HON. MISIHAIRABWI-MUSHONGA: I stand on a matter of privilege and if you could just allow me to set the context of this matter because I am going to be requesting that your office facilitates on two issues.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Hon. Member, yesterday I said not more than two minutes.
HON. MISIHAIRABWI-MUSHONGA: I will try and make it two minutes but it is really critical. Mr. Speaker, we have come to this House many times and raised questions as far as Ministers are concerned. Our Government is not responding and we have got to a point where we have hit a crisis in this country and not accepting that is putting our heads in the sand.
Mr. Speaker, you have just read a list of Ministers that are not here. As Chairpersons of Committees, we are unable to operate. Either the Permanent Secretary is travelling or the Minister is out travelling and the Director is at a conference eating cakes and scones. This country is not operating. Last time we came here and said we had an electricity problem. Today the headline was screaming and saying we are moving onto phase 3.
I do not know what that means because there is no electricity in this country and we have not heard a response at all in this House. Therefore, what I am asking you to do now – because I do not even know what ZBC is doing here because no one can watch the television at the moment. They might as well pack up their cameras and go away. Mr. Speaker, I am requesting you in my personal capacity and those other Chairpersons that are agreeable with me because we are wasting your time and everybody’s time.
When Hon. Gumbwanda died yesterday, I am very sore; he died in a room on his own. No one was watching him. I came in three minutes before he passed away. There was no doctor or sister running around and I think that is the level of inertia that is in this country. You will find it in this very Parliament and in the Executive. I think we are only left with one thing and one thing alone Mr. Speaker – [HON. SIKHALA: The Government must go.] – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] –
Section 140 (3) provides for us an opportunity to engage with the Head of State. I am therefore asking you Mr. Speaker to request that meeting, initially, perhaps not for the full House but for Chairpersons together with his Executive. Could he also call his Executive back into the country because there are only two people that should be travelling, the President and the Foreign Affairs Minister? The rest of these people should be here. – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] – We are supposed to have our hands on the deck. What I have a problem with Mr. Speaker is that we are not – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] –
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order, order, order Hon, Members. Can you please sit down? Hon. Misihairabwi-Mushonga can you conclude.
HON. MISIHAIRABWI-MUSHONGA: Mr. Speaker, this is not about political parties, this is about Zimbabweans. This country has to work – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – We cannot continue like this. So that is all I am asking you. I am asking you, Mr. Speaker Sir, to please request the President and tell him that what he is saying at that level, no one is taking seriously at another level. He is on his own literally. So please, can we meet him as our Committee of Chairpersons and engage with him so that he can hear from all of us what is happening and like I said, I say it with greatest respect – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.]
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