Zimbabwe as a country can actually survive without even foreign direct investments as long as we have all these mining processes being done in a proper manner but the unfortunate thing that we have right now as a country and people, is that we have got a lot of dishonest and speculative people. People that want to think probably 10 years ahead but in a wrong and corrupt way. We want that Mining and Minerals Bill to come in so that these things are addressed. Let people hold on to what they are using and release what they are not using so that other people can have it, and then we can become productive and start earning that hard sought foreign currency Madam Speaker.
Madam Speaker, while I was listening to the President when he touched on the issue of health I was so appalled because I come from Bulawayo. There is a time when my colleagues and I went to Mpilo Hospital where we had a cancer unit that had not been working since 2012 and yet the Harare one was working. We went out there and made noise. Action was taken and that unit started working. We went to Mpilo Hospital with the late Deputy President of the Senate, Cde N.K. Ndlovu. When we made those noises the Ministry decided to act and that unit started functioning. Just a few months down the line, the unit was no longer functioning.
I went to Mpilo and asked the CEO of Mpilo Hospital what the problem was. He said they needed $65 000 and had been trying to speak to Treasury for them to release that money so that the company that repairs the machine can come from South Africa and do it. They will not come before they get this payment. Are you honestly telling me that we are failing to release $65 000 only so that the Mpilo Hospital Cancer Unit can start working again, because we have got cancer patients in Bulawayo who are dying every day and we are just sitting on our laurels.
In Harare, the machine is working. This is why now that argument will start coming and then people will start thinking we are being regional, tribalistic or whatever. It is because of such realities that hit you inside to say, really speaking are you telling me that even RBZ Governor Mangudya is failing to release $65 000 to Mpilo Hospital so that cancer unit can start working again. Are we really being serious Madam Speaker?
These are the kind of things that you must look at that are letting down the President’s drive for the resuscitation of this economy. How do you resuscitate an economy with such kinds of mindsets when you have a cancer unit which is supposed to be functioning and is not functioning? Go to the next hospital, the hospital that was coined by our last Vice President, Dr. J.N. Nkomo, and the Ekusileni Hospital. I stood here a year ago and spoke about it. We were promised that it was going to be functional by now. Now, I am asking myself if we should change the name of the hospital from Ekusuleni and maybe call it R. Mugabe Hospital so that they can open it – [Laughter.] – because it is so painful Madam Speaker.
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