The Member of Parliament for Buhera Central Mathew Nyashanu says he is appalled that 90 percent of Zimbabwe’s health care budget is funded by American and European taxpayers.
Zimbabweans must wean themselves from this receivership mentality because aid is political. Markets are, however neutral.
Contributing to the debate on the President’s speech, Nyashanu said an elected government has the duty to deliver public goods like health care, education, security and infrastructure to all its citizens.
“Mr. Speaker Sir, it is common knowledge that over the last four decades, our people have been oriented to a receivership mentality. I want to humbly submit in this House that we, as the leadership of this nation in this new dispensation, must begin to orient our people to a self – sustenance and ultimately replace the donor dependency syndrome,” he said.
“This syndrome has alienated our society to realms of impotence and has taken away the creative and hard-working spirit which is enshrined in ubuntu philosophy. To restore the dignity of our people which is the dignity of our founding fathers, we must act with speed to correct this vice.
“I am thrilled by the President’s speech when he talks about the need to drive a high performance culture within all public entities. I implore that this culture be cultivated across all corners of our society.
“The President’s mantra that Zimbabwe is open for business is a clarion call for progress. The question is what does Zimbabwe want at this point?
“The answer is just simple – Zimbabwe needs capital, Zimbabwe needs efficient labour and Zimbabwe needs productivity.
“As Parliament, we must do our best to open the Zimbabwean space for business. To attract capital, we need to act with speed to repeal certain labour laws which are rigid and retrogressive.
“This will create a good condition for investment and rapid modernisation and industrialisation of our economy which can then create jobs for our young people.
“It should not be business as usual, but we want to see a radical paradigm shift in the work ethics of those in public and private offices.
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