MPs owed US$5.4 million in allowances

Zimbabwe’s legislators, who have complained about low salaries, have not been paid their sitting allowances for the past 15 weeks and are now owed a total of US$5.4 million, according to The Herald. The Legislators, 270 from the lower House and 80 from the Senate are owed US$1.4 million for this year’s sittings while US$4 million is for the previous parliament. The Herald said some of the legislators are now borrowing from friends to travel to Harare. Buhera South Member of Parliament Joseph Chinotimba said although parliament was bloated, some of the hard-working MPs were being disadvantaged. “We have MPs with their own resources, but we have other MPs like Chinotimba with no resources, but whose work in their constituencies is recognised pasi nekudenga,” he said. Parliament adjourned last week until next month. The MPs have complained about wastage through high salaries that government employees and chief executives of State enterprises and local authorities have been awarding themselves and wanted Parliament to act as the watch-dog instead of leaving this to cabinet some of whose members it said were beneficiaries of the corruption in the State enterprises and local authorities.

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