are.
In a country which has been liberated for 41 years, why should we still believe that a White person is the best to do business, not that I am being discriminatory, no. I am saying that our past must certainly be seen in the picture, in blacks being empowered. Are we saying to date, we have no company in this country which can do what Univern did? Who is Univern, it is important for people to know who Univern is, Serge Levy, son of Sam Levy? The same way that there was controversy in Sam Levy being acquired in the days, now we have Serge Levy controlling the infrastructure of the roads. Not only that, they are untouched in many ways. The report clearly leads to criminal corrupt practices, yet the system remains quiet. How can a system remain quiet on things which are so obvious, on issues which are not what was agreed but they still see the light of day.
The graders that we talk about were graders which cannot work in this country. In so doing, we now have this situation where we are behind in terms of road rehabilitation because of corrupt and criminal tendencies. We must also look at the manner in which this was conducted. The report talks about the Mutare-Plumtree road which was funded by DBSA, which the Chairman in his report said was a good arrangement.
The Chairman was right that at the time that report was done it was a good arrangement, but today that road is the worst, after money was loaned and the company Group Five has gone into liquidation. As the Hon. Minister of Transport and Infrastructural Development alluded to in this House, they were now investigating to see how best they could recover. So tax payers’ money went into fixing the Mutare-Plumtree Road assuming that it was done properly, now it is in a mess. These are the PPPs that we are talking about and funded by the DB of South Africa. It is highly unlikely that the Group Five Company will find its way up. The tendency to push for bankruptcy when the company has failed to deliver is a big issue.
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