THE MINISTER OF JUSTICE, LEGAL AND PARLIAMENTARY AFFAIRS (HON. ZIYAMBI): Hon. Speaker, the effect of sanctions is to ensure that the people suffer. If you take for instance any country and you compare it with Zimbabwe in terms of ease of transacting with the whole world, if you do a business transaction in Zimbabwe, for example you send money to China and somebody in Zambia sends to the same company, money from Zimbabwe will take a week or two and from Zambia it takes two days. The net effect of that is, our economy will be in slow mode because of the sanctions and the growth of our economy is different from any other country. Our ability to pay will now be retarded because of our failure to have a throughput that is fast. My call to him is, if you want us to pay decent salaries, let us have a level playing field whereby we can trade equally with anyone and our economy will be able to pay all our civil servants comparable to anyone in the world. Thank you.
HON. T. MLISWA: I have a point of order Hon. Speaker.
THE HON. SPEAKER: What is your point of order?
HON. T. MLISWA: Mr. Speaker Sir, my point of order is, first of all, I think the Government Chief Whip must show maturity and behave appropriately in respect of his office. Kana murume mukuru akutema matombo, vana vadiki vanotanga kutemawo matombo. It requires him to be calm, composed and not to make the task very difficult. Secondly Mr. Speaker Sir, the President in the Second Republic said that Zimbabwe was open for business. I am sure the aspect of sanctions was factored in. We talk about a $12 billion economy in terms of the mining sector, withstanding sanctions. If we go back on sanctions, I do not think we will make progress at the end of the day. The truth of the matter is that, Notwithstanding sanctions, we have come up with a roadmap which should make sure that there is transformation.
The President, at no point has he even spoken about sanctions. He has continued to advocate for transformation through our resources that we have, resource mobilisation. The question here is pertinent in saying that Vision 2030 is also premised outside sanctions. So, I do not see the Vision 2030 where the President says with sanctions – no he leaves them out knowing very well they are a hindrance. The hindrance has not stopped us from breathing. Ministers must respond to simple questions and not take them to a different level because we sit here Mr. Speaker Sir and I think ZANU PF which is the ruling party is well-equipped to deal with this. No wonder why the President appointed a competent Minister of Finance. We see his competence at some point. People are suffering and that is true. If you bring in the aspect of sanctions, we are contradicting ourselves.
The Leader of Government Business said the civil servants were paid in Zimbabwe dollar and they were paid in US dollar and that is a contradiction. We are pushing for the Zimbabwe dollar but we are paying the US dollar. Is that not an admission that the US dollar is supreme? When we talk about pushing the Zimbabwe dollar agenda, why are we paying our civil servants in US dollars? Why can you not pay in Zimbabwe dollars consistently? Thank you Mr. Speaker Sir.
THE HON. SPEAKER: I thought the point of order raised by Hon. Mliswa did clear issues accordingly. Notwithstanding the sanctions, transformation is taking place. That is what he said. The Hon. Minister says there is light at the end of the tunnel.
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