Zimbabwe: Former minister admits “we have destroyed our nation”

The Government came up with a good project of Command Agriculture.  We are supposed to evaluate and see what the advantages of Command Agriculture are.  We also need to look at the size of our farms and the way forward because that is the inheritance and heritage of those to come.  It has to be sustainable.  We need to do that because that is what is causing our nation not to develop.

All the other issues I talked about – the companies, there is no investor who is willing to invest in Zimbabwe because they are afraid that tomorrow the company will not be operational.  Once it is closed, what is the future?  We are given guidance on what to do but in no time we abandon them.  We must assist the President, this is our duty.  He gives us policy direction and we should expand on it, but that is not happening. This nation is rich in natural resources and we should not be suffering as we are experiencing right now.  The problem is with the way we operate our resources.

Hon. Maridadi was talking about corruption.  I do not think if we continue singing that song, it will come to pass because everywhere, that is the order of the day.  It is not surprising to find someone engaging in corruption because that is the order of the day.  If you go to a company to have your car serviced, when you go out, the mechanic can follow you and ask you to bring the car privately to him and you will be charged less.  So, there is no way that you can actually say business is moving openly and swiftly.  I think as Hon. Members, we should look into it and sing from the same hymn book so that where there is corruption, we stamp it out.

I would like to give an example as was given by Hon. Maridadi, last year; there was a Chinese company that was bringing in spare parts into Zimbabwe.  The spare parts would come under one of the Government Ministries.  As they came into the country, they were sold by a private company.  They were not paying duty because it was believed it is a Government Ministry.  They sold their parts but they were not paying anything.  So, there were a lot of things that Hon. Maridadi did not mention and I request that each of us takes up the challenge and address these issues because we will have nothing to leave for our children.  We need to look at sustainability and ensure that the future generation is able to have a source of livelihood.  We have destroyed our nation.  I thank you.

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