Hon. Speaker, what is the importance of that? It is to give the Zimbabwean citizens a fair assessment, a platform upon which they can assess the leadership qualities of the various leaders who would want to assume the position of State President. There should not be an unfair advantage to one of the participants because the idea is not really about having a President headed by one or another political party but the idea is to have a Zimbabwean President who is going to adhere to the desires, the interests and future desires of Zimbabweans. So, in order for us to be able to do that, we should be able to say all these Zimbabwean leaders vying for various political offices should be given equal access to the media; the slots should be equal so that Zimbabweans can be able to compare them in their multiplicity of ideas and promises that they have. This is also so that Zimbabweans can be able to say; the promises that are coming from this leader are better than the promises coming from that other leader. Hon. Speaker, we do not want a scenario where 90% of media coverage is going to a certain individual, thereby giving that individual an unfair advantage over others. We need to ensure that the playing field is indeed level in all practical instances.
Secondly Hon. Speaker, I anticipated this law to look at the deployment of soldiers in communities. Hon. Speaker, I was in Binga on Friday. I do not want to talk about somewhere else, let me talk about the constituency from which I come from. I went there with the Portfolio Committee on Health and Child Care to conduct public hearings. During that meeting, as some people were introducing themselves, I can give you an example of two soldiers who introduced themselves as peasant farmers. The reason why they introduced themselves as peasant farmers is because amongst the audience in that meeting, they knew them as members of the Zimbabwe’s military who have been in the communities for over two to three years whilst they are withdrawing salaries from the Ministry of Defence. The audience knows these people as individuals. These are soldiers deployed in the community.
Hon. Speaker, for record purposes, I actually spoke to the former Minister of Defence, Hon. Sydney Sekeramayi sometime last year but one and I gave him a list of soldiers deployed in our communities in Binga North Constituency. They have no other role that they are doing except to be going around intimidating citizens to conduct themselves – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – in a manner that suits a political party. Hon. Speaker, I have got the names with me. If it is the desire of this House, we can produce the names and ID Numbers because these are people who live in our communities. They are our own brothers and sisters, one of them is actually my own brother’s son and these soldiers have been deployed there to harass people in the communities – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – We therefore demand without apology that those people should go back to the barracks and leave the community to make a free and fair choice on which leaders they want to see in the next Parliament and Government. We need that Hon. Speaker – [HON. MEMBERS: Inaudible interjections.] – We are not going to be silent.
Even as the election monitors come into this country Hon. Speaker, it will be very embarrassing for us to go and show them individuals in their homesteads and say, ‘this one is a soldier, this is their service number and so on’. Those people are withdrawing salaries from the Government for purposes of only intimidating members of the community to decide in the forthcoming elections in a particular manner. We cannot tolerate that to continue Hon. Speaker. Let us withdraw those people to come out from wherever they are deployed in the communities. Let them go back to the barracks, put on uniforms and leave the civilians to campaign and do their politics – [HON. MEMBERS: Hear, hear.] – in a manner that does not intimidate. Those people are deployed to intimidate and ensure that the distribution of inputs and whatever welfare items given to the people is done in a particular manner.
Continued next page
(4715 VIEWS)
0 Comments