MP says Transport Minister must be summoned to Parliament within 10 days to explain rot in ministry

The other question that I have Madam Speaker is the question of ZINARA.  We must reckon that ZINARA today is collecting about $300 million a year and that is the revenue that is received by NSSA.  It seems to me that ZINARA is treated as a cash cow by many Ministries and by individuals in Government and it is doing all sorts of things.  For example, the changes to the road system outside Borrowdale Village, which have just been completed was conducted without the permission of the Municipality of Harare, without their knowledge and consultation.  Not even plan approval was sought.  The Mayor of Harare simply saw a contractor move on site, funded by ZINARA and they knew nothing about it.  Madam Speaker, that is totally unacceptable.

In another instance in Bulawayo, the Mayor was driving to work one morning and found a contractor fixing the Hillside Road.  The Hillside Road was refurbished from one end to the other.  It was done by ZINARA using ZINARA funds.  The Municipality of Bulawayo was not consulted, there was no plan approval and no cash transfer to the municipality, instead of which ZINARA does not pay what the municipality should be receiving for road maintenance.  Madam Speaker, this is simply not acceptable.

I acknowledge that the Minister of Finance and Economic Development who was here a few minutes ago has in fact imposed on ZINARA some discipline because he told ZINARA to allocate a certain amount of money, that is $10 million for the municipalities, which is absolutely nothing.  Harare by itself used to collect $36 million a year from licence fees and all of this goes to ZINARA now.  In Bulawayo, we used to collect $9.5 million and we now collect $800 000, which is less than 10% from ZINARA.

When I look at ZINARA, I see an institution which is spending twice what it is supposed to be spending on administration.  In the Act, ZINARA is supposed to limit its administrative costs to 7%.  Last year, they spent 19% of revenue on administration.  They have a luxury head office, they have expensive vehicles.  Madam Speaker, this kind of situation cannot be tolerated.  These institutions must be brought under State control and must be brought under ministerial control and they must live within their mandate.  I think the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) has done a great job in bringing this report to the House and I commend the report for adoption.

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