Mudenda says Parliament must ensure that Zimbabwe passes a pro-poor 2019 budget

Speaker of Parliament Jacob Mudenda has called on Zimbabwe’s legislators to make sure that the government passes a pro-poor 2019 budget because people are hankering for a better life through job creation and quality service delivery.

Officially opening the pre-budget seminar in Bulawayo, Mudenda said Parliament must firmly put Zimbabwe on a road to economic recovery through passing a budget that is anthropocentric and pro-poor in character.

“It is, therefore, axiomatic that as we deliberate during this seminar, we must proffer solutions on how to grow our revenue, how to grow our resource cake,” he said.

“We are not here to mourn but to carve out a national budget through the sharing and cross-fertilization of ideas.

“We are not here to condemn but to strengthen our budgetary processes. Neither are we here to praise and glorify but to give constructive criticism.

“Let our collective wisdom enhance our capacity to find solutions to our budgetary challenges. Hence what I expect to hear from Hon Members are proposed solutions, solutions, solutions and nothing else.”

Below is Mudenda’s full address:

Let me from the outset welcome you all to this key inaugural Pre-Budget Seminar for the 9th Parliament of Zimbabwe. The seminar, being held for the second time in the “City of Kings and Queens”, has come at the most opportune time, particularly in the aftermath of the recent launch of the National Transitional Stabilisation Programme [2018-2020].

The stabilisation programme is meant to put Zimbabwe on a launch pad towards sustainable and inclusive socio-economic growth. The pathway has specific roles which Parliament has to play to bring about the much needed economic growth.

The seminar which is running under the theme “Enhancing efforts towards stabilising the macro-economic environment for inclusive socio-economic development” is relevant and an imperative for Parliament to input into the National Budget which will be skewed towards the effective implementation of the National Transitional Stabilisation Programme.

As such, I wish to highlight with a sense of pride that following the dawn of the new dispensation, profound changes have evolved over the past twelve months. The distance traversed, though figuratively short, has epoch-defining landmarks inclusive of peaceful democratic space conducive in leap frogging our economic development.

I have no doubt that Zimbabwe is in a compelling mode of transformational economic change, trail blazing towards a secure future which is epitomised by improved livelihoods for our people who for decades have borne the brunt of economic stagnation and regression.

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