Independent legislator Temba Mliswa today said Zimbabwe must admit that it has failed to deal with corruption and is losing the fight.
Speaking during the debate on the President’s State of the Nation Address, Mliswa said corruption has actually overtaken sanctions as the talk of the day.
Several high-profile cases of corruption are before the courts but people have become skeptical about convictions and now describe the arrests as “catch-and release”.
Zimbabwe and the entire Southern African community and the African Union marked anti-sanctions day on 25 October, and sanctions have been the talk of the country for the past month spilling into this month.
“The issues the President brought up are many. The issue on corruption, we really are losing the fight. We have lost the fight and it is important for us to admit,” Mliswa said.
“When you have lost, it is important to say we are losing and we have lost. There is no point in us talking about something which is growing and has become cancerous at the end of the day and has affected our lives. It has affected the people’s lives.
“Sanctions are no longer a talk of the day but corruption has overtaken sanctions. What are we doing to arrest that situation? We have a situation where institutions are no longer complying with any regulation whatsoever.”
Mliswa said the President must not only present SONA to Parliament but he must also brief Parliament on its progress and must come to Parliament to answer questions about what was happening in the country.
“This SONA has come about the right time when the new spirit – when we have an Opposition Leader who wants to build this country by ensuring that the ruling party responds to its promises. We have got to be very clear on that,” he said.
“On the corruption issues, the ruling party has failed, what do we do? Unemployment it has failed, stabilising the economy has failed but we are prioritising the globalisation fund yet Constitutional provisions of the war veterans we have not done anything about it. Again on disabled and health we have not done anything about these issues.”
He said while people were excited about the agricultural concept of pfumvudza, the problem was that it had been politicised. As a result inputs meant for 1.8 million people were now being looted.
Below is his contribution in full:
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