Madam Speaker, Hon. Members; it is about time that this Parliament shows its power that you cannot capture this Parliament. This is the last line of accountability for the people of Zimbabwe and as a result we shall be asking the Minister to cancel these agreements. It is automatic unless he is also part of it but knowing him and he is new, he has got to do away with this company because it will destroy his job.
Those who were eating, there must be a time where they stop eating tax payers money and we get them to account at the end of the day. Where is the board for oversight? Where were the Ministers when these agreements were being done to have a luxury lifestyle? Were the Ministers sitting on duty? Where was the Permanent Secretary who is the chief accounting officer?
May we channel some of the money to Chikurubi Prison so that there is a VVIP section? Those who are in Chikurubi prison are not supposed to be there. The real ones who are supposed to be there are hiding. When we talk about oversight, who appoints the board? It is the Minister but when the board goes wrong, you go for the Minister. This is where you charge a Minister for negligence, for sleeping on duty. The Permanent Secretary who is the chief accounting officer; all these ministries have the legal section; they have got the financial section. Where is the financial section in its role of oversight on giving the Minister the right direction?
The Attorney General office, do we have one? His role is to be able to scrutinise Government contracts, to see that there have been complied with. How then does the country move forward? Right now, you are talking about 400 million dollars which is being put into roads yet these roads programme did not start now. It is a continuation of a programme which was already started but it is a national disaster which must be pronounced in the corruption of this country. Corruption must be a national disaster. This is as a result of corruption and we have allowed it to continue and now people are dying on the roads because the roads are not good. Every day we are talking about roads in this country yet so much money was spent when ZINARA was generating money and all that.
May we, moving forward, empower our people first? The founding principles of this country and those of the struggle was black emancipation – blacks must be rich. We must be proud of billionaires who are black. Our forefathers were moved to Gokwe, all over where it was supposed to be wealth but today we seem to have forgotten how the struggle came about and what the founding principles of the struggle were.
It is disappointing even with today’s generation. Are we going to have answers ready for them when they approach some of us to say, but you allowed this to happen. We must not take this lightly. The country right now is suffering from unemployment, the welfare of the health sector, where we have children who are 70 in a class, where Ministers now cannot give proper answers but they have to somehow. Credit must be given to our Ministers in that they have mastered the art of responding to questions. I did not say lying, they have mastered the art of responding; dzave nhinhi. You ask the Minister how far are you with this – the Minister replies and says, ‘funds permitting…’ When funds are available, they are channeled to where prices are inflated for transactions and all that.
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