Tax those with more than one car and swimming pools instead of the poor- Zimbabwe MP says

HON. MISIHAIRABWI-MUSHONGA:  I am sorry Madam Speaker, it is just that I hate males who think they can be abusive even in the National Assembly.  – [AN HON. MEMBER: Inaudible interjections.] – Go to the social media where we cannot see you.

What I am trying to say Madam Speaker, is that if you have an unwell patient, you do not necessarily introduce an aggressive treatment.  So in terms of our economy, let us move it by ensuring that we are doing stabilisation.  The stabilisation process is what we are failing to do Madam Speaker.  I think in stabilisation, I understand that for any transition, we have to go through pain but that pain has to be fair.  What we did in 2008-2009 as we went into the Inclusive Government was one radical thing and I am proposing we do the same because one of the things that we struggle with right now is the issue around the wage bill.

What happened as we went into the Inclusive Government, as we gave time for Hon. Biti to breathe before moving forward is, we actually made a decision and said, it does not matter whether you are a President, Minister or a sweeper.  We generally are saying everybody earns US$100.00 a month.  Madam Speaker, if we are going to deal with the wage bill, we may have to do something as radical as that so that we allow Treasury to only deal with a particular sum of money for a period of six to seven months as they begin to stabilise.  The issue that we have right now around the wage bill that we have and the salaries that we have in the parastatals is unsustainable.  We cannot continue doing that thing and if this budget does not come back with something around how we are dealing with the wage bill, we will continue to be in the state that we are in.

We are not saying let us make the decisions about who we are, cutting out but  let us make sure that the wage bill and salaries are basically normalised to a situation of US$100.00 – that is what most economies do when they hit a particular crisis.

Then Madam Speaker, the issue around taxation…

THE HON. DEPUTY SPEAKER:  Order, order!

HON. MISIHAIRABWI-MUSHONGA:  I am about to finish Madam Speaker, if you could just give me two minutes.  The issue around taxation, I do agree with a lot of people who have a problem with the 2% tax.  I am saying the alternative ways of taxing – we are not taxing where we need to be taxing.  We need to make sure that we stop people from hoarding.

So if you have four or five cars, we make sure that any extra car that you have is taxed.  We may even introduce a swimming pool tax instead of taking tax from those who are 2% so that we begin to deal with the issue of the rich being facilitated by the poor.  We have done it in other situations – let those who want to live well in luxury do it.  We have done it with schools – those who can do well will take their children to St. Georges and those who cannot afford will take them to Government schools.  Those who think they can do well will go to Avenues Clinic for treatment and those who cannot afford will go to Parirenyatwa Hospital but at the end of the day, let us not burden the poor to make sure that we are facilitating the rich.

Lastly Madam Speaker, if we are going to do international engagements – it cannot be a one political party issue, it has to be across political parties.  In the Inclusive Government, we all went; i.e. Hon. Chinamasa, Hon. Mangoma and myself met with all the other capitals.  We met the presidents of those capitals and were clear about what we were asking for – remove the sanctions and facilitate investment.  This did not mean that we did not agree that we had our own internal problems.  We said we had problems but the heart of it, is to ensure that Zimbabweans survive.  I for one am prepared to be part of that process where we engage to make lives of the Zimbabwean people better.  I do not buy into the issue that people have to suffer in order for us to change Government.  I buy into the issue that let people fill their tummies so that they can then begin to make an informed decision about who runs this particular country.  I thank you.

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