When His Excellency, Cde Mnangagwa talked about the NDS1 which prioritises exploitation of resources in Zimbabwe to manufacture finished products that will contribute to both economic development and economic growth because revenue is collected. I will give an example of those mines that are venturing into platinum. It is not just platinum which is exported to South Africa, there is gold and several minerals that are exported under the guise of platinum. If we were going to have smelting firms in Zimbabwe to make finished products, that was going to be beneficial to the generality of Zimbabweans. I need to commend Government for this thrust to value-add so that there is development in Zimbabwe.
What are the problems associated with these conglomerates cartels. We have noticed massive investments taking place in Mozambique, especially in the oil sector but these multinational corporations will lead to balkanization of Africa. By balkanization, I am taking of the multi-nationals assisting mercenaries, we have seen people being beheaded in Mozambique because of the mineral resources in that country and conglomerates interfering, leading to bad governance especially in Cabo del Gado area. We need those companies which are there to do business with us and which are not going to support mercenaries and overthrow governments in Africa.
The motion raised by Hon Dr Khupe is very important. It is not just methane which is found in Lupane but we have observed large quantities of coal in Lisulu. There is a project which has been put on hold on for years by a company called Verify Engineering which is under Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Innovation Science and Development. Verify Engineering intends to promote domestic resource mobilisation by exploiting coal and producing oil, diesel and petrol. The equipment is there which is supposed to be placed in Lisulu Binga. Diesel and petrol will be produced locally and that is very important because we reduce foreign currency importing oil from Iraq because we can produce locally.
The developments which are taking place in Muzarabani are very important because we are going to produce oil in Zimbabwe. Our expectations are that the Government is going to collect a lot of revenue from these mineral resources and those revenues are going to be spread to all sectors of the economy and that will assist in poverty eradication because the vision of an upper middle income economy where by 2030 people should be earning around US$1000 to US$2000 – which means per capita consumption, you calculate the GDP by the total population then you are able to say we have a middle income economy. That is the projection that by 2030 in terms of poverty eradication and affordability of housing, people should have decent housing by 2030. Even those who are not employed should be getting unemployment benefit and that is important and that is largely because of domestic resource mobilisation.
I will also talk about mineral taxes which are very important and indispensable. Like Hon Dr Khupe has said that Zimbabwe has so many mineral endowments numbering above 60, several minerals – why not have a mineral tax. That mineral tax will assist school children to have free education which is in line with the Education Amendment Act of 2020. If a mineral takes those companies which exploit our minerals, that revenue which is collected will also benefit the majority of our people and that will lead to economic development.
Finally, I would like to talk about dependency theories. Dr Khupe pointed out that if we are dependent on donors; donor syndrome, that will not lead to economic development. We want value addition; we want taxes which will lead to the Government being able to pay off all the debts and to be self-sustainable and not rely on donors. According to Andre Gunder Frank’s theory, the core-periphery theory, he has noted that where cartels are involved, what they simply do is to extract raw materials and leading to under development of the Third World countries Zimbabwe is no exception. Therefore, I am advocating for effective domestic resource mobilisation so that we do not rely on donors. Donors will come and give you strings; you get something, string attached and we become dependent. This leads to under-development. When we talk of under=development, we are saying resources going out are not benefiting the generality of the people. May I thank Dr. Khupe and Hon. Gabbuza for moving this important motion? I thank you.
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