HON. GABBUZA: Thank you Mr. Speaker, let me thank Hon. Dr. Khupe for a good and progressive motion. When Hon. Dr. Khupe asked me to second this motion I thought this was indeed a motion in its rightful place. The issues about methane gas in Lupane stand to directly benefit my Constituency which is just a few kilometers from Lupane. Be that as it may, clearly, the gas is not located in Lupane alone because it spreads all through the Zambezi Valley.
Mr. Speaker, let me start by explaining exactly what we are missing as a country. The potential we are losing as a country, sometimes we miss the forests for the trees or the other way round. Methane gas is the future, but as a country we do not seem to see that. What is methane gas, we should appreciate that minerals exist as families. Where there is methane gas, there is likely to be oil. Where there is oil there is likely to be coal and where there is coal there is likely to be diamonds because all these minerals are from one chemical element carbon.
Diamond is a product of carbon just as good as coal so diamond is allotropy of coal, they are made of the same element. What only differs is the fact that there are certain factors that are important. If you take coal and push it further into high temperatures and high pressure, it is likely to become diamonds, the same coal where it exists, gives you oil and gas. These are potentials that we are seeing which the country is just leaving untapped.
What is the situation about gas, the truth is coal, gas, all these are carboniferous minerals, they are a product of sedimentation of a lot of organic matter over a long time. In the geological time, it is supposed to be around 340 million years ago. It is believed that many forests in valleys, after the forest there was a lot of ice melted from the north and all the forests in the tropics were buried in swamps and where were these swamps, wherever there was a valley.
So, effectively, it means that as country there is a potential to get coal, gas, oil and diamonds within the whole of the Zambezi Valley, no wonder why within Lupane, Hwange and Muzarabani, all those areas are potential for those four minerals. The same with the South Eastern Low veld, but as a country we have done very little exploration in those areas. These are the potentials that as a country we must look forward and ensure that we quickly tap and invest resources in those areas because they are not tapped.
There are various countries in this world which have benefitted immensely from the mineral gas as rightly indicated by Hon. Dr. Khupe. Within Africa, I think it is everyone’s knowledge that countries like Angola they get almost 75% of their annual income from only oil and no other substantial minerals. We have various other countries like Egypt, Algeria, have a lot of oil and gas.
Hon. Dr. Khupe clearly indicated that there is a lot of benefits ….
Hon. Mukaratigwa and Hon. Dr. Nyashanyu having been talking above their voices.
THE HON. SPEAKER: Order, order, Hon. Mukaratigwa and Hon. Dr. Nyashanu, when a fellow Hon. Member is on the floor, you must respect the Hon. Member and not talk above your voices. Hon. Dr. Nyashanu itai nyasha dza Mwari.
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