Zimbabwe should be the Dubai of Africa- MP says

Zimbabwe should be the Dubai of Africa by now because of its abundant resources so instead of talking about sanctions, legislators should be talking about corruption which is destroying the country.

This was said by opposition legislator Jasmine Toffa during the debate on a motion by Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front chief whip Pupurai Togarepi calling for the barring of those advocating for sanction from holding public office.

“If you look at the fact that our country is one of the richest countries in the world, when you look at the amount of minerals we have, per capita is there. What anybody has to say should not even affect us in the slightest. What we are lacking to do is actually find the pitfalls of our issues and in my humble opinion, I believe that we should be debating issues of corruption. Corruption is so rife and it is unbelievable,” she said.

“We see it and these are people that should be brought to book and those are the people that should be thrown into jail. We do not want such people to be running our country and that is what we should be talking about.”

She said Zimbabwe seemed to be encouraging corruption because no one was being brought to book.

“We seem to be encouraging corruption because nobody is brought to book. You find small fish for example former Minister Kagonye who has been imprisoned. If she did wrong, she should be. There are people that are smuggling gold and diamonds…. Our mining sector – when we go out for public hearings in the bushes of Zimbabwe, we see a hive of activity going on, but it is not turning out to something tangible but we should be the Dubai of Africa.”

Full contribution:

HON. TOFFA: Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir. I would like to add my voice to the motion that was raised by the Government Chief Whip, Hon. Togarepi. I would like to start off by saying we are all Zimbabweans before we are any political party, religion and so on. As I listened to the debate brought about by Hon. Togarepi, I could not but help feel a sense of bullying. The citizens of Zimbabwe are going through a very difficult time right now and they expect us to be debating on issues of substance that were taken out of the situation we are in right now.

I do not see how our country is being affected by action and how it affects our production, and our progressiveness. If you look at the fact that our country is one of the richest countries in the world, when you look at the amount of minerals we have, per capita is there. What anybody has to say should not even affect us in the slightest. What we are lacking to do is actually find the pitfalls of our issues and in my humble opinion, I believe that we should be debating issues of corruption. Corruption is so rife and it is unbelievable.

We see it and these are people that should be brought to book and those are the people that should be thrown into jail. We do not want such people to be running our country and that is what we should be talking about. When Hon. Togarepi was talking about people going and speaking about the country, it felt so childish and it reminds me of the situation when we were young and in Ndebele we say ukabibele likamama wami lami ngizakaba ibele likamama wakho…that kind of   thing …

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