So, I have three issues that I believe are hygiene issues that I also think this particular Government needs to deal with as a matter of urgency. Like I have said Madam Speaker, those who wanted to congratulate President Mnangagwa attended the inauguration and that was the end of the story. Can we stop the congratulatory messages that we are seeing on television and newspapers every other day; they do not work. What we want now is for people to go back, put their hands on the wheel and begin to work. We are in this situation because there was a lot of bootlicking of leadership in the last dispensation. Let us not turn this particular President into the same thing. If you want to congratulate President Mnangagwa, congratulate him by delivering. So ZESA, ZINWA and ZINARA -produce electricity for us, do the roads for us, stop the congratulatory messages; they do not work. We want people who work not people who congratulate.
The second hygiene issue – I was excited that this Cabinet had new faces, but I am getting a bit disappointed because our Ministers are spending too much time doing press conferences. Can people stop doing press conferences, can they do work. Let their press officers do the press conferences and not themselves. So, I am actually appealing to Governor Mangudya and to Minister Mthuli, that it is enough, we want you to do work not to press issues.
The third hygiene issue that I want to raise is the one to do with our First Lady. We have a wonderful First Lady, very humble but the press wants to turn her into something that she is not. The First Lady decided that she is going to do charity work and let her do that work in silence. Stop putting her in the press every other day. There is a book that talks about laws of power. If you see people too much and you talk to people; you can generate a bad image around yourself. She is not a poster girl for Econet, neither is she for ministries. Leave the woman to do the work that she wants to do quietly. I have worked with her; I know the kind of person that she is. What the media is trying to do is just totally unacceptable.
Madam Speaker, those are the hygiene issues that I wanted to raise. Let me now deal with the issues that I think are crucial and important. We have an economic crisis and the President has got a mantra that we are open for business. However, let us be clear about how we do this. I am not an economist, I am not an accountant, I am just a basic woman but there are things that I understand and I am concerned where the confusion is.
On the issue of fuel crisis – I do not want to go into the rumours around corruption, it is not my business. Let those that know how to deal with such, do so. I want to deal with the issues around the availability of fuel. Madam Speaker, somebody needs to explain to me why if we want to continue with the fiction of 1:1; we are not allowing some of those providers of fuel to proceed and to provide fuel using foreign currency. That way you would release the pressure from the fuel which you are basically subsidising because the reality of the situation right now is that we are subsidising fuel as a Government. Our fuel is probably the cheapest in the region. If you look at the actual exchange rate, our fuel must be selling at 30 cents. It is not sustainable to continue doing this.
So, my proposal is that – do your two tier, have a situation where you silence some of the fuel dealers to sell in forex and the subsidised fuel, you then leave it for your public transport and Government operations. Make sure you do not mix the two because those that are getting the subsidised fuel will sell it on the market using forex.
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