Certain policies that are decided upon like Statutory Instrument 64 should be well thought, there should be research and consultations. I remember asking the Minister of Finance and Economic Development whether it was the right direction that we are taking. He said yes, because the Government needs money. What does the Government finally have? They got their warehouses burnt, the economy comes to a standstill just because of certain decisions where no sufficient consultations were done. Now, we are being threatened with sanctions from Zambia, of all countries. The people who were the first to carry plastic bags to go and buy a loaf of bread were Zambians before we did it with our Zimbabwe dollar. Today Zambia is threatening sanctions against Zimbabwe because of SADC Protocol on Trade and so forth.
Mr. Speaker, there are certain things that we have in this country and I am glad that Hon. Dr. Mashakada has expounded on those. There is one thing that we are in control of. We are very good at signing protocols that we do not need, for example CITES. We agree not to export our own rhino horns and elephant tusks. We are very foolish – [laughter.] – Sorry to say Mr. Speaker. They do not have elephants in London, America and China; they are here but we are paralysed and we cannot even sell what we have. We have to burn what we have simply because we want to satisfy those colonial powers.
Are we forgetting that they are imperialists? What is wrong with us? That is why in my presentation, time and again I said we must be made.
There was Brexit; the British withdrew from the European Union. Why do we not withdraw from some of the areas where we are restricted from trading? Why should people dictate to us as to who should come and hunt in this country because a single lion has been killed? We should withdraw from CITES and start selling our ivory. Can we be labeled a poor country when we have in excess of 8000 elephants in the Hwange Game Reserve? We are sitting and selling four of them to China. When we do that, there are news headlines to say why you are selling four young elephants to China. Who are they to tell us that? That is why at some stage I once said the Americans can go to hell when it comes to selling our diamonds.
Mr. Speaker, I would like to conclude by saying sometimes we should have the correct political language. If an Acting President assaults a police officer, who do you think will come and invest in that country? I thank you.
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