Zimbabwe legislator says corruption has overtaken sanctions as talk of the day

GDP – there was supposed to be a review on the mining sector which is supposed to be contributing $12 billion to the GDP.  How much of it now has come in – we are over halfway?  We are talking about a $12 billion mining sector. Can we point out to it?  We have more MOUs than the money coming in.

ZIDA has come in and it must play a role of doing due diligence on every investor or else we are prone to just speculation where people come here with nice suits and see high powered people and are given a concession.  Why can we not equally be given a concession because once you have a concession, the only thing people want is the mineral?  They do not care who owns it but all they want is the mineral.  They are looking at the claim that you have the mineral under and they will buy it.  We have failed to empower our people.  We are not proud of seeing our people rich.  We are consistently doing ourselves down.

We must look at South Africa, T. Skwale, the current President C, Ramaphosa, ANC – and this is a lesson that the political parties must understand shows certain people that they would make rich.  Each time they are coming to the ZANU-PF congress, they would use one of the private jets belonging to one of them.  You must deliberately choose people who you can make rich so that they become models for the country so young people believe in the country.  When you have a country with one billionaire, people target that one billionaire, but if you have a country with many billionaires no one targets them.  Look at Nigeria and America, how many billionaires are there?  You never hear of anyone being attacked but when we have a few rich people, they are prone to be attacked.  We have Strive Masiyiwa who is here in terms of his business and it is not a secret that his business worldwide has grown because of Zimbabwe but he is not staying here.

Why do we not, in this Second Republic, get those business people who have been helping to come back here and enjoy the peace and the weather and do the right thing at the end of the day.  To me, I think it is more critical for us from a business point of view to be able to look at whose success and build more millionaires in women, youths, men, war veterans and in the disabled fraternity and from there we are a nation to reckon with.  So, whoever is a millionaire and is disabled will certainly assist those who are disabled. Whoever is a millionaire who is youthful will assist those who are youths.  Whoever is a millionaire who is a woman will assist the women. Whoever is a millionaire who is a war veteran will assist those who are war veterans. May we build that culture.

As I conclude, His Excellency must equally understand that he needs to have a team that will pump.  There has got to be reflection and this House must be able to hold the Ministers accountable.  For a very long time, the Ministers have been coming here and I said the last time he seems to be more loyal to them than them being loyal to the President.  They must be able to perform.  There has got to be a performance.  The Office of the President and Cabinet must be able to have Ministers valuate them and monitor what is happening.  We have got the worst calibre of Ministers.  They do not come, they are arrogant, economically and politically, they are weak and they have no orientation.

I wish that these Ministers could be sent to the Herbert Chitepo Ideological College so that they are able to defend their party.  They cannot defend their party.  If you compare them to the Cabinet of the late R. G. Mugabe, they could steal and face you while they are stealing but they kept the President in power.  These ones steal and they do not keep the President in power.  If there is anything, they are a liability.  It is about time we understand that in SONA, we must have people who are willing to perform.  ZANU-PF has got a lot of educated people where it can pick from.  Some of the Ministers who are picked have never spoken in Parliament but you hear he has become a Minister.  How will he present?  I want to thank you.

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