We will be seeing a situation where Members of Parliament will change after every five years because this House is not well resourced. Members of Parliament are supposed to serve at lest two terms. They will come here, say nothing for 5 years and leave here after the 5 years after saying nothing. What do we do with the resource which was invested in the first five years? It has gone to waste – others were gaining confidence, some were not, so now you are bringing in people who have no confidence. It is not easy Hon. Speaker. I will give an example of Hon. Chinotimba; he brought pertinent issues to this Parliament. A good example is the fuel issue. He asked the Minister why Zimbabwe fuel is so expensive yet Zambia collects fuel from Zimbabwe and yet it is cheaper in Zambia. I do not see legislators coming in who have the common sense and the bravado to stand up and speak.
Hon. Nduna here: what he contributed at times 90% he was right, 10% I might not agree with but he stood to represent that national interest of this country. It is a sad moment for me, not because I feel that I must protect anyone, but for the country to move forward, cannot have a situation where we have Members of Parliament just serving one term. It does not make sense because it is a waste of resource. All the capacity building which was done, where is it gone, it has gone to waste and now they are leaving this place as mere paupers, owing money, no house, no nothing and the blame is on them.
This nation must be made aware and understand the role of a Member of Parliament. Our people believe that Members of Parliament have got money, they must build roads, build clinics and hospitals. That is not the role of the Member of Parliament. That is why there are rural district councils and urban councils whose job is to do that. None of these people are councillors. We are blamed for lack of development yet we are not custodians for development. Our job involves three things – to legislate, represent and do oversight. Have we not done that? This Parliament has done well by exposing quite a lot of what has happened in terms of oversight but God is God and the devil is there. They are punished for what they have not done – varikurohwa neshamhu isiri yavo. Pakanzi a Member of Parliament basa rake nderekuvaka road or chipatara ndepapi, hapana. If you are willing to help and then you help and tomorrow you are told to leave. In my constituency, I said the one who is supposed to construct a road must do so first then I will also vote that person. If he just says that verbally without any action, I too am able to say that.
We need to really take this institution seriously and the resource of the institution is critically. Finally, Madam Speaker, the PVO Bill was done in terms of NGOs which are involved in elections. This FAZ, we need a Ministerial Statement on it – is it an association or NGO? Is Heritage an association or NGO? We need a report for us to know – if it is an NGO, why is it getting involved in the politics of ZANU PF? ZANU PF has got a Political Commissar whose job is to mobilise for the party. It has every other department there, but we see them going there. We would like an explanation to understand, so what was the point of moving a law to dismiss other NGOs so that FAZ and Heritage could come and participate? We also want to know where FAZ is getting their funding from.
They are being paid 700 US dollars per month yet the officers in the CIO are paid 200US and then 320 RTGS which is not 700; could they not use the system. The State Security is responsible for the protection of this country for the Members of Parliament and for the President. You do not need to set up another PVO, you do not need to set up another CIO. Where the President is involved, it is national security but I must say the national security of this country has become itself a national threat to the people of this….
THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER: You time is up Hon. T. Mliswa. –
HON. T. MLISWA: Of this country, I thank you – [HON. MEMBERS Hear, hear.] –
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