What the revival of ZISCO could mean to Zimbabwe

By the way, we are talking about the Presidential Speech whereby the President is saying let us stop corruption. Let us stop shooting ourselves on our own feet but here we are – [AN HON. MEMBER: Inaudible interjection.] – When we have all these perspectives Madam Speaker, you begin to wonder if we are all for building this nation or some of us are for filling our pockets but at the expense of who – the nation?  We cannot allow that as this august House because the problem is that if you want to build your own pocket, I do not benefit from that.  So, do not expect me to come here and defend you in your unscrupulous activities that you do that benefit you and your family.  That is why I am saying that as a nation, we need to start moving in a direction whereby we say, let us put Zimbabwe first, as the President wants us to do.  We should not want to just feed our own pockets and families at the expense of the whole nation.

So, as I was speaking about the ZESA issue, you will now realise that – I remember there was one time when there was a ceremony in Kwekwe.  A budget was made, tents, food and drinks were put aside and we were told that ZISCO is coming to life.  But suddenly – I remember that was during the GNU period and Mr. Welshman Ncube was the Minister of Industry.  What then happened – nothing.  So, what I am saying is that for us as a nation and Members of Parliament here, we should be lobbying for Government to put aside money so that we can go and resuscitate ZISCO Steel on our own, as the Zimbabwean |Government.  This can be done without any outside partnership because that is a component with side effects that will change the scope of industry in Zimbabwe.  I will give you another example, there was Lancashire Steel which used to get by-products from ZISCO Steel and manufactured our harrows, ploughs, axes etcetera.  That was going to feed even into our command agriculture scheme instead of us going to Belarus or Brazil to import those things, we could be doing them here, meaning that we would be creating jobs for our own people.  That is our purpose and why we are here.  We should make sure that we safeguard our people and defend them from unruly elements amongst our society.

When you look at that, then you will know that we are playing who is fooling who here.  So, I want to stand up and implore our fellow comrades, brothers and sisters to follow the footsteps of our President.  He wants us to stop corruption and alleviate the suffering of our ordinary people that we represent here.  How do we do that?  We can only do it if we are honest with each other.  Let us tell each other the truth and let us not promote people who want to fatten their pockets at the expense of the whole nation.  That is very treasonous and we cannot allow that.  I want to say that the President did so well but now the question is; what are you and me doing about it?  It should begin from there.  Let us all take steps – I am very pleased with Hon. Maridadi’s presentation.  It shows that he goes an extra mile to check his facts and present proper things.  These are the kind of things that we need as a nation – to build, because we cannot keep on saying that we want to build, yet we condone corruption.  We cannot say we want to build yet we want to turn a blind eye to evil deeds.  That is not building but destroying. 

I am sure where I stand as I speak right now; I speak for my organisation that has put me here.  My organisation does not condone corruption but some of our members do that.  So, we want to separate that and say whoever is doing that to kill our nation must be brought to book and be answerable so that we can move forward.  I could talk the whole day but the long and short of it all is, let us stop corruption, let us be sincere and build Zimbabwe together by being truthful to one another.  I thank you Madam Speaker.

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