Zimbabwe has lost more than $60 billion through corruption- MP says

THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER (HON. MARUMAHOKO):  Order, order.  Just take a seat Hon. Member.  Order Hon. Members.  Who is that Hon. Member over there near Hon. Guzah?  Who is that?  Hon. Members, if you feel you have a very important issue to discuss with your colleague, you just walk outside and go to the lobby and do your discussions there.  When you are here, lower your whispering please.

HON. ZINDI:  On a point of order, Mr. Speaker Sir.  I just want to bring to your attention that I had almost fallen down as a result of this arm rest on this bench.  So, I thought I should bring this – [HON. MEMBERS:  Inaudible interjections.] –

THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER:  Order please!  What is wrong with you?

HON. ZINDI:  I thought I should bring this to your attention because in the event of an Hon. Member falling and perhaps a serious injury occurring, Parliament can be sued.  So, if this can be rectified.

THE TEMPORARY SPEAKER:  Thank you Hon. Zindi.  Administration will look into that.  There are some repairs going on in Parliament at the moment in this Chamber.

HON. CROSS:  I was referring to the issue of Marange.  I have investigated Marange extensively, Mr. Speaker Sir, and it was discovered in 2000 and was abandoned by De Beers in 2006.  It was then handed over to Small Scale Miners in 2006 by the State and it was taken over by a number of companies in 2008 and they ran Marange for the next six years.

During this time, it is my estimate that US$17 billion worth of raw diamonds were produced at Marange.  The average production per annum was US$2.8 billion and I think it is widely recognised that, at this time, Marange was supplying 25% of global raw diamond demand.  Mr. Speaker, if you add US$17 billion to the US$60 billion, which is the estimate for corruption since 1980 and you get US$77 billion.  That is equivalent to five years of our GDP.  Five years of hard work by the country which has been completely consumed up by greedy individuals and companies.  Also, it should be noted that this was equivalent to another US$1200 per head.  In addition, I estimate that in 2016, the total cost of corruption in Zimbabwe will be equal to US$1.7 billion.

I will be raising this tomorrow in the Budget and Finance Committee meeting which is being held to consider the 2017 Budget, because in my view, at least US$1.4 billion of that loss to corruption could be recovered by this House if it took effective action.  This represents a do or die situation for the nation.

We are a nation which is struggling to pay its staff; we are a nation which is struggling to buy medicines for our hospitals; we are a nation which cannot put books on the tables in our schools; we are a nation which cannot finance BEAM and yet there are these very considerable sums of money which are being consumed by corrupt elements in our society in front of us.  We know how it is being done, we know who is doing it and we know how much is involved.  I am going to ask the Budget and Finance Committee to make a tough stance at the next weeks Budget Seminar in Bulawayo and to demand for example, that we tackle these issues now with vigor, as a country and as a Parliament.

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